Irish Peasants: Violence and Political Unrest, 1780–1914

10. The Cleavage between Graziers and Peasants in the Land Struggle, 1890-1910

10 David S. Jones The Cleavage between Graziers and Peasants in the Land Struggle, 1890-1910 Introduction During the second half of the nineteenth century the commercial sector of Irish agriculture significantly expanded. More and more holdings were run as commercial enterprises with the objective of raising a cash surplus . The essential feature of such enterprises was that the farmer sold for a cash return at least one of his commodities on a regular basis at a recognized market or fair.l By 1900 commercial production and a monetized economy were clearly evident even in the remote and infertile areas of the west. A central feature of this process was the shift in production from tillage to pasture farming and especially to the raising of dry cattle and sheep. A commercial cattle economy had been established as early as the eighteenth century, when "the great proportion of the country was in pasture" and "holdings were of considerable size."2 Between 1780 and 1812, however, pasture farming experienced a decline as a result of the great increase in cereal prices and the consequent growth of tillage. The prices of all Irish agricultural commodities remained depressed from the 1. Some small farmers not involved in commercial production did receive a cash income either through remittances from relatives abroad or by laboring on commercial farms. 2. Lord Dufferin, Irish emigration and the tenure of land in Ireland (London, 1867), p. 94. See also R. D. Crotty, Irish agricultural production: its volume and structure (Cork, 1966), p. 113; Minutes of evidence taken before her majesty's commissioners on agriculture , vol. i, pp. 396-409 [C 2778-I], H.C. 1881, xv, 1 (hereafter cited as Richmond comm. evidence, i). 374 JONES: The Cleavage between Graziers and Peasants 375 close of the Napoleonic wars until the late 1830s, but after 1842 the market for dry cattle began to recover, allowing a sustained expansion in production at the expense of tillage farming. 3 This expansion assumed increasing significance during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Between 1854 and 1904 the number of dry cattle increased from 1,615,000 to 3,179,000. Thirty-two percent of all dry cattle in 1904 were two years or older, while 33 percent were between one and two years. There was a similar increase in the number of sheep, which rose from 2,122,000 to 4,379,000 between 1851 and 1901.4 The basic cause of this expansion was the sustained upward trend of prices. Prices were particularly buoyant from 1865 to 1883 and again between 1900 and 1920, though temporary downturns did occur occasionally . Fluctuations in the demand for store cattle, beef, and mutton are illustrated by Barrington's index of prices for the period 1840-1920 (table 10.1). The trend in the prices of young stores between 1845 and TABLE 10.1 Index Numbers of the Prices of Irish Beef, Mutton, and Store Cattle, 1840-1920 (base 1840 = 100 for beef and mutton; base 1845 = 100 for store cattle) Store cattle Store cattle Year Beef Mutton 1-2 yrs. 2-3 yrs. 1840 100 100 1845 103 120 100 100 1846-50 96 114 123 164 1851-5 86 98 93 115 1856-60 119 128 150 190 1861-5 126 143 171 204 1866-70 145 146 150 186 1871-5 163 171 221 258 1876-80 147 176 231 247 1881-5 132 162 219 232 1886-90 112 141 230 220 1891-5 113 136 196 209 1896-1900 112 136 227 221 1901-5 115 143 245 236 1906-10 118 114 261 247 1911-15 137 156 318 292 1916-20 272 306 562 559 SOURCE: Thomas Barrington, "A review of Irish agricultural prices" in Stat. Soc. Ire. In., pt. ci, xv (1927), pp. 251-3. 3. Crotty, Agricultural production, pp. 17-34,42-3; Dufferin, Tenure, pp. 95, 148. 4. Department of Industry and Commerce, Saorstat Eireann, Agricultural statistics, 1847-1926: report and tables (Dublin, 1928), table 1, pp. 1-5; table 6, pp. 14-19. 376 CHANGING LINES OF CLEAVAGE AND COHESION 1920 was generally upward, though declines sometimes took place, the most serious being those of 1884-7 and 1891-7. The prices of advanced stores two to three years old followed a similar trend. There was a sustained fall in demand for advanced stores after 1876, but a significant improvement in prices...