Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/36

 26 FAMINES 9. Legislative Interference. It does not appear altogether certain whether legislative interference with respect to the import or export of grain originated in relation to the pre vention of famines, or in the desire to advance agriculture or to keep down prices withia the limits at one time pre scribed by law. Probably all these causes contributed to the building up of the system of the Corn Laws, which were only repealed, at the indignant demand of the nation, as recently as 1846. It is clear that all legislative inter ference must be designed to interfere with the natural course of supply and demand ; and to that extent it is dangerous. There is no doubt that the Corn Laws were often called into play to prevent exportation of grain ; while they only admitted of its importation when prices reached or exceeded certain predetermined limits. It w r as the Irish famine of 1845-6 which at least hastened their final repeal. 1 10. Currency Restrictions. Under this head is mainly included the consideration of debasing the coin, and so lessening its purchasing power. But for very direct testi mony on more than one occasion we should hardly have in cluded this among the causes of famine. Thus Penkethman (who may be regarded as a high authority) says, under date 1124, &quot;By means of changing the coine all things became very deere, whereof an extreame famine did arise, and afflict the multitude of the people unto death.&quot; Other instances, as in 1248, 1390, and 1586, are more particu larly set out in the table of famines already referred to. 11. Speculation. Under this head has chiefly to be considered that class of dealings known as &quot; forestalling,&quot; &quot; ingrossing,&quot; and trafficking by &quot; regratours.&quot; Offences of this character were prohibited by statute in 1552 (5 and G Edward VI. e. 1 4), and it is seen that much importance was attached to them. Then there was the Act of 1555 (2 and 3 Philip and Mary, c. 15), &quot; An Act that purveyors shall not take victuals within 5 miles of Cambridge and Oxford,&quot; on account of the poor estate of the multitude of scholars &quot; having very bare and small sustentation.&quot; A further inquiry into the legislative measures taken in this direction would show how little removed from famine con ditions were the people of England even at a compara tively recent period. 12. Misapplication of Grain. Under this head is mainly to be noted the excessive use of grain in brewing and distilling, and by burning, whether wilfully or by misad venture. The laws regarding the burning of grain ricks were long and properly very severe, the punishment being capital until within a comparativly recent date. Under date 1315 we find it recorded that the Londoners, &quot;considering that wheat was much consumed by the convert ing thereof into mault, ordained that from thence it was to be made of other grains.&quot; This order was afterwards ex tended by the king(Edward II.) through the whole kingdom. In later times distilling from grain has been prohibited. It is clear from what has thus been said that the specific causes of famines which are denominated artificial have nearly all passed away, so far as Britain is concerned ; but some of them still assert their force, especially in the East. As to India, the constantly recurring famines in the various provinces have caused great commiseration in England, and much anxiety and cost to the Government, that of 1874 costing 6,500,000, that of 1877 nearly 10,000,000, and have naturally drawn attention to the fact that the Indian empire, as a whole, produces year by year sufficient food for its aggregate population. The food supply fails at certain points ; and there are no adequate means of transportation between the suffering provinces and others 1 Ed ward I. &quot;caused the wooll and leather to he stayed in England, and there followed great dearth of come and wine.&quot; Penkethman. which have abundance. Hence millions starve ; and hence, in the meantime, has arisen a fierce controversy between those who are in favour of canals, and water carriage gene rally, and the military aiithoritics, who regard railways as of the first necessity funds not being immediately forth coming for both purposes. There are other facts regarding the famines of India which require to be known, as they are contrary to the general belief. Thus Mr F. C. Danvers says, in his able Report on the Famines of India (1878) : &quot;Famines in India have arisen from several different causes, hut the most general cause lias not been the failure of the usual rains. Distress has also, however, been caused by hostile invasion, by swarms of rats and locusts, by storms and floods, and not unfre- quently by the immigration of the starving people from distant parts into districts otherwise -well provided with food supplies, and occasionally by excessive exports of grain into famine-stricken districts, or by combinations of tvo or more of the above-mentioned circumstances.&quot; Another point may be mentioned, which bears, not only upon the famines of India, but upon those of other countries where they are occasioned by deficiency of rain, or by too much rain, viz,, the effect produced on the average rainfall by denuding a country of its growing timber. There can be no doubt that the rainfall in England has been much lessened by the continuous destruction of our forests and even of our hedgerows. In India the cutting down of timber for the purpose of supplying fuel to the locomotive engines on the railways has already produced noticeable effects. The authorities are happily alive to the fact, and remedial measures are already being taken. But other results are produced by the same cause. The testimony of the French forest department in the Hautes and Basses Alpes is strong, and reaches the practical ques tion of floods and the damage they occasion. &quot; So great indeed were the devastations from which these alpine districts suffered through the denudation of the mountain sides, and the consequent formation of torrents, that inter vention of the most prompt description became necessary to prevent the destruction, not only of the grazing grounds themselves, but of the rich valleys below them.&quot; The re planting of these mountains had been going on for some time. &quot; Already the beneficial effect of what has been done is felt in the diminution of the violence of the torrents During the present summer (1875), when so much mischief has been done in the south of France by inundations, the Durance, which rises in the mountains east of Avignon, and which, on former occasions, has been the worst and most dangerous of all the rivers in the south of France, on account of the inundations it has caused, has scarcely been heard of ; and it is around the head waters of this river that the chief plantation works have, during the last ten years, been carried on.&quot; 2 In connexion with famines the &quot;sun-spot&quot; theory of rain fall has of late engaged much attention. The basis of this theory is that all the phenomena connected with the sun ebb and flow once in eleven years, and that from the rela tion of the earth to the sun these maximum and minimum periods regulate terrestrial phenomena. The sun s energy &quot; gives us our meteorology by falling at different times upon different points of the aerial and aqueous envelopes of our planet, thereby producing ocean and air currents ; while, by acting upon the various forms of water which exist in those envelopes, it is the fruitful parent of rain, and cloud, and mist. Nor does it stop here. It affects in a more mysteri ous way the electricity in the atmosphere, and the magnet ism of the globe itself.&quot; 3 So far, however, as the tables 2 See Proceedings of the Forest Conference held at Simla (India), October 1875. 3 &quot; Sun-Spots and Famines,&quot; by J. Norman Lockyer and W. &quot;W. Hunter, in Nineteenth Century, Nov. 1877, p. 583.