The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 610 Feet Washing Tax

"My God! My God! What a terrible disaster!"

"It's a curse!"

"Doomsday!"

Screaming screams woke up Scathach who was still asleep.

"Sister, sister is not good!" Mickey and Tommy said in tears.

Scathach asked with concern: "What happened?"

"It's potatoes! It was fine yesterday, but the potatoes that grew well today were all rotten and smelly overnight! Father dug out the potatoes from the ground, but those potatoes fell away like cow dung."

"Oh! My God!"

Although she had anticipated this possibility before, she almost fainted when she heard that all the potatoes that her family had depended on for past years had been destroyed.

Immediately, Scathach began to vomit violently. In fact, people are prone to stomach cramps and even vomiting when they are extremely scared.

When they came to the field, they found that the place was already full of people, and there was the sound of beating their chests, cursing, and the crying of women and children.

Other than that, there was no sound, and even the wisest and most knowledgeable elders in the village were helpless in the face of this situation.

Those potatoes that were growing well before seemed to wither overnight, and some people reluctantly tore off the withered leaves, trying to use "broken branches" to block this curse.

But past experience is useless, once one leaf begins to wilt, the same thing will happen to the others within a few days until the crop is completely dead.

Desperation and death enveloped the entire island of Ireland. In fact, it was the previous rain that brought the bacteria of potato blight to Ireland, and spread the bacteria through the water vapor cycle.

On the other hand, potato late blight also appeared in Franz's experimental field on the island of Ireland, but the Bordeaux mixture still had a certain effect, and some potatoes were not infected with this terrible bacteria.

However, these potatoes cannot solve the ration problem of 800 million people on the island of Ireland, and it is not easy to transport a large amount of anhydrous copper sulfate and quicklime to the island of Ireland.

Bordeaux mixture is a sky blue colloidal suspension prepared from about 500 grams of copper sulfate, 500 grams of slaked lime and 50 kilograms of water.

The problem of quicklime is fortunately that it can be calcined by the ancient method, but anhydrous copper sulfate cannot be produced with the industrial capacity of Ireland.

Importing from Austria requires a lot of freight, and at the same time, the British have to pay a considerable amount of customs duties.

As for the purchase directly from the British, the cost will be even greater, because Austria's chemical product production capacity at this time is far higher than the former.

At the same time, doing so is no different from capitalizing on the enemy. Although Franz spent a lot of money to buy the materials, the British can finally claim it as their own credit. After all, the raw materials come from Great Britain.

In fact, at this time, the British government had already started throwing the blame when it saw that the matter had been revealed. Since Britain had not yet established a germ theory at that time, the British could not give a reasonable explanation.

According to the authoritative "guess" of the Royal Society of Science at that time, the potato withering phenomenon that was happening at this time was because the potatoes were infected with the beriberi of the farmers.

What's even more outrageous is that this statement was unanimously endorsed by Queen Victoria and the British Parliament. They felt that the colonial people should wash their feet more is the best way to avoid this from happening.

(Ireland was administered by the Colonial Office at the time.)
As a result, the British officials and lords introduced a foot-washing tax overnight, stipulating that Irish people need to pay a certain amount of fines if they do not wash their feet and cause potatoes to wither.

The original intention of this decree was to solve the potato blight problem on the island of Ireland, but in the colonies it completely backfired.

Officials used their power and this special decree to start amassing money crazily. After all, you expect a group of guys who can't even afford shoes to wash their feet clean, that's just fantasy.

Revolts against the Act soon broke out in Ireland, as there was another movement in Ireland at this time.

That was the second enclosure movement, but this time the cannibals changed from sheep to cows and wheat.

The previous document mentioned that due to the "Corn Law" and the development of the British economy, the livestock industry in Ireland has become prosperous again.

However, due to the resistance of O'Connell and Irish farmers, the "Second Enclosure Movement" was blocked, but with the continuous increase in the price of animal husbandry products, coupled with the promulgation of the "Foot Washing Tax".

British landowners found a breakthrough and drove farmers off their land.

Those who couldn't survive would naturally rebel. Generally speaking, the British government would choose to forcefully suppress it. But at this time, Robert Peel was already devastated by international affairs, and with the Whig party on the sidelines, he didn't want the backyard to catch fire.

At the same time, Prince Albert also discovered through his visits that the situation in Ireland was completely different from what the Colonial Secretary said.At least this foot tax didn't help
Ever since, Irish farmers have returned to their own land again, but a large reduction in potato production is unavoidable.

At this time, these farmers either gave up the land they depended on for survival, or borrowed usury from the landlord.But both ultimately lead to the same result.

In fact, in order to prevent the further spread of Fusarium wilt, many farmers choose to forcibly dig out the potatoes that are not yet fully mature to reduce losses.

"It seems that many people will not be able to survive this winter."

Scathach's father said, and Scathach nodded heavily, after all, she had seen it last winter.

Several families were missing in the village. Although the priests said they had gone to other countries, isn’t the Kingdom of Heaven another country?
At least the kingdom of heaven should not be in a place like England, Scathach deeply believed.

Finally the first healthy and whole potato was dug out. It seems that God favored Ireland and didn't let all the potatoes become mush.

(Potatoes infected with late blight will turn mushy.)
Scatha's father was also very excited, and quickly said to her, "Try it."

The latter took the potato thrown by the former and wiped it vigorously with the corner of his skirt, and then took a hard bite. It was crispy and delicious, and the inside was not rotten.

If the inside is rotten, you can only throw it away. After all, if you eat too many rotten potatoes, even pigs will die.

"It's delicious!" Skaha's eyes narrowed into a line.

"That's good!" Her father also laughed.

In fact, potatoes are not suitable for eating raw, especially the varieties grown in Ireland at this time, but people at that time were not so particular.

After that, the shovel touched the ground again, and slowly penetrated into it, stirring up the blackened soil
Scarha held her breath before the potato's roots were exposed. She was a little afraid to see that the potato had turned into a lump of mush, but luckily that didn't happen.

But not everyone is so lucky. Some people don't even have a whole potato in their fields, and their fate can be imagined.

After the early harvest, the Jennings family returned to their home, looking unhappy at the sacks of harvest.

“Potato failure is a flimsy rumor.” —The Times.

(End of this chapter)