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The potato was first farmed in the Andes of South America and reached Europe in the late 1500s. A field of potatoes feeds more people than a field of grain, and one study credits the potato with about a quarter of the population growth in Europe, Asia and Africa between 1700 and 1900.

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Spanish ships had brought the potato from South America to the Canary Islands by the 1560s, and from there it spread across Europe. Many people distrusted it at first, but after 1750 officials and landowners in France and Germany pushed farmers to grow it, and famines in the early 1770s helped it catch on. In 2011 the economists Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian estimated that it accounts for about a quarter of the growth in population and city life in Europe, Asia and Africa between 1700 and 1900. But depending on one crop had a price. In Ireland, more than three million people lived almost entirely on potatoes. When late blight, a disease caused by a mould-like organism, ruined the harvests from 1845, about a million people died and more than a million emigrated. Poverty, the land system and government policy in London made the famine far worse.

Türkçe oku
Patates ilk olarak Güney Amerika'da, And Dağları'nda yetiştirildi ve 1500'lerin sonunda Avrupa'ya ulaştı. Aynı tarlaya tahıl yerine patates ekildiğinde daha çok insan doyar. Bir araştırmaya göre 1700 ile 1900 arasında Avrupa, Asya ve Afrika'daki nüfus artışının yaklaşık dörtte biri patates sayesinde gerçekleşti.

İspanyol gemileri patatesi 1560'larda Güney Amerika'dan Kanarya Adaları'na getirmişti; patates oradan bütün Avrupa'ya yayıldı. Başta pek çok kişi bu yumruya güvenmedi. Ama 1750'den sonra Fransa'da ve Almanya'da devlet görevlileri ve büyük toprak sahipleri çiftçileri patates ekmeye yöneltti, 1770'lerin başındaki kıtlıklar da patatesin benimsenmesini hızlandırdı. İktisatçılar Nathan Nunn ve Nancy Qian, 2011'de yayımladıkları çalışmada 1700 ile 1900 arasında Avrupa, Asya ve Afrika'daki nüfus ve kentleşme artışının yaklaşık dörtte birini patatese bağladı. Ama tek bir ürüne bu kadar bağlı olmanın bir bedeli de vardı. İrlanda'da üç milyonu aşkın insan neredeyse yalnızca patatesle besleniyordu. 1845'ten itibaren küfe benzer bir organizmanın yol açtığı patates mildiyösü hasatları art arda yok edince yaklaşık bir milyon kişi öldü, bir milyondan fazlası da göç etti. Yoksulluk, toprak düzeni ve Londra'daki hükümetin politikaları felaketi çok daha büyüttü.

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