Laissez‐faire, theIrish famine, andBritish financial crisis
本文利用政治人物档案和金融数据，论证1847年英国削减爱尔兰饥荒救济开支并非源于自由放任思想，而是皮尔和伍德的宏观经济政策（金本位、银行特许法、谷物法废除）导致辉格党政府无法借贷融资，从而意外加剧了饥荒死亡率。
The decision in 1847 to cut T reasury spending on public relief efforts during the I rish famine is generally attributed by economic historians to the pervasive influence of ‘laissez‐faire’ ideas on the W hig government of L ord J ohn R ussell. This article draws on the papers of political leaders and contemporary financial information to argue that economic reasons were the trigger for the change in policy. R obert P eel and C harles Wood's macroeconomic policies of the 1840s, including the gold standard, the B ank C harter A ct, and corn law repeal, left the W higs unable to borrow to finance relief efforts in I reland without panicking markets. The scaling back of public assistance programmes that resulted from this—and which increased mortality at the height of the Irish famine—was the unintended result of P eel and W ood's economic policies, in the context of the W hig government's parliamentary weakness.