I have heard large stores of healthy potatos were withheld by British governors of Ireland during the Potato Famine, despite the large death tolls. Is this true and, if so, why was it done?

by Euralos
jonewer

Hi, I think the question is best answered in this post in this thread

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1f93qn/why_exactly_did_the_irish_potato_famine_happen/

by u/KyotoWolf

There honestly isnt much I can add except a TL;DR - Food was exported because of a taboo on interfering with the free market, but even if exports were banned, it would only have provided a fraction of the required calories.