ABSTRACT
England made an early escape from the curse of famine certainly half a century before Scotland, perhaps a whole century before France and most of two centuries before Ireland. In England demand was almost certainly maintained by transfer payments through the poor law within the village and town. There is therefore a degree of circularity: what may well have been paying for the oats sold from Crakanthorp's farm gate may well have been his own poor rate. There was, it is well known, severe famine in both Scotland and northern France. Indeed, Scottish historians have recently been arguing that the severity of the seven ill years' has been, if anything, understated. In England, those who were priced off the wheat market could substitute barley, whereas those who customarily ate barley were protected by the considerable stability of barley prices, or else they could turn to oats.
