Agrarian turmoil and the activation of mass mobility

The turmoil in the agrarian and demographic foundations of life reached across the British archipelago. They were on display most critically in Ireland where, in 1821, the population was more than half that of England and three times greater than Scotland’s, and also growing very rapidly. The emigration question was interconnected with the way in which the labour supply for the industrialisation of the British economy was achieved. The state of mobility and the transfer of labour out of rural England was becoming much clearer by mid-Victorian times. The beginnings of modern mobility were essentially rural, the origins are found in country cottages and villages, and along the very long and tortuous paths which, for a minority, led to the emigration ships. Only later did mass emigration become an overwhelmingly urban and industrial phenomenon.