WI: No repeal of the Corn Laws
- Thread starter Plumber
- Start date
It would never fly unless someone extremely powerful were to import Japanese or Korean rice plants and start rice plantations in the Welsh uplands (Tarracing), Scottish Highlands(Ditto), and Irish Lake Country (paddies in the peat bogs) which if not managed properly would cause population explosions in the very places with the greatest animosity to the establishment...
Lycaon pictus
Donor
Actually, growing rice in Ireland would be an interesting response to the potato blight.
... why not let the rice the iberian muslims imported in the 10'th century, spread after the reconquestia northwards getting a slightly more cold resistent plant among the way ... much easier than fetching them half a year of transport away.
OTL it was first spread northwards after Ludovico Sforza (duke of Milan) cultivated it in 1475 after it (seminaturally) spread from Sicily and northwards to the Pisa and Lombard plains.
a butterfly from an earlier spread would be an earlier invention of the rice huller ... and given the tradition for fishing, its not unlikely in the more humorous end to have sushi being 'invented' in northen europe as well, independent of the Southeast asian invention of it.
Last edited:
given that muslims spread it to the volga basin it should be within reason to except some plant breeding to make it resistent enough against cold to let it grow in UK ... not great, and prehaps not in the scottish highlands, but certainly enough to feed the population
add to that through that UK lies in the end of the gulf stream, being much warmer than its latitude would suggest ... hell ... theres a few beaches with palm trees
Last edited:
The Volga basin has warmer growing season temperatures than the UK and that's what matters. During winter a plant goes into hibernation and it doesn't really matter if it 5 degrees or minus 20, however those long hot steppe summers are far better for growing rice than our wet mild ones. Maybe you could get some form of ultra-hardy 200 generations of natural selection rice to grow in the UK but it would require a POD so much earlier than 1815 when the Corn Laws were introduced that that butterflies would probably eradicate them.
Anyway the Corn Laws weren't a total ban on importing food, they simply set a minimum price for imports, similar in some ways to modern anti-dumping regulations. They were designed to keep wheat prices high so as to make money for the landed classes who dominated politics. Post Great Reform Act that class lost their permanent Parliamentary majority as the new urban industrial rich entered into the electorate. And urban people benefited from cheap wheat. Basically if you want to keep the Corn Laws preserve the "landed interests" parliamentary majority, probably by killing the Great Reform Act or massively weakening it.
Except that the original rices Iberian Muslims imported were long grain African and Indian varities that can't survive north of the Metiterranian basin. They are extinct in Spain itself and their only descendents are in Portugal, Mexico, and Brazil. The varieties used to make Paella are the descendants of Javonica varieties that were encountered during the conquest of the Phillipines, and do not predate the 1570s in Spain itself. And those can't survive north of the Mediterranian basin either.
The Itallian varieties are first mentioned in 1476 in Venetian and Milanese records. However, the way that they are mentioned implies an already mature cultavation process that couldn't have made them a complete novelty. Molecular studies indicate that Arborio is a local mutation, but Bomba and Vialone Nano seem to be descened from a formerly obscure Yunan short-grain strain that has been previously sold by Lotus Foods and Urban Accents. Unfortunately, those can't survive north of the Mediterranian basin, either, not even Carnaroli, which was created after WWII by crosbreeding Arborio with Japanese rices.
Oh, and the basis for my arguement about rice in the British Isles are the Korean provinces of P'yŏng'an-do, Hamyong-do, and Hwanghae-do, the three northermost provinces, and extremely mountainous and subject severe Siberian Clippers. Until the Korean War and the subsequent rule of Kim Il-Sung, they were considered the breadbasket of Korea.
Which are roughly on the same latitude as Turkey, Greece and Southern Italy. To repeat myself the key factor is the spring and summer climate. The fact that they have Siberian winters matters much less than that they have long hot, sunny summers. The UK has a pretty unique climate considering how close in temperature our summers and winters are.
Given that rice is one of the primary agricultural resources (together with Wheat, Soy beans, Maize and Potatoes) in Heiongjiang (Northeasten most China), which have an average temprature in July of 16-23c ... and siberian winters with -34 - -17c as an average in January
http://www.cbw.com/general/gintro/heilongjiang.html
http://www.cbw.com/general/gintro/heilongjiang.html
Growing grain in the Welsh uplands wasn't very successful, at least round here. There are the remains of loads of tramwaysbuilt by people who tried, and often went bust.
Best Regards
Grey Wolf