Immigration, Conquest, Reparations

England and Ireland were invaded, repeatedly – by Norwegians, Danes, and Normans. The last of these attacks, by the Normans, began with the arrival of Duke William at Pevensey, England, in 1066.

King Harold the Second swears fealty to William the Conqueror as depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry, Source: Getty Images

Wednesday, 12 June, 2024 

Bill Bonner, writing today from London 

Today, in a very roundabout way, we continue looking at America’s missing wealth.  The more we look, the more ‘nothing’ we see. 

We began our annual migration on Sunday.  Like caribou aiming for Arctic pastures, we headed to France for the summer.   

The trip means driving to the car ferry at Rosslare, Ireland, and then getting off in Wales.  We spent the night in Narberth and continued on to London yesterday.  Today, we’re ‘takin’ care of business’ in London, before continuing to Calais, via the Chunnel, tomorrow.   

To us, the English seem very similar to the Irish.  They look the same.  They dress the same.  Their weather is the same.  They drive on the same side of the road.  And they share an interlocked, blood-soaked history. 

One of the most curious public policy ideas in America today is providing compensation to groups of people for injuries suffered by their ancestors.  It sounds reasonable until you realize that the ‘reparation’ payments must come from the living, who had no part in the wrongdoing, and go to other living people, who did not suffer from them.  

 A ‘reparations’ payment would raise GDP…as a part of government spending…but actually reduce real wealth, like a swindle, by taking money from the people who earned it and giving it to people who didn’t. And then you have the challenge of deciding which groups, historically, suffered the most…and which other groups, today, should pay for it. 

Horrible Torments

Britain and Ireland both appear to be peaceful, pleasant places.  But both have endured horrible torments. Both islands were inhabited by unknown peoples who were then “replaced” by Celtic invaders around 1,000 BC.  Britain was conquered by Romans in the first century AD. The Celtic tribes put up a fight, led notably by Queen Boudica.  But the Romans were better organized and supplied.  The local people submitted.  Or they were killed.   

It was the colonization of Britain that led to the famous remark by Roman historian, Tacitus.  “They make a desert and call it peace.” Much of the native population of southern Britain was exterminated, leaving large areas of the island to go back to nature. 

Ireland was not invaded by the Romans.  Instead, when the Romans left, Irish tribes invaded the west of Britain. The Scoti tribe, for example, gave Scotland its name.   

While the Irish came from the West, Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) tribes settled (peacefully, it appears) in the East of Britain. Then both islands were invaded, repeatedly – by Norwegians, Danes, and Normans.  The last of these attacks, by the Normans, began with the arrival of Duke William at Pevensey, England, in 1066.   

Again, it was a bloody conquest in which a substantial part of the population was killed or starved to death.  The Normans were fierce and ruthless fighters, often inflicting tortures and mutilations on their prisoners.  But in this regard, they were little different from their enemies. Murder, mayhem, massacres – all in a day’s work. 

Bogtrotters

It took six years of fighting before William was comfortably seated on the English throne.  About 100 years later, Anglo-Normans landed in Ireland.  This time, it took 600 years of on-again, off-again slaughter, but Ireland was finally subdued by England.  Then, the invasion went in the other direction as waves of hungry immigrants from Ireland soon showed up in Britain, looking for work. 

The English considered the Irish an inferior race.  They were dirty, poor, and lawless; “bogtrotters” they called them. 

That reputation stuck with the Irish as they came to America, too.  The ‘wild Irish slums’ were not for decent people.  Irish workers were thought to be undisciplined and difficult; victims of popery, poverty and alcohol.  Often, they didn’t even speak English. 

Before 1865, Black slaves in the US at least had a capital value – of about $900 (or about $30,000 in today’s money).  No slave owner wanted his slaves to die. So, they turned to the Irish to do the most dangerous work.  For example, in 1832, the City of New Orleans undertook to dig a canal through the mosquito-infested swampland, which later became known as the New Basin Canal.  Mary Helen Lagasse reports: 

The builders of the city's New Basin Canal expressed a preference for Irish over slave labor for the reason that a dead Irishman could be replaced in minutes at no cost, while a dead slave resulted in the loss of more than one thousand dollars. 

Irish workers had no owners.  And no capital value.  So, they were expendable.  Eight thousand Irish immigrants died of malaria, cholera, and other diseases digging the canal. 

But now, the Irish diaspora is well established in both countries…often in commanding positions.  And now the interests of the Irish in America and England are identical to those of the rest of the voters.  And one of the main hot buttons for them all – in America, Ireland, and England -- is immigration. They generally don’t like it.   

We leave the social and political problems to others.  But immigration plays a role in our story, too.  While immigrants boost GDP and employment numbers, they may actually lower the real wealth of the average American.   

Tune in tomorrow for more… 

Bill Bonner