Hi all - in the last week, I posted a book title. The book was a history of the potato famine. It claimed that landlords paid passage because 1) it was vastly cheaper than feeding people through the winter - a couple days food cost was more than passage, 2) it cleared the land, and, 3) they didn't have the food anyway. But the receiving ports did not have funds to feed, clothe or house the immigrants either. The Irish died on the docks, on the streets and were homeless. Most did not have skills beyond hoeing potato hills, were not accustomed to regular work - there being none in Ireland, and were too weak by the time they arrived anyway.