When potato blight hit the island in 1846, much of the peasant population lost their staple food as cash crops were reserved for export to Great Britain. While large sums for relief were raised by private individuals and charities, lack of adequate action by a Government that believed in "laissez-faire" policies alongside the protectionist Corn Laws that made wheat unaffordable, let the problem become a catastrophe. The class of cottiers or farm labourers was virtually wiped out though death and emigration, in what became known in Britain as 'The Irish Potato Famine' and in Ireland as the Great Hunger.