The famine of 1879 is attributed to the effects of the "Long Depression" in the late 19th century, inclement climate, potato blight, and cholera among chickens. Unlike the earlier Irish Famine of 1740 to 1741 and Great Famine of 1845 to 1852, the 1879 event resulted in fewer deaths, due to changes in the technology of food production, different structures of land-holding (the disappearance of the sub-division of land and of the cottier class as a result of the earlier Great Famine), remittances from the Irish diaspora, and in particular the prompt response of the British government, which contrasted with its "laissez-faire" response in 1845–1852. Another factor was the growth of small shops; one estimate has County Mayo shopkeepers extending some £200,000 in credit by August 1879, which had been steadily accumulated since the relatively bad harvest of 1877.