Off topic.
You are excused not knowing this history.
It was not a shortage, (The Irish Potato famine was) :but greed of the ruling classes.
As perhaps is the Chinese case.
It was after the Union of Parliaments, and many of the Highland Chieftains/ lords, now resident in London, became readily persuaded that they'd be rich if they abandoned the community / clan system, evicted the people and put sheep on the land. The people were loaded on ships with few belongings. Hence the very large numbers of Highland names in NE US and Canada. Some Lords were brutal, others less so.
"Such a parcel of rogues in a nation" by Burns refers to Scots not English Lords.