Post-Union free trade reduced Ireland to a dependent agricultural sector of England.

Evidence

By 1801, free trade between Great Britain and Ireland was a reality; however, Irish industry, with one exception—linen, could not withstand English competition. After the Union, Ireland, therefore, became more rural, more agricultural, more economically specialized than it had been previously. … Ireland had been transformed into a dependent sector of the English economy. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 252

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s broader theme of racialized labor and empire-building; the dependency of Ireland foreshadows how colonies were structurally incorporated into the English economy. — connects to: Britain shifted Ireland from racial toward national oppression after 1801. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 136; The Penal Laws made Irish Catholics an oppressed race in Ireland. — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 127; The Act of Union forced mass Irish emigration by throttling industry and agriculture — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 135
• DEFINE: Establishes the definitional starting point for Ireland’s colonial-economic subordination that shapes the ‘racial’ character of Irish labor.