Corn Laws

Name given to certain statutes passed in the British Parliament relating to the export and import of grain. Laws regulating trade in corn date as far back as the reign of Edward III. In the reign of Henry VI, with the object of securing a plentiful and cheap supply for home consumption, no corn was allowed out of the country. In the reign of Elizabeth I little advantage was taken of the new law providing free imports, and practically all the corn grown remained in the country. Towards the end of the 17th century the legislators, who, being generally landowners, had the interests of agriculture at heart, conceived a new plan of promoting home production. Exports were now encouraged freely by bounties, but the price of corn remained low and tended to decrease. In 1773 Burke secured the passing of an act which exacted the small duty of 6d. on foreign corn, which might be imported when the home price was at or above 48s. a quarter. The export with its corresponding bounty was to cease when the home price was at or above 44s. This legislation was most beneficial to the rising manufacturing classes, but in 1791 it was repealed in the interest of the landowners and a prohibitive duty imposed when corn was at or below 50s.

In 1815 Parliament enacted that foreign corn might not be imported into Britain until the home price of wheat was 80s. a quarter. The law caused great economic distress, and a series of bad harvests (1816 and 1837-42) increased this. Robert Peel attempted to effect a compromise by introducing a system of sliding scale in the duties, depending on the rise and fall in the price of wheat. In 1836 an agitation was started in Manchester for the repeal of the Corn Laws and in the following year the Anti-Corn Law League was formed. In 1846 Peel declared himself a convert to Free Trade. A fixed but reduced duty was placed on corn for three years, after which the Corn Laws were to be abolished. The price of corn did not fall greatly with the repeal of the Corn Laws, not did agriculture appear to suffer any great loss.

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