(1904) History Of The English Corn Laws

;TORY OF

GUSH CORN LAWS J, S,

NICHOLSON, M.A.,

D, Sc.

Presented to the

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY by the

ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE LIBRARY 1980

o

2

The

The

History of

Laws

Corn English .>* "*m

*

**

ft

I BY J.

S.

NICHOLSON,

Professor of Political

Economy in

M.A., D.Sc.

the University of

AUTHOR OF "EFFECTS OF MACHINERY ON WAGES,"

Edinburgh

ETC., ETC.

LONDON

SWAN SONNENSCHEIN NEW YORK

:

LIM. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1904

6-

CO.,

PREFACE THE

present

work

lectures given

bridge

is

in the

based on a University of

set

of

Cam-

on the Gilbey Foundation in the

May Term

of 1904.

principal object is to show that the history of the Corn Laws can only be underr stood as part of the general economic policy

The

of the country.

The laws

affecting imports

were only a part of the system of Corn Laws, and for a very long period not the most important part, though they reach back to

Up

the fifteenth century.

to the nineteenth

century, regulations affecting the internal corn trade and speculative dealings ; the assize of bread ; the export of corn ; the

between arable and pasture land the dangers of rural depopulation all these and other questions were of much more imAnd it may portance than import duties. be observed in passing that each of these topics has a present-day interest, though the colouring circumstances have changed; conflict

;

iii

PREFACE

Iv

it is only necessary to mention dealings in " futures " and " corners " our dependence and on the exports from other countries of the and land arable of the shrinkage ;

;

supply of labour in the country. Not only, however, do the Corn Laws cover a much wider field than is indicated by import duties, but the whole system of corn laws was part of a wider system. Conversely, the repeal of the import duties was only part of a great movement in the direction of free trade, and but for the stimulus of the potato famine, Sir Robert Peel had intended that the reduction and final repeal

Corn Laws should take place as part of his general scheme of the reform And this relinquishof the Customs tariff. duties of was itself also Customs ment associated with the abandonment of other

of the

To take but laws two examples restraining combinations of labour and the development of joint-stock companies were abandoned with far - reaching consequences. It is a matter for argument whether this aban-

regulations

affecting trade.

the

donment

of

regulation

coincident increase of

departments of

social

and the regulation in other in

life

trade

may

not both

PREFACE

*

have been pushed too far. For the present, it is enough to insist that we ought not to be content with looking at each case no social fact can be on its own merits ;

isolated

;

and the best antidote to

this

narrowness of vision is found in the study The wide of social and economic history. given in this survey to the this position is admitted, is

interpretation

Corn Laws,

if

justified not only as historically correct, but

as necessary for

any practical application

;

nothing could be more dangerous than to appeal to historical precedents without taking into account all the circumstances

and trying to discover the meaning of the historical precedent. Although the main object has been to treat of

the

case,

inner

the subject entirely in a positive historical manner, incidentally, no doubt, various

popular errors and misrepresentations have been exposed in general, however, the ;

and there

practical application

has been

left to

is

abundant

the reader.

opportunity In preparing the lectures, I undertook a somewhat extended reading, and I have been Dr. especially indebted to the following :

W. Cunningham's

"

Growth of English and Commerce"; Tooke's "History Industry

PREFACE

vi

of

Prices "

"

"

Porter's

;

of

Progress

the

"

Mr. A. L. Rowley's Nation Wages in the United Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century"; Mr. Morley's "Lives" of Gladstone ;

and Cobden Peel

"

Mr. C. S. Parker's

;

Life of

"

the pamphlets by Malthus, Ricardo, West, etc., in the great controversy on the Corn Laws and the nature of rent about " Getreidehandels1814-15; W. Naud^'s ;

politik der Europaischen Staaten vom 13 " G. Schanz's bis zum 1 8 Jahrhundert " Englische Handelspolitik gegen Ende des ;

Mittelalters"; various blue-books

and

official

publications, especially the report published in 1897 on the Customs Tariff of the United

Kingdom from 1800

to 1897, with notes on the more important branches of receipt from the year 1660 the so-called fiscal Blue-Book ;

by Mr. Wilson Fox (1900) on agricultural wages and labour the essay on the Corn Laws by MacCulloch, appended " to his edition of the Wealth of Nations " and, needless to say, the "Wealth of Nations"

of 1903; the report

;

;

itself.

Mr. A. B. Clark, M.A., has kindly

revised the proofs,

and

verified references.

J.

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, October, 1904.

S.

NICHOLSON.

CONTENTS CHAPTER

I

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER PAOB

INTRODUCTORY

:

The Corn Laws may be

points of view,

and

first

studied from different

as affecting the interests of the con-

Corn Laws were intended to prevent the exaction of monopoly prices and to check speculation. Export of corn was regulated to secure cheapness and was defended on the same plenty at home ; the bounty ground ; the dudes on imports were remitted or relaxed in dear years, and sometimes bounties were given on imports. Up to 1815 the Corn Laws had in fact little effect on prices, but after that year they raised to some extent the average fluctuations beyond what would price, and increased

The

sumer.

earliest

otherwise have been the case

9

CHAPTER

II

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

THE

producers interested in the Corn

Laws

are the landowners,

and the labourers. In the Tudor period direct was attempted to restrict sheep-farming and to

the farmers, legislation

From the seventeenth century promote corn-growing. the belief was general that the best sign of national progress was a rise in rent, and it was supposed that anything These views were held that raised rent increased progress. by impartial writers. Corn Laws that raised rents were At the close of the also supposed to benefit the nation. eighteenth century the interests of landlords and consumers began repeal.

to

be opposed, and the divergence increased till the farmers suffered from the greater fluctuations,

The

but there was great progress in agriculture owing to other causes. Wages were low, and especially during the great war, whilst rents rose greatly, real wages fell. The low wages can only be partly ascribed to the effect of the Corn Laws vii

59

CONTENTS

viii

CHAPTER

III

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY PAGE

THE

studied from the point of view of the The interests of the State and of general public policy. Corn Laws involve the same ideas as the usury laws. history

may be

early

The power

of the

Crown

in regulating foreign trade in corn

Exports were engave rise to a constitutional struggle. couraged to promote the mercantile marine, and in that way The revenue from the import duties was naval power. considered of secondary importance till just before the Stress was laid on the advantages of a large rural repeal. population, and of national independence as regards food supplies.

The

duties were essentially protective,

and must

be regarded as part of a wider system. The repeal was only part of the general movement towards greater freedom of trade, which began with the petition of the merchants in Preferences were 1820, and was not completed till 1860.

granted to the British Colonies also as part of the general colonial policy

103

CHAPTER

IV

GENERAL RESULTS

AT

the time of the repeal there was much exaggeration as to the past effects of the Corn Laws on prices, and also as regards

the monopolistic spirit of the landowners. Although the been the dominant political class for

landowners had

centuries, the greater part of the old Corn Laws had been designed in the interest of the nation as understood at the

time. In the nineteenth century the only part of the system that remained effective was the protective import ; they had become hurtful to the consumer and to trade in general, and if retained would have done still more harm. The whole history of the Corn Laws is a good

duties

example of the negative argument

for

Free Trade.

Protec-

tion to agriculture could only be restored by reverting to old ideas which would now be still more difficult of attainment, as the conditions have become more

complex

147

HISTORY OF THE

ENGLISH CORN LAWS CHAPTER

I

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER laws Smith,

"

concerning

may

corn,"

says

Adam

everywhere be compared to

The people much interested in what

the laws concerning religion. feel

themselves so

relates life,

or

either

to

to

their

their

subsistence in this

happiness

in

a

life

to

come, that Government must yield to their prejudices,

public

and,

in

tranquillity,

which they approve

order

to

establish of.

It

preserve

that is

the

system

upon

this

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

io

we

account, perhaps, that

so seldom find a

reasonable system established with regard to

The comparison tive of for

two

those

of

either

is

objects/'

capital

and

striking,

is

sugges-

a wider application than was possible

Adam

historical

The

Smith.

application of the

and comparative methods

to the

explanation of the origin of religious superstitions

shown

has

that

when we take

account of the knowledge and the ideas of

on the supernatural even the most absurd and fantastical of

these early speculators

these superstitions, from our point of view,

were

from

the

The author us

convincing

of

view

most reasonable and

originators

given

point

of

on

the this

of

their

natural.

"Golden Bough" has point abundant and

evidence.

And

in

the

same

way, when we apply the same methods to the ancient laws concerning corn, it appears that

if

we

take account of the circumstances

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER and ideas

social,

11

economic, and political

which they originated, they also may be found to rest on a reasonable basis. The great merit of recent economic of the times in

history, as

Dr.

exemplified in this country by

Cunningham,

an attempt

that

is

is

always made to give the rationale of the legislation and the policy from the standpoint of the time

;

we no

longer search

economic history simply for the illustration of popular fallacies from our own standpoint.

In dealing with the history of the Corn

Laws first

in

modern

the

scientific

spirit,

our

object ought to be to understand the

circumstances and the ideas in which they originated.

We may then

how

consider

far

they were successful in attaining the objects proposed, and

abandonment to

a change

how

far the modification or

of the original policy in the conditions.

was due

So

far

we

12

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS with facts

are dealing verification

sufficient

if

coming.

But

historian,

who aims

even

more than a mere as

much

as

his

exact

evidence

is

forth-

at

modern

most

something

being

inclined just

is

annalist,

ancestor to

pre-scientific

own day and

genera-

In the course of the presentation of

the ancient

be offered of ditions, trust,

of

the

point a moral to his tion.

capable

some indication may bearing on modern con-

history, its

though

the

commentary

be made in the judicial

befitting to the subject

and

will,

I

spirit that is

to the occasion.

The English Corn Laws are of great variety, and have a very long history. Speaking generally,

it

were

throughout

there

objects kept

in view,

be

said that

three

principal

may

the emphasis being

varied according to the needs of the time. All three objects were in themselves eminently reasonable

(i) there

was the

interest

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER of

consumer in cheapness and abun-

the

dance

;

(2)

the interest of the producers

was

when

for

naturally an

concern

of

object

was the

centuries agriculture

chief occupa-

tion of the great mass of the people (3)

13

and

;

the interest of the nation, as distinct

from the amalgam of the

and

viduals

interests of indi-

was

classes,

considered

in

various aspects as, for example, with regard

Crown

to the prerogative of the

in trade,

or the advancement of naval supremacy or colonial dominion.

I

propose to take these

three leading ideas in order,

viz.,

and national

the consumer, the producer, interests,

and

to treat

separately.

From

chronology,

this

amount

them as

the will

of repetition.

far as possible

point

view

of

involve It

as affecting

a

of

certain

will be necessary

to refer to the same, statutes from different

points

of

view

;

but, per

contra ,

it

evade a certain amoiiat of confusion.

will

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

14

I

begin with the the

of

interests

com

legislation in the

There

consumer.

is

a

popular opinion that the interests of the

consumer only began to be considered in as a matter of fact, in England the 1846 ;

consumer had received the

interests of the

continuous for

attention

more than

date.

and

will

I

ideas

of

the

six

centuries

notice

briefly

by which the

Government before

methods

the

interests

consumers were to be promoted. mediaeval period that /

it

exacted more than offended

against

dictates

of

In the

and that those who these

the

religion.

of

positive

reasonable rates

moral law and the In

many

It is clear

analysis that the just price to

cases

the

law was added to

that of public opinion.

according

the

was generally believed

or reasonable prices,

much

of

ought to be sold at "just"

things

sanction

that

variations

in

without

must vary

circumstances,

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER and

in the

case

of

recognised that the

corn just

with the seasons and the

it

15

was always must vary

price

yield.

was only

It

on rare occasions that attempts were made

maximum

to fix definite

prices for corn

consumer so

in other words, the

far

to the higgling of the market.

was

A

;

or left

glance

at the records of the prices of grain collected

by Rogers from the thirteenth century at once

severe

show

that there were constant

oscillations in

But the idea

will

and

the prices of grain.

was by no means this case. The law

of justice

inoperative even

in

intervened in the interests of the consumer to

restrain

or

prevent

monopoly and

monopoly

or of combina-

to

speculation.

The danger

of

tion with the force of

monopoly was greater

in proportion to the greater difficulty in the

means

of transport.

locality relied

For the most

on local

supplies,

part, every

and

there

1

6

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

was no the

effective

whole

throughout

competition

were

There

country.

often

great differences in prices at comparatively short distances.

Another circumstance that

favoured the emergence of monopoly was the

Bread of some kind

necessity of the buyer.

was the main support of the population. The idea was well expressed by Henry VIII.: "

Vitayll being a necessary subsistence for the

bodye should not be esteemed at the seller's libertie, lest he should abuse his merchandise

and enforce men

want

to

buy at his Accordingly, an elaborate and deprice." tailed system of regulations was devised to for

x

prevent the exaction of monopoly prices for corn. ling,

Such were the laws against forestalregrating, and engrossing the general ;

idea being to prevent the holding

by speculative

dealers,

and

up

of corn

to check the mani-

pulation of the markets by false rumours or 1

Schanz, op,

at.,

622,

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER

i?

by engrossing supplies on the way to market. There can be little doubt that the idea at the basis of these regulations

was reasonable

under the conditions in which they were formulated, but as

is

shown

in the preamble

by which they were they had become by that time alike to the consumer and to the

to the statute of 1772,

repealed, injurious

farmer by checking

the

natural trade in

worth noting, however, that the prejudice still survived, and by the aid corn.

It

is

of the

common

dealer

was

law, as late as 1800 a corn

indicted for regrating

selling corn at

an advance

that

of price

is,

on the

same day and he only escaped conviction on a technical flaw in the summons. These

ancient

laws

against

monopoly

and speculation are of interest at as in some quarters a reversion ideas involved

is

present,

to

the

advocated on account of

the supposed injury to the

consumers by

18

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

speculative

in

dealings

and

futures,

by

On the of Adam Smith

attempts to corner the market. whole, however, the opinion

has been confirmed by recent investigators of

or

the uselessness

of

hurtfulness

such

regulations.

The

price of corn

only of

interest

to

consumer in so far as

And

bread.

of course, in general,

is

the

ordinary

human

the price of

it affects

given the price of corn, as

determined in open market under fair conditions, the early legislator felt able to fix the

price of bread

on a

just basis.

The method

adopted was by the famous assize of bread. In London, regulations of

made

this

kind were

as far back as the twelfth century,

probably

earlier.

1

and

In the early assizes of

bread, the plan addpted

was to

fix

the weight

or the size of the loaf according to the price of the corn of

which

it

was made.

'Cunningham, Appendix

A

to Vol.

The I.

loaf

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER

19

and contracted according the raw material; in those

actually expanded to the price of

days there really were big loaves and loaves.

Anne

It

was not

in 1709 that

till

the reign of

little

Queen

a measure was passed so

that the price of the bread, of the loaf, should vary

and not the

size

with the price of the

corn.

The

idea at the root of these assizes of

bread must again be allowed to be reason-

when they were first instituted. The baker was allowed a fair profit after buying

able

his flour,

and

paying his labour reasonBut here again also it was

after

able wages.

proved by experience that this protection of the consumer by fixing the profits of the

baker tended, in the course of time, to defeat its

own

on the

object.

The

price of bread reacted

price of the corn.

It

was shown,

for

example, that in London in 1757, a year of scarcity, the

attempt of the authorities to

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

20

cut the price of bread as fine as possible

caused

the

greatest

holders

of

grain and

uncertainty

and

flour,

the

to

in con-

sequence they sent their supplies to places in

which the practice

an

of setting

fallen into disuse. 1

In ordinary times

objected to the assize that

it

had

assize

was

it

made the bakers

indifferent to the price of flour, as their profit

was calculated over and above whatever

it

was, and also

it

was

this

price,

said that

encouraged the use of inferior material,

it

as,

apart from a rough grading, no allowance

was made

for difference in the quality of the

At any rate, the result, so far as London was concerned, was the abolition of bread.

the practice of the assize of bread in the year 1815, disuse, 1

whilst

other

in

though

still

Cunningham, VoL

II.,

of the assize of bread Mrs. Sidney >p.

196.

Webb

places

legal. p.

318.

it

fell

into

In the present

An

interesting account

is

given in a paper by Mr. and

in the

Economic Journal^ June, 1904,

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMED

21

controversy attention has often been directed to the differences in the prices of bread in different places,

and

it

is

supposed in some

quarters that a legal remedy

needed, but

is

the methods of competition on the one side

and co-operation on the other seem sufficient for the protection of the

We may of the

next consider

how

to be

consumer.

the interests

consumer were affected by the regula-

tions concerning

the exportation of

corn.

In the early mediaeval period the export of

was only permitted by the licence of the King, and towards the end of the

grain

twelfth

century

several

instances are

re-

corded of people being fined for exporting corn without a licence. It was found that this

method

of

royal

licences was,

other cases, liable to abuse,

as in

and complaints

were constantly made that the King granted the licences too readily, of corn

was unduly

and that the

price

raised in consequence.

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

22

The King, of course, only granted the licence on a consideration, and thus there was a conflict of interests

the

Crown and

between the revenue of

the cheapness for the con-

a point that may be treated in connection with the Corn sumer

;

this,

Laws from 1

policy.

however,

the

Here

it

is

view of public

point of

is sufficient

to notice that,

in general, in the laws affecting export, the

consumer were recognised, though they were not always considered of interests

of the

a

paramount importance. By the year !393, the Commons had begun to recognise the freedom of export,

interests of producers in

and a law was passed that should be allowed, unless

by the King

it

free

export

were forbidden

in Council, in the interests of

the public in the times of scarcity.

The next

step

was

of forbidding export 1

Naud,

to take

away

from the Crown, and a

p. 79.

the right

Ibid^ p. 76.

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER to fix

by

statute

the export

a

limit of price

was not

23

above which

The

to be allowed.

culminating point of the legislation in favour of

freedom of export was reached in 1463.

Under the Tudors the method licences

was again

resorted

to

of royal

with the

power of the Crown. In the reign of Mary wheat was not to be exported unless the price was below 6s. 8d. per quarter. increase in the

This, with the range of prices then prevailing,

meant the

total prohibition of export

the producer so far It is to

consumer.

was

sacrificed

be observed that

:

to

the

it

was

usual also to prohibit the export of corn

from one county or times of necessity

;

district to

and

another in

in particular, care

was taken to prevent the buying up corn for

speculative sales.

Adam

of the

Smith

observes that regulations of this kind for

small areas

e.g.

Switzerland cantons

perfectly reasonable.

were

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

24

1593 the export of

In

when

mitted

the

wheat was

per-

below

205.

fell

price

(and corresponding figures for other grain),

a duty

of

This limit was

export.

James

when

being also imposed on the

2S.

I.,

and

again raised

in 1624 export

the price

fell

The constant

below

disputes

was permitted

325.

concerning

and the variation

export of corn,

by

in

the the

adjustment of the interests involved, shows

was always, at any plenty, of some importance,

that the export trade rate in times of

must not be exaggerated. In a debate in the House of Commons as late

but

it

was

as 1677,

it

had no

interest

said that the inland counties in

the laws affecting the

export of corn, and tion of

is

a

sufficient

explana-

found in the badness of the means

and

transport,

in

the

customary

sufficiency of the various localities.

long period

it

is

self-

For a

probable that the supply

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER London was

of

of

much

greater importance

the counties on the

to

25

south

-

east coasts

than the foreign trade, although, from the very

earliest

times,

even

in

the

Roman

occupation, corn had been exported from these districts to the Continent.

connected

Closely

regulation of exports

with is

the

policy

the device that

of

was

popular in the seventeenth century of

so

erecting public granaries to keep the surplus

one year against the dearth of the future.

of

The plan was

generally approved not only

London, but for almost every county. The system like much of the economic

for

policy of the seventeenth century

was ap-

parently borrowed from Holland, as

is

in the Proclamation of 1623.

given are,

first,

and next, the in

The

reasons

the necessities of the poor,

interests of the farmers,

cheap years, could not pay their 1

stated

Cunningham, Vol.

II., p.

318.

who,

rents.

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

26

granaries,

popular,

method

this

Apparently

was never

public

a long time

for

though

of

very

carried out practically

to

It any great extent. may, however, have given the idea later on for bonded

warehouses, as in this case, also, the idea .

was to

store

corn

foreign

in

the cheap

In 1670 the export of corn

years.

mitted without any limit of price.

appears that

time of for

little

of

it

in value only

4,000 sterling, and for the

"2,000 to

come now

1689,

But

importance, as the total export

most part from London.

We

per-

permission was at that

the

some years had ranged

from

was

which

1

to the celebrated measure

provided,

under

certain

conditions, for the giving of a

the export of corn.

bounty on This measure was no

doubt partly intended to promote the terests of the producers, 1

Naud,

and

p. loo,

in-

to compensate

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER

27

the landlords for increased public burdens,

and

so far will call for attention later

but

it

noteworthy, under

is

the

on

;

present

aspect, that the interests of the consumer

were not neglected, and the

were ostensibly

During the whole of the eighteenth century, a great controversy raged as to the merits and in

placed

foreground.

demerits of the corn bounty.

And

who wrote most

its

always

maintained This

consumer.

two ways. that,

under

it

In the

the

in

strongly that

those

favour

benefited

it

the

was supposed

to do in

first

was

it

place,

stimulus of

the

said

bounty,

more land was cultivated than otherwise

would have been the

case.

Accordingly, in

had a greater home supply. The bounty was only given when the price of wheat was at or below

time

of

need, the country

483.

(and proportionately of other grains),

and

as a matter of practice,

if

the seasons

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

28

scarcity, the

seemed to indicate a probable

bounty was suspended in in

general,

the export of

even It

prohibited.

anticipation, arid,

followed

that

corn was the

price

could never rise very high, merely in consequence of the stimulus of the bounty to export, whilst the stimulus,

was

it

was

said,

plough.

put more land under the Thus the consumer gained, on the

average,

by a greater constancy

and,

sufficient to

indirectly,

he

also

gained

greater steadiness of price

of supply;

by the

the scarcity in

bad seasons not being so great. It was also contended that, on the whole, the average

of

prices

was

lower.

And

in

theory this view seems at least plausible, because, as

is

well known, a small deficiency

of supply raises the price out of all proportion.

Against this view

may be

argument founded on the law ing return.

It is,

set the

of diminish-

however, doubtful

if

this

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER

29

argument was relevant or valid during the maintenance of the bounty. During the eighteenth century great improvements were

made

in

agriculture

both by methods of

and by the enclosures. And during more than half of the century the run of seasons was good, and the restraints cultivation

on the increase

of population

were

And, on looking to the records of find that

low.

to

up

by excess

prices,

we

1765 the range was very

The opinion

bounty seems,

effective.

Adam Smith on

of

for once, to

the

have been vitiated

of pure theory, not corrected, as

usual,

by

history.

able,

as

he

himself

France, in place

during this

This

of

period

is

the more remark-

points

out

that

in

a bounty, there was prohibition of

export,

and yet the range of prices was about that of England, which surely raises the presumption that the bounty could not have raised prices in England*

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

28

It

of course,

may,

be argued that tut for

the bounty the price of

would have been other hand, even

still

corn in England

lower;

but,

on the

Rogers thinks that the

bounty gave a great stimulus to production, or, as

he says, there was speculation for the

He

bounty.

was given different

sorts of

grain,

profit

was

the

greater

of the worst qualities of each

but so far the English consumer would

;

At any

gain.

range

of

rate,

prices

it

that

bounty paid

was

for

is

clear

there

injury to the consumer

date

bounty

regardless of the quality of

on the export sort

also says that as the

up

from

was no to

1765.

the real

The

the 68 years up to that

in the aggregate over six million

pounds sterling, and this, of course, had to be met out of taxation, and so far the but the expense over long a time does not seem large.

public suffered

The

;

species of

Corn

Law

so

that eventually

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER had most

on the

influence

consumer was of

restriction

imports.

raise prices

in

As

damnified.

so

far

the

involved

The

idea

of

re-

up

or

to

keep

the interests of

and

producer,

to

is

imports

stricting

interests of the

which

that

31

the

home

consumer

the

early as 1463

we

find

is

the

import of foreign wheat prohibited when the price

was not above

6s.

8d. a quarter^

which was above the average price of the For a long period, however, the century. 1

restraints

on imports were

importance.

By

of little practical

the 22 Charles

II.

(1670)

and subsequent additions prohibitive duties on imports were imposed i.e., prohibition having regard to the range of prices both at the time and for a century after, but it

was the

practice to suspend the duties

on the mere threatening of scarcity. 2 total amount imported from 1697 to 'See Customs Blue-Book,

The

3

p.

229.

Ibid., p. 231.

HISTOR y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

32

was only about one and a

half million of

or about

quarters of corn for the 68 years

20,000 quarters a year, or (say) one fiftieth of

a million, whilst the annual production

was probably about

fifteen million quarters,

so that the import was relatively a negli-

As Adam Smith

gible quantity.

observes, in

his time the average import did not exceed

one part in 571 of the annual consumption. In

fact,

in

the

the

until last

industrial of

quarter

the

revolution

eighteenth

England had been in general an Under the influence, exporting country.

century,

of

however,

bad seasons

and increasing

demand, importation began to be tical

of prac-

importance; and in 1773 (13 George

a law was passed allowing, from January, 1774, import at a nominal 6d. per 1

III.)

quarter 485.

when

the price

a quarter. 1

was

Having

See Customs Bl^e-Book, I

at or

regard p. 233.

above to

the

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER course of figure

prices

33

during the century, this

seemed to give a good margin of

profit to the

producer; but as prices began

to rise under natural economic conditions,

the landed interest

had been

injured.

began

to

think they

The year 1788 may be

taken as the year in

which the imports

began permanently to overtop the exports, and in 1791 a law was passed at the instance of the landed interest to raise the limit of the

noticeable

nominal duty to

that,

545.

although apparently

It

is

the

Act was passed in the interests of the landowner, it met with general acceptance (as

MacCulloch points out) mainly on the

importance of the independence of the country for food supplies the

ground

of the

argument which was most pressed (e.g., by Malthus), and seemed to have most validity during the great agitation for the repeal of the import duties,

34

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS not necessary to give the particulars

It is

of the various alterations in the figures of

the corn duties from 1791

Full details are to be found in

in 1846.

that most valuable in

to the repeal

up

Blue

-

Book published

which gives the

1897,'

rates

of

the

Customs from 1800 to 1897, an d also as regards some of the most important, including

corn,

a summary of

the

earlier

history. It

may be

sentative facts

a few reprebut most of the

useful to quote

and

figures,

Acts are complicated, and compression liable

to

occasion

be misleading. it

must

First of all,

it

the present

suffice to trace the

trend of the legislation, principles applied

On

is

general

and to notice the

and the methods adopted.

may be noted

that the plan

adopted in 1773 was continued, and corn could at any time be imported free of duty 'C. 8706.

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER and warehoused

;

35

only paid the duty

it

that happened to be chargeable at the time,

according to the Act in force,

taken out of bond for

when

it

was

home consumption.

But with this exception, the laws became more opposed to the interests of the consumer up to the culminating point in 1822.

We

observe a rise in successive Acts of

the limit at which corn could be imported,

or withdrawn from the bonded warehouse

nominal duty. In 1773, as we saw, it was 485., but by 1822 the limit for the at a

nominal duty had been raised to 855.' This is a striking example of the progressive rise of

protective duties.

below these figures

When

the price

assigned for

fell

nominal

duty heavy duties were imposed, and by the Act of 1815 foreign wheat could not be

home consumption home price had reached 8os.

taken out for the

1

Customs Blue-Book,

p. 244.

at all until

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS

36

on foreign which was so

In 1822 the prohibitive limit

wheat was lowered to far

795.,

a gain to the consumer, but then heavy

duties were imposed

the price reached

till

and the nominal duty

8os.,

into force It is

when

the price

of

only came

was up

new

recorded that the

is.

to 855.

scale of duties

did not, in fact, come into operation, because

from 1822 up. to. 1825 the price of wheat :

never

rose

to

795.

;

and

in

when

1826,

through a bad summer a real scarcity was

on

threatened, ministers bility

partially

afterwards

their

suspended

obtained

an

own

the

responsi-

Act,

indemnity

and from

Parliament. In 1828 the prohibition

the apparent favour

by the adoption

One

of

effect of these

was

was annulled, but greatly neutralised

heavy graduated

duties.

graduated duties was to

increase the risks of importation, as a higher

duty might be chargeable before the cargo

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER arrived from

natural

the

result

foreign

was

that

port.

37

Another

combination

of

importers was resorted to so as to raise the price,

and

in that

obtain a lessened

way

1

duty. to defective

Owing

relatively large

harvests,

was

there

importation from 1828

to*

1833 in spite of the duties, but in 1835 the price of

wheat

year

fell

since

1780.

to

rather took In'

tions.

the avera'ge for the

4d., the

395.

bad

owing

to

a

In this year the

Law League was its final

founded,

or

shape.

1842 Peel introduced some modifica-

But the

was retained

at

nominal duty and the method of

limit for the 735.,

graduation was retained rates

lowest recorded

seasons, the price rose to

for the year.

i.e.,

Anti-Corn

is,

In 1839, however,

recurrence of 705. 8d.,

that

were lowered, '

The

Tooke, Vol.

also,

although the

reception of Peel's

III., p. 314.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

3S

Budget of this year will call ment later on. I may notice his

Corn

Bill

was

for

some com-

in passing that

so little approved

reformers that Peel

was burnt

by the

in effigy in

Manchester.

came the potato famine and the that rained away the Corn Laws, as

In 1845 "

rain

'

John Bright said. In 1846 the restraints on imports were repealed, except the shilling registration duty, 1869.

The

not to take fact they

full

and

this

was abandoned

remission of the duties

effect till 1849,

in

was

but as a matter of

were suspended.

In this very brief survey several points of interest

have been omitted.

example, the

difficulties of

There were,

for

time and place, and

the methods of calculating the price of corn for

import.

Again, although throughout

only the figures for wheat have been referred to, there

other

were corresponding figures for

kinds

of

grain.

As

regards

all

the

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER

39

must not be thought that before the Ant i- Corn Law League the agitation for repeal,

evils

had not been

it

The Corn Laws, were condemned by

realised.

in their extreme form,

parliamentary committees, and a minority of

headed by the Lord Granville of the day, entered their protest on the journal of the House of Lords in words which might

peers,

have been written by Cobden, but Cobden at that time (1815) was only a boy of eleven years.

There

was

a

great

battle

of

pamphlets, and the famous petition of the

merchants was drawn up by Tooke in 1820.

A

point that will call for special attention

later on, in discussing the

Corn Laws from

the point of view of public policy, preferential

duties

and the lower

is

the

limits

allowed to the British colonies, which were

a feature

of the

Corn Laws from 1766 down

to their repeal.

For the present, however,

I

am

dealing as

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

40

far as possible

with the

sumer alone, and at

interests of the con-

this point it

may be

well to give some estimate of the effects of the restraints,

and

of their abolition,

on the

consumers or the masses of the people. It

cannot be truly said that, in imposing

on imports, the consumer was deliberately and intentionally sacrificed in restraints

the interest of the landowner. of 1670,

which was

in force for

The very Act a century, was

an Act "for the encouragement of tillage," and the restraints during that time must be taken in conjunction with the bounty. entitled

From

1698 to 1773 the bounty on export

was suspended seventeen times that is, on every threat of scarcity and similarly the restrictions

on

imports

were

The

partial suspension of the

has

already been

other evidences

but

there

are

more remarkable.

In

noticed,

still

suspended.

Act of 1822

some years a bounty was given on imports

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER into the country,

and

41

in 1797 over half

a

was paid on bounties on Again, in iSoo, a considerable

million sterling

1

imports.

bounty was given on import

The

various kinds.

corn

of

report of a committee

the

that year points to

in

of

advantage of

the import of corn from the United States

and from

India.

2

was given maize, and other tion

The growth

At the same time to

the

import

of

rice,

substitutes from abroad.

of potatoes at

couraged by

atten-

home was

a curious system

of

en-

prizes

both for labourers and cottagers, and also

Economies of grain

for the larger farmers.

were

also

amount used 'Tooke, Vol.

I., p.

in

as

by limiting 3 and in distilling

enforced,

the the

223.

2

Cunningham, Vol. II., p. 707 n. 3 Restrictions on the use of grain

for malt, so that

more

might be available for bread, occur from 1587. See "Early Public-House Regulations," by C. M. lies, EconomicJournal, June, 1903.

42

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

The committee

manufacture of starch. considered

1795

the

intro-

of

possibility

of

ducing sumptuary legislation to check the waste of corn, but it was thought that a

King would suffice, and such a proclamation was issued sugproclamation by the

gesting the

and

economy

in

the use

flour

A

of bread in the richer households.

remarkable example of the proclamation

is

Lord Cockburn In

of

March,

1795,

effect

he

regard states

to

one-eighth

of

Edinburgh.

that

of the population

this

memoirs

given in the in

of

of

probably the

city

were being fed on charity. A public proclamation specified the exact quantity of bread which each family ought to consume, being a loaf for each

individual

weekly.

At the same time committees were formed to

teach

economies in cooking, and

the

chemistry of the day strove to get nourish-

ment

from

all

kinds

of

things.

One

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER ingenious sacrifice in wealthy houses

43

was

an appearance of wheat at So dishes were table without the reality. to

produce

invented

which

sembled

the

in

forbidden

knife often struck pie-crust,

way

shape and colour articles,

re-

and the

on what seemed

but was only clay.

1

good In the same

people gave up powder for their wigs

to save the flour.

The

great

encouragement given to the

enclosures during this period, though again ostensibly in the interests only of the landed class,

was

really

designed

extend

to

the

cultivation in the interests of the consumer

;

and the General Enclosure Act passed in 1801 was intended to bring more of the waste land under cultivation, and at the same time

make a

to lessen the legal charges,

and

more equitable distribution

of the land en-

The

closed. 1

to

root idea at this time,

Lord Cockburn's Memoirs, Vol.

I., p.

and 63.

for

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

44

long afterwards, was that, however

much

importation might be encouraged in dear

ought to and must in the

years, the country

main

rely

on

its

own

resources.

Perhaps the

best proof of the general acceptance of this

idea

found in Porter's "Progress of the

is

Nation." in full

Adam

This book

is

written throughout

sympathy with the free trade ideas of Smith, and is of course the standard

work on the economic

history of the

first

half

of the nineteenth century.

In the section dealing with the progress of agriculture

136

(p.

'seq.\

written in 1846, he

gives reasons for maintaining that every con-

siderable country

must

rely in the

main

for

an increasing population on a corresponding increase in its

own

food supplies.

interesting tables to

show that

He

gives

in Britain,

from 1800 to 1844, there had been a great increase in the

and he

home production

of wheat,

calculates in decennial periods the

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER numbers

of the people fed

45

upon home-grown

and on imported wheat. estimate of

Taking the usual one quarter of wheat per head about 600,000

of population, in 1801 to 1810

n

were fed on foreign wheat, and about In 1831 to millions on home-grown wheat. 1840 the number fed on foreign wheat had increased to nearly 900,000, but those fed

on

On

this cal-

of people fed

on home

home-grown

to 16^ millions.

culation the

number

wheat had increased by 50 per

and by Porter showed cent.,

about 5! millions absolutely. also that other forms of home-grown food

had increased

at least as much.

that the population

would

at the

He argued same rate

growth be over 40 millions for Great Britain at the end of the nineteenth century > and that this would involve an increase in of

the yield of wheat

and

of every other

form of

agricultural produce of 150 per cent,

pared with 1840.

He supposed

com-

that with

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

46

the progress in improvements that might be

was not only possible At the same time, he was strongly

expected, this increase

but easy.

in favour of the repeal of the

point

is

Corn Laws

;

the

that, writing even in the very year of

that repeal, he did not anticipate that the

continue the same rate of

country could

growth

in population

increase

corresponding duction.

unless in

there

the

was a

home pro

In fact, the universal belief at the

time was that the country would always

grow the

larger part of its

To resume period from

own

grain.

main argument:

the

1773 to 1846

it

is

in

the

clear that

the Legislature did not intentionally neglect

the

interests

of

interests of the

consumers simply in the

dominant landlords.

It

was

was necessary to stimulate the home production and to keep generally believed that

the

country in

The

price of corn

the

it

main

self-supporting.

was determined mainly

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER by the course

of

the

seasons

47

Britain

in

itself.

There could be no greater mistake than to suppose that the high prices that prevailed in this period (1773 to 1846)

were entirely

The

due to the restrictions on imports.

Tooke have shown that from

researches of

1792 to 1815 the prices

in

shows also that

the eighteenth

The high

discernible.

war were partly due

Laws on

the Corn

was not appreciable; and

recalled he prices

effect of

it

may be

their influence

on

century was not

prices in the great

to

the seasons,

partly to the difficulties imposed

and

on trade

by a state of war. Between 1815 and 1827, as before, the Corn Laws were relaxed or modified in times of says

that

in

scarcity,

705. to 8os.

this relaxation, in place of it

wheat

1826-27 the price of

would have been

Again,

and Tooke

may be

a

qr.

but for

being under 6os.

pointed out that

if

we

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

48

take

decennial

the year price is

is

1800,

averages,

845. 8^d.

5d.

gis.

595. 9^d.

;

and from

;

the

in

the

is

next,

years the

1840 to 1844

it is 568.

(five

it

is

it

1820-29,

from 1830 to 1839 1

price

ten

first

in the next, 1810-19,

;

in

with

beginning

9d.

;

the

years),

Yet from 1815 to 1822,

575. ipd.

Corn Law, wheat could not be admitted free or with nominal duty till the the

by

price reached 8os.,

2

and from 1828

must

it

The average of the 25 preceding the repeal was about 575.

reach 735.

It

is

thus clear that, under the

tions of that time, the price

up to and maintained

limit,

22S.

6d.

6d.

condiforced

at the limit of free

with the

8os.

below, and with the

735.

being in

importation,

was not

years

limit 155. 6d. below,

fact,

on the average.

There

were also years of remarkable cheapness, as in the record year of 1835 a

1

Porter, p. 146.

395. 4d.

In 1822 the limit was 85.

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER But

Laws

an

leads to

this

that

of

is

effect

of the

greater importance

49

Corn

The

:

tendency was to increase the range and the frequency of the fluctuations in prices in

1812,

we had

1822, 445.

7d.

be shown

later,

the

farmers,

consumers.

1265.

This

It is

also

per

qr.

;

in

which, as will

effect,

was the

was

6d.

e.g.,

chief evil affecting

an

evil

as regards

obvious that a low price

one year will not compensate the consumer for a famine price in the next, in

especially

when we and

the people,

consider the masses of

in the course of

any single

year there were also great fluctuations. fluctuations also is

in

money wages

are

bad,

must they be bad in real wages.

not

necessary to

support

labour

by recent theory

it

;

the

but

If

so It

point or it is

right

to give emphatic weight to this consideration.

in

So

far as the

making

Corn

Law was

this country rely

successful

mainly on

its

fflSTOR Y

50

own on

OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

supplies, so

its

own

far

it

made

And

seasons.

it

it

also rely

easy to see

is

from the records of Tooke that with any

home

scarcity at

proportion.

The

there

was a

rise

out of all

conclusion, then, appears

to be, so far as the

Corn Laws were opera-

was some

the

tive,

there

price,

though not so great as was generally

rise

in

was

supposed, because the country

main

self-supporting.

whole

of

Northern

in

in the

In general, also, the

Europe, the

foreign source of supply,

same

average

was

principal

subject to the

and export was restricted scarcity, and even the freest

seasons,

times of

importation on our side would

some

of the

But the Corn Laws, so

far as

lowered the price by dear years.

much

not have

in

operative, did greatly increase the fluctuations

between extremes, and

it

is

not right

to look merely to the average of the year.

In

trying to set

forth the facts of

the

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER

Law

Corn

51

period without exaggeration,

I

have underrated the importance of the repeal to the consumers of the

may seem

country,

to

and

especially to the masses of the

people.

In conclusion, then,

some points may be

noticed which indicate the real gain conferred in the

the

by the repeal on the consumer. first

price

it

place,

of

corn

may be must

And,

observed that

always be con-

sidered in connection with the rate of earn-

ings or spending power.

Corn Laws on the

1

The

effects of the

wages of the agricultural labourer will be taken up in the real

next chapter, but in the meantime

it

may

be said that in the nineteenth century up to the repeal the general rate of

very low.

wages was

Under these conditions any

in the average price of corn, or of fluctuations,

rise

any increase

had a proportionately greater ' .

Malthus,

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

52

on the

effect

wages or the general

real

welfare of the working classes.

The

effect

Corn Laws may have been exaggerated, but so far as there was any effect at all it of the

was

injurious,

and greatly

In the

injurious.

misery of the time the smallest rise in the price of bread 1815,

and

Corn

Law

was a

great evil,

especially towards the

real

and the extreme

and

greatly higher, than

at the time of the price

Porter,

He

of the

which

is

that

is

higher,

The importance of corn is shown

fact that

inversely

Another

Corn

would have been the

case under free imports.

varied

;

after

on occasions were

prices

by the well-known

serious

was somewhat

to say, the average

wheat.

end

period, the influence of the

Law was becoming

rate

and

with

the marriage the

price

of

brought out by not so obvious at first sight. effect

is

observes, in dealing with the

this period, that

wages of

"in order to provide the

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER wonted supply

men employed

53

food for their families,

of

at piece

work

are induced to

task their labour more severely than usual,

and by selves

means soon create against thema scarcity of employment, which this

induces them to underbid each other in the

labour market, until they end by procuring in return for greatly increased exertion even

a smaller amount of wages than they had received before the high price of provisions

had driven them to

severer labour."

This

is

no mere theory -though for long, no doubt, it was a popular theory but is confirmed

by

and

interesting

appears

detailed

from evidence

evidence.

given

It

a com-

to

mittee of the House of Lords on the Corn

Laws to

in 1814 that

make

a landowner was enabled

enclosures, fences, drains, etc,, very

much cheaper

in consequence of the rise in

the price of food. years 1812

and

The

1813, in

reference

is

to the

which the average

54

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

prices of

wheat were

respectively

that

is,

126$. 6d.

famine

and

an

ell,

some very

now do

that in the Corn

Law

that for

on account

three times the price

the fall in provisions.

are

and the evidence

concludes that he could not

two or

We

prices.

told that the bailiff contracted for

large ditches at 6d.

logs. gd.

The simple

truth

of is,

period the price of

bread was the principal factor according to

which the material comfort classes varied,

and

of the labouring

that, so far as the corn

laws either on the average or at certain seasons

raised

prices,

so far they pressed

most heavily on the working In the same way, also,

classes.

when we

sidering the effects of the repeal, right

to

minimise

the

results

are conit

is

not

by simply

have taken pains to do, that the average price of wheat was not much affected for a generation. The question we

showing, as

I

ought to put

by way

of

supplement

is:

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER

What would have of prices

pealed the

if

question

least,

it

been the probable range

the Corn

Time

?

Laws had not been

length,

but, to

say the

average would have gradually

come nearer and nearer

the

to argue

seems probable that, but for the

repeal, the

for free

re-

me

will not permit

at

55

importation

price

;

to the limit fixed

or in other words, that

would have

risen

to

the

full

extent of the duty until the high limit

reached at which in

the

interest

was

of

the

consumer the duty ceased. As the country began to rely more and more on foreign food

England would tend to from the average of the world's market

supplies, the price in differ

by the extent

Or, without

of the duty.

pressing this argument to the full extent

which theory seems to

justify,

we may

safely

say that but for the repeal the average of

corn prices would have been

than was actually the

case.

much

And

higher

that

is

the

H1STOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

$6

mode

only true

of reckoning the effects of

the repeal on the consumer.

No

doubt a moderate fixed duty might

have

been

effects

than

level

also, as the rate of

would

burden

less

injurious

had remained at

the duties

if

former high

their

with

retained

and no doubt,

;

rose the

money wages

be

less

we

But

felt.

always left with two evil effects, at a protective duty on corn is a least are

:

mode

wasteful presses least

of

rate

average

in

of

the

And although

it.

money wages has course

of

century, there are always

poorest

who

we have

some

risen

nineteenth of the very

And, as will be shown

to look

as part of a system.

the Corn

the

the

will suffer from variations in

the price of bread. later on,

it

most severely on those who are

able to bear

greatly

and

raising revenue,

on the Corn Laws

The abandonment

Laws prepared

the

way

for

of

the

THE INTERESTS OF THE CONSUMER reduction or remission

of

57

a multitude of

protective duties, the cumulative burden of

which on It is

was

the

consumer was very great.

a mistake to suppose that free trade definitely established

1846, but

it

repeal of the

the great

is

none the

at one

less true

blow

in

that the

Corn Laws rendered possible

financial reforms that followed,

and the consumer benefited well as directly by the repeal.

indirectly as

CHAPTER

II

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

WHEN we

pass from the

consumer to the the

history

necessarily

that

interests

the

of

we have classes who are

to

of corn

of

becomes

The reason

more complex.

corn,

the producer

of

Corn Laws

when we speak

the

is,

producer of

consider at least

three

interested in the production

namely, the landlord, the farmer,

and the labourer.

And although

to

extent these interests coincide, the history

the

interests of

shows that the harmony

means necessary or to clearness

if

I

general.

It

is

some actual

by no

may conduce

consider these three great

agricultural interests separately,

landlord, or rather the 59

owner

and

first

the

of the land.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

60

The change functions

in the

of the

the

most

the

policy

view of the economic

owner

remarkable

mediaeval

period,

agricultural unit

the typical

the

in

Corn

the

of

one of

of land is

history

Laws.

speaking

In

the

broadly,

the

was the manor, and

manor the

of

in

interests of the lord

manor were paramount. No doubt the servile tenants had certain customary of the

which, as

rights,

a

rule,

however, could

only be enforced in the courts of the manor* It

was mainly because

to the

economic

manor that the

was found

it

to be

interests of the lord of the

servile conditions of

tenancy

were gradually ameliorated.

The

relaxa-

tion

lord

of

in

manor of

the

is

the the

powers

of

the

main strand

agricultural

the

in the progress

population

in

the

mediaeval period, and the bulk of the people

were directly interested in agriculture. At the time of the Black Death

in

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS commutation

the

1349-50,

produce rents

great

progress,

and

the

were on the high road to becoming

villeins

peasant

we

and

labour

money payments had

into

made

already

of

61

take the

tenant

or

proprietors

modern

nearest

farmers,

if

equivalents.

This natural progress towards freedom was

checked

by the rise on the Black Death

in

wages consequent

but this again,

;

also,

end increased the movement towards

in the

freedom by compelling the great landowners

much

to let

of

their

land on a kind of

metayer system, the landowner letting out the capital

and stock as well as the

land.

During the fourteenth century, then, as well as the great landowners, there were also a large

number

of freeholders

and copyholders

interested in the price of corn.

At

this

time

the

efforts

of

Parliament

were directed to the freedom of export of corn,

and

especially to the curbing of

the

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

62

Freedom

royal power as regards licences. of

export meant

the

rid

getting

the

of

surplus of good harvests without a ruinous fall

in prices. 1

It

was probably more the

small yeoman than the great landholders

who

time pressed for freedom

at this

export,

i.e.,

of

in the interest of producers, as

the large owners

had already begun

to stock-raising, especially sheep.

to take

The

con-

between pasture and arable or sheep and men must, however, be taken up

flict

separately.

recalled

In the meantime,

that

even

at

restriction of imports

and

was

this

it

is

early

to

be

stage

also resorted to,

wheat could not be imported if the price was below 6s. 8d. per quarter, and proportional figures for rye and barley, in 1463

that years.

is

practically not at all in ordinary

We may

say that this year, 1463,

marks the adoption of the principle 'Naude,

op, #'/., 78,

of the

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

63

Corn Laws that persisted with more or force

till

namely, that the producer

1846

minimum

should be assured a corn

"just"

price,

remunerative these

price for his

what the mediaeval man

;

ideas

less

and the modern

A

price.

would

full

require

called

calls

a

analysis

an

a

fair

of

elaborate

treatise.

In the to

the

period,

Tudor period policy

both

as

of

there

the

was a

earlier

regards

the

reaction

mediaeval

use

of

the

and the promotion the consumer and for

royal licences for export of the interests of

;

the purpose of encouraging imports, treaties

were made with foreign In the

states.

Tudor period the

interests of pro-

ducers of corn were adversely affected by an

economic revolution which no regulations as regards exports and imports could have counteracted to any extent.

This was the

adoption on a large scale of the system of

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

64

enclosures

and the substitution

farming for corn-growing. purpose

it is

of

sheep-

For the present

only necessary to point out that

great landowners strained their legal rights

over the ill-defined and ill-protected rights of the smaller tenants

and

holders,

was a great displacement population. The contraction

of

and

there

the

rural

of corn-grow-

ing and the extension of sheep-farming was

viewed with alarm by the public in general, by statesmen, and by the Crown. Technical

law was the only

political force

of the great landowners,

made

to

and attempts were

to check the abuses of the spread of

sheep-farming by

The

on the side

new and

direct legislation.

object of these various measures

was

compel the landowners again to build up

the cottages of the labourers

and

and

tenants,

to convert the sheep farms into arable,

and thus

to prevent the further extension

of the depopulation.

This direct

effort to

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

65

encourage corn-growing, in the interest of the small owners

was a recognition

and tenants and

labourers,

at a very early date of the

maximum net rental is maximum public interest.

not a

seems probable, however, that this

effort

principle that

sure test of It

of the Legislature to force the production of

corn as against sheep had a very limited success,

and the progress

of the substitution

was stayed by the end of the Tudor period, much more by natural economic causes than by the well-meaning interferences on the part of the law.

It is specially

note-

worthy that the encouragement of sheepfarming was associated with the growth of

the cloth manufacture,

and

that, again,

with the growth of the towns.

This

in-

crease of the urban population again reacted

on agriculture, and the natural demand for corn versely,

encouraged if

its

production.

wool had been

Con-

really checked in E

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

66

favour of corn, manufactures would have

been checked.

With

mitigation in the conflict of

this

between the landlord and the public

interests

(as represented

population),

by the great mass

we

of the rural

find the opinion

coming

to

be strongly entertained that the rent of land

any particular

(without origin)

And

this

doctrine prevailed till

Smith, and survived as

land

x ;

it

at

any

the time of

rate,

Adam

a political force

Nor was the opinion only

longer.

held by those of

of

the best sign of national prosperity.

is

in economic theory

much

differentiation

who were was

interested in the rent

rather

an anticipation

of

the central doctrine of the Physiocrats that the rent of land or net product.

was the only real surplus It was only a step to the

" An infallible sign of your decay of wealth is the falling of rents, and the raising of them would be worth the nation's care." -John Locke. Cunningham, Vol. II., pp. 380, 381, 1

387.

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

maxim

political

that anything which raised

was an advantage, not only

rents

67

the

to

landowners, but also to the nation at large.

Thus,

bounty on export was 1689, although no doubt in the

when

granted in

the

interest of the landowners, it

also

was defended

on the general ground that anything

that benefited the landed interest benefited the

making the supplies corn more abundant and cheaper, but through

explained, of

by

simply In

the

net

product.

times this doctrine has had

recrudescence, as

directed,

the

increasing

own

our

a certain

to

and not merely, as already

country,

and attention

by Mr. Palgrave,

nation

to

through the recent

is

the loss fall

in

rents.

same way, the raising the limit the free importation of corn, which was

In the of

associated with the

on grounds

of

bounty, was defended

public policy.

From

1697

68

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

to

1765,"

a

corn

the total of

exported was

over 33 millions of quarters, and

little

the total

amount

of

bounty paid was

The

over six million pounds.

total

just

amount

of import of corn, as already observed, in the

same period was only It

is

clear

million quarters.

from these figures that during

this period the little

i%

import of grain was of very

importance, and the import was small

simply because, on the average, the country

had a surplus

mainly owing to

for export

good seasons. The export, on the other hand, was considerable; in some

the run of

years .total

amounting to one amount consumed. 2

in It

eight of

the

can hardly be

doubted that the export was stimulated by the bounty, and, but for the bounty, less land would have been devoted to corn, and rents in the aggregate

would have

fallen.

But at the same time, as already pointed 2

1

Naude,

p. 1

1

5.

Ibid., p.

1 1 6.

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

69

out, the average of prices in this period

not high.

was

Indeed, complaints are frequent

that not only was the landed interest being ruined, but that,

to the cheapness of

owing

would not work

food, the working-classes

to the extent required for the development of manufactures.

part to the of

Here

we have

modern idea

the counter-

of the

"economy

high wages."

As

observed,

already

corn

import of importance;

and the

real

and abundance

supplies.

It is true,

(1670) the import of i6s.

8s.

of

of

the

that

much home

by 22 Charles wheat was subject

the quarter

the

cause was the

if

II.

to

the price did

not exceed 535. 4d. the quarter

duty was

1765

had not been

cheapness

a duty of

to

up

;

and the

until the price rose to 8os.,

and there were similar duties on the import of other kinds of grain and substitutes. These

rates, increased

by additions

of various

70

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

kinds to 225. and force

to

up

175. respectively,

Adam

But, as

1773.'

were in

Smith

points out, during the whole period, except in

of

years

great

infrequent, the

first

also, the duties

so that

may

it

were

of these prices, 535. 4d.,

was never reached, and the never reached at

which

scarcity,

8os. limit

was

In years of scarcity,

all.

were invariably suspended, be said that the duties on

import up to 1773 were practically inoperative,

however,

were,

bounty.

when

the price

bounty.

the

keep up the

was below

re-exported

It

is

485.,

it

could

and obtained the

an example

of

the

mode

which one duty or regulation leads to

others.

in

necessary to

grain could have been imported

If

have been

in

They

though nominally prohibitive.

1766

The led

duties, 1

rise of prices

to

and

the it

that took place

usual

.came

Customs Blue-Book,

to

suspension of

be

p. 231.

thought

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS desirable to fix a lower

71

limit for free im-

Accordingly, in 1773 foreign wheat

port.

was allowed

to be imported

wheat was above of 6d.

a

485., at

when

the

home

a nominal duty

This new limit was much

qr.

above the average of the prices that had

Compared with

ruled during the century.

the subsequent statutes, this Act seems to

be altogether in favour of

the

consumer,

was passed under the imthat there would be very little

but probably pression

import

it

except

in

the nominal duty

years

of

scarcity;

and

would take the place

of

temporary suspension. But under the influence of bad seasons,

and

of the industrial revolution, the price of

corn naturally rose, and the country, instead of being

mainly an exporter, began to be

on balance an importer.

The landed fear

that

free

interest

naturally began to

imports would

keep

their

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

72

from

rents

and

rising,

in 1791 the limit for

import at the nominal duty of 6d. was raised

This

to 545.

may be

considered as the begin-

ning of the conflict between landlord and

consumer that was afterwards so

Under the influence the average,

and

seasons,

of the great war,

and with the

rose,

bad

of

intensified.

rise

of

prices

due to

prices

these natural economic causes there rise

also

what

is

fair or

We

in

the

the

limit of

same thing,

remunerative price.

have

now

import, or,

in the idea of

a

1

on importation on

And

the consumer

of

was a

to consider the effects of

these restrictions

cultural rents.

free

on

here,

agri-

as in the case

already examined,

it

is

necessary to separate the influence of the

Corn Laws or the protective duties from the other influences that tended to raise rents. In the 1

The

first

place,

it

seems clear that rents

leading stages were described in the

first

chapter.

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS would be mainly tions

however,

Tooke

we

accept the reasoned opinion of

no

effect

rents.

But the

Porter,

was

in

the

last

first

quarter

In brief, the

century.

was

the

shown by years of

century, although the rise

in

begun

eighteenth

rise in rents, as

greatest

nineteenth

rents

Laws had

on prices up to 1815 they could have no effect on

then so far

had

effect

namely, that the Corn

practically

the

by the restricon prices. If,

affected

their

through

73

the

greatest at

the

of rise

in

time when, so

far as prices are concerned, the restrictions

were inoperative.

The

rise

in rents

was

undoubtedly remarkable, and had remarkable

effects.

from Porter. let

quote one or two examples

I 1

In the county of Essex, farms

before the great French Revolutionary

War

at los.

from

455.

an

to

acre,

were

an

acre.

505. 1

Porter, op. dt.

}

let

p. 151,

in

1812 at

In Berkshire

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

74

also

and Wiltshire instances are given a

fivefold

The point

rise.

however, for

the

enormous

this

to the

this

that

could only be attributed

rise

the Corn

if

Laws had

instead of being inoperative

direction

causes of

is

been the principal cause of the

rise in prices,

in

importance,

purpose

present

Corn Laws,

effectively

of

of

that

to

up

time.

The

the rise in prices have already

been noted as affecting the consumer, and

need here only be

briefly

and foremost was the course which operated in

way of

scarcity exports

insurance,

and

;

in

the

and

same

in times

from France and the

Baltic were restrained.

great war, with

of the seasons,

general

over Northern Europe

First

recalled.

the

Next there was the rise

in

thus, whilst in

freight

and

any case the

supply could not be greatly increased by imports, there

through

the

was an increase

increase of of

demand

population

and

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS manufactures. of

There was also the influence

currency causes, such

general

75

alleged depreciation of gold,

as

the

and the

cer-

Bank

tain depreciation of the notes of the of

England

It

is

in the later years under review.

enough

to

notice

1

that

Bank

the

and that up to 1808 the premium on gold had not risen

Restriction

over

began

in 1797,

2 135. 2d. per cent.

But the price of corn factors that determine

land.

This

is

is

only one

of-

the

the rental of corn-

the period in which

we have

the extension of the margin of cultivation

by

resort

to

inferior

land

and

expensive methods of cultivation short, in this period

we have

to ;

more

and, in

the standing

example of the law of diminishing return and the Ricardian theory of rent. One more cause may be indicated of the rise in rental

on the

average,

and that

1

Porter, p. 429.

is

the

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

76

effect

improved methods of cultivation

of

On

in the widest sense of the term.

the

of

part

we must

however,

ground,

this

tread delicately, for the effect of improve-

on rents

ments

economic

theory

one

is

that

The broad principle

may lower

rents

if

produce they lower

owing

full

is

is

the

of

of

parts

of

pitfalls.

that improvements

through abundance of prices,

but

if

the prices

to other causes are not lowered, then

a greater produce can pay a greater In brief, then, the rise in rents

rent.

was not

due up to 1815 to the Corn Laws, but to other true causes.

On

the conclusion of the

war, the landowners naturally feared a in prices

and a

fall in rents,

fall

and the Act

of

which prohibited the import of foreign corn when the home price was below 8os. 1815,

(i.e.

of

a

wheat),

was

fall in rents.

believed

largely due It

to

the

fear

was no doubt honestly

by the landed

classes

that a

fall

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS in rent

would be ruinous

to

77

the country,

although this view was perhaps rendered clearer to their vision

had increased

by the

fact that they

their style of living,

and

also

burdened their lands with settlements.

From of

time onwards the restrictions

this

imports,

when

effective,

effective, raised prices to

was

and the

consumer.

But the

would have been

interest

against

pitted

the

effect of

of the landlord interest

place, the

immense

of

the Corn

on rents must not be exaggerated. first

far as

some extent above

the average that otherwise attained,

and so

rise in rents

the

Laws

In the

achieved

was not maintained, although Porter calculates that on the average the

before 1815

rental of arable land per acre

was doubled

between 1790 and 1846, and conversely the repeal of the Corn Laws did not for a long time have an adverse effect on rents. There was one mode in which the Corn

HISTOR V OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

78

Law may and that

have increased rents is

in prices.

speculative,

indirectly,

increasing the fluctuations

by

Farming became so far more and more than the true, fair, or

natural economic rent

may have been

offered

by the farmers.

The

the Corn

effect of

Laws on

the tenant

farmer will be taken up presently.

meantime, one other minor result noticed.

The

rise in rents

the "absorption of

and

the larger,

But

the

In the

may be

naturally led to

smaller

owners by

also encouraged enclosures.

here, again,

how

far this result

can be

Corn Laws depends on on prices and rents. Wemay

attributed to the their effects

say, however, that the protective duties did

not

suffice

to

protect

from absorption by the

We

come now

Laws on to

begin

the small holdings larger.

to the effects of the

the ordinary tenant farmers with,

before

dealing

;

with

Corn and, the

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

we may

import duties, intended

to

prevent

revert to the laws

speculation

regulate dealing in corn.

was

79

and

The main

to

object

consumer against the monopoly of the dealer. By a law passed under Edward VI., it was enacted that the

to protect

1

whoever should buy any corn or grain with intent to sell it again should be reputed an unlawful engrosser; and extreme penalties

were enacted for the in pillory,

offender's

culminating

imprisonment during the King's

and

pleasure,

offence,

the

goods

of

forfeiture

and

chattels.

all

And,

the as

Adam of

Smith observes, the ancient policy Europe in most cases was no better than

The

that of England. explains,

was

their corn

idea, as

that the people

cheaper from

Adam

Smith

would buy

the farmer than

from the corn dealer even in the ordinary course of business; 1

5

and

besides, there

and 6 Ed. VI.

was

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

8o

the dread of monopoly

and the wickedness

of the speculator in times of natural scarcity.

The

the laws regulating ordinary

effect of

dealing was, as

make of

Adam Smith

maintains, to

the farmer carry on himself the trade

a dealer in corn, and

it

is

easy to show

was bad economy. The trade in corn required a certain amount of capital, that this

and involved a and

business

certain

of

his

less

to

labour

his capital

of

was and

the corn trade,

energies into

and thus had

of

The farmer

power.

obliged to turn some

some

amount

use for the direct

cultivation of the land, and, as regards the

business

capacity required,

was against labour and

the

principle

of

restriction

division of

The

general

was not

only, as

specialisation.

effect of these restrictions

the

already shown, to raise the average price to the consumer, but to lessen the effective

employment

of the capital of the farmer,

and

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS in that

way

supply

of

corn

fluctuations

had

being

with

to choose

the

and

grain himself.

seasons,

to

great

the farmer

selling at very

abundance

alternatively

But

The

less return.

subject

between

prices in times of

consumers,

him a

to give

81

this

low

direct to the

storing

storing of

the

grain

was not only hazardous, but involved the locking up of capital which might be better employed on the land. the

skill

required,

the

Then, as regards particular

farmer

could not expect to form such an accurate idea of the probable course of the markets as a trained dealer.

There can be no doubt of the truth of

Adam

Smith's reasoning, and as in general

was the by

case, his reasoning

history

and experience.

was supported There was a

gradual relaxation in the laws restricting dealings in corn, and for the most part they

were repealed by the statute of 1772.

The

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

82

preamble to written by

this statute

Adam Smith

might have been though in the "Wealth

himself,

fact preceding the publication of " " Whereas of Nations by four years :

it

has

been found by experience that the restraints laid in

by several statutes upon the dealing meal, cattle, and other flour, corn, by preventing a trade in the said commodities, have a sort

sundry free

of

victuals,

tendency to discourage the growth and to

enhance the price of the same," and so on.

The old still

the

statutes

common law

and engrossing as

The evil

were repealed, although recognised forestalling

offences.

persistence of the old ideas of the

power

of the corn dealer

is

shown

in

the speeches and the discussions on the Bill

introduced in 1856 for the improvement in the

agricultural

Government.

A

statistics

is

by

the

summary of the given by Tooke in

critical

arguments advanced

issued

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS "

the

1

was evidently corn dealer had

1

History of Prices/

83

It

supposed that the large

an unfair advantage over the small farmer,

and

in effect could induce

lower prices than were

him It

fair.

to

sell

was argued

that the Government, official

statistics,

farmer

of

coming

year,

his

the

of

prices

unfavourable

The method proposed

of

its

small

for

and thus prevent him

under

grain

by the aid could warn the

course

at

the

selling

conditions.

to protect the small

farmer shows a great advance on the ideas of

the older

object,

work

least

on

statutes,

of all

the

and no one could

the writer of a great

history

of

prices,

and the improvement ment statistics. But the point

extension

criticism

is

to

the

of Govern-

of Tooke's

that the various speakers did

not properly appreciate the functions of the ordinary dealer in corn. 'Vol. V., p. 133

They confounded seq.

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

84

ordinary dealing with extraordinary specu-

and they over-estimated altogether the bargaining power of the dealer comlation,

with

pared

Government

the official

no

could possibly foretell

that

special benefit

pared with the dealers the

essential

No

and the farmer would

the run of prices, receive

farmer.

ordinary

facts

since

the

commented

open to dealers and farmers

as com-

already all

to

relating

trade were published,

is,

on,

alike.

corn

and

The

more, and the more accurate, the information,

much

so

the

better

concerned in the ordinary

for

way

every

one

of business,

but the farmer in particular did not need special official information

to protect

him

from the machinations of the dealer.

An

interesting fact

tioned by

Adam

is

incidentally

men-

Smith which shows the

importance to the farmer of the speculator in corn.

He

\

states

that the corn

merchant

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

85

was generally in contract with some farmers to furnish him for a certain number of years with a certain quantity of corn at

a certain

price.

This contract price was

settled according to

what was supposed

moderate and reasonable

be

Adam

is

(on

Smith's interpretation), the ordinary

or average

have

that

to

price.

been

The custom seems

abandoned

under

the

to

great

revolution in corn prices that occurred after

Adam Smith In our

wrote.

own day

the notion

still

prevails

that not only the consumer but the farmer is

injured

by the speculations

of the corn

The advance, however, in public opinion is shown by the distinction that dealer.

now

1

is

universally recognised between the

legitimate trade in corn, including legiti-

mate speculation, and the 1

This

Norris

is

artificial

rigging

a leading idea in the realistic romances of Frank

the "Pit"

and the "Octopus."

86

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

and attempts at

of markets

natural economic lation in

corn,

steady prices. better for

the

effect of bona-fide

as in other

And

The

corners.

specu-

as a general rule,

farmer

that

to

is

things,

it is

function

this

should be performed by the dealer.

Similar

arguments apply to the producers of kinds of raw produce,

The prices,

consideration or

rather

cotton.

e.g.,

of

all

the

steadiness

of

steadiness,

comparative

due to the action of the middlemen, natur-

Corn

ally leads to the effects of the other

Laws from ness

of

this point of

(i.e.,

steadi-

interests

of

the

One advantage claimed

for

the

price)

farmers.

on

view

the

bounty was that by relieving the market in times of abundance,

drawn

in

times of scarcity, the range

of

So

far

bounty was

of

fluctuations in prices

as this

was the

advantage

and by being with-

to

was

lessened.

case the

the

farmer.

It

gave

him

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS security,

greater prices

raised itself

Smith on

prices is

open to

extra gain the

in

good years kept

above the unremunerative

Adam

as

and

contended, the

87

the

If,

bounty

which

average,

question,

level.

in

no doubt the

would have been absorbed by

And

landowner.

again,

it

may be

supposed that of the bounty actually paid on export (some five million pounds from 1697 to 1765) a part went to the owners of

land in increased rents.

was absorbed by the is

Some, no doubt, speculators, but

it

hardly probable that any part, on the

average,

went

to the tenant farmer.

farmer gained at

all, it

was by the

If

the

greater

steadiness of the prices.

And by way

of contrast, this brings into

prominence the principal effect of the restraints on imports (so far as operative)

from 1773 to 1846 on the farmers.

One

interest of

the

striking characteristic of this

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

88

period of extreme agricultural protection

which more will be said

about

is

concluding chapter

the constant com-

The

plaints of agricultural distress. is

the

in

subject

brought before committee after committee,

and

used

it

with

to

be a favourite argument

free traders that the greater the pro-

tection the greater

distress

com-

and that the more protection granted the more was asked for.

plained

was

was the

Some tained

of,

of

the

that

distressed i2os.

a

qr.

witnesses

main-

was the natural

remunerative price for wheat, but they must surely have been the farmers well

beyond

the margin of cultivation.

As already explained, the great prices

in

the

first

part of

the

rise

in

nineteenth

century was only to a small extent to be ascribed to the actually existing Corn Laws. Prices were naturally high

that

is,

apart

from the Corn Laws, and in years of scarcity

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

89

there were considerable imports, in spite of

the high duties, simply because the limit

import had been passed, and foreign

of free

restrictions (e.g.,

gether effective.

1

by France) were not altoBut for the imports prices

would have been were not, in

Corn Laws. 2 in the

a

qr.

1804,

first

still

higher,

and imports

checked by the existing

fact,

For example, in 1810, wheat, week of August, rose to n6s.

But at that time, by the Act wheat could be imported at

of

a

nominal duty when the price was above 66s.

per

margin. to be

and ance,

were 1

qr.,

The

that

so

was

505.

of

real hindrances to imports are

found in foreign restraints on exports,

in the

high charges for freight, insur-

licences

for

all greatly

navigation,

etc.,

which

enhanced by the war, and

Wheat was imported from France even when the two

countries were at war. =

there

Touku, Vol.

I.,

p. 295.

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

90

305. to 503.

amounted, in the aggregate, to a qr. on wheat.

some

whole

this

During

extent,

period, however,

Laws did

the Corn

to

increase

And that When 1815.

the fluctuations in prices.

effect

was more marked

there

after

were so many influences which tended to bring about fluctuations in the price of corn

e.g.,

the seasons, wars,

and rumours

of wars, obstructions to transport, etc.

it is

impossible to assign the precise degree of influence of the

Corn Laws, and

it

may be

better to indicate the principles applicable

to the case.

Take,

first,

prohibition

of

the simple case of

imports,

has reached a certain that,

on a small

unless

limit.

deficiency in

supply, prices tend to rush of

free

importation.

It

effective

the

price

is

clear

the

up to the

Then,

home limit

again,

as

regards the lower limit, for a long period

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS was not permitted

exportation

to a certain

price

had

when

it

lated

by a bounty.

fallen

reached that point

it

could be relieved

that

is,

view of the producers

of

to this limit

until

the

point,

and

was stimu-

The natural

sequence was, that before the

of export.

91

con-

home market

from the point prices

Thus

must

fall

there were

1 rapid fluctuations between extremes.

The effect of the two sets of regulations was to make the price fluctuate rapidly, according to the supplies of each year between high and low prices, or the limits 1

for

the

Those who framed import and export respectively. Com Laws of 1804 and 1815 supposed that the

be kept up to the higher limit, simply by the prevention of importation until that limit was reached, and they thought that a steady remunerative price could price could

By simply by the regulation of imports. 1804, the bounty was retained at 53., and

be secured the Act of

effect as before, when the price had With the range of prices then dominant, this part of the system was not only inoperative, but it probably seemed impossible that the price would ever

only

came

into

fallen to 483.

again

fall

interest,

the

to

or

those

export

limit.

who wished

Logically, the landed to maintain a steady

is well argued by Tooke have increased the bounty, and

remunerative price, ought, as (Vol. to have

III., p.

fixed

44 seq,\ the

to

limit

of

exportation

to

obtain

the

92

HTSTOR y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

same way the introduction of a scale of duties and of the system

In the sliding of

was

graduation

intended

lessen

to

fluctuations, but in reality increased them.

1

The argument can only be presented in its full force when taken with reference to the actual figures of the duties the conditions of time.

This

the corn

part

of

the

adopted trade

case

at

has

and the

been

bounty, and also the bounty at a higher rate, e.g., to have made the bounty, say 128., and the export price for the bounty, say 6os. Instead of this, the regulation of exports was abandoned in the Act of 1815. The point of most general interest is that when the professed object of the Corn Laws was to maintain remunerative

and to prevent fluctuations, the legislative prices measures actually adopted were not such as to secure this end. The wrong means were chosen. If the old policy of the bounty had been maintained, with alterations according to circumstances, there would have been less severe fluctuations, and the average range of prices would have been higher. Of course, it was an advantage to the consumer that the average was not raised ; but that was not the only idea of the legislators of the

time

they

aimed

at

steadiness,

and

they

fluctuations. 1

Tooke, Vol.

Ill,

p.

31, etc.

increased

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

93

thoroughly investigated by Tooke, and he

came

to

scale

the

aggravated

greatly

the

that

the conclusion

sliding

fluctuations

naturally due to the course of the seasons

and

his

illustrated

is

argument

;

and con-

firmed by reference to the history of prices.

So the

far,

attention has

mere

fact

the

of

been

to

directed

We

fluctuations.

must now look at some

the ulterior

of

on producers, especially the tenant There was a constant tendency farmers. effects

to adjust the

to the

amount

movements

the margin

of land

The man on

in prices.

had a very bad

under grain

Under

time.

the stimulus of high prices

inferior

was

cultivated,

was sunk

the

improvement

increase

of

and of

supply

capital

arable

that

was

land in

The

land.

possible

in

good seasons led to a fall in prices that was to the producer ruinously low. Again, the high

prices

induced

farmers

to

offer

94

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

higher rents than the land would bear, and

by a year

or

two

low

of

prices they

were

Farming became a highly specu-

ruined.

lative business, and, as usual, the speculator

over-estimated his chances of success.

Even for the

in this

case,

however, there were

The stimulus

time compensations.

given to improvements, and the extension of

cultivation,

closures,

as

by the

en-

of

enabled the country, on the average,

amount

to raise a greater

would

increase

otherwise

have

of

been

corn

than

the

case.

Despite the restrictions on imports, there

is

no doubt that the average prices of corn were comparatively reasonable during the dozen years ending with 1845.

This was

largely the consequence of the of

improvement agriculture by the application of a better

system of drainage,

etc.

The

brought out very clearly by Porter. again,

it is

position

But

is

here,

not correct to ascribe the whole or

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

95

indeed the greater part of the improvements to the rise in prices consequent

Laws. 1771

M'Culloch to

points

when

1791,

was

the enclosures

And

in prices.

x

on the Corn

out that from

the greatest effect of there

felt,

was no

similarly of other improve-

ments, the stimulus of the Corn

only

many

the

at

rise

one

best

Laws was

influence,

and

cases not the most important.

in It

was supposed by the defenders of the Corn Laws that agriculture would be ruined by the repeal, but,

as

is

well known, up to

the famous year 1872 agriculture flourished.

Even nearly

in

corn,

so

expected,

the fall in prices

great,

and

nor

so

speedy,

was not as

was

there were compensations in

the encouragement indirectly given to other

kinds of produce.

There remains to notice the influence of the Corn

Laws on

the agricultural labourer.

'Op.

tit.,

p. 513.

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

96

The

general result

At the time when cases

is

and

plain

had

rents

notorious.

and on the average had

five-fold,

been more than doubled, the real of labour

had

some

risen in

fallen.

I

wages

will quote one or

two pregnant sentences from Porter " The mere labourer, he who had nothing to :

1

bring

to

market

but

his

limbs and

his

sinews, did not participate in this partial

compensation "

If

we

for

high

Again

prices."

contrast the weekly

wage

at

:

the

two periods of 1790 and 1800 of husbandrylabourers and skilled artisans, measuring

them both by the quantity they could command,

it

of

wheat which

will be seen that

the former could in 1790 purchase 82 pints of wheat,

and

more than 53

in

1800 could procure no

pints, while for

the skilled

artisan the figures were 169 pints in x

The

1790,

gradual abandonment in the nineteenth century " the mere labourer," is very instructive.

of the old term,

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS and 83 pints

1800."

in

seems not overstrained

The

when he

97

conclusion "

says

:

To

talk of the prosperous state of the country

under such a condition of things involves

a

contradiction.

palpable

more

It

would be

liken the situation of the

correct to

community to that of the inhabitants of a town subjected to a general conflagration in which some became suddenly enriched by carrying off the valuables, while the mass were involved in ruin and destitution." It

is

true,

evil condition

as already shown, that

was not due

Corn Laws, nor at but the point there

is

may be a

any increase

The

entirely to the

this time

even mainly,

of present importance that

great rise in rents without

of prosperity as regards labour.

subject

is

necessary to quote in detail.

this

so important that

it

some representative

Accurate

seems figures

statistics of agricultural

wages from 1800 to 1846 are not obtainable,

98

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

but some significant facts and figures are

quoted in the Report

1

A

(published in 1900).

by Mr. Wilson Fox return

is

given by a

working farmer on a farm in Essex of 100 acres whose family had occupied the freehold during the whole century. of

In 1800 the rate

weekly wages paid was

i2s. in

1802 and so remained

the rate rose to

down

los.

to 1899.

155.,

;

till

it

rose to

1812,

when

the highest rate paid

On this farm wages oscillated

between 1835 and 1846 between gs. and us., From the average being los. 2d. a week. 1847 to 1852 the average was only per week.

From

95. 2d.

1853 to 1862 the rate was

on the average us. 5d., and this was the average also from 1890 to 1899, the last ten years given. to 1849

In Somerset the rate from 1846

was only

75.,

and

fell in

In a return from Herefordshire

it

1850 to

6s.

appears that

from 1819 to 1853 the rate fluctuated between '

Cd. 346,

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS and

99

ios.,

the latter figure being reached

only in

five

years out of the thirty -five.

Taking

the

8s.

Wales, the to

1852 id.

i2s.

average rate

up

;

to

was 1871

and from

;

never exceeded

135.

for gs. it

England 2d.

from

date

Up

8Jd.

1850

exceeded

never

that

and

to

to

1899

1834 in

the century, the wages were supplemented

by the allowance system, and of course there were always some elements of real wages in the form of perquisites or extra earnings.

work on Wages

Mr. Bowley, in his admirable

in the Nineteenth Century, gives

a table for

Sussex extending from 1767 to 1892.

Sum-

marising the results for this county (with the basis of finds

that

8s. 6d.

"money wages

increased between

the

war

in

they then

to begin

with in 1770) he (i.e.,

in

Sussex)

1770 and the height

of

1813 about 50 per cent., that

fell

about 30 per

the level of 1793,

cent,

back to

and then rose slowly to

ioo

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

their former

that

maximum,

of

1813,

in

the seventies, 1 since which they have fallen,

but not If,

far."

then,

we

money wages

take a general

survey of

we

are struck

in agriculture,

by the comparative to

1827

(i.e.,

maximum between

sixty years),

point

8s.

seventy-five

and years

between us. and

The

figures

economic

in ios.,

if

1813,

and

wages

the

vary

the

next

they

vary

for

135. 6d.

text for a long

but for the present, only

one point needs emphasis.

with

1767

we omit

(1827-1902)

would furnish a

treatise,

From

stability.

It is

plain that

comparative stability of nominal wages the price of wheat must be a dominant this

element in real wages.

If

the price

was very

high the labourer must be driven to cheaper substitutes or to poor relief,

and conversely

every fall in price meant a rise in real wages. '

Bowley, pp. 39, 40.

THE INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

maximum

Thus, in the

year of

101

1813, the

wages would only purchase four pecks of wheat, which indicates a minimum of real wages, whilst in

maximum pecks, It

1885

the

same nominal

of 135. 6d. corresponds to thirteen

an increase of more than

three-fold.

comes out very clearly that over

this

period of 135 years, the agricultural labourer

was

interested in the price of corn not as

producer but as a consumer. prices

real

generally 1

The

wages, instead

fell.

With a of

a

rise of

responding,

1

discovery of this fact had great influence on Sir

Robert Peel.

See Life by C. S. Parker, Vol. Appendix by the Hon. G. Peel.

III., p. 600.

CHAPTER

III

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY

WE

have

considered

the

Corn Laws from the point consumer, and from that

effects

of of

of

the

view of the the

various

classes of producers, the landlord, the tenant,

and the labourer. give

some account

It

requisite

history of the of

were involved at

Such a survey

to

necessary to

of the broader principles

of public policy that

ent times.

now

is

get rid of

Corn Laws

a conflict of class

differ-

of principles

is

the idea that the is

simply the history

interests,

culminating at

the repeal with the victory of the consumer,

and

in particular

over the landowner.

the

of

labouring

poor

The complexity

of the

103

104

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

may be

subject

illustrated

Soon

another example. the Corn

over

the

Laws a

by

reference to

after the repeal of

financial controversy raged

income

In

tax.

told that the order

book

1851

of

we

are

the House of

Commons was

loaded with motions about

the income tax,

and an important committee

sat to consider all the questions involved

with the view of making an equitable

They could not

adjustment of the burdens. even frame a report.

was

And

that the discussion

the real reason

all

through this

period descended, not only to the ciples said,

of

taxation, but, as

almost to the

society

itself.

1

first

re-

first

prin-

Mr. Gladstone

principles of civilised

Gladstone occupied more than

half of his great

Budget speech

of 1853 (which

lasted nearly five hours) in dealing with the

income

tax.

If,

however, the treatment of

the income tax involves 1

first

Morley's "Gladstone," Vol.

principles I., p.

459.

and

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY

105

a wide survey, in the case of the Corn Laws such a broad survey is still more

The

necessary.

earliest

Corn Laws involved

in the first place questions of morality.

Laws

old Corn

in restraint of dealing

speculation were in to

laws

the

or

interest

and

many ways analogous

against

usury.

The

money

lending

To make a

at

gain out

money seemed unnatural and immoral, and similarly also, to make a

of

barren

gain merely by holding corn for a time to sell

again at a profit was immoral.

the money-lender

borrower

at

was supposed

his

mercy;

the

to

1

Again, have the

money was

generally required for purposes of necessity.

Similarly the buyer of corn

was the buyer

of

a necessary, and naturally at the mercy of the seller. Just as it took centuries of

and

thought

and

of

experimental

legislation

practice to separate legitimate interest 1

Cunningham,

op.

'/.,

Vol.

II., p. 93.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS

io6

from unjust usury, so also to get rid of the of

took centuries

it

odium attached

a corn dealer.

to the trade

Edward

In the reign of

VI. the kidder or carrier of corn required to

man

obtain a licence as a fair

and the authority

dealing,

was necessary

justices

But even sufficient,

this

privilege of

time he reports attached scarcity

to

could be

profit

in-

was confined

it

Even

corn

Adam

in

trade

times

only

made

Smith's

in in

times

of

which

a

rendered people of

character

and fortune averse to enter

and that

it

set of

was abandoned

dealers.

legislator

On

interfered

to

popular odium

the

that

the

the

was thought

statute of Elizabeth the

granting

1 quarter sessions.

three

of

to grant the licence.

restraint

and by a

and

of probity

the

to

an

it,

inferior

same grounds the

to

protect

the

con-

sumer against the wiles of the baker, and 1

Adam

Smith (M'Culloch's

edition), p. 235.

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY by the

107

bread his just profit was

assizes of

fixed. It

was not

these

till

the nineteenth century that

on

restraints

regulation

the

of

speculation prices

of

and the

bread

were

We have retained, however, and

abandoned.

greatly strengthened the laws intended to protect the consumer against inferior quality

and unjust weight. No one in this case would argue that because we have adopted laisser faire in prices

adopt

and

laisser faire

we ought

logically to

as regards adulteration

false weights.

The

early regulations affecting the export

of corn are chiefly of interest to us because

they throw light on a constitutional struggle for centuries.

the

power

The King claimed

of granting licences for

and Parliament

The

to exercise

relative

export,

tried to restrain the right.

powers of King and Parlia-

ment are shown by the variations

in the

io8

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

Edward

licensing power.

success the attempts of restrain

his of the

power

Crown

with

Commons

the

With

power.

resisted

III.

the

to

declining

the export trade

was

more by statute than by royal but under the Tudors again, with an

regulated licence

;

increase of the

was an

of the

power

Crown, there

increase in the resort to licences.

Elizabeth exercised the right of restricting

by order

export,

in

Charles

council.

I.

attempted, as in other instances, to use the

power

of the

Crown, and added one more

to the subsidiary causes of the civil war.

This

last instance,

however,

is

a warning

not to generalise to the position that the

power of the Crown was always used own interest, and that of the Commons

licensing in its

in the interest of the poor.

the

Crown

licences,

derived

but for

all

a

It is

revenue

that the

true that

from

the

power was under

the ablest monarchs exercised in the interest

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY of the public.

109

In the reign of Elizabeth

the legislation effected in Parliament

was

mainly in the interests of the producer, and

and the Queen

therefore facilitated export,

and the Privy Council

restricted this

power

of export in times of scarcity to secure

good supply

Charles

for the poor.

I.

a

made

the revenue his

chief

justice it should

be remembered the needs

of the State

concern

were great

and

though

his action

in

was

The power of exports was often

considered unconstitutional.

Crown

the

in restraining

used for political purposes against foreign

by way of retaliation, or with a view weaken their resources. Even in the

states

to

1

nineteenth century the power of the in

council

regulating

was

after

was used

King

to suspend the laws

though an indemnity obtained from Parliament. In imports,

1845 Peel for a time favoured the proposal 1

See Cunningham,

op,

cit.^

Vol.

II., p. 89.

no HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS of suspending the

council, but

that "

later

suspension

Corn Laws by an order

came

Once remitted they

established."

The

the conclusion

to

would

in

involve

will

repeal.

be

never

re-

'

constitutional

point

involved

again become of interest in our

own

has

times,

though not specially in connection with corn.

The

revived discussion has, however, only

established

taxes

more firmly the principle that

ought only to be imposed,

purpose,

the point of view of the it

of

to

the

nearly

public revenue

secondary importance.

end

of

century the country was

from

Corn Laws from ;

appears that the yield of revenue

was always

the

any

by Parliament.

We may next consider the and

for

the

Up

eighteenth

on balance

(on

an exporting country, and 1689 the export of corn had been

average)

1

Life, Vol. Ill,, chap,

viii.,

p.

226

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY encouraged already

a

by

given

on

bounty. the

value

nt

The

figures

of

exports

and imports during the eighteenth century show that the public revenue must have suffered a loss

on the whole.

With

the nine-

teenth century the imports began to increase,

and with the exception of one year, when corn was exported, mainly in connection with military operations, the country became and remained on balance an importing country.

In the

first

twenty years of the

century, although on occasions (1801, 1810, 1817,

and

1818) there were relatively large

and the range of duties seemed very high, there was practically no yield imports,

of revenue, simply because after corn

had

reached a certain point there was only a

nominal duty.

The

duties were,

in fact,

devised not for revenue but for protection.

During the next twenty-five years (1820-1845) the average imports increased, and with the

1

HISTOR Y OF THE' ENGLISH CORN LA WS

12

system of graduated

was

often imported

For the

six years,

amount

of

the

corn

duties in force,

which yielded a revenue. 1840-1845, the average

Customs revenue received

from corn was about a million pounds a (See

year.

Customs Blue-Book,

At the time of revenue

ance

;

begun

p. 259.)

of the repeal in 1846, the yield

had

certainly

and besides

this,

to be recognised

become

of import-

the principle

had

that the yield of

revenue might be increased by lowering the rate of duty.

No

doubt a moderate duty

on corn would have yielded a considerable revenue. No more, however, was retained than the registration duty of

was

also

abandoned

of revenue has

is.

in 1869.

been

a

This

criticised,

which

qr.

sacrifice

and

it

has

been maintained that a moderate fixed duty

might have been retained with advantage to the revenue and without any serious burden on the public or, in other words, that the

THE INTERESTS OF P UBLIC POLIC Y total

was

repeal of the corn duties

The duty on corn

pedient.

113

inex-

at the rate of

per qr. on wheat, recently imposed as a

is.

war

two million

tax, yielded in its last year over

pounds.

But the corn duties cannot be looked at simply from yield

to

gave to

the

view of

of

point

what they

the revenue.

Besides

the Treasury,

we must

what they took from the

their

people.

consider

Without

going into the niceties of the incidence of be taken for proved that

the duties,

it

when

imports were considerable, and

the

may

the duties high, there

was

also a consider-

Not

able rise in price to the consumer.

only the imported corn, but all the corn

grown

at home, rose in price.

possible to

is

im-

give any accurate estimate of

the rise in price due to the Corn

M'Culloch estimates, argument,

It

for the

that for the

Laws

;

but

purpose of his

half

-

dozen

years

ii4

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

preceding the repeal, the price of all kinds

on the average 6s. a qr., and, the price of wheat alone would

of grain rose

of course,

have risen more. Suppose, then, qr.,

when

that

wheat rose

the average duty paid

los.

was

a

205.,

and suppose that, according to the usual wheat was consumed in the estimate, country at the rate of population.

i

qr.

per head of

This would mean

that

million qrs. of foreign wheat paid about million pounds sterling of

about

seventeen

duty,

millions of

two

two

and that

home-grown

wheat paid no duty, but, in consequence of the duty, taxed the people eight and a half million pounds by the rise in price. This was one of the most effective

arguments for the repeal of the Corn Laws. It was also generally argued that the whole of this sum, taken from popular

the pockets of the people,

went into the

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY the

pockets of

were no

115

and that there

landlords,

compensating advantages.

This

no doubt exaggerated, M'Culloch, who found it desirable to correct the over-

view

is

his

emphasis of

first

edition in the last,

estimates that of this loss to the consumer,

calculated in this way, perhaps a fifth to

a fourth went to the landlords. It

is

now

1

generally admitted that

dif-

ferential duties, as such, are a wasteful

and

inequitable means of raising revenue.

In

fact, their

the

And

main

is

object

not revenue, but

promotion of some other social end. that

was the

case of

the

old corn

duties.

With

this

observation,

we

may now

return to the other objects which the Corn

Laws were intended of revenue

to

up

to advance.

the time of

was not the primary

object,

1

Op.

(it.,

p,

524.

and

The

yield

the repeal in general

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS

ii6

was it

disregarded, though, curiously enough,

was

just at the very time that the duties

were taken

off

that they were becoming of

importance for revenue purposes.

we

If

revert

again

the

to

order

of

chronology, in the emergence of principles,

we may

notice

next the idea that corn-

growing should be encouraged by the State in the interest of the rural population,

with

the

very

idea

of

keeping

the time of the Tudors there the of

up the

of labour in the country.

employment

was

and

In

precisely

same outcry against the displacement

men by

sheep in England, as arose in

Scotland in the nineteenth century.

Tudor

The

built,

a remedy in legislation cottages were to be reand land that had been thrown

under

grass

direct

legislator tried to find

into arable. 1 1

was

be again converted The political object in view to

Cunningham, Vol.

I.,

p. 531.

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY is

well

of

Edward

of this

greatly

very

out

brought

"The

in

a

117

proclamation

and puissance our realm, which was wont to be VI.:

feared

much

of

all

force

powers,

foreign

is

decayed, our people wonderfully

abated, and those that remain are grievously oppressed." it

was

felt

By

Tudor period

the end of the

that

this

kind

of

direct

en-

couragement to corn- growing was no longer required, but the political idea persisted in

up to the time of the repeal of the Corn Laws. One of the advantages claimed for the bounty was that it would extend full force

and thus keep up or increase the population. The same argument was

tillage,

rural

used in defence of the import duties.

At

the end of the eighteenth century an increase

was supposed to be one of the best signs of progress, and the agricultural population was regarded with special favour of population

as the foundation of the

power

of the State.

1

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

18

This,

it

noted in passing, was the

may be

political justification of the allowance system,

which allowed so much

to every labourer in

proportion as he had enriched his country

with children. 1

At the beginning

of

the

eighteenth century this patriotic ideal had

been obscured by the dread of pauperism

and vagabondage, and the natural increase of population had been somewhat restrained repressive measures adopted in spite

by the

of the very

low

The allow-

prices of food.

ance system substituted a bounty, in place of a check, on the increase of population. It

is

difficult

to

roughest way, the

estimate,

effect of

of the nineteenth century

in

promoting

labour.

The

the Corn

up

Laws

to the repeal

employment

of

rural

Certainly the effect could not have

been very 1

the

even in the

great.

In

spite

of

principle was carried to an extreme

received allowances for illegitimate children.

the

high

when women

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY in

protective duties, the proportion, Britain, of families

Great

in agriculture

employed

declined from 35*2 per

119

1811

in

cent,

25*9 per cent, in 1841 of the total

to

number

Between 1821 and 1831 there was an absolute decrease in the number of families.

1

of families

increase

in

spite

19

per

number

of

families

After

Britain.

in

about

of

aggregate

agriculture,

cent,

we can

1831

figures of the actual individual

place of the families, that,

we compare

if

in

number

in

an the

Great

obtain

the

workers in

and again we

find

1831 with 1841, with

an absolute increase in population two millions, there was an absolute in the

of

of over decrease

males employed in

of adult

2

agriculture. It

would be out

into greater detail of rural

of proportion to enter

on the general question It

depopulation.

is

2

'Porter, pp. 52, 53.

Ibid., pp.

enough 61, 62,

for

120

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

the present to insist that before the repeal of the

Corn Laws an absolute diminution

had begun,

a rapid increase in

in spite of

Of

the population as a whole.

may be argued

course,

it

Laws had

that the Corn

any rate checked the decrease. And if they had not been repealed, it may well

at

be

supposed

that

in

this

country

the

diminution of the rural population would

The

not have been so great.

ment the

at the present

corn duties

is

chief argu-

time in Germany for this

very need of en-

couraging the rural population, and

it

may

be granted that under certain conditions the

natural

growing

eSect of

would

be

protection

an

corn-

to

increase

in

the

quantity of labour employed on the land.

The tion

history of agriculture in

shows,

this

and

of

the

country

up

to

that

the

most

however,

popularepeal

stringent

corn law restraining imports did not suffice

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY

121

to prevent the decrease of the rural popu-

From

lation.

1800

to in

great improvements

were

there

1846

agriculture

of

all

and the produce was largely inBut these improvements consisted creased. kinds,

greatly in economies of labour, or, at

any the produce was increased without a

rate,

corresponding increase in the employment of labour.

In

depopulation, to

to

reference

recall

the

it

this

may

fact

question

the growth of the towns the

of

from the

earliest times

under

may but

to it

come to

all

it

the

rural

not be out of place

that

expense

of

country

the complaint

and has

and

of

cities at the

been

made

in all countries,

kinds of conditions.

A

corn law

some extent check the tendency, certainly

is

altogether.

rural

not sufficient to over-

Whether such a check

depopulation

as

may be

supposed to be afforded by restraints on

122

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

imports

is

of

advantage to the nation as

a whole involves the consideration

of the

whole system

of

of

protection,

direction of industries

and

by the State

;

the

and

some attention may now be given to the Corn Laws considered as part of a wider system of the regulation of industry.

When Adam Smith

attacked

and

de-

stroyed the old mercantile system, of which the Corn

Laws formed so important a

was natural

part, it

that he should lay most stress

on the existing abuses. He allows, indeed, that in its origin, and having regard to the system which system was

it

displaced,

not

altogether

the

mercantile

unreasonable

;

but he argues that the original aims had long

since

been forgotten in the means,

and he seems

imply that the system had been a failure from the first. Recently, to

however, economists have given

prominence

to

the

real

much more

objects

and the

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY actual

the

policy

of

for

Adam

possible

idea of the system

system

to

promote national and the Corn Laws may be regarded

power ;

from that point of view. Elizabeth, as Dr.

was

than

The leading

Smith.

was

123

is

so well

Cunningham, the

culture

In the reign of

brought

fostering

out of

agri-

consciously associated with

is

by the

improvement of the mercantile marine. At first sight, as he says, there might not seem to be much connection between the

two

;

but the idea was, that

if

corn were

grown in larger quantities for export there would be another native commodity available

the

employing of native ships, and it might be possible to compete with the Dutch in the profitable trade they for

carried

on

in the Mediterranean, as at that

time there was a great trade in corn from the Baltic. Eliz.)

which

In an Act passed in 1563 (5 raises the limit of price

below

124

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

which

was

export

measure

itself

touching

shown

is

constitutions

politic

Burleigh to

Elizabeth's

And

the

by

great

the

Navigation

that development.

for

indeed

policy

of

on the

the

of

power

of

was

minister

development

trade, instead of relying

of

whole

naval

the

strengthen

nation

the

that

"an Act

as

the maintenance of the Navy." it

the

allowed,

described

is

certain

be

to

foreign

restrictions

which

checked

In this policy

we have

Acts,

the forerunner of the dominating principle of the great financial reforms of the nine-

teenth century, which included the repeal of the

1 Navigation Act.

Similarly the bounty on export

was partly

defended on the ground of the encourage-

ment given

to foreign trade,

to shipping, 1

The

trade

Navigation Acts.

and in

and

in that

way

indirectly to naval power.

corn

was

always

regulated

by

the

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY The export

use of

political

the regulations of

we

emphasised when

is

125

recall

that

was prevented

the export of corn to Spain

with the object of diminishing the power of that nation.

at

When,

the

the

close

the

of

eighteenth

began regularly to exceed the exports, the restraints on imports were defended also on the ground of the century,

imports

promotion of national power. At this time stress was laid on the importance of national independence as regards the supply of food*

And no doubt

was applied

this principle

to

a number of other commodities besides corn.

The

theoretical validity of the principle in

itself

has been admitted by

from

Adam

Smith

all

to Fawcett.

economists

M'Culloch

applied the argument to the case of cotton

(a

propos

of

the

Whenever any commodity the

defence of

the

cotton is

nation,

raw

famine).

necessary for

Adam Smith

126

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

argued

that

it

is

inexpedient to rely on

and

seemed only logical to apply the principle to corn, and to food generally. The answer of Adam

foreign sources of supply,

Smith

is

it

implied in the position that the

utmost freedom of trade in corn could not injure the British production

prevailed

Laws

down

;

and the idea

to the repeal of the

Corn

that in effect every country must in the

main depend on its own food supplies, and that there was no fear of its independence on this ground being seriously threatened. But the

best answer

to

this

argument,

founded on national independence, and one that has the advantage of being applicable under

present conditions,

is,

that

by the

abolition of the restrictions on imports, the

power

of the country

would be much more

and the independence much more The increase of wealth effectively secured. increased,

would mean the

increase of naval power,

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY and naval power was a

better

127

means

of

defence than self-sufficiency in corn- growing.

Tooke has shown that the

restraints

on the

corn trade before 1846 directly and seriously injured the shipping trade.

And this leads me Corn Laws were only

1

that

to notice

the

part of the measures

adopted to protect the national food supIn most cases, up to the repeal of plies. the Corn Laws, the import of all kinds of

animals, living or dead, adapted for food,

was absolutely connection

it

2

prohibited.

may be

And

well to

in

this

point

out

that this gives another reason for the contention that

it is

impossible to estimate by

a simple appeal to facts the influence of the Corn Laws on the general condition of agriculture,

and on the

'Tooke, Vol. Ill, 2

p.

interests

of

the

36.

Peel prepared the way for the repeal of the Corn Laws

by reducing duties on other provisions.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

128

the landlords, the farmers,

particular classes

and the

labourers.

protection benefited

If

agriculture in the matter of corn, it

also in other things

the Corn

Laws were

;

and

it

benefited

conversely,

injurious, so also

if

were

the restrictions on other kinds of food.

And

this,

again, leads to the consideration

that the restraint on the import of

was not defended ground

only, or mainly,

food

on the

but on the

of national independence,

grounds that are more commonly associated with

would be out case

to

protection

for

general

;

native

to

it is

general

This

movement

maxim

industry in

Laws was

movement towards had

progress before 1846,

the

home

pertinent to observe that

the repeal of the Corn

a

of

It

of proportion to discuss the

protection

but

industries.

made

part of

free

considerable

and the adoption

taxation for revenue

was not completely

trade.

effected

till

1860.

of

only

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY At the same

time, both

abroad, the Corn

at

Laws were

129

home and

the most pro-

minent and noticeable part of the protective system.

When

foreign nations were invited

to reduce their tariffs, they always pointed

to our

Corn Laws.

A

remarkable instance

occurs in connection with the framing of the

Our

tariff

of

the United

States in

1824.'

Minister at Washington, in that year,

wrote to Mr. Canning:

"Had no

restric-

on the importation of foreign American grain into Europe, and

tions existed i.e.,

especially into Great Britain, there

doubt that the

tariff (that is, of

is little

the U.S.A.)

would never have passed through House of Congress, since the great

either agri-

and Pennsylvania especially, the main mover of the question, would

cultural states,

have been

indifferent,

if

not opposed, to

enactment." 1

Porter, p. 512.

its

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

130

same despatch, it is said that the retention of the Corn Laws by Britain led In the

the Americans to suspect the real intention of

any removal

of other restrictions as in

the modifying of the Navigation Acts

Huskisson. of

They suspected

insidious

afterwards

with

designs,

this

the

taking advantage of

by

country

view

of

the con-

cessions obtained from other countries. this

connection, the opinion

greatest writer just,

of

List,

In the

on protection, and the most

on the whole, may be recorded, who

asserts

that

Britain

ought,

in

its

own

have adopted Free Trade, and repealed the Corn Laws immediately after interests, to

the great

war had concluded

in 1815.

In view of these expressions of opinion in foreign countries, that they

had only followed

the example of England in adopting protection, it

England

was natural adopted

Free

to suppose that

Trade,

if

especially

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY as regards corn, other nations

131

would follow

her example in this matter also.

The hope

was expressed by the advocates of the repeal in this country, and sometimes, as the event showed, with too great emphasis or too

little

caution.

effect carried

But the repeal was

and defended

in

in the interests

of this country, altogether apart

from what

other nations might be expected to do by 1

way of imitation. The chief motive power to the popular cry for

in the repeal next

cheap food

(intensi-

by the potato famine) was the idea of the manufacturers and the trading classes

fied

that industry

would

benefit

by a cheapen-

ing of the cost of production. 1

This

is

true of the

Too much

is

whole Free Trade policy of Peel.

"He first

only adopted Free Trade completely when he had convinced himself that to induce other nations to do

the same was impracticable."

In 1846 he said: "I have

no guarantee that other countries will immediately follow your example ... we have resolved at length to consult our own interests." Life, Vol. III., p. 588.

132

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

sometimes made of the apparent contradiction between these two views. It is said that

the cost of production were lowered

if

to the manufacturer

by the

fall in

the price

mean a

corre-

sponding reduction in money wages.

But,

of necessaries, that could only

in the first place, the benefit of the fall in

might be divided real wages might become higher, and yet the cost of labour price

;

was

might

fall.

It

time,

and

the

statistics, fell

generally believed at that

was supported by marriage rate rose and

belief

that the

inversely with the price of corn.

Cheap labour. But

food meant a better supply of

the great argument of the traders the import of food

would lead

to

of exports of manufactures to

food, of

and the extension

the

scale

of

of the

trading

economies of production. creasing return

was that

an increase for the

pay

market and

would

lead

The law

was understood by

to

of in-

business

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY

men long

133

was formulated by economists, and except in name it was stated by Adam Smith. The manufacturers before

it

of the pre-repeal era

had obtained a grasp

of the interconnection of trade that has since

been

less firm,

because their successors have

not such concrete examples of the inconveniences of the restrictions on imports

and

on the export trade. The petitions sent up from London, Edinburgh, and other cities show that the merchants in of the reaction

1820 were fully alive to the advantage of greater freedom

of

regards food and

raw

is

imports,

especially as

materials.

The point

that the repeal or reduction of the import

on corn was advocated as part of a general policy of freedom by which it was duties

said the whole nation in

would

gain, not only

consuming, but in productive and in

trading power.

Peel wrote:

So

"My

late as

December, 1845,

wish would be not to

134

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS undue prominence

give

to

corn,

but to

cover corn by continued operation on the

Customs

tariff.

1

And, gaining in

this

way,

of

was thought, would gain defence, and if necessary of

may

be a matter for argument

the nation also, in the

power

attack.

It

it

whether the abolition of the Customs duties

was

carried too far in the end, but there can

be no question, after the famous report of 1840,

whole system

the

that

complete revolution.

The repeal

Laws gave an impetus reform that other way.

of the

Corn

movement

to the

a

of

could have obtained in no

it

If

required

more protection,

if

was

to receive

no

an exception was not

to

agriculture

be made even in favour of corn

the pro-

duction of which had been fostered by the State directly and indirectly for centuries-

then

no

establish

other

any 1

industry

could

special claim,

hope

to

and the way

Life, Vol. III., p. 607.

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY was opened

for the application of

135

general

principles.

An

the

interesting feature of

was

duties

the

given

preference

produce of British colonies. 1766 for

it is

recorded

1

that corn

As

old

corn

to

the

early as

was admitted

a limited time from the British colonies

duty

free,

subject to quarter.

though foreign corn was then very high duties wheat 22$. the In

making the

1791 the plan

was adopted

of

limit of free importation lower

the colonies than for foreign countries.

for

When 525.,

the price in England

was

at or above

was admitted at a duty but the foreign corn was not admitted

the colonial corn

of 6d.,

at this duty

till

the price

had

risen to 545.

This very small preference was increased in 1804; a nominal duty was imposed on the

wheat when the price in England was at or above 565., but for foreign corn

colonial

'Customs Blue-Book, from 1800

to 1897, p. 231.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

136

the price must rise to 66s. for the

This

duty.

is

now a

difference in the limit

of los. in favour of the colonies.

colonial free

wheat

was

free

limit

raised to 8os

was

715.,

;

In 1815

admitted

be

could

duty

wheat the

at 675., whilst for foreign

limit

same

in 1822 the colonial

the

foreign

855.

In

1827 a different plan was adopted, and a

graduated scale of duties was arranged with lower duties for the colonial products.

maximum a

qr.,

whilst the

2os. 8d.

rates

duty on colonial wheat was

maximum on

foreign

The 55.

was

In 1842 the prices at which these

were imposed were lowered so that

wheat only paid is. duty if the price was at or above 583., and only 53. as a maximum when the price was below 555. colonial

The

mum, and the

wheat paid

foreign

205.

as

a maxi-

according to the scale, at 553.

colonial

wheat

would

and the foreign as much as

pay 175.

only

55.

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY In

the

1843

found

in

that,

137

statement

interesting

consideration

is

Canada

of

having imposed a duty of 35. on wheat imported from other places than the United

Kingdom and the

of

Canada was

to be admitted

England

at a duty of

is.

wheat

into

British possessions, in return

corresponding rates for flour

per

qr.,

and

this preference

being allowed so long as Canada retained its differential

rate against foreign countries.

The immediate imports

from

from U.S.A. In

1846,

effect

was

Canada

to increase the

relatively

to

those

was

only

1

when

the

repeal

gradually applied to the produce of foreign countries,

not taking

the produce of

full

British

effect

till

1849,

possessions out of

'See Table in Tooke, Vol. VI., p. 451. From 1828-45, about three-fourths of the imports came from various countries in Europe; from 1841-45, the imports from British

North America were about

1831-35, about 14 per cent, of the

1 1

total.

per cent.

;

from

138

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS

Europe was admitted at a fixed duty of is. As this was the rate imposed on all foreign corn

after

It

impossible to estimate the particular

is

the

1849,

preference

vanished.

effects of these preferences to colonial corn,

and they must be considered as part whole system

of colonial

policy.

of the

In 1840,

according to Porter's evidence to the famous

import committee of

1840,

there were 80

differential duties in favour of colonial pro-

ducts.

In

many

cases, as

we

see

from the

figures just

quoted regarding corn, although

the colony

was favoured,

its

produce

still

paid a heavy duty in the home country. It

was not

till

Canada gave

preference to British corn that

its its

illusory

corn was

admitted to the British ports at a nominal duty.

In the

same way as regards timber,

the colonies were favoured relatively to the foreigner,

the

home

but they paid a heavy duty to country.

In fact, the preferences

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY

139

granted by the mother-country to colonial products, including corn, were like the pre-

now

ferences tures

granted to British manufac-

by Canada

they were relative, and

One

not absolute, remissions.

or

two other

points of general interest are worth noting.

For a long time there was an increase in the preference and also an increase in the

The method was

duty paid by the colony. to penalise the foreigner,

the

home

producer.

and yet

We read

to protect

that the grant

nominal duty on corn to Canada in 1843 was bitterly opposed by an influential

of the

section of the agricultural interests at home.

As

it

happened,

the

preference

Canadian timber was so

industry

was

to

effective in securing

to that colony the British

lumber

given

market that the

greatly

encouraged,

and a check was imposed relatively on corn-growing and agriculture, as the capital of

the

colony

was

limited.

Under

this

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA IVS

140

it is

protective influence,

also said that the

lumber industry was carried on by old and inefficient

methods, so that the real gain to

the colony was not great.

Time

will not

permit of examining

in

greater detail the whole economic policy of

colonial preferences that,

;

it

must

suffice to

say

soon after the repeal of the Corn Laws,

the whole system

was abandoned.

It

does not

appear that the colonies were really injured

by the abolition the contrary

;

of

the

preference,

but, as Prof.

rather

Davidson shows

in his admirable work,* they thought they

would

suffer,

they bitterly resented the with-

and the agitation union with the United States was stronger

drawal for

of the preferences,

than at any other period. A vested interest had been created, and when it was disturbed shock threatened the union with the

the 1

p.

"

Commercial Federation and Colonial Trade Policy,"

47.

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY mother-country

;

and, on the other side, the

the colonies

preferences to

141

had

cost,

and

were costing, the home country so much, especially those on sugar and timber, that there

was great

discontent,

the value of colonies so so

much

much

discussed, or

depreciated.

The corn part,

and never was

preferences were, of course, only

and not the most important

part, of

the colonial policy, but the point

that

is

they are typical of a system that in the past proved unworkable,

than

promoted

the

and hindered rather

closer

union

of

the

Empire. It

is

that

true

changed, and

the

have

conditions

we cannot argue from

failure

in the past to failure in the present

the

experience of

suggests

caution.

the old

errors

the

The

past,

old

at

but

any

rate,

dangers

and

must be avoided

benefits are to be attained.

;

if

new

Amongst such

142

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

dangers are the mutual jealousies of producers in the different colonies and in the

home country

the discontent of consumers

;

at the higher range of prices, real or only

supposed

the

;

once

tariff

vested

;

foreign countries, all,

the

and

disturbing

complications

with

possible retaliation.

we have

to

beware

of

the

a combination of a

cumulative

effects

number

small influences.

of

the

altering

without

adopted

interests

Above

of

difficulty

of

One

chief causes of the rapid

growth both imperial and expenditure,

of

the

of public local,

is

the growing carelessness of the relation of

considered by

itself,

insignificant that

way a

spirit of

and the ness,

When any

to principles.

details

item

is

the expense seems so

we

let

it

extravagance

evil increases.

pass. is

engendered,

The same

and the same neglect

In this

of

careless-

principle,

seems to threaten our revenue and methods

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY

An

taxation.

of

income tax, or on in itself

is

extra tea,

negligible,

on

penny and so

and a

143

on,

the

each

fraction of a

But

farthing on the loaf seems ridiculous.

we ought

to consider the cumulative effects,

and

a whole system of protective

if

especially

preferential

duties

is

hopeless confusion of our

the

first

century If

Customs

forty- two years of is

we want

the nineteenth

to understand the complexity

we must

look to the

detailed records of the Customs. to

tariff in

a perpetual warning.

of the old system,

refer

The

adopted.

most

that

interesting

We

must

Blue-Book

which gives the Customs tariffs of the United Kingdom from 1800 to 1897, the year of its publication.

It

pages in bulk theories,

all

no opinions.

old system, force

is

we

nearly facts

one

and

thousand figures,

As an example

no

of the

shall find that the tariff in

from 1825-26 to 1832-33 occupies one

144

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

hundred and pages

is

varieties

fifty-one pages,

and one

that include such

of prohibitions

and buttons,

as beef

of the

silk

fringes

and swine, mutton and band-strings. We must read to appreciate the details of the one hundred and varied

fifty -one

and complex

contrast,

if

we

pages of these

duties.

By way

look to the

tariff after

we

it

great reform of 1860

find that

of

the

occupies

only thirteen pages, and most of the duties are simply imposed to secure the productiveness of a very small number, whilst the only

prohibition of importance

is

that of infected

cattle.

The -old of

this

system, as revealed in the pages

Blue-Book,

crously indefensible

is

so utterly

and

ludi-

that the most ardent

admirer of the past would not wish for a return to it. But we ought not to forget that at the time

it

seemed not only based on

reasonable principles, but necessary.

The

THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC POLICY

145

reform of the system was only effected partly

because the country was most fortunate in the personality of

its

statesmen, especially

and partly because, in spite exaggeration and narrowness, the

Sir Robert Peel, of all its

agitation for the repeal of the Corn

Laws

gave a great stimulus to financial reform in general.

repeal

The

political influence of the

was much greater than the material

effects of

the particular measure.

CHAPTER GENERAL I

IV

RESULTS

PROPOSE, in conclusion, to

survey

of

historical briefly

the

principal

and

inquiry,

to

make a rapid

results

of

consider

the

very

what bearing they may have on

the present condition of affairs.

At the present last

sixty

years,

time,

and indeed

for the

the term corn laws has

been applied so exclusively to the duties

on import that the fact is overlooked that restraints on imports were only part, and for centuries not the

of

the

Corn

Law

most important

system.

Up

to

part,

nearly

the end of the eighteenth century, England

was on the average an exporting country, and the bounty on the export of corn was 147

148

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

not actually repealed that

by

this

till

1814.

true

It is

time the bounty was altogether

inoperative, but, in the opinion of Tooke,

up to this same date the restraints on imports had also been inoperative. This narrowing of the interpretation of the

protective

import

Corn Laws to has

duties

also

been

accompanied by a corresponding narrowing of the real interests involved in the agitation for

the repeal of these duties.

historical survey

duties,

was

system

still

itself

to

more complex.

industries

under

the

protective

import

complex, and part of a

system of regulation of

and

wider

shows that the Corn Law,

when reduced

even

A

had

pressure

all

This complex kinds of trades

begun to of

natural

break

up

economic

and had been subjected to political attack and legislative modification long

forces,

before

any

serious attempt

repeal

the

restrictions

was made

on the import

to of

GENERAL RESULTS corn.

Huskisson,

of reforms

when

149

a

effecting

in the direction of

series

Free Trade

with

in 1823 to 1825, declined to interfere

Corn

the 1842,

Peel's

great

budget

of

which was the basis

of

the

culminated

in

1860,

did

reducing

or

revolution so

Laws.

little

that in

the

of

way

fiscal

modifying the corn duties that the budget

and

its

author were denounced by Cobden

with the greatest violence.

The renewal this

his

of the

1

income tax by Peel in

budget which, as Gladstone showed in

own budget

of 1853,

financial reforms that

simply as

Free

was

we

Trade,

essential to the

are apt to label

was regarded by

Cobden apparently as of political importance only because it would irritate the shopkeepers and manufacturers, and lead them the repeal

"Many 1

of

the corn

demand

to

and sugar

duties.

a league meeting in the next three

See Morley's " Cobden," Vol.

I.,

chaps,

xi.

and

xii.

150

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS

we

years,"

with

fierce

are told by Mr. Morley,

laughter

who

Minister

the expense of a

at

talked of relieving the con-

sumer when he had taken the tax fruits, cosmetics, satins, caviare,

upon the

loaf of bread."

next year

"rang

dried

off

and

left

it

In a speech in the

the speech which led up to the

Cobden spoke

celebrated scene with Peel

" He budget in these terms (p. 258) (Peel) retained the duty on the two articles on which a reduction of duty was desired, of this

viz.,

:

corn and sugar, and he reduced the

duties

on those on which there was not a

possibility service

to

ignorance.

of

the change being of

the

country.

The reduction

was

much

folly

or

of the duties

on

It

drugs and such things was a proper task for

some Under Secretary the sweepings of

of State dealing

office,

but

it

with

was unworthy

any Minister, and was devoid of any plan. It was one of the least useful changes of

GENERAL RESULTS proposed by any Government.'*

was

terms

attacked in these

151

The budget the

budget

which Mr. Gladstone, who was then VicePresident of the Board of Trade, and had

most to do with the details of the measure, has declared cost him six times more labour

than

all his

other three great

tariff

reforms

put together.

The

reception accorded to this budget

the Anti-Corn

Law League

is

by

significant of

the narrow limits in which the popular controversy

had come

to rage.

The

battle

the consumer against the landlord

bread against high

rents.

It

is,

was

cheap

of course,

quite possible that such a concentration of

energy and such an exaggeration of opposing interests was thought necessary to arouse

popular enthusiasm.

we

classes, as

held aloof.

body

of

the

"

are told

He

At

first

the working

by Cobden

himself,

did not charge the great

working-classes

with taking

i$2

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS

part against

trie

repeal of the

Corn Laws, but

he charged the great body of the intelligent

mechanics with standing aloof."

To move

x

was the simplest became the loudest.

these classes the cheap loaf cry,

and

in the

"For seven

end

it

Bright, "the

years," said Mr.

on that one question whether it was good for a man to have half a loaf or a whole loaf for seven years the discussion discussion

was maintained,

I

will not say with doubtful

result, for the result

was never

doubtful,

never could be in such a cause."

2

and

There can

be no doubt that under certain conditions of distress

and dear

food, the Legislature, what-

ever be the form of government, must to the popular

demand

for relief.

bow

For a

long period in England under such circumstances the outcry dealers 1

was

and speculators

directed against the in corn.

Motley's "Life of Cobden," Vol.

2

Ibid.> p. 191.

Burke, in

I., p.

249.

GENERAL RESULTS

153

on the scarcity

his letter to Pitt

advocating a free trade in corn, the

man

middleman

is

consumer.

Up

later, it

was

whether

acts as factor, jobber, sales-

out

or speculator/' points

middleman

in 1795,' in "

that

the

maligned by both farmer and to that time (1795),

and even

the machinations of the dealer

Four years before, in import at a nominal duty

that were attacked. 1791, the limit for

had been

raised with general acquiescence.

In the earlier stages of the agitation for

the repeal of the import duties, most stress

had been of trade.

on the general development The manufacturers and merchants laid

of Lancashire

wished to

corn, primarily

export

mitted

of

staple

they

'"Thoughts and V., p. 96.

order

manufactures.

the

countries,

in

free the

could

to

increase

the

we

ad-

Unless

products

not

import of

take

of

other

ours

in

Details of the Scarcity," Works, Vol.

154

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

return

the restriction

on exports.

of

imports

This was the great argument

of

the petition of

in

1820,

the

and was the

London merchants

efficient

cause of the

great financial reforms of Peel stone.

There

reacted

is

and Glad-

another often-quoted pass-

age in Gladstone's budget speech of 1860," which brings out clearly the dominant force of this principle in his mind.

This passage has often been read with the implied interpretation that the interest of

the consumer, as such,

small

importance

the producer.

is

of relatively

compared with that

of

to

be

Nothing, however,

gained by turning the

critical

is

microscope

on to an isolated passage of a speech of Gladstone, as if it were the sole surviving fragment of an ancient sage, when we have volumes of the same author to aid us in the verification.

And

in

any case the mere

*" Financial Statements," pp. 128, 129.

GENERAL RESULTS expression of opinion

is

155

of little importance,

except as part of the history of political

The

thought.

truth

is,

as

would now be

recognised by economists generally, that the

consumer and the producer are the same person regarded from different points of view.

we

If

of the social

take the family as the unit it is

economy,

clear that,

with

very few exceptions, all consumers are also

And

producers. benefited

This J.

is

or

in

injured

really

Mill's

S.

same family may be

the

either

the underlying

statement

" :

I

capacity.

thought

in

cannot therefore

agree in the importance so often attached to the repeal of the

labourer's question." is

Corn Laws merely as a

To make food

cheaper

only one of the elements in the improve-

ment which

of his general position Mill, in turn,

sion of others

was

:

the element

exaggerated to the exclu-

the supply of labour or the

question of the restriction of the population.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

156

Every reader

Morley's "Life of

Mr.

of

Cobden" must know

that

Cobden

realised

the full the benefits of Free Trade in

to

on the general ques-

the larger meaning;

tion he did not overrate the importance of

mere cheapness, as is shown especially in the French Treaty of 1860. But in the Anti-Corn

later stages of the

Law

agitation,

was

as the event proved, too great stress laid

on the

prices.

The

labourer

to

a

half.

If

did

repeal

Corn Laws on

the

of

effect

not

get a whole loaf

we

take

enable

the

instead

of

the average twenty

from 1827 to 1846, it works out at 4d. a qr., and from 1850 to 1869 the

years, 573.

average

is

525.

6d.

1882 that the price

and

It fell

the repeal,

below that

figure.

1882 has been due

;

till

normally below

in the three years,

before

was not

after 455.,

1834-5-6, ten years

had been

the

average

The

fall in prices since

to

the

great

fall

in

GENERAL RESULTS coupled with

freights,

on

duction, countries.

At

of

in

scale,

large

foreign

time, in trying to reduce the

to reasonable proportions,

must avoid the other extreme. scale of duties

forced

pro-

the consumer in the repeal of

Laws

the Corn

the enormous

157

'

same

the

interest

a

I

that

If

we

the old

had been retained and en-

is

to

not

say,

suspended in dear years

modified

or

then no doubt the

range of corn prices would have been much higher

;

and that

is

the only legitimate

of estimating the effect of the repeal

consumer

way

on the

directly.

The consumer

benefited also indirectly in

As the dependence on foreign became more regular, and the

other ways. supplies supplies

were drawn

from a wider

the fluctuations became, so

far, less severe.

Here, again, the logical position fluctuations were rendered

area,

much

is

that the

less severe

158

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

than otherwise would have been the

The

great cause of fluctuations

of the seasons

;

Again, under the

was not

it

till

reached a high range that the foreign corn

the course

and the wider the area the

greater the compensation.

old Corn Law,

is

case.

became

no regular surplus

effective,

prices

had

demand

for

and

there

was

for export in the foreign

countries. I

have so

far,

in

this

general

survey,

followed the popular notion of looking to

one part of the Corn Law system, and over a very short period. But a broader survey, over a longer period, to understand the

turies it

requisite

if

whole system and

tions to the general

country.

is

we wish its rela-

economic policy of the

Such a survey shows that for cenwas considered the duty of the State

to protect the interests of the consumer.

All

the regulations regarding dealing and speculation in corn were in the supposed interest

GENERAL RESULTS As a

of the consumer.

159

rule, if there

was

any danger of scarcity, export was forbidden. Sometimes a price was fixed above which export was not allowed

was the

sometimes there

direct interference of the executive

before the price

Then

;

had attained the dear

limit.

again, as regards imports, although

had been imposed from early times they were normally inoperative, and in dear restraints

years

were suspended or modified.

It

is

noteworthy that such modifications of the duties

on imports took place even

nineteenth

were most

when

century, severe.

In

1

the

in the

restrictions

800 and 1 80 1 bounties ,

were given on imports into the country, and various restrictions were imposed on the use of corn for other purposes than food.

In the same way, the bounty on export

was defended

sumer, and there that the belief

interests of

the con-

was no reason

to doubt

in the

was

sincere.

160

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

Even when we consider the

restrictions

on

imports in the nineteenth century, especially after 1815,

it

cannot be said that the land-

owners used their political power solely in

own

their

interests, regardless of

the con-

There was a very genuine and widespread belief that it was not safe to rely on sumer.

foreign countries for our supplies of food, especially corn.

This was the position of Peel in 1842, the year of the budget, which Mr. Morley has called the greatest of the century.

"

It is of

the highest importance," said Peel, in con-

cluding a long speech in defence of his

Corn this

Bill,

"to the welfare of

new

all classes of

country that care should be taken that

the

main sources

The

additional price which you

your supply of corn should be derived from domestic agriculture. of

effecting that object

may pay

in

cannot be vindicated as

a bonus or premium to agriculture, but only

GENERAL RESULTS on the ground

of its being

the country at large. of

interest

.

advantageous to

.

It

.

for

is

we

that

classes

all

161

the

should be

paying occasionally a small additional sum upon our own domestic produce, in order that

we may

thereby establish a security and

insurance against the calamities that would

ensue

if

we became

altogether,

or

in

a

great part, dependent on foreign countries for our supply."

x

There was also a general and widespread belief that the manufactures were being developed at the expense of the degradation

and ruin

of the

working

The country

classes.

party believed that the manufacturers cared for

nothing but

was obtained loss

a

morale.

became

loss of

And

profit,

and that the

at a great

and

physical health

real

profit

national

and a

loss of

before the factory legislation

effective, there

was much

Morley's "Cobden," Vol.

I.,

p.

to be said 220.

162

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

for this view.

was no doubt

Protection to agriculture useless or hurtful as

was

a remedy

against the evils of manufactures, but the belief in the

remedy was

real

besides, the country party also

enough

;

and

were bond- fide

the strongest supporters of the Factory Acts.

must be remembered that the proaim of the Corn Laws was to secure a

Again, fessed

it

steady remunerative price, and after a certain point was reached there

was

or only a nominal duty.

may seem

free

importation

The

limits fixed

to us too high, but at

any rate

was applied was not the The sliding scale monopoly.

the principle that principle of

was adopted in 1828, and retained by Peel in 1842, was intended to secure a steady

that

price.

It

rested

on a

fallacy,

himself has recorded that

it

but Gladstone

took him a long

time to discover that any error was involved.

The

supporters of the Corn

Laws were no

doubt in the wrong in supposing that the

GENERAL RESULTS

163

country could prosper on the principle of

supplying in the main

its

own

food; they

were wrong also in thinking that the growth of manufacture meant of necessity a loss of national power and vigour of race

;

and they

were wrong in thinking that any legislation could secure a steady price of corn. believed in the justice of the Corn

But they

Law

just

as strongly as their opponents believed in

The

its

was not simply to keep up rents. In 1846 Peel made his memorable he ascribed to him eulogy on Cobden injustice.

desire

;

the success of the measure for repeal, and altogether underrated his

own

services.

The

eulogy has been too often quoted to require

but the comment of Gladstone as

repetition,

revealed in Mr. Morley's tinent to the present "

"

Life

" is

too per-

argument to be omitted.

Cobden was

This

is

true,

but he did not say the whole truth.

And

it

:

All Peel said of

the effect of the whole, as a whole,

was

1

HIS TOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA IVS

64

therefore untrue.

Mr.

Cobden has through-

out argued the corn question on the principle

up the landlords of England to the people as plunderers and knaves for

of holding

maintaining the Corn

and

was praised indefatigable

to save their rents,

was not necessary for This was passed by, whilst he

as fools because

that purpose.

Law

for

it

sincerity,

eloquence,

and

This amendment by

zeal."

Gladstone of the eulogy of Cobden by Peel is

in

my

opinion perfectly just

were

lords

but

mistaken,

the land-

;

they

were

as

anxious as Cobden himself for the good of the nation at large.

They were no doubt

up the values of land, but they still believed, what was the general belief of the whole country for the two interested in keeping

preceding centuries,

viz.,

that rent

foundation and the measure prosperity. >

Mr. Morley

1

of

was the economic

has told us that

Morley's "Life of Cobden," Vol.

I.,

p. 159,

GENERAL RESULTS

Cob den was

so sure of a rise in the value of

land in Manchester,

Laws were

165

if

the repeal of the Corn

he bought consider-

carried, that

able quantities of land in that city for the rise,

and held

venience to his

up at considerable inconbusiness resources. But no

it

one would say that Cobden was interested in the repeal, simply because he wished his

land to rise in value.

building

same measure be meted

Let the

to the landlords of

1

England.

On

this matter also

to recall the

Smith.

Peel's

may be worth

well-known opinions

of

while

Adam

The conclusion

of the

chapter on

Land

down

the general

the Rent of 1

it

letters

to

2

his

lays

Drayton

tenants

and

to

Mr.

Roebuck and

others (1850) after the repeal, in which he offers to share the loss of the tenants, reveal in a striking manner the best traditions of English landlordism. " I

not held on a yearly tenure. The security of the " Life of tenant lay in confidence in the landlord. Peel," Vol. Ill, p. 530.

have scarcely one farm that I have offered leases, but

2

is

in vain."

"Wealth of Nations," Book I, chap.

xi.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

166

was so long accepted, namely, that the interest of those whose income is

position that

derived from rent (these are the words) "

is

and inseparably connected with the general interests of society. Whatever either strictly

promotes or obstructs the one necessarily

promotes or obstructs the other.

When

the

public deliberates concerning any regulation of

commerce or

police,

land can never mislead

promote the order

;

it

with a view to

interest of their

at least,

knowledge

the proprietors of

if

own

particular

they have any tolerable

of that interest.

too often defective in this

They are indeed tolerable know-

And, by way of contrast, it is maintained that " the interest of the dealers

ledge."

any particular branch of trade or manufactures is always in some respects different in

from and even opposite to that of the public. .

.

.

The proposal

lation of

any new law or regucommerce which comes from this of

GENERAL RESULTS

167

order ought always to be listened to with great

precaution,

and ought never

to be

having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most adopted

after

till

scrupulous, but with

to their interest to

raise profits,

suspicious

The reason assigned

attention." is

most

the

and

that

it

narrow competition,

to

to levy for their

an absurd tax upon the

is,

own

benefit

rest of their fellow-

Of the country gentlemen and "that they are, farmers, Adam Smith said citizens.

1

to

their

honour, of

all

people,

the least

subject to the wretched spirit of monopoly."

This

is

no mere

obiter dictum,

by a long argument, and different

but is

is

supported

repeated

in

forms throughout the "Wealth of

Nations."

And,

studded with (the phrase

is

<

conversely,

the

work

is

harsh and bitter expressions that of Thorold Rogers,

was himself a master

of

'Page 203.

that

"

who

species

of

1

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

68

rhetoric)

about the mercantile

are the

"mean and malignant

the mercantile system

of

ate "

"

confidence

illiberal

;

expedients

the passion"

falsehood

;

"

and

monopolies

oppressive

and the famous "nation

was the conversion country party,

"

interested

of

Such

classes.

of shopkeepers."

x ;

It

of Peel, the leader of the

which

effectually sealed the

fate of the corn duties.

We

find the

exaggeration

same popular and needless regarding the Corn Laws

and the landowners when we turn interests of the farmers.

that

the

farmers

stimulus of

It

were

was maintained

induced

the protective duties

more than the

fair

to the

by the to

offer

competitive rent, and

that the landlords gained at their expense.

The proof the

constant

depression 1

of the allegation

complaints

was found

of

in

agricultural

and the corresponding

reports of

" Wealth of Nations," Rogers' preface to the

p.

42.

GENERAL RESULTS committees and

i6g

For many

commissions.

reasons, however, the complaints of farmers

on the depression of agriculture must be There are some received with caution. instructive

and well-reasoned comments on

this

by the oft-quoted authority on

topic

the Progress of the Nation in the

half

first

of the nineteenth century. I

may remind you

of his

day

chief of

Board

was an ardent

free trader,

He had no

of Trade.

question

of

He

who, during

must

capitals

have

distress,

agricultural

period, in these all that

in

this

been

quoted

writes, in 1846,'

which so much had been said

their

and

brief for the

passage already

abundantly proves.

Law

the Giffen

the Statistical Department of the

landlords, as the

this

that Porter

words time,

in the

" :

The

on

on

Corn

parties

have embarked

branch of industry,

actuated

1

Page 142.

by

motives

i;o

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS

altogether different

from those which

fluence the rest of mankind,

if

in-

year after

year they have been content to accelerate their

of

own

their

by increasing the extent

He

operations."

evidence

making

ruin

show

to

that

great progress,

forward

brings

agriculture

and that the

was

British

farmers were in advance of the rest of the world.

In the twenty years or so preced-

ing the repeal of the Corn Laws, he

tells

a great increase in production was brought about (with a much less than

us,

proportionate

increase in

labour em-

the

ployed) by the employment of capital in

improving

the

machinery and

soil,

in

draining, in

implements,

tion of scattered holdings,

and the rotation

of

and It

crops.

in

consolidain cropping is

interest-

ing to notice in this place that he calls particular attention to the help that

been borrowed from

men

of

science

has the

GENERAL RESULTS researches of

Davy

and the

century,

The

Liebig.

171

at the beginning of the later

of

investigations

use of crushed bones obtained

from the plains of South America, where the animals were formerly killed solely for

and

became general about and the imports of guano had become

the tallow 1820,

hides,

of increasing importance.

points to an

deed,

and

scientific

that

the

belief

If

the

for

by the farmer

capital least,

advance in enterprise

farming.

security

imperfect, that,

have been

we

Everything, in-

we remember investment

was,

to

say

of

the

are strengthened in the

on the whole, farming

must

fairly prosperous, in spite of the

complaints of chronic depression.

But with, to

this is

prosperity,

although coincident

not to be ascribed, in his judgment,

the Corn Laws.

Porter thinks that

if

had remained as high as in the great war the farmers would perhaps have

prices

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

172

gone on

in

their

old

and the

courses;

improvements are ascribed

largely to

stimulus given by the

in

this

respect

fall

the progress of

the

prices.

In

agriculture

is

analogous to that of industry in general.

The low

prices of competition are

stimulus

better

than

the

high

a much

prices

of

monopoly. Possibly, as already shown, the fluctations

induced

by

the

duties

rendered

farming

more speculative than it otherwise would have been, and farmers over-estimated their

chances of gain

main cause

;

but after

of fluctuations

was

all,

the

the course

of the seasons.

The

effects of the duties

ment

and wages

have

been

much

of

on the employ-

agricultural

labour

by the Under that

exaggerated

supporters of the Corn Laws.

system, in fact, the rural population began to

decline,

and wages

did

not

rise,

in

GENERAL RESULTS money, in proportion It

agriculture.

highest

point

145. yd.,

when

273. rise

per

progress

of

indeed remarkable that

is

have

wages

agricultural

the

to

173

in

to

1900

reached 1902,

their

namely,

was only The on the average.

the price of wheat

quarter,

in agricultural

money wages

ascribed mainly to the increased for labour in other industries,

is

to be

demand

and the

rise

wages to the improvements in agriculture and the opening up of new in

real

fields in all parts

Even as regards

of the world. rents, the actual benefit

to the landlords under the

Corn Laws was

and

years after the

not

great,

repeal fall.

the

Caird

rent '

for of

many arable

did not

gives the average for cultivated

land in England at

135.

at 275. per acre in 1850,

The

land

per acre in

and

1770,.

303. in 1878.

public revenue from the import duties 1

'

Landed

Interest

"Appendix.

174

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

on corn was from 1800 to 1824 inappreciable. The highest sum received in any one year for the United in 181

1

in

;

Kingdom was

56,268

some years there was no revenue,

and, from 1817 to 1823 inclusive, the total for the seven years

was only

For the

15.

seven years, 1833 to ^39, the average

was

under a quarter of a million per annum. It was not till the six years preceding 1846 that

the average

revenue

from

corn

the

duties approached a million a year. It

thus appears that the total effect of the

import duties up to 1840 was not considerable from any point of view. to arrive at

any general

an examination gate.

impossible

from

result merely

of the figures in the aggre-

The country was,

dependent on

It is

its

own

years of scarcity there

in

the

main,

supplies of corn.

In

was considerable im-

portation free of duty, and in years of plenty the price

was too low

to

admit of profitable

GENERAL RESULTS

had been no duty. calculated by Porter that, if we com-

importation, even It is

175

if

there

pare the period 1801 to 1810 with the period 1831 to 1840, whilst the population

creased

by nearly

50 per

cent.,

six millions, or

number

the

had

in-

more than

fed on imported

wheat had only increased by about In other words, the country had 300,000.

foreign

itself

great increase of

to provide for this

price of

whilst

was

wheat in

the

835.

1831-1840,

we compare

If

population.

it

agriculture been able

in

by improvements

average

we

find that

in these periods, first

ten

ii^d. per it

the

had

years,

qr.,

fallen

1801-1810,

in the last

to

565.

nd.

ten, It

cannot then be said that, on the whole, the additional food supply had been obtained at

an increasing

cost to the country.

After 1840 the foreign imports became of

more importance, and

since the repeal of

the duties there has been a great increase,

i?6

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

especially in the last quarter of a century

;

but from 1849 to 1859 the imports of wheat were practically stationary, in spite of the increase of population. It

again

that

appears

the

enormous

increase of imports in recent years

is

due

rather to natural economic causes than to

the positive effects of tively,

the repeal.

no doubt, the absence

far stimulated imports,

of the duty,

had

Nega-

of duties so

and as the whole

been retained, would

it

probably have been paid by the consumer, the gain in cheapness has been great.

absence

of

corn

country

to

take

duties full

has

The

enabled

the

of

the

advantage

All this abundant supplies from abroad. is unquestioned, and needs no argument. But the point I wish to insist on is this, that

it

whilst

does not follow that the corn duties, they were

in

cause of high prices,

force,

were

the

main

and that the landlords

GENERAL RESULTS on

fattened

The

we

famine

the

of

177

the

people.

when

truth rather seems to be that,

whole history of the Corn

survey the

Laws,

over

extending

main

that the

throughout

promote the were landlords

in general to

The

interest.

public

dominant

the

many

solely

of

their

class,

political

but legislation was not conceived interests

own

in

order.

of the regulations, as already

the In

shown

in detail, the interest of the consumer

dominant.

see

object at the time of their

was

institution

we

centuries,

was

Such was the case with the

laws against speculative dealings, and more all the laws regulating the generally inland trade in corn.

The

was

in accordance with

fixed

by the Assize

the price of corn.

price of bread

Exports were restrained

on any appearance of scarcity. Even the bounty on export was intended to benefit the

consumer, and

has been

justified

on

1

78

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

that ground by recent writers. for

Proposals

public granaries were approved at the

beginning of the seventeenth century, and again, as Burke

at the

end

of the

they were not built

If

eighteenth.

tells us,

and

with stores of grain, it was not for want of goodwill to the consumer. Even filled

the restraints on imports were justified on

public grounds,

and

of the consumer.

in the ultimate interest

In times of dearth they

were suspended, and on occasions bounties

were

on imports, and

given

regulations

were framed to promote use of the corn.

show a of

a

desire

to

promote public interests general character than mere

more

cheapness.

economy in the Some of the Corn Laws

Sometimes the Legislature

tried

to prevent the decay of the rural population,

and an

corn-growing,

effort

and

was made restrict

to

promote

sheep-farming.

Sometimes the main idea was to encourage

GENERAL RESULTS

179

corn -growing and the corn trade, so as to

extend the commerce over

way

to

indirectly

the

foster

were

preferences

to

given the

colonies as part of

and

seas,

in that

and

navy, the

system

British closer

of

political union.

When, however, we turn from to the

tention

complex

The whole

record

ting the inland trade

of the

is

not so

laws regula-

be said to have

may

died a natural death.

and

varied

this

the

legislation,

favourable.

of

result

the in-

It

is

doubtful

they ever really benefited the consumer is

more

than

that

probable

both

and

The bounty was the revenue, and

tainly

general to

costly

to

benefits

question.

are

When

;

it

were

they

actually injurious

to the farmers.

if

to the consumers

at

the

any

rate

country

cer-

the

open

began

naturally to import

on balance, the bounty

on export was not

sufficient to counteract

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN

i8o

the

and

tendency,

when

it

was

LAWS

repealed

just

the import duties were raised to a

maximum, and when, on Tooke's showing, the interests of

in

the landlords,

that

if

only had been regarded, the bounty ought to have been increased.

The failed

and

duties

achieve

to

on imports

restrictions

the

which they were ostensibly designed. did

not

rural

stop

They did not cultural

small

depopulation

the

manufacturing

raise

money wages

to

migration

labour

they did not

;

In spite

farmers.

of

for

objects

public

They the

or

towns. of agri-

encourage

the

extreme

protection, the condition of the masses of

the

country districts

was

extremely miserable.

The misery was

due,

the

people

in

no doubt, to but the

a combination of

point

agriculture gave It

is

true

is,

that

the

causes

;

protection of

no remedy.

that

during

the

period

of

GENERAL RESULTS

much

restriction

cultural

was made

progress In

production.

181

of

spite

in agri-

the

all

complaints of depression, the enterprising

was prosperous. prosperity was not due to

farmer

But,

his

again,

protection, for the

indirect effect of the duties

was

to increase

the frequency and the intensity of fluctuations

Yet one of the principal aims of

in prices.

duties

import

fluctuations,

The

sliding

had

and

been

to secure

scale,

check

to

these

a steady price.

was

which

expressly

designed to steady the price, only increased the

evil.

The

real effect of the corn duties

average of prices the

as

country

to

would just

as

was

so

agriculture

be the

difficult

was

But so

sufficing.

gain

is

in

far

transferred.

to determine,

the

this

to

the

from

And

main

there

from

transferred

gain

as

on the

the

self-

was any source,

it

landlord,

great

even when

war

we

1

82

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LAWS

consider the interests of the landlords,

doubtful the

if

by protection only in average of prices was raised. rose

average

estimate, but

would

Rents

duties.

raised

the

is

gained appreciably from

they

protective

it

it

is

we know

be

so far as the

How much

impossible

to

that for five-and-

twenty years before the repeal the average was under 583. a quarter. And there was only

55.

difference

in

the average for the

twenty-five years succeeding the repeal.

may be

said with truth

prevented a great

land

;

rise in

that

the

It

repeal

the rent of corn-

but before the repeal rents

fell

from

the level of the great war,

and the Corn

Laws may have

but

prevent, the

more

fall.

successful

checked,

Nor were

rely

not

Corn Laws

from the point of view of

larger public policy. in times of

the

did

In

bad seasons and

need the country was obliged to

on the foreigner, but the uncertainty

GENERAL RESULTS caused by the duties of

culties

increased

when

supply

183

the

diffi-

was

it

really

necessary.

The

restraints

imposed on the corn trade

reacted on our exports

the preferences to

;

the British colonies proved unworkable, and,

with the

were

rest

of

the preferential

abandoned.

Until

importance,

and

became productive became productive

was not

when

just

the

before

just

obtained

revenue

repeal the

system,

the

of

revenue

of

great

of

duties

they

popular

also dis-

content. It

is

middle of system of

much

by the the nineteenth century the whole corn laws had become obsolete.

not too

to say that

List, the greatest of the

tection,

own

maintained

advocates of pro-

that England, in

her

ought to have repealed the Corn Laws in 1815 that is, a generation interest,

earlier,

1

84

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

The bearing the

present

is

situation

is

suggestive

and

and

definite.

said that conditions have changed,

and that a change required.

may

ancient history on

this

rather than positive

critical, It

of

To

economic policy

is

such a general statement

it

of

suffice to reply that

the conditions have

become more complex, and it is improbable that methods which failed under

certainly

simpler conditions will succeed under more

complex. that

The

history

not

does

a moderate duty on corn

to increase the of

wages

employment

rural

labour,

suggest is

likely

or the

money

but

rather

that

even a moderate duty, so far as effective in raising

must

prices,

would

depress real wages.

a discriminating duty and in the past such duties proved to be It

both

be, besides,

expensive

;

and inequitable.

Again,

the history suggests that the adoption of protection for one industry

would naturally

GENERAL RESULTS

demand

lead to a

The

old Corn

185

for protection in others.

Laws were

part of a system,

and were destroyed with that system. By analogy a new or revived Corn Law can be

also

a

of

only part

system,

general

whether of protection or preference. It would be entirely out of proportion to

enter into

economic

these

one proposition of

the Corn

negative

various

whole,

good

;

merely

Laws

be

expressed

strongly supports the for

Free Trade.

regulations

were,

The

on

the

to

promote the public them became gradually

and were forgotten before

they were formally repealed.

and

in

indeed, that in the origins

but some of

practically

The

detail.

namely, that the history

designed

useless,

suggestions of

in

may

argument

history shows, these

more

policy

conclusion

general

wider

for

a long period,

began

to be effective,

inoperative

as soon as they

Some were

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA IVS

186

The

they began to be hurtful.

evil effects

the time of the repeal were no doubt

at

greatly magnified by popular excitement

;

but there was the compensating advantage

was checked before

that the evil

had

it

become very serious. The history of the Corn Laws has often been perverted, and actual

the

aggerated

;

evils

have

but when

much

been

ex-

the rhetoric of

all

exaggeration has been stripped away, and

governments and landlords are cleared of iniquity in intention, the record is one of

The Corn Laws

failure in accomplishment.

less

harm

fortunately

they

did

even the protective duties

than

was

were

repealed

alleged,

but

when

was becoming rapidly

The be

history of the

adequately

with

the

expedients,

power

for

evil

great.

Corn Laws can only

appreciated

general

and

their

in

history

especially of

of L

connection financial

taxes.

We

GENERAL RESULTS

187

economic history examples of all kinds, in which the objects in view seemed find

of

in

the

greatest national

importance, and

the burdens imposed relatively small, but in

most

social

cases

ideals

the

promotion of various

the

by

simple

method

manipulation of taxes has proved a

The Navigation Acts, the was so strongly approved

of

failure.

idea of which of

by

Adam

Smith, were shattered by Huskisson twenty years before the repeal of the

The method able,

universal

our

of retaliation proved

we had a

when

even

Corn Laws. unwork-

species

conscription of commodities

fighting

tariff

;

and,

what

is

of for

more

pertinent to the present subject, the protective

corn

duties,

although of an extreme

character, failed in accomplishment.

They

did not steady prices or benefit the farmer,

they did not prevent the

flow of

labour

from the country to the towns, and they

188

HISTOR Y OF THE ENGLISH CORN LA WS

did not

make

foreign food

Laws,

like

Mercantile

the

nation independent

supplies

the

other

System,

in

brief,

proved

to

Corn

the

expedients

be

of

of

the

either

useless or hurtful as regards the attainment

of their proposed objects.

THE END

Printed by Cowan

& Co., Limited, Perth.

SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES, SCARLET CLOTH, EACH 1.

Work and Wages. "

Nothing that Professor Rogers writes can A thenaum.

2s.

(>d.

Prof. J. E. THOKOLD ROGERS. to be of interest to thoughtful

fail

people."

Civilisation: its Cause and Cure. EDWARD CARPENTER. "No passing piece of polemics, but a permanent possession." Scottisli Review. 3. Quintessence of Socialism. Dr. SCHAFFLE. "Precisely the manual needed. Brief, lucid, fair and wise." British Weeklv. 2.

4.

Darwinism and

D. G. RITCHIE, M.A. (Oxon.).

Politics.

HUMAN

New

Edition, with two additional Essays on of the most suggestive books we have met with." 5. Religion of Socialism. "

6.

One

EVOLUTION. Literary World.

E.

BELFORT BAX.

E. BELFORT BAX. Ethics of Socialism. " Mr. Bax is by far the ablest of the English exponents of Socialism." Westminster Review.

7.

The Drink Question.

8.

Promotion of General Happiness.

"

"A

KATE MITCHELL.

Dr.

Plenty of interesting matter for reflection."

Graphic.

M. MACMILLAN.

Prof.

reasoned account of the most advanced and most enlightened utilitarian docand readable form." Scotsman.

trine in a clear 9.

their enthusiasm."

10.

11.

13.

style, their

humour, and

Saturday Review.

Out of print. The Story of the French Revolution.

"A

14.

is unmistakable, their freshness of Pall Mall Gazette.

SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B. Socialism in England. " The best general view of the subject from the modern Socialist side." Alheiueum. and Stata Socialism. W. H. DAWSON. Bismarck Prince "A succinct, well-digested review of German social and economic legislation bince 1870."

12.

EDWARD CARPENTER.

England's Ideal, &c. "The literary power

trustworthy outline."

LAURENCE GRONLUND.

The Co-Operative Commonwealth. "

An

BKLFORT BAX.

E.

Scotsman.

independent exposition of the Socialism

ot the

Marx

school."

Contemporary

Review. 15.

Essays and Addresses. "Ought to be in the hands

BERNARD BOSANQUET, M.A.

(Oxon.).

of every student of the Nineteenth Century spirit."

Echo.

16.

" No one can complain of not being able to understand what Mr. Bosanquet means." Pall Mall Gazette. C. S. LOCH, Secretary to Charity Organisation Charity Organisation.

Society.

" A perfect little manual." ,4 thenteum. " Deserves a wide circulation." Scotsman. 17.

Thoreau's Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers.

"An 18.

interesting collection of essays."

Self-Help a Hundred Years Ago. " Will be studied with much benefit by of the condition of the poor."

19.

Out ofprint.

20.

Common

Sense about

Morning

Edited by H. S. SALT.

Literary World.

G. all

who

J.

HOLYOAKE.

are interested in the amelioration

Post.

Women.

T.

W. HIGGINSON.

admirable collection ot papers, advocating in the most liberal emancipation of women." Woman's Herald.

"An

21.

'

A

concise but comprehensive volume."

spirit

the

W. H. DAWSON.

The Unearned Increment. Echo.

SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES 22.

LAURENCE GRONLUND.

Our Destiny. "

A

(Continued).

very vigorous little book, dealing with the influence of Socialism on morals Daily Chronicle.

and religion." 23.

24. 25.

26.

Out of print. Out of print. The Land and the Labourers.

Rev. C. W. STUBBS, M.A. "This admirable book should be circulated in every village in the country." Manchester Guardian.

PAUL LAFARGUE.

The Evolution of Property. "

Will prove interesting and profitable lo Scotsman.

27.

students of economic history."

W. DOUGLAS MORRISON.

Crime and its Causes. " Can hardly fail to suggest the subject."

all

to all readers several

new and pregnant

reflections

on

Anti-Jacobin.

D. G. RITCHIE, M.A. 28. Principles of State Interference. " An interesting contribution to the controversy on the functions of the State." Glasgow Herald. 29. 30.

Out of print. Out ofprint.

31.

FUSTEL DE COULANGES. Edited, with an Origin of Property In Land. Chapter on the English Manor, by Prof. W. J. ASHLEY, M.A. Introductory " His views are clearly stated, and are worth reading." Saturday Review.

32.

Out ofprint. The Co-Operative Movement.

33.

"

34. 36.

Without doubt the

ablest

BEATRICE POTTER.

and most philosophical analysis of the Co-Operative

Movement which has yet been produced." Out ofprint. Modern Humanists. " Mr.

Robertson's style

criticisms bear the

is

excellent

Speaker.

nay, even brilliant

mark of much acumen."

J.

M. ROBERTSON.

and

his purely literary

Times.

New Standpoint. E. BELFORT BAX. " Mr. Bax is a very acute and accomplished student of history and economics." Daily Chronicle. Dr. LUIGI PIZZAMIGLIO. Edited by 37. Distributing Co-Operative Societies. F. J. SNELL. " Dr. Pizzamiglio has gathered together and grouped a wide array of facts and statistics, and they speak for themselves." Speaker. 38. Collectivism and Socialism. By A. NACQUET. Edited by W. HEAFORD. " An admirable criticism by a well-known French politician of the New Sociali-m of Marx and Lassalle." Daily Chronicle. 36.

Outlooks from the

39.

The London Programme. "

Brimful of excellent ideas."

40. 41.

SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B. Anti-Jacobin.

Out ofprint. The Condition of Labour.

HENRY GEORGE.

" Written with striking ability, and sure to attract attention."

Newcastle Chronicle.

42.

The Revolutionary Spirit preceding the French Revolution. FELIX ROCQUAIN. With a Preface by Professor HUXLEY. " The student of the French Revolution will find in it an excellent introduction to

43.

44.

The Student's Marx. " One of the most practically Out ofprint.

45.

Poverty

the study of that catastrophe."

"

46.

:

Its

He states

Scotsman.

EDWARD AVELING, useful of

any

in the

Genesis and Exodus. the problems with great force and clearness."

The Trade Policy of Imperial Federation. ''An interesting contribution to the discussion."

D.Sc.

Series."- Glasgow Herald. J. G. GODARD. N. B. Economist.

MAURICE H. HERVEY. Publishers' Circular.

SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES 47.

48.

(Continued),

The Dawn of Radicalism. " Forms an admirable picture

BOWLES DALY, LL.D.

J.

of an epoch more pregnant, perhaps, with polifiorl instruction than any other in the world's history." Daily Telegraph. The Destitute Alien in Great Britain. WHITE;

MONTAGUE

ARNOLD

W. H. WILKINS, &c. A. M' ARTHUR, M.P. Much valuable informati :n concerning a burning question of the day." Times. on Conduct. of Seasons and the Influence 49. Illegitimacy CRACKANTHORPE, Q.C. " "

;

W.

;

ALBERT LEFFINGWELL, M.D.

We

have not often seen a work based on statistics which is more continuously Westminster Review. interesting." H. M. HYNDMAN. 50. Commercial Crises of the Nineteenth Century. "One of the best and most permanently useful volumes of the Series." Literary Opinion. 51.

The State and Pensions in Old Age. "

A

J.

A SPENDER and ARTHUR ACLAND, M.P.

and cautious examination of the question." Times. 52. The Fallacy of Saving. JOHN M. ROBERTSON. "A the reorganisation of our social and industrial system." Speaker. for plea ANON. 53. The Irish Peasant. " A real contribution to the Irish Problem by a close, patient and dispassionate investigator." Daily Chronicle. Prof. J. S. NICHOLSON, D.Sc. 54. The Effects of Machinery on Wages. " Ably reasoned, clearly stated, impartially written." Literary World. ANON. 55. The Social Horizon. "A really admirable little book, bright, clear, and unconventional." Daily careful

Chronicle.

FREDERICK ENGELS. Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. " The body of the book is still fresh and striking." Daily Chronicle. A. R. WALLACE. 57. Land Nationalisation. "The most instructive and convincing of the popular works on the subject." National Reformer. Rev. W. BLISSARD. 58. The Ethic of Usury and Interest. " The work is marked by genuine ability." Nort h British Agriculturalist. 56.

59.

penetrating work on this question Extract from Mr. GLADSTONE'S Preface. have yet met with. The Eight Hours' Question. JOHN M. ROBERTSON. "A very cogent and sustained argument on what is at present the unpopular that

60.

1 '

I

Times.

side."

61.

ADELE CREPAZ.

The Emancipation of Women. " By far the most comprehensive, luminous, and

GEORGE

Drunkenness. "

Well written,

carefully reasoned, free

from

cant,

and

full

R. WILSON, M.B. of sound sense."

National Observer.

62

RAMSDEN BALMFORTH.

The Hew Reformation.

"A and 63.

The Agricultural Labourer. " A short summary of his ments,

64.

66. 67. 68. 69.

70.

71. 72.

best to realize the personal

position, with appendices

T. E. KEBBEL. on wages, education, allot-

etc., etc."

E. BERNSTEIN. North British Economist. A. L. BOWLKY. in XlXth Century. Foreign Trade England's " Full of valuable information, carefully compiled." Times. Dr. SCHAFFLE. and Policy of Labour Protection. Theory " An attempt to systematize a conservative programme of reform." Man. Guard. G. J. HOLYOAKE. of Rochdale Pioneers. History " Brought down from 1844 to tne Rochdale Congress of 1892." Co-Op. News. M. OSTRAGORSKI. Rights of Women. "An admirable storehouse of precedents, conveniently arranged." Daily Chron WORTHINGTON. L-OCKK of the Dwellings People. "A valuable contribution to one of the most pressing problems of the day." Chronicle. Daily Out ofprint. Out of print. WM. EPPS. Land Systems of Australasia. " Exceedingly valuable at the present time of depression and difficulty."

Ferdinand Lavsalle as a Social Reformer. "

65.

bow

striking presentation of the nascent religion, social ideal." Westminster Review.

A worthy

Scots.

Mag.

addition to the Social Science Series."

SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES 73. Out ofprint. 74. Population and the Social System. 75. Out ofprint. 76. British Freewomen. 77. Out ofprint. 78. Out of print. 79. Three Months in a Workshop. 80.

Dr. NITH. C. C. STOPES.

P.

Pref. by Prof. ELY. Prof. J. B. HAYCRAFT.

GOHRE, with

Darwinism and Race Progress. Local Taxation and Finance.

81. 82. Perils to British Trade. 83. The Social Contract. 84. Labour upon the Land. 85. Moral Pathology. 86. Parasitism, Organic and Social.

(Continued).

G. H. BLUNDEN. E. BURGIS. Edited by H. J. TOZER. Edited by J. A. HOBSON, M.A. ARTHUR E. GILES, M.D., B.Sc.

ROUSSEAU.

J. J.

MASSART and VANDERVELDE. L. GREEN. L. L. PRICE.

Allotments and Small Holdings. 88. Money and its Relations to Prices. 89. Sober by Act of Parliament. 87.

90. 91.

92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. 99.

100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109.

J.

F. A. F.

Workers on their Industries. Revolution and Counter-Revolution. Over -Production and Crises. Local Government and State Aid. Village Communities in India.

K. RODBERTUS. S. J.

DOUBLE VOLUMES, Owen.

3s. 6d.

LLOYD JONES. a Second Part of " The Quintessence Dr. A. SCH AFFLE.

Life of Robert

2.

The Impossibility of Social Democracy "

3.

5.

Condition of the Working Class in England in The Principles of Social Economy. Social Peace. G.

6.

A Handbook

of Socialism

7.

8.

CHAPMAN.

B. H. BADEN-POWELL, M.A., C.I.E. S. J. CHAPMAN. Anglo-American Trade. GUSTAVE SIMONSON, M.A., M.D. A Plain Examination of Socialism. Commercial Federation & Colonial Trade Policy. J. DAViDSON,M.A.,Phil.D. C. GIDE and J. FRANKLIN. Selections from Fourier Public-House Reform. A. N. GUMMING. The Village Problem. G. F. MILLIN. L. H. BERENS. Toward the Light. in A. V. WOODWORTH. Christian Socialism England. Prof. P. A. WADIA. The Philosophers and the French Revolution. The History of the English Corn Laws. Prof. J. S. NICHOLSON, M.A. CHARLES H. HARVEY. The Biology of British Politics. Rates and Taxes as Affecting Agriculture. Prof. J. S. NICHOLSON, M.A. A Practical Programme for Working Men. ANON. John Thelwall. CHAS. CESTRE, Litt.D. Prof. J. S. NICHOLSON. Rent, Wages and Profits in Agriculture.

1.

4.

MACKENZIE. W. GALTON.

KARL MARX.

:

.

W. D. P. BLISS. W. MORRIS and E. B. BAX.

of Socialism.

Socialism its Growth and Outcome. Economic Foundations of Society. :

A. LORIA.

SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & NEW YORK CHARLES :

FREDERICK ENGELS. YVES GUYOT. VON SCHULTZE-GAEVERNITZ. 1844.

CO.

LIM.,

LONDON

SCRIBNER'S SONS.

LIBRARY "

OH"

PLEASE

CARDS OR

DO NOT REMOVE

SLIPS

UNIVERSITY OF

FF 20^3 N6

FROM

THIS POCKET

TORONTO

LIBRARY

Nicholson, Joseph Shield The history of the English corn laws