Corn Laws

The Corn Laws, in force between 1815 and 1846, were import tariffs ostensibly designed to "protect" British farmers and landowners, against competition from cheap foreign grain imports. (In British usage the term

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"corn" meant "grain", or specifically the primary grain crop of a country, which in England was wheat, not maize as implied by the North American usage of the term.) These laws are often viewed as a corner stone of British Mercantilism.

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According to Prof. David Cody, they:

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:... were designed to protect English landholders by encouraging the export and limiting the import of corn when prices fell below a fixed point. They were eventually abolished in the face of militant agitation by the Anti-Corn Law League, formed in Manchester in 1839, which maintained that the laws, which amounted to a subsidy, increased industrial costs. After a lengthy campaign, opponents of the law finally got their way in 1846—a significant triumph which was indicative of the new political power of the English middle class.

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Britain at the time was the most economically developed country in the world—there were no other rivals other than off-land British companies. The "protection" thus was used not against foreign imports, but against cheap rival British imports that would have severely cut into the profit margins of British landowners.

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The Corn Laws, in reality, represented the power of the British aristocracy, who were the landowners and therefore the crop producers. A repeal of the Corn Laws would have jeopardized not only the income generated by crops, but also the political power that land ownership had historically represented. The debate over the Corn Laws was a crossroads in the transition of Britain from a feudalist society, to a more modern, industrial one.

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1815: 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar)....

1846: 1846 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar)....

Import tariff: An import tariff is a schedule of duties imposed by a country on imported goods. The tariff can be levied on a percentage of the value of the import, or the amount of the import (amount per unit of import). Tariffs are traditionally designed to raise revenue for the government, however they can also...

Corn Laws related Images and Photos (experimental)

In-Laws, The (1979)/ In-Laws, The (2003) (DBFE) (DVD)	In-Laws, The (1979) (DVD)	Corn Rows	Corn Field
Corn Field	Corn Poppies	Corn Dog Factory	Indian Corn
The Corn Harvest	Laws of Gravity	Laws Of Attraction	Laws of Attraction (DVD)