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

Related Topics:
1815 - 1846 - Import tariff - British - Farmers

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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.

Related Topics:
Wheat - Maize

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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.

Related Topics:
Anti-Corn Law League - Manchester - 1839

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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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