Corn Laws - Opposition

Opposition

During 1820 the Merchants' Petition, written by Thomas Tooke, was presented to the House of Commons demanding free trade and an end to protective tariffs. The Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, who (falsely) claimed to be in favour of free trade, blocked the Petition; he argued, speciously, that complicated restrictions made it difficult to repeal protectionist laws. He added, though, that he believed Britain's economic dominance grew in spite of, not because of, the protectionist system. During 1821 the President of the Board of Trade, William Huskisson, composed a Commons Committee report which recommended a return to the "practically free" trade of the pre-1815 years. The Importation Act 1822 decreed that corn could be imported when the price of domestically harvested corn increased to 80 shillings per quarter but imported corn was prohibited when the price decreased to 70 shillings per quarter. After the passing of this Act until 1828 the corn price never increased to 80 shillings. During 1827 the landlords rejected Huskisson's proposals for a sliding scale and during the next year Huskisson and the new Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, devised a new sliding scale for the Importation of Corn Act 1828 whereby when domestic corn was 52 shillings per quarter or less, the duty would be 34 shillings, 8 pence and when the price increased to 73 shillings the duty decreased to 1 shilling.

The Whig governments in power for most of the years 1830–41 decided not to repeal the Corn Laws. However the Liberal Whig MP Charles Pelham Villiers proposed motions for repeal in the House of Commons annually from 1837 to 1845. During 1842 the majority against repeal was 303, by 1845 this had decreased to 132. The first year that Robert Peel voted in favour was 1846, though he had spoken in favour of repeal during 1845 but voted against it. During 1853, when Villiers was made a privy counsellor the Times stated "it was Mr Charles Villiers who practically originated the Free Trade movement".

During 1838 Villiers spoke to a meeting of 5,000 "working class men" in Manchester. At the time, he proclaimed that the presence of so many of them demonstrated that he had their approval. During 1840 the Committee on Import Duties directed by Villiers published a blue book examining the effects of the Corn Laws. Tens of thousands of copies were printed in pamphlet form by the Anti-Corn Law League, the report was quoted in the major newspapers, reprinted in America and published in an abridged form by The Spectator.

During 1841 Sir Robert Peel became Conservative Prime Minister and Richard Cobden, a major proponent of free trade, was elected for the first time. Peel had studied the works of Adam Smith, David Hume and Ricardo and proclaimed during 1839: "I have read all that has been written by the gravest authorities on political economy on the subject of rent, wages, taxes, tithes". However he voted against repeal every year from 1837 to 1845. During 1842 in response to the blue book published by Villiers' 1840 Committee on Import Duties, Peel gave the concession of modifying the sliding scale by reducing the maximum duty to 20 shillings when the price decreased to 51 shillings or less. Peel's acolyte Monckton Milne MP said of Villiers at the time of this concession during 1842 that he was "the solitary Robinson Crusoe sitting on the rock of Corn Law repeal".

The landlords claimed that manufacturers like Cobden wanted cheap food so they could decrease wages and thus maximise their profits, an opinion shared by the socialist Chartists. Karl Marx said: "The campaign for the abolition of the Corn Laws had begun and the workers' help was needed. The advocates of repeal therefore promised, not only a Big Loaf (which was to be doubled in size) but also the passing of the Ten Hours Bill" (i.e. to reduce working hours).

The Anti-Corn Law League, initiated during 1838, was agitating peacefully for repeal. They funded writers like William Cooke Taylor to travel the manufacturing regions of northern England to research their cause. Taylor published a number of books as an Anti-Corn Law propagandist, most notably, The Natural History of Society (1841), Notes of a tour in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire (1842), and Factories and the Factory System (1844). Cobden and the rest of the Anti-Corn Law League believed in the view that cheap food meant greater real wages and Cobden praised a speech by a working man who said:

When provisions are high, the people have so much to pay for them that they have little or nothing left to buy clothes with; and when they have little to buy clothes with, there are few clothes sold; and when there are few clothes sold, there are too many to sell, they are very cheap; and when they are very cheap, there cannot be much paid for making them: and that, consequently, the manufacturing working man's wages are reduced, the mills are shut up, business is ruined, and general distress is spread through the country. But when, as now, the working man has the said 25s. left in his pocket, he buys more clothing with it (ay, and other articles of comfort too), and that increases the demand for them, and the greater the demand...makes them rise in price, and the rising price enables the working man to get higher wages and the masters better profits. This, therefore, is the way I prove that high provisions make lower wages, and cheap provisions make higher wages.

The magazine The Economist was initiated during September 1843 by politician James Wilson with help from the Anti-Corn Law League; his son-in-law Walter Bagehot later became the editor of this newspaper.