Editing Corn Laws (section)

==Opposition==
{{Further|Anti-Corn Law League}}
{{hatnote|This article gives prices in the pre-decimal notation for [[pound sterling|sterling]] as used at the time: £x/y/z, y/z, or y/–. For an explanation of this notation, see [[£sd]].}}
[[File:1846 - Anti-Corn Law League Meeting.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|right|A meeting of the [[Anti-Corn Law League]] in [[Exeter Hall]] in London in 1846]]

In 1820, the Merchants' Petition, written by [[Thomas Tooke]], was presented to the House of Commons. The petition demanded free trade and an end to protective tariffs. The Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, who 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.<ref>Hirst, p. 16.</ref> In 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.{{sfn|Schonhardt-Bailey|2006|p=9}}

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Importation Act 1822 
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to amend the Laws relating to the Importation of Corn.
| year                  = 1822
| citation              = [[3 Geo. 4]]. c. 60
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 15 July 1822
| commencement          =
| expiry_date           =
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = Importation Act 1815
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = [[Customs Act 1826]]
| status                = 
| original_text         = {{GBurl|XKFUAAAAcAAJ|page=PA785}}
| collapsed             = yes
}}
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Importation of Corn Act 1828
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act to amend the Laws relating to the Importation of Corn.
| year                  = 1828
| citation              = [[9 Geo. 4]]. c. 60
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 15 July 1828
| commencement          =
| expiry_date           =
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
The '''{{visible anchor|Importation Act 1822}}''' ([[3 Geo. 4]]. c. 60) decreed that corn could be imported when the price of domestically harvested corn rose to 80/– (£4) per quarter but that the import of corn would again be prohibited when the price fell to 70/– per quarter. After this act was passed, the corn price never rose to 80/– until 1828. In 1827, the landlords rejected Huskisson's proposals for a sliding scale, and during the next year Huskisson and the new [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Prime Minister]], the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]], devised a new sliding scale for the '''{{visible anchor|Importation of Corn Act 1828}}''' ([[9 Geo. 4]]. c. 60) whereby, when domestic corn was 52/– (£2/12/–){{efn|about £{{inflation|UK|2.60|1828}} in {{inflation-year|UK}}}} per quarter or less, the duty would be 34/8 (£1/14/8),{{efn|about £{{inflation|UK|1.73|1828}} in {{inflation-year|UK}}}} and when the price increased to 73/– (£3/13/–),{{efn|about £{{inflation|UK|3.65|1828}} in {{inflation-year|UK}}}} the duty decreased to one shilling.{{sfn|Schonhardt-Bailey|2006|p=10}}{{efn|about £{{inflation|UK|0.05|1828}} in {{inflation-year|UK}}}}

[[File:Robert Peel.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Robert Peel]] became Conservative Prime Minister in 1841, and his government succeeded in repealing the tariffs.]]
The [[British Whig Party|Whig]] governments, in power for most of the years between 1830 and 1841, decided not to repeal the Corn Laws. However the Liberal Whig MP [[Charles Pelham Villiers]] proposed motions for repeal in the House of Commons every year from 1837 to 1845. In 1842, the majority against repeal was 303; by 1845 this had fallen to 132. Although he had spoken against repeal until 1845, [[Robert Peel]] voted in favour in 1846. In 1853, when Villiers was made a [[Privy Counsellor]], ''[[The Times]]'' stated that "it was Mr Charles Villiers who practically originated the Free Trade movement".

In 1838, Villiers spoke at a meeting of 5,000 "working-class men" in Manchester. In 1840, under Villiers' direction, the Committee on Import Duties published a [[United Kingdom National Accounts – The Blue Book|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]], founded in 1838. The report was quoted in the major newspapers, reprinted in America, and published in an abridged form by ''[[The Spectator]]''.

In the [[1841 United Kingdom general election|1841 election]], Sir [[Robert Peel]] became 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 [[David Ricardo]], and proclaimed in 1839: "I have read all that has been written by the gravest authorities on political economy on the subject of rent, wages, taxes, tithes."<ref>Semmel, p. 143.</ref> He voted against repeal each year from 1837 to 1845. In 1842, in response to the Blue book published by Villiers' 1840 Committee on Import Duties, Peel offered a concession by modifying the sliding scale. He reduced the maximum duty to 20/– if the price were to fall to 51/– or less. In 1842,{{sfn|Schonhardt-Bailey|2006|p=10}} Peel's fellow-Conservative [[Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton|Monckton Milnes]] said, at the time of this concession, that Villiers was "the solitary [[Robinson Crusoe]] sitting on the rock of Corn Law repeal".

According to historian [[Asa Briggs]], the Anti-Corn Law League was a large, nationwide middle-class moral crusade with a Utopian vision; its leading advocate [[Richard Cobden]] promised that repeal would settle four great problems simultaneously:

{{blockquote|First, it would guarantee the prosperity of the manufacturer by affording him outlets for his products.  Second, it would relieve the [[Condition of England question]] by cheapening the price of food and ensuring more regular employment. Third, it would make English agriculture more efficient by stimulating demand for its products in urban and industrial areas. Fourth, it would introduce through mutually advantageous international trade a new era of international fellowship and peace. The only barrier to these four beneficent solutions was the ignorant self-interest of the landlords, the "bread-taxing oligarchy, unprincipled, unfeeling, rapacious and plundering."<ref>Asa Briggs (1959), ''The Making of Modern England 1783–1867: The Age of Improvement'', p. 314</ref>}}

The landlords claimed that manufacturers like Cobden wanted cheap food so that they could reduce wages and thus maximise their profits, an opinion shared by socialist [[Chartism|Chartists]]. [[Karl Marx]]<ref>Marx, ''Capital'', Chapter X, "The Working Day"</ref> 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" (to reduce working hours). In 1876, [[Thomas Carlyle]] commented on [[John Bright]], co-founder of the League along with Cobden: "as for that party, Bright, Cobden and Co., 'Cheap and Nasty' was their watchword. It was folly to suppose good things were to be had cheap. The nation had been deluded."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=David Alec |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.174678 |title=Carlyle in Old Age |last2=MacArthur |first2=David Wilson |date=1934 |location=London |page=386}}</ref>

The Anti-Corn Law League was agitating peacefully for repeal. They funded writers like [[William Cooke Taylor]] to travel the manufacturing regions of northern England to research their cause.<ref name="GM">''The Gentleman's Magazine'', 1850, pp. 94–96.</ref> 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 that cheap food meant greater real wages and Cobden praised a speech by a working man who said:

{{blockquote|
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 25''s'' 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&nbsp;... 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.<ref>Bright and Thorold Rogers, p. 129.</ref>}}

The magazine ''[[The Economist]]'' was founded in September 1843 by politician [[James Wilson (UK politician)|James Wilson]] with help from the Anti-Corn Law League; his son-in-law [[Walter Bagehot]] later became its editor.