Corn Laws
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
various enactments of the British Parliament. The exportation of corn from England, except in certain cases, was prohibited by 34 Edward III. c. 20, 1361. The law was modified, and, in 1436, exportation was permitted by 15 Henry VI. c. the home-price did not exceed 6s. 3d. per 2, provided quarter. The importation of corn, unless the price of wheat exceeded 6s. 3d. per quarter, was prohibited by Edward IV. c. 2, 1463. The importation of corn was heavily taxed by 22 1670, and also by 1 William and Mary, Charles II. c. 8, c. 12, 1689. The rapid increase of population, however, led to successive alterations in the regulations respecting importation. Mr. Robinson's Act, 55 George III. c. 26 (March 23, 1815), removed all restrictions on foreign corn imported in order to be warehoused, and permitted its importation for home consumption when at 80s. per quarter. This bill was very unpopular, and occasioned serious riots in London and Westminster, March 6-9. By 3 George IV. c. 60, 1822, the importation price was reduced to 70s. per quarter. Mr. Canning's Corn Bill, proposed March March 1, 1827, passed the House of Commons, but was rejected by the Lords. Several modifications were embodied by 9 George IV. c. 60, 1828, which is known as the sliding-scale, because the duty varied, and by 5 Victoria c. 14, 1842. Sir Robert Peel's Corn Importation Bill, 9 and 10 Victoria c. 22, 1846, reduced the duty on all corn im ported at from 53s. per quarter to 4s. till Feb. 1, 1849, when the duty was permanently reduced to 4s. per quarter on all grain imported.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's in 1921 could end its list with Peel's 1846 Act and a token duty, because free trade in grain then looked permanent een been lifted entirely in 1869. It did not last: Britain reimposed agricultural protection with the Import Duties Act and Wheat Act of 1932, guaranteed prices under the Agriculture Act of 1947, and from 1973 subsidised and tariffed grain through the European Community's Common Agricultural Policy, leaving that system only after Brexit, with domestic support reshaped by the Agriculture Act 2020. Historians have also shifted the emphasis: repeal is now discussed less as the triumph of Cobden and Bright's Anti-Corn Law League than in the context of the Irish famine of 1845-49, during which repeal brought Ireland little relief, and economic historians dispute how much cheap grain repeal actually delivered before the 1870s.
Written for this edition, 2026.