AGRICULTURE UNDER FREE TRADE, 1846-96. 25 



It will be seen that the principle of this measure was the 

 entire prohibition of the sale of all imported wheat except 

 Canadian until the price reached 80s., but there was no 

 duty charged upon it. The preferential treatment of 

 Canada in the Corn Laws is noteworthy. Canadian 

 imports of wheat, I may observe, amounted in 1801 to 

 67,595 quarters, in 1807 to 249,713 quarters, and in 1812 

 to 10,797 quarters. Under the Act of 1815 they amounted 

 in one year, 1817, to 311,436 quarters. 



Probably no one nowadays will contend that the Corn 

 Law passed in 1815 was a prudent or even a justifiable 

 measure. The nation had just concluded its long and 

 terrible struggle with Napoleon, and although, thanks 

 to our command of the sea, trade and commerce had 

 flourished to an extraordinary degree in spite of, and indeed 

 to some extent in consequence of, the war, yet the canker 

 of discontent was present among the masses, on whom 

 the burden of high prices had fallen, and to those who 

 looked below the surface the reaction from the stress of 

 the long war had threatening possibilities. Food had 

 been at famine prices and wheat had been sold at £5 and 

 upwards per quarter. Yet this was the time chosen by 

 Parliament to pass a law which prohibited the sale of 

 imported wheat altogether until the price reached 67s. per 

 quarter, and from all sources but one until it reached 

 80s. per quarter. 



Now, the price of wheat had ranged as follows during 

 the thirty-five preceding years, taking quinquennial 

 averages : — 



1781-85 . 

 1786-90 . 



I79 I ~95 • 

 1 796- 1 800 



1 801-5 . 



1806-10 . 



1811-15 . 



Practically, therefore, what the Corn Law of 1815 pro- 

 posed to do was to maintain prices in time of peace at 



