72 The Revolution in Agriculture 



Rents were fixed and other arrangements made in this expectation. 

 But prices did not behave as landlords and farmers wished. They 

 went up and down violently. Between January 1816 and June 

 1817 they varied from 53^. to II2J., and in the twenty years from 

 1816 to 1835 the average price was only 53^. There was more 

 distress among farmers during this time than in any similar 

 period in the history of agriculture. Select committees of the 

 House of Commons sat in 1820, 1821, 1822, 1833, and 1836 to 

 hear evidence and to consider remedies. They accomplished 

 nothing. 



The opposition to the Corn Law came chiefly from the manu- 

 facturers of Lancashire, Yorkshire, and other industrial centres. 

 The challenge to the claim of the landlords was bound to come. 

 This claim was that all the classes not engaged in agriculture 

 should be taxed for the benefit of agriculture, that to a very 

 great extent, if not absolutely, the English market for corn should 

 be kept for English farmers. The conflict between the two views 

 was one of the most critical in the history of the country. The 

 manufacturers asked that agriculture should take its place among 

 the industries of the country with no special privileges, that the 

 interests of the whole community should be placed above the 

 interests of any one class. It would have been strange if such 

 a request had not led to a severe struggle. 



The result was creditable to Englishmen. They fought and won 

 and lost like sportsmen. In 1776 Adam Smith had published his 

 book Wealth of Nations, and in this he had shown clearly that 

 protection seriously injured the trade of a country, that it would 

 limit and prevent the expansion of Britain if her other industries 

 were subordinated to agriculture, if we tried to grow all our own 

 food instead of sending our manufactures abroad to people who 

 would send us better food than we could grow in return. Smith's 

 arguments had convinced a great many men in all classes that 

 free trade in corn and in everything else was the best thing for 



