RESTRICTIONS ON EXPORTS AND IMPORTS 255 



has been so exclusively concentrated on one side only of their pro- 

 visions, that the regulation of the inland trade in com and the 

 restrictions on its exportation have been long forgotten. Yet, 

 except during the period 1815-46, the duties on foreign grain, which 

 are now regarded as the principal feature of the old Corn Laws, 

 were of minor importance. The successive Governments which 

 framed and revised the legislation on corn were not more enlightened 

 than their contemporaries, for whose direction the regulations were 

 passed ; the ultimate effect of their measures was sometimes 

 miscalculated ; their policy varied from time to time ; different 

 objects were prominent at different periods. But it is impossible 

 to pass any summary sentence of condemnation on the Corn Laws 

 as a system selfishly designed to enrich, at the expense of consumers, 

 a ruling class of landowning aristocrats. On the contrary, if the 

 legislation is treated as a whole, and the restrictions on both exports 

 and imports are examined together, it will be found that, up to 

 1815, the interests alike of consumers, producers, and the nation 

 were collectively and continuously considered. The general aim 

 of legislators was to maintain an abundant supply of food at fair 

 and steady prices ; to assist the agricultural industry in which, up 

 to the middle of the eighteenth century, the great mass of the people 

 were engaged as producers ; to prevent the depopulation of rural 

 districts, build up the commercial and maritime power of the nation, 

 make it independent of foreign food supplies, and foster the growth 

 of the infant colonies. 



Mediaeval Corn Laws were based on principles of morality, if 

 not of religion. They were akin to the laws against usury. It 

 was considered immoral to prey on human needs, or to take 

 advantage of scarcity by exacting more than a moderate profit on 

 the production of necessaries of life. The object of legislation was, 

 therefore, to establish " just " prices, and in the interest of con- 

 sumers to restrict the liberty of sellers. The idea that British corn 

 might be cheapened by bringing the granaries of Europe into 

 competition with home supplies had either not suggested itself, or 

 been rejected as impracticable. In order to establish just prices, 

 the methods of early legislators were various. They endeavoured 

 to attain their end, and, incidentally, to secure better profits to 

 producers, by keeping home-grown corn in the country, by regulating 

 the inland trade, by penalising the intervention of middlemen 

 between farmers and their customers, by protecting buyers against 



