FISCAL POLICY AND AGRICULTURE 357 



states : "During the thirty years the Corn Laws were 

 in operation five Parliamentary committees were ap- 

 pointed to inquire into the causes of agricultural depres- 

 sion. During the thirty years since 1845, agriculture 

 has had no protection, and though they have had bad 

 seasons, causing losses to the farmer, yet on no single 

 occasion has the condition of aoriculture been such as 



o 



to call for a Parliamentary inquiry. . . . The value of 

 land has been maintained, and rents have not fallen. 

 It appears, therefore, that the owners of land, the only 

 class that can be benefited by protection, need not 

 necessarily be injured by its abolition."^ 



But Mr. Fawcett wrote just at the end of the period 

 of prosperity to which he referred. In the very 

 next year (1879) a Royal Commission was appointed 

 to inquire into the causes of the bad ' condition of 

 agriculture. The fact is, the natural effect on the 

 industry, of the repeal of the Corn Laws had, from 

 various causes, been delayed for some years. 



A succession of wars and other foreign disturbances 

 combined had kept up the prices of grain.^ After 

 these ceased, prices fell, and this, coupled with some 

 years of bad harvests, culminating in the harvest of 

 1879, the "most disastrous on record," caused the 

 full and normal effect of free imports of corn to 

 be felt. 



In addition to this, freights were falling to almost 

 nominal rates, and the " natural protection " to the 

 farming industry had disappeared. In the late seventies 

 of last century, therefore, from these causes, the severe 



1 "Free Trade and Protection," Henry Fawcett. Macmillan, 1879. 



^ The Crimean War, 1854-6 ; the Indian Mutiny, 1857 ; Civil War in 

 the United States, 1861-65 ; Franco-German War, 1870 ; Russo-Turkish 

 War. 1877. 

 N 



