224 



CORN-LAWS. 



Corn laws dispensible for the good of husbandry, to prevent, by 

 s — ■"V""' means of public regulations, the fall of grain below a 

 specified rate. The opinion of government has varied, 

 as we may naturally imagine, in different ages, accord- 

 ing to the preponderating interest, or according to the 

 different degrees of information possessed at the time. 

 On one occasion we find it a prevalent opinion, that 

 corn was too good a commodity to sell to our neigh- 

 bours ; on another, that the more we sold the better, 

 because by that means additional sums of money were 

 brought into the kingdom. The former was, and will 

 continue to be, the natural feeling of the consumers, 

 that is, of the people at large ; while the latter may be 

 regularly expected to influence the landholder and far- 

 mer. The crown, or executive power, looked by pre- 

 ference at revenue, and cared, in former ages, very 

 little whether we sent our corn abroad, or imported 

 that of foreign nations, provided the one or the other 

 could be rendered instrumental in filling the coffers of 

 the treasury. However, for the last century, all idea 

 of raising revenue from corn has been relinquished, 

 and the executive power has been actuated by other 

 considerations, viz. the desire of uniting the landed in- 

 terest in support of a war, by passing acts to raise the 

 price of corn when it was low ; and, on the other hand, 

 a wish to prevent popular discontent, by favouring the 

 import of foreign corn, when our own markets had 

 reached an exorbitant height. 



The subject of corn laws naturally divides itself in- 

 to two parts ; a narrative of our past proceedings, and 

 a disquisition on the principles which ought to regu- 

 late this branch of trade. We begin with the former. 



I. Historical sketch of our Corn Laws. The first 

 law relative to the exportation of corn occurs in the 

 year 1360, and contains a prohibition of sending our 

 corn abroad. In the succeeding reign, in 1394, a coun- 

 ter-edict was passed, and all the king's subjects were 

 authorised to export corn on payment of the ordinary 

 duties. In that rude age, government were far from as- 

 cribing to the encouragement of export any ultimate 

 effect in cheapening prices at home. Notwithstanding 

 the temptation of revenue, the prevalent bias was to 

 keep our corn at home, in conformity to which the law 

 long continued to permit the import of foreign corn. 

 In 1436, the export of English corn was put under 

 more definite limitations, being declared legal only so 

 long as our own currency should be at a moderate rate, 

 corresponding to 35 s. per quarter for wheat at the pre- 

 sent day, and 1 6s. for barley. Such continued to be 

 the law of the land for nearly a century ; and the lead- 

 ing 'motive was evidently a desire to keep our provi- 

 sions at home whenever prices were high, a result which 

 might have been very safely trusted to the natural 

 course of things. In the year 1552, however, a far- 

 ther and a very decided step was taken for the discou- 

 ragement of the export of corn, an act being passed to 

 prohibit it so long as wheat should be above a price 

 equivalent only to 17s. of our present money the quar- 

 ter, or barley above the equally low price of 8s. 6d. 



In regard to the import of foreign corn, the first dis- 

 couragement of inportance consisted in an act passed 

 in 1 463, which contained an absolute prohibition of in- 

 troducing it into the kingdom, unless our own prices 

 exceeded 35s. (present money) for wheat, and l6s. for 

 barley. Our corn growers however complained, that 

 the act was of little efficacy, partly from remissness at 

 our custom-houses, and partly from the rapid diminu- 

 tion in the quantity of silver coined in the shilling, the 

 effect of wliich, in the course of time, was to make the 



nominal sum above-mentioned equal only to half its Corn 

 value. Of course, as the quarter of wheat could very "P" 

 seldom fall below 16s. or 17s. the practical consequence- 

 was an almost perpetual liberty to import. But in the 

 reign of Elizabeth, new regulations were framed, and 

 allowance was made for the altered value of the cur- 

 rency After re-enacting the old laws, which enjoined, 

 in positive terms, the tillage of the land, and rebuild- 

 ing of farm-houses, her ministers, proceeding on the 

 comparatively new principle, that it was politic to en- 

 courage export, procured an act of parliament for per- 

 mitting it so long as corn should not exceed a rate 

 which, in wheat, was equal to '28s. a quarter of our 

 present money, and in barley to 16s. 7d. The price of 

 28s. although inferior to the rate which we have just 

 mentioned, as enacted in the preceding century, was 

 greatly superior to the actual value to which that rate 

 had by this time fallen, by the reduction of the quan- 

 tity of silver contained in the shilling. 



This first modification of our corn laws in the reign 

 of Elizabeth, took place in 1562. In 1570, there was 

 passed an act, apparently of much greater latitude, per- 

 mitting the export of corn without limitation of prices, 

 whenever there should be no existing prohibition ; but 

 the accompanying imposition of a duty of 10 per cent, 

 ad valorem on the export, operated as a deduction from 

 the efficacy of this ostensibly important privilege. The 

 provisions of the act deserve attention in two respects ; 

 first, as indicating a continued belief of the policy of 

 raising a tax from corn exports ; and, secondly, as pro- 

 ving the remarkable diversity of price in different dis- 

 tricts. In the present age of extended communication, 

 and multiplied means of carriage, we can with difficul- 

 ty form an idea of the effect of the impediments at that 

 time on the exchange of commodities between one dis- 

 trict and another. A journey of a hundred miles was 

 in those days the labour of a week, and performed with 

 considerable hazard through sloughs, across mountains, 

 and over rivers without bridges. The miserable me- 

 thod of carrying corn and other commodities in sacks 

 on horseback, was consequently much more common 

 than the apparently obvious plan of cart or waggon 

 carriage. We must, therefore, be cautious how we 

 draw conclusions in regard to the general price of 

 wheat from the local reports of former times. Besides, 

 wheat being then the food of the richer classes only, 

 was not, as at present, an index of the relative prices 

 of the ordinary diet of the lower orders. 



Another cause of fluctuation in those days, was the 

 rigour of the law against the supposed offences of fore- 

 stalling, regrating, and engrossing. Though the popu- 

 lar mind has, for many ages, been stimulated in favour 

 of these laws, by the plea that they conduce to keep 

 down the markets, the original motive for their enact- 

 ment was of a very different description. A duty, or 

 toll, was levied in the different markets and fairs* of 

 the' kingdom, and was paid partly to the royal trea- 

 sury, partly to the baron who possessed the landed 

 property of the surrounding district. It became an 

 object with purchasers, as well as sellers, to attempt 

 the evasion of these duties, and to endeavour to make 

 their bargains on the road, or in places distinct from 

 the public markets ; hence the laws enacting a compul- 

 sory attendance at these markets,— laws of much the 

 same character, in respect to equity or policy, as the 

 statutes passed to maintain tillage, and restrict pastu- 

 rage, by dint of penalties. The exportation of wool to 

 the continent, particularly to the manufacturing coun- 

 try of Flanders, had, in the fourteenth and fifteenth 



law*. 



