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CORN LAWS
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See also:CORN See also:LAWS . In See also:England, legislation on corn was See also:early applied both to See also:home and See also:foreign See also:trade in this essential produce. Roads were so See also:bad, and the See also:chain of home trade so feeble, that there was often scarcity of See also:grain in one See also:part, and plenty in another part of the same See also:kingdom. Export by See also:sea or See also:river to some foreign See also:market was in many cases more easy than the See also:carriage ofc&rn from one market to another within the See also:country. The frequency of See also:local dearths, and the diversity and fluctuation of prices, were thus extreme. It was out of this See also:general situation that the first corn laws arose, and they appear to have been wholly directed towards lowering the See also:price of corn. Exportation was prohibited; and home merchandise in grain was in no repute or See also:toleration. As See also:long as the See also:rent of See also:land, including the extensive domains of the See also:crown, was paid in See also:kind, the See also:sovereign, the barons and other landholders had little See also:interest in the price of corn different from that of other classes of See also:people, the only demand for corn being for See also:consumption and not for resale or export. But as rents of land came to be paid in See also:money, the interest of the See also:farmer to be distinguished by a remove from that of the landowner, the difference between See also:town and country to be See also:developed, and the business of society to be more complex, the ruling See also:powers of the See also:state were likely to be actuated by other views; and hence the force which corn legislation afterward assumed in favour of what was deemed the agricultural interest. But during four centuries after the See also:Conquest the corn See also:law of England simply was that export of corn was prohibited, See also:save in years of extreme plenty under forms of state See also:licence, and that producers carried their surplus grain into the nearest market town, and sold it there for what it would bring among those who wanted it to consume; and the same See also:rule prevailed in the See also:principal countries of the See also:continent of See also:Europe. This policy, though, as one may argue from its long continuance, probably not See also:felt to be acutely oppressive, was of no avail in removing the evils against which it was directed. On the contrary it prolonged and aggravated them. The See also:prohibition of export discouraged agricultural improvement, and in so much diminished the See also:security and liberality even of domestic See also:supply; while the intolerance of any home dealing or merchandise in corn prevented the growth of a commercial and See also:financial interest strong enough to improve the means of transport by which the plenty of one part of the same country could have come to the aid of the scarcity in another.
Apart from this general feudal germ of legislation on corn, the See also:history of the See also:British corn laws may be said to have begun with the See also:statute in the reign of See also: The regulation of See also:liberty of export and import by rates of price, moreover, had the same See also:practical objection as the various sliding-scales, bounties, and other legislative expedients down to 1846, viz. that they failed, probably more in that age than in later times, to create a permanent market, and aimed only at a casual trade. When foreign supplies were needed, they were often not to be found; and when there was an excess of corn in the country a profitable outlet was both difficult and uncertain. It would appear, indeed, that during the See also:Wars of the See also:Roses the statutes of Henry VI. and See also:Edward IV. had become obsolete; for a law regulating export prices in identical terms of the law of 1436 was re-enacted in the reign of See also: It is obvious that this legislation, carried over more than a See also:century and a See also:half, failed of its purpose, and that it neither; promoted agriculture nor increased the supply of See also:bread. So great a variance and conflict between the intention of statutes and the actual course of affairs might be deemed inexplicable, but for an explanation which a close economic study of. the circumstances of the times affords. Besides the general reasons of the failure already indicated, there were three See also:special causes in active operation, which, though not seen at the period, have become distinct enough shine. (I) A comparatively See also:free . export of See also:wool had been permitted in England from time immemorial. It was subject neither to conditions of price nor to duties in the times under See also:consideration, was easier of transport and much less liable to damage than corn, and, under the extending manufactures of See also:France and the Low Countries, was sure of a foreign as well as a domestic market. Here was one description of rural produce on which there was the least See also:embargo, and on which some reliance could be placed that it would in all •circumstances bring a See also:fair value; while corn, the See also:prime rural produce, was subject as a commodity of merchandise to every difficulty, internally and externally, which meddling legislation and popular See also:prejudice could impose. The numerous statutes enjoining tillage and discouraging pastoral farms—or in other words requiring that agriculturists should turn from what was profitable to what was unprofitable—had consequently no substantial effect, save in the many individual instances in which the effect may have been injurious. (2) The value of the See also:standard money of the kingdom had been under-going great depreciation from two opposite quarters at once. The See also:pound See also:sterling of England was reduced in See also:weight of pure See also:metal from £r : 18 : 9 in 1436, the date of the first of the corn statutes, to 4S. 7 id. in 1551, as far as can be estimated in present money, and to £1 o : 64 under the restoration of the coinage in the following year. At the same time the greater abundance of See also:silver, which now began to be experienced in Europe from the See also:discovery of the South See also:American mines, was steadily reducing the See also:intrinsic value of the metal. Hence a general rise of prices remarked by See also:Hume and other historians; and hence also it followed that a price of corn fixed for export or import at one period became always at another period more or less restrictive of export than had been designed. (3) The See also:wages of labour would have followed the advance in the prices of commodities had wages been See also:left free, but they were kept down by statute to the three or four pence per See also:day. atwhich they stood when the pound sterling contained one-See also:fourth more silver, and silver itself was much more valuable. This was a refinement of See also:cruelty. The feudal See also:system was breaking up; a wage-earning See also:population was rapidly increasing both in the farms and in the towns; but the spirit of See also:feudalism remained, and
the See also:iron See also:collar of See also:serfdom was riveted See also:round the necks of the labourers by these statutes many generations after they had
become nominally freemen.' The result was chronic privation and discontent among the common people, by which all, the conditions of agriculture and trade in corn were further straitened and barbarized; and an age, in some high respects among the most brilliant in the See also:annals of England, was marked by an
enormous increase of See also:pauperism, and by the introduction of the merciful but wasteful remedy of the Poor Laws.
The corn legislation of Elizabeth remained without See also:change during the reign of See also: 4d. and upwards. But complaints of the decline of agriculture continued to be as rife under this act as under the others, till on the See also:accession of See also: The labourer found that the See also:bit of metal which, when he received it, was called a See also:shilling, would hardly, when he See also:purchased a pot of See also:beer or a See also:loaf of rye bread, go as far as sixpence." The state of agriculture could not be prosperous under these conditions. But when the government of William surmounted this difficulty of the coinage, as they did surmount it, under the guidance of See also:Sir See also:Isaac See also:Newton, with remarkable statesmanship, it necessarily followed that prices, so far from rising, declined, because, for one reason, they were now denominated in a solid metallic value. The rise of prices of corn attending the first years of the export bounty was consequently of very brief duration. The See also:average price of wheat in the See also:Winchester market, which in the ten years 1690-1699 was £2: 1os., fell in the ten years 1716-1725 to £1: 5:4, and in the ten years 1746-1755 to £1:1:24. The system of corn law established in the reign of William and Mary was probably the most perfect to be conceived for advancing the agricultural interest of any country. Every stroke of the legislature seemed complete to this end. Yet it wholly failed of its purpose. The price of wheat again rose in 1750-1760 and1760-1770 to £r: 19 :31 and £2:,, :3;, but many causes had meanwhile been at See also:work, as invariably happens in such economic developments, the operation of which no statutes could embrace, either to See also:control or to prevent. Between the reign of William and Mary and that of See also:George III., the question of bounty on export of grain had, in the general progress of the country, fallen into the background, while that of the heavy embargoes on import had come to the front. Therefore it is that See also:Burke's Act of 1773, as a deliberate See also:attempt to bring the corn laws into some degree of reason and See also:order, is worthy of special mention. This statute permitted the import of foreign wheat at a nominal duty of 6d. when the home price was 48s. per quarter, and it stopped both the liberty to export and the bounty on export together when the home price was 44S. per quarter. The one blemish of this statute was the stopping export and cutting off bounty on export at the same point of price. Few questions have been more discussed or more differently interpreted than the, elaborate system of corn laws dating from the reign of William and Mary. So careful an observer as See also:Malthus was of See also:opinion that the bounty on export had enlarged the See also:area of subsistence. That it had large operation is sufficiently attested by the fact that, in the years from 1740 to 1751, bounties were paid out of the exchequer to the amount of £1,515,000, and in 1749 alone they amounted to £324,000. But the trade thus forced was of no permanence, and the British exports of corn, which reached a maximum of 1,667,778 quarters in 1749-1750, had fallen to 600,000 quarters in 176o and continued to decrease. Burke's Act lasted long enough to introduce a regular import of foreign grain, varying with the abundance or scarcity of the home See also:harvest, yet establishing in the end a systematic preponderance of imports over exports. The period, 1796- 1846. moreover, was marked by great agricultural improve- ments, by extensive reclamation of See also:waste lands, and by an increased home produce of wheat, in the twenty years from 1773 to 1793, of nearly 2,000,000 quarters. Nor had the course of prices been unsatisfactory. The average price of British wheat in the twenty years was £2 : 6 : 3, and in only three years of the twenty was the price a fraction under £2. But the ideas in favour of greater freedom of trade, of which the act of 1773 was an indication, and of which another memorable example was given in See also:Pitt's commercial treaty with France, were overwhelmed in the extraordinary excitement caused by the See also:French Revolution, and all the old corn law policy was destined to have a sudden revival. The landowners and farmers complained that an import of foreign grain at a nominal duty of 6d., when the price of wheat was only 48s., deprived them of the ascending See also:scale of prices when it seemed due; and on this instigation an act was passed in 1791, whereby the price at which importation could proceed at the nominal duty of 6d. was raised to 54S., with a duty of 2s. 6d. from 54S. to 5os., and at 5os. and under 5os. a prohibitory duty of 24s. 3d. The bounty on export was maintained by this act, but exportation was allowed without bounty till the price reached 46s.; and the permission accorded by the statue of 1773 to import foreign corn at any price, to be re-exported duty free, was modified by a warehouse duty of 2S. 6d. in addition to the duties on import payable at the time of See also:sale, when the corn, instead of being re-exported, happened to be sold for home consumption. The legislative vigilance in this statue to prevent foreign bread from reaching the home consumer is remarkable. There were deficient home harvests for some years after 1791, particularly in 1795 and 1797, and parliament was forced to the new expedient of granting high bounties on importation. At this period the country was involved in a great See also:war; all the customary commercial relations were violently disturbed; See also:freight, See also:insurance and other charges on import and export were multiplied fivefold; heavier and heavier taxes were imposed; and the See also:capital resources of the kingdom were poured with a prodigality without precedent into the war channels. The consequence was that the price or corn, as of all other commodities. rose greatly_ and the See also:Bank of England having stopped paying in specie in 1797, this raised nominal prices still more under the liberal use of bank See also:paper in loans and discounts, and the difference that began to be established in the actual value of Bank of England notes and their legal See also:par in See also:bullion: The average price of British wheat rose to £5 : 19 : 6 in 18or. So unusual a value must have led to a large See also:extension of the area under wheat, and to much corn-growing on land that after great outlay was ill prepared for it. .In the following years there were agricultural complaints; and in 1804, though in 1803 the average price of wheat had been as high as £2 : r8 : 10, an act was passed, so much more severe than any previous statute, that its object would appear to have been to keep the price of corn somewhere approaching the high range of 18or. A prohibitory duty of 24s. 3d. was imposed on the import of foreign wheat when the home price was 63s. or less; and the price at which the bounty was paid on export was lowered to 4os., while the price at which export might proceed without bounty was raised to S4s. Judging from the prices that ruled during the remaining period of the French wars, this statute would appear to have been effective for its end, though, under all the varied action of the times on a rise of prices, it would be difficult to assign its proper place in the general effect. The average price of wheat rose to £4 : 9 : 9 in 18o5, and the bank paper price in 1812 was as high even as £6 : 6 : 6. The bullion prices from 1809 to 1813 ranged from 86s. 6d. to loos. 3d. But it was foreseen that when the wars ended a serious reaction would ensue, and that the rents of land, and the general condition of agriculture, under the warlike, protective and monetary stimulation they had received, would be imperilled. In the brief See also:peace of 1814 the average bullion price of British wheat fell to 55s. 8d. All the means of select committees of inquiry on agricultural See also:distress, and new modifications of the corn laws, were again brought into requisition. The first idea broached in parliament was to raise the duties on foreign imports, as well as the prices at which they were to be leviable, and to abolish the bounty on export, while permitting freedom of export whatever the home price might be. The latter part of the See also:scheme was passed into law in the session of 1814; but the irritation of the manufacturing districts against the new scale of import duties was too great to be resisted. In the subsequent session an act was passed, after much opposition, fixing 8os. (14s. more than during the wars) as the price at which import of wheat was to become free of duty. This act of 1815 was intended to keep the price of wheat in the British markets at about 8os. per quarter; but the era of war and great See also:expenditure of money raised by public loans had ended, the ports of the continent were again open to some measure of trade and to the equalizing effect of trade upon prices, the Bank of England and other See also:banks of issue had to begin the uphill course of a resumption of specie payments, the nation had to begin to feel the whole naked weight of the war See also:debt, and the idea of the protectors of a high price of corn was proved by the event to be an utter See also:hallucination. The corn statutes of the next twenty years, though occupying an enormous amount of time and See also:attention in the Houses of Parliament, may be briefly treated, for they are simply a See also:record of the See also:impotence of legislation to maintain the price of a commodity at a high point when all the natural economic causes in operation are opposed to it. In 1822 a statute was passed reducing the limit of prices at which importation could proceed to 7os. for wheat, 35s. for barley, 25s. for oats; but behind the apparent relaxation was a new scale of import duties, by which foreign grain was subjected to heavy three-See also:month duties up to a price of 85s.,—17s. when wheat was 70S., 12S. when between 70s. and 8os., and 1os. when 85s., showing the grasping spirit of the would-be monopolizers of the home supply of corn, and their reluctance to believe in a See also:lower range of value for corn as for all other commodities. This act never operated, for the reason that, with the exception in some few instances of barley, prices never were so high as its projectors had contemplated. The corn trade had passed rapidly beyond reach of the statutes by which it was to be so painfully controlled; and as there were occasional seasons of scarcity, particularly in oats, the See also: The prices during most part of this period were under the range at which import was practically prohibited. The average price of British, wheat was 96s. r 1d. in 1817, but from that point there was in succeeding years a rapid and progressive decline, varied only by the results of the domestic harvests, till in 1835 the average price of wheat was 39s. 4d., of barley 29s. 1sd. and oats 22s. The import of foreign grain in these years consisted principally of a speculative trade, under a See also:privilege of warehousing accorded in the statute of 1773, and extended in subsequent acts, by which the grain might be sold for home consumption on payment of the duties, or re-exported free, as suited the interest of the holders. The act of 1822 admitted corn of the British possessions in See also:North America under a favoured scale of duties, and in 1825 a temporary act was passed, allowing the import of wheat from these provinces at a fixed duty of 5s. per quarter, irrespective of the home price, which, if maintained, would have given some stability to the trade with See also:Canada. The idea of a fixed duty on all foreign grain, however, appears to have grown in favour from about this period. It was included in the See also:programme of import duty reforms of the Whig government in 1841, and fell with its propounders in the general See also:election of that year. Sir See also:Robert See also:Peel, on succeeding to See also:office, and commencing his remarkable career as a free-trade statesman, introduced and carried in 1842 a new sliding scale of duties somewhat better adjusted to the current values. But public opinion by this time was changing, and the prime See also:minister, convinced, as he confessed, by the arguments of See also:Cobden and the See also:Anti-Corn-Law See also:League, and stimulated into action by the failure of the See also:potato See also:crop in See also:Ireland, put an effectual end to the history of the corn laws by the famous act of 1846. It was provided under this'measure that the maximum duty on foreign wheat was to be immediately reduced to 1os. per quarter when the price was under 48s., to 5s. on barley when the price was under 26s., and to 4s. on oats when the price was under 18s., with lower duties as prices rose above these figures; but the conclusive part of the enactment was that in three years—on the 1st of See also:February 1849—these duties were to cease, and all foreign corn to be admitted at a duty of rs. per quarter, and all foreign See also:meal and See also:flour at a duty of 41 d. per cwt.—the same nominal imposts which were conceded to grain and flour of British possessions abroad from the date of the act. Ia 1869 even these nominal duties were abolished by Robert See also:Lowe in a Customs Duties Act. In 1902 a See also:registration duty of 3d. per cwt. was imposed on imported corn, and Scl. per cwt. on imported flour, in the expectation that such a duty would broaden the basis of See also:taxation. The duty was, however, repealed the following year. But a low duty on imported foreign corn was made an essential part of the See also:tariff reform scheme advocated by Mr. J. See also: 3d., and by a law of See also: The duty, in the event of permission to import being accorded, is to be charged on a sliding scale intended to keep the cost of wheat to the millers, including the duty, at 6o reis (34d.) per kilo (2.2 lbs.). Maize is subject to a duty of 4s. Izd. per cwt., and rye, oats and barley to one of 3s. 8d. per cwt. By laws of July 1889 and August 1891 the importation of flour was prohibited except in the event of a strike of the See also: 'old. per cwt. In 1898, owing to the sudden rise in the price of corn occasioned by the war between Spain and the United States, the duty was temporarily (the 4th of May to the 3oth of See also:June) suspended. By a law of 1873 free importation of rye, barley, maize and oats was permitted, but by a law of 1885 a duty was fixed at 74d. per cwt., and this was subsequently (1887) increased to Is. 24d. In 1881 the duty on imported flour was as low as 54d. per cwt., but this was increased successively by laws of 1885, 1887, 1891 and 1892, and in 1894 was fixed at 4s. 54d. per cwt. at the rate of extraction of 7o% and over; 5s. 5;d. at 70 to 6o%; and 6s. 6d. at 6o% and under. In See also:Belgium both the Belgium. export and import of wheat, rye, barley and maize are free of duty; so also were oats and flour. Since 1895, however, there has been a duty of Is. 2zd. on oats, and of 94d. on flour. The policy of the See also:Netherlands was, owing to the advantages Nether- possessed by its ports, long favourable to the import lands. and export of grain. But for some years See also:prior to 1845 there was a moderate sliding scale of import duties, and this gave place, on the ravages of the potato disease, to a low fixed duty; since 1877, however, the importation of cereals and /rely flour has been free. In See also:Italy there are no duties on the export of grain. The import duties show a progressive increase. In 1878 the import duty on wheat was 631. per cwt.; this was increased to Is. 24d. in 1888, and in 1894 to 3S. old. As in Spain and France, there was a temporary reduction and suspension during 1898, on the See also:Spanish-American war. The duty on rye, barley, oats and maize was fixed by the tariff of 1878 at 52d. per cwt. By a See also:decree of 1894 the duty on rye was raised to 's. sod.; that on barley, by a decree of 1896, to Is. 72d.; that on oats, by a decree of 1888, to Is. 7l-d.; and that on maize, by a decree of 1896, to 3s. old. The duty on flour, fixed at Is. 'zd., by the tariff of 1878, was raised to 2S. 54d. in 1888, to 3s. 62d. in1888, and to 5s. in 1894. In See also:Germany, the duty on wheat and rye, as fixed by the tariff of 1879, was 6d. per cwt. In 1885 this was raised to Is. 61d., and in 1888 to 2S. 6zd. By treaty Germany. in 1892 this was decreased to Is. 94d. On oats the duty in 1879 was 6d. per cwt., increased to 94d. in 1885, and again, in 1888, to 2s. old., but reduced to Is. 5d. in 1892. On barley the duty in 1879 was 3d., in 1885 94d., in 1888 Is. lid., and in 1892 Is. old. On maize, 3d. in 1879, 6d. in 1885, Is. old. in 1888, and 94d. in 1892. On flour, Is. old. in 1879, 3s. 94d. in 1885, 5s. 4d. in 1888, and 3s. 8zd. in 1892. The new See also:German tariff of 1906 which formed the basis for the new German commercial See also:treaties with See also:Russia, Italy, See also:Austria-See also:Hungary, &c., and which was passed when the See also:influence of the agrarian party was predominant, increased still more the import duties on cereals. Under this tariff there are two rates of duties: (I). Those of the new " general " tariff as applied to imports from all countries entitled to most favoured-nation treatment. (2). " Conventional " tariff rates, conceded to other states as the result of treaties. Under this tariff the " general " and " conventional " duties, respectively, on wheat are 3s. 91d. and 2s. 9d.; on oats and rye, 3s. 62d. and 2S. 64d.; on " common See also:baker's produce," 8s. 3d. and 5s. 2d. In Austria-Hungary the Hungary. import duty on wheat and rye is, under the tariff of 1887, Is. 64d. per cwt.; on barley and oats, 94d.; on maize, 6d., and on flour, 3s. 94d. The great countries, famous for a See also:production of raw materials much beyond their own means of consumption, are favourable, of course, to the utmost freedom of export. The See also:empire of See also:China itself was never unwilling to sell to foreigners United States. See also:tea for which there was no domestic use. The United States promotes transit and export of grain, internally and externally, with all the intelligence and resources of a civilized people. Although the import duty on " breadstuffs " imposed by the United States tariff is very high, and is, possibly, a useful See also:protection against the importation of " baker's products," yet it is to a certain extent unnecessary for a country which must dispose of its surplus by exportation. The same remark applies to Russia, whose exportation and importation are Russia. alike free, though there is an import duty on wheat flour of 2S. ' 1zd. per cwt. In the British colonies probably the only example of an export duty is that on rice in British See also:India; it amounts to 3 annas per maund (4d. per cwt.). The India. import of grain into India is free. In See also:Australia, New See also:Zealand, Canada, and all mainly agricultural countries, there is no export duty. In each of these countries, however, there is an import duty; in the cases of Australia and New Australia, Zealand, designed, to a certain extent, as a precaution New against possible rivalry on the part of the other. The zealand, Australian import duty is Is. 6d. per cental (loo lb ay.), Canada. and the New Zealand 9d. per cental. The See also:Canadian import duties on grain are important only in the light of being a See also:species of See also:retaliation against similar duties imposed by the United States with the See also:design of restricting inter-frontier See also:exchange. The Canadian import duty is, on barley, 30% ad valorem ; on See also:buckwheat, rye and oats, 4•93d. per See also:bushel, and on wheat, 5.92d. per bushel. The South See also:African production of South cereal is still insufficient to meet the demand for home See also:Africa. consumption, and there is a considerable grain importa- tion. The import duty, which undoubtedly acts as an encouragement to home agriculture, is Is. per cental. (See also GRAIN TRADE.) (R. So.; T. A. I.) CORN-See also:SALAD, or See also:LAMB'S See also:LETTUCE, Valerianella olitoria (natural order Valerianaceae), a weedy See also:annual, native of See also:southern Europe, but naturalized in cornfields in central Europe, and not infrequent in See also:Britain. In France it is used in salads during See also:winter and See also:spring as a substitute for lettuces, but it is less esteemed in England. The plant is raised from See also:seed sown on a' See also:bed or border of light See also:rich See also:earth, and should be weeded and watered, as occasion requires, till winter, when it should be protected with long See also:litter during severe See also:frost. The largest See also:plants should be See also:drawn for use in See also:succession. See also:Sowing may be made every two or three See also:weeks from the beginning of August till See also:October, and again in March, if required in the latter part of the spring. The sorts principally grown are the Round-leaved and the See also:Italian; the last is a distinct species, Valerianella eriocarpa. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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