Quotes about Corn Laws

Richard Cobden

I took the repeal of the Corn Laws as light amusement compared with the difficult task of inducing the priests of all denominations to agree to suffer the people to be educated.

Queen Victoria

After all we have done to provide the needy with food, the landlords appropriate the people’s corn and use the employment of the poor to improve their properties at public expense.

Millions of people were hungry. There was not enough wheat (they called it corn) to make up for the failed potatoes, and the aristocracy, the landlords, had a very high protective tariff to prevent American wheat from driving the prices down. The aristocrats would not budge on the “corn laws” so Victoria and her government appropriated funds to buy expensive English wheat to distribute to the needy. She also instituted some public employment so the unemployed would, as in the New Deal later, would work on public improvement. However, all administration went through the landlords who took large portions of the corn for the poor to pay themselves for the cost of distributing the corn to the needy. Then many landlords assigned the publicly paid workers to improvement projects on their own personal land. The Queen and Prince were furious and they began an effort that would repeal the Corn Laws and make England a free trading nation.

Richard Cobden

There are thousands of houses in England at this moment where wives, mothers and children are dying of hunger. When the first paroxysm of your grief is past ... come with me, and we will never rest until the Corn Law is repealed.

England had a high protective tariff called the "Corn Laws" which artificially maintained a high price of grain. Cobden had made a condolence call to a wealthy friend whose wife had just died. In a dramatic call to public service:. The friend joined Cobden and their team traveled throughout England arguing their case. As a result of their efforts the Corn Laws were repealed saving tens of thousands of lives and the friend became one of England's most illustrious politicians.

Joseph Hume

I will undertake to prove that the present corn laws have been detrimental to the public, without being beneficial to the agricultural interest.

Joseph Hume

Destroy or take away the employment and wages of those artisans - which the corn laws in a great measure do - and you will, ere long, render the land in Great Britain of as little value as it is in other countries.

Joseph Hume

I maintain that the existing corn laws are bad, because they have given a monopoly of food to the landed interest over every other class and over every other interest in the kingdom.

Joseph Hume

If the corn laws were altered, the British artisan might again be able to subsist by twelve hours' labour, a most desirable event.

Queen Victoria

… the time is come when a removal of the restrictions upon the importation of food cannot be successfully resisted. Should this be Sir Robert's own opinion, the Queen very much hopes that none of his colleagues will prevent him from doing what it is right to do.

Britain, in order to protect the landed gentry and aristocracy who made their money via agriculture, long had the Corn Laws (Corn was the term for wheat.) which was a protectionist system making it virtually to import food grains, rice or potatoes into Britain. However, with the growth of the population and a protected agricultural industry that had no drive to be more productive there was not quite enough food in the kingdom. When there was a potato blight in Ireland, the situation reached critical proportions. Victoria was not generally in favor of protectionism, and given the shortage and high cost of food then, she wanted to allow food imports. Robert Peel presided over a government where the protectionists who represented the large landowners had a very strong block. Pushing for an end to the Corn Laws could have caused the government to collapse. Peel himself did not think the Corn Laws were good policy and created a hardship for most people especially the poor. But he was the leader of his party and the party was split on the Corn Law issue. Victoria, in this private letter, tells him to do what he things is right and not what is politically expedient. Peel tried but at this time could not get a majority to repeal the Corn Laws, and the Irish Potato Famine killed millions. See {630738} . Peel however stuck with the Queen’s and his perception of what was right. The following year he proposed the Importation Act 1846 which repealed the Corn Laws. Many of his own party would not support it, but this time, he went to the two opposition parties and created a slim majority which passed the bill much to the approval of the Queen.

Albert, Prince Consort

… half of the potatoes were ruined by the rot, and that no one could guarantee the remainder. Belgium, Holland, Sweden, and Denmark, in which states the potato disease had likewise deprived the poorer class of its usual food, have immediately taken energetic means, and have opened the harbours, bought corn, and provided[for the case of a rise of prices. Sir Robert proposed the same thing for England, and, by opening the ports, a preparation for the abolition of the Corn Laws. His colleagues refused …. The whole country cries out: the Corn Laws are doomed.

“Sir Robert” was Prime Minister Robert Peel. See {630737}.

Jacob Rees-Mogg

There is sometimes an almost vindictive streak in politics whereby governments follow policies which they know will harm the electorate, but nonetheless, they keep them, sometimes for years. The Corn Laws are a classic example.

Corn Laws Quotes