the

consequence has been, that the importations in very first five years of the restrained period were very nearly three times the amount, and the importations in the five years ending 1830 were upwards of four times the amount, of the importations in the five years ending in 1815; and the importations may be expected to continue to increase; for, in the year 1831, the foreign importations were upwards of 1,000,000 of quarters above the amount of the preceding year.*

CHAP. II.

PROTECTION AFFORDED BY THE CORN LAWS PREVIOUS TO 1815. THE REVERSE SINCE.

THE trade in corn was virtually free in Great Britain from the year 1773 to the year 1815. By the law passed in 1772*, wheat was importable when at or above 48s., on payment of a duty

of 6d. per quarter, and other grain at equally low duties. The importable price was raised by the law of 1791*, whereby wheat was made importable when at 50s., on payment of a duty of 2s. 6d. per quarter; and when at 54s., on payment of 6d. per quarter. The importable price was again raised in 1804+, when wheat was not importable until it reached 63s., when importation was allowed on payment of 2s. 6d. per quarter; and when wheat rose to 66s. per quarter; it was importable on payment of 6d. per quarter, and, by these two statutes, proportionate importation prices and duties were assigned to other grain.

Though importable prices were fixed by all these acts of Parliament, yet, from the fall which then contínued to take place in the exchangeable value of money, the prices fixed ceased to have any operation whatever as importable prices; and grain was at all times importable upon payment of the duties fixed by these statutes, which generally were the low duties.

"The necessary consequence (as observed by "the Agricultural Committee of 1821) of the "trade in corn having been virtually open with "the Continent, and the importation allowed at "prices merely nominal during the period of +44 G. 3. c. 109.

*31 G. 3. c. 80.

1

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forty years, has been, that the general price of "the shipping ports on the Continent has not, upon an average, been materially lower than "the price in England, except to the amount "of the charges to be incurred in bringing the foreign corn to the markets of this country."

66

It had been remarked by the Committee on the Corn Laws, in 1814, that "the price of wheat "at the shipping ports on the Baltic is entirely

66

regulated by the demand in the other countries "in Europe;" and the remark might have been extended to all corn whatever, the price of which, like the price of every thing else, is regulated by the demand for it. But this effect is produced only when the demand is suffered to operate. It was, then, by the operation of the great demand for corn in this country being allowed to operate freely at all the shipping ports on the Continent that the price of corn previous to 1815 was always the same there with the price here, with the difference only of the expense of bringing it here.

But, in 1815, we passed a law*, which said that wheat should not be imported at all until it reached 80s. per quarter; which we altered in 1822, by saying it should be importable when at 708., upon the payment of a duty of 12s.t; and,

* 55 G. 3. c. 26. *

+ 3 G. 4. c. 60.

in 1828, we adopted an ascending and descending scale of duties, of which 62s. per quarter was the pivot; at which price a duty of 17. 4s. 8d. per quarter was payable, diminishing as the price rose until it reached 73s., when 1s. of duty only was payable*; and similar provisions were made by all these laws for the importation of other grain.

The consequence has been, that the price of wheat at Dantzic, which, as stated by the Agricultural Committee of 1821, for forty years ending in 1814, had not, upon an average, been materially lower than the price in England, except as to the amount of the charges to be incurred in bringing it to this country (which average appears, from the annexed table, to have been about 12s. per quarter), was, after 1815, sometimes within 3s. of the price in Great Britain, and sometimes upwards of 30s. under it; that is, when our great demand operated at Dantzic, it brought the price nearly to the price here : and when it ceased to operate, the price fell in proportion to its previous rise.

It thus appears manifest how the home grower of corn enjoyed a protection under the laws which prevailed previous to 1815, of which he has been deprived by the laws which have pre

*9 G. 4. c. 60.

vailed since. Under the former laws, the price of corn at the shipping ports being always the same with the price here, with the difference only of the expense of bringing it here, a risk was constantly presented which the dealer in foreign corn was afraid to encounter. But now,

when the price at the shipping ports falls so much, he is encouraged then to purchase corn abroad, which he stores in warehouses at home, for the purpose of foreign trade; and he has at all times a quantity of foreign corn ready to enter for home consumption, whenever the price reaches the importable price: and, as the home growth diminishes (which it necessarily does under the operation of the existing law), the trade of the dealer in foreign corn becomes the more certain and gainful, and the situation of the home grower becomes the more uncertain and hazardous.

CHAP. III.

CONSEQUENCES OF RESTRAINING CORN LAWS TO THE

HOME GROWER.

THE first consequence of the restraining laws passed since 1815 has been to deprive the home