The Anti-Corn Law League (AQA GCSE History)

Summary 

Between 1803 and 1815, Britain and France were at war. This meant no French goods were imported into Britain. When the war ended, many British farmers and landowners feared that cheaper French wheat would flood into Britain and drive the price down. As a result, in 1815, the government passed the Corn Laws. This blocked wheat imports when prices became too low. This meant that the price of wheat, and therefore bread, was kept artificially high. Landowners and farmers kept making large profits. The anger over the cost of bread soon spread to the bigger issue of free trade. The campaign to repeal the Corn Laws lasted for decades. The eventual repeal of the laws was due in part to a famine in Ireland and led to the downfall of Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel.

Why were Corn Laws unpopular?

• People were united against the Corn Laws for several different reasons

• The poor were against them because they drove up the price of their staple food – bread

• Factory owners were against them because they had to pay their workers higher wages so they could afford bread

  • Factory owners also argued that, if the poor didn’t have to spend so much of their wages on bread, they would be able to afford the kinds of goods being made in their factories

• Business owners believed that if foreign countries sold their wheat in Britain, the other countries would use that money to buy British industrial goods

  • They believed free trade was fairer and would lead to Britain building better relationships with other countries and becoming wealthier

  • Britain was at the centre of an enormous empire at this time and trade was extremely important to its wealth

The organisation of the Anti-Corn Law League

• Nottingham factory owners set up the first organised opposition to the Corn Laws forming the Anti-Corn Law Association in the 1830s

  • This was soon being copied all over the country 

• In 1838, the Anti-Corn Law League was established to coordinate action between the different groups

  • The league:

    • Was well-organised and committed to an anti-violence approach

    • Used parliamentary elections to both gain publicity and get League supporters elected as MPs

• John Bright and Richard Cobden became figureheads of the League and both became MPs

  • They toured the country to give speeches to large crowds and sent pamphlets to explain their arguments to every single voter in the country

Sir Robert Peel’s reaction to the Anti-Corn Law League

• Both the League’s arguments and their MPs had a lot of supporters in Parliament 

  • This included support from the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel

• Many of Peel’s Conservative Party colleagues were fiercely opposed to the repealing of the Corn Laws

  • They were landowners and benefitted from the high wheat prices

• As a result, Peel did not want to anger the members of his own party or appear weak by giving in to pressure from the Anti-Corn Law League

  • This meant, despite being in favour of repealing the Corn Laws, Peel felt he was unable to act

The Irish Famine and Corn Laws

• In the early 1840s, a disease called blight destroyed the potato crop in Ireland

• It had affected other countries but the poor in Ireland were particularly dependent on potatoes

• The Corn Laws meant there was no surplus of wheat to send to Ireland to stave off disaster

  • The result was a famine which led to millions of people starving or fleeing the country

• The Irish Potato Famine provided another powerful argument for repealing the Corn Laws

Repeal of the Corn Laws

• Crop failures in Britain meant:

  • High bread prices

  • Threat of starvation

  • The danger of rioting in the streets

• As a result, Robert Peel finally repealed the Corn Laws in 1846

• Despite the famine in Ireland and the crop failures in Britain, many of Peel’s fellow Conservatives were greatly angered by the repeal of the Corn Laws

• Peel was forced to resign as Prime Minister on the same day that the Corn Laws were repealed