THE CORN LAWS

Maoriland Worker, Volume 6, Issue 243, 13 October 1915, Page 6

THE CORN LAWS

Ler.turo delivered by Mr. J. B. Cond lific, baforo the Economics Class ol tho Wellington W.E.A., in the Y.M'.CA. Buidings, on Scptombar 18.

Tho peculiar position of < - oru as the staplo foodstuff from earliest, timcu. gives an importance to the question ol its taxation which is unique. Pound the Corn Laws, was centred the main struggle against the protective syhtom, and the .incidence of those laws formed tho st longest argument for Vm> Trade.

J in. .the chiy.s of Rynian occupation. | Britain been mo a' great granary and ! was used lo feed tho troops of Haul ! and oven Rome 'itself. Throughput the. Middle Ages and indeed till towards the end of the eighteenth century, tho domestic supply .of wheat was nori nially.sufficient, to meet tho demands. |The development of the towns caused some shortage, of supply., a fact which is reflected in strict, regulations concerning the trade- m corn. Export was generally prohibited, as for instance, by the Act of Richard II in 1361,- and there were elaborate laws to- check forestalling and regrading, pr_clic:il!y all spcvubuvc pr.r'irc:. But tho trade, though regulated, was usually left iv private hands. In a time Pf poor communication and worse transport, competition was naturally Ineffective, and it is not surprising that some of the towns. accumulated reserves of corn-as a. precaution against dearth. In 1420 tho Corporation at. Canterbury foresaw tho unusual demands of pilgrims in the jubilee year, and laid in a stork sufficient to prevent a rise in prices while. the City of London maintained riot only town granaries but a mill and a bakehouse and even a brewery. Tho Black Death, however, stimulated pasture-farming, and prices of wheat scon began to rise. Prohibition of export had also been removed as early as 1391. Rising prices woro helped on "by the influx of tho precious metals from tho old world and by Henry YU'd and Edward Vl's debasements. MERCANTILIST POLICY. So that when Elizabeth came to the throne, tho high prices of wheat had already begun to encourage agriculture once more. .Burleigh, tbo first Mercantilist, encouraged the export of corn in every way possible, having two ends in view, tho encouragement of the mercantile navy (which iv war became tho Royal -Navy), and the collection of rovc-mio by. moans of /export duties. At tho same timo the interests of consumers wore guarded— gambling, in emu v,-„s forbidden and

bound for Franco. Prices remained at a very Ugh Wol, and an extraordinary series ol had harvests ill 1701, 1705, 1790, I.SOO, I*o' and 1800, forced them to famine L-vol. All through the ivar tho peoplo of England wore oppressed by unnecessarily' high prii-cs of food, in addition to tho other evils of this tnno of transition. THE LAW OF 1815. With .the conclusion of the war, prices threatened to fall, and the landed interest aI, once appealed to Parliament, which in ISIS passed an extremely stringent Com Law. Importation was prohibited until tho price reached 1.0 shillings a bushel. Plausible reasons wero advanced, the main argument being that England should not depend on foraign supplies of foodstuffs. The years which followed were marked by constant bread riots and much misery. Neither the farmer nor tho farm-bbourer re-reived much benefit; but rents increased greatly. Tho general tariff of duties violated all the canons'of taxation, raw materials'were taxed heavily, manufactures carried prohibitive duties, prohibitions wore genera! and smuggling was rife. HUSKISSOMS REFORMS. Four main problems confronted the statesmen of the day in fiscal matters, tho Corn Laws, tho old system of Colonial Preference, tho harassing Navigation Acts, and tho confusion of tariff. From 1823-27 Huskisson was President of the Board of Trade and instituted a few badly-needed reforms, Tho harshness of tho Navigation Acts was softened; but tho greatest advance was in reforming tho general tariff. Thero were, it was said, fifteen hundred Acts in operation governing the collection of customs' revenue', and it was a hard task to codo aud simplify them. Duties wero remitted on many items and reduced greatly on others, and a great increaso in trade and in revenue resulted. A large nurnbe-r of reciprocity treaties were made with other countries.

the whole internal trade was minutely regulated, while in times of dearth exports' were prohibited and prices wero assessed.

Later Mercantilists built up an elaborate system of protection, to encourage, as fur. as possible, the development oi tho national resources. "Monopolies and patents were granted within the 'country, shipping was artificially fostered by the costly Navigation Acts, the colouies were administered in the iui Wests of tbe mother country, and i thero were high import duties and jevon prohibitions of import. .This, th<-v I high-water mark of Governmental iuiterveution, seems to have been of jdoubtful beueiit to England, if it [ built up some trades, it ruined others I and always cost tho consumer dearly. | THE REVOLUTION OF 1688. ; Tho Civil War which tills so great a ! space in tho history of tho 17lh cenjtury, was brought to its logical coiir ! elusion in 16S8, when the landowners obtained supreme control of the English Parliament., a control'they mnin'taiued till 1832. In tho Middlo;Ages, exports of corn had been prohibited, tho restrictions had.been gradually removed till tho Elizabethan statesmen had actuallyencouraged export. By 1670, the landowning interest was sufficiently strong to "forco a Bill through Parliament, imposing an import duty of 16s. -Id. as loug as the price was below 535. Id. per quarter. The first Revolutionary Purliameut.in 1680, carried tho process a step, further by giving a bounty of os.- per quarter as long as the prico was below 48s. At tho same time . imports wero restricted by heavy duties, and tho tariff was thus manipulated in favour of tho predominant political party. The minute system of protection which had been fostered by Mercantilism was the subject of the famous attack by Adam Smith, and in the "Wealth of Nations," ho exposed tho Com Laws convincingly. Tho wholo fiscal was in the utmost confusion at this time, and tho Younger -Pitt, under the influence- of Smith's tPiK-hhvT, b«gan some reform* which tended towards Free Trade, But tho outbreak of war with France in 1.703 put aride all attempts at fiscal reform by tho patent necessity of revenue. CHANCED CONDITIONS. Meanwhile England had undergone J dlio greatest revolution in her history and her industrial structure''was fundamentally changed. With tho coming of machinery und the growth of in.'inu-f'actur-es, agriculture was displaced from its position as iho staple industry of the country, and England instead of exporting corn, began to feel tho need of a steady import. I'riccs rose sharply, and iv 177'S, after a year of exceptional.-dearth, far Ii amcft I reduced"the duty on corn '(o tho.nominal figure ef sixpence a. quarter: 'P'il- 'U thVgoocl seasonp .Trhieh followed, price? we.ro r-o low thai the <:r.v war raked that farmers ivere ruined and landlord? distressed, so that in 1701 a new Corn Law war- enacted. This law which w»& in force during the whole period ol" war, 170:3-1*1 5. c,y.vo nn unhealthy stimulus to tillace, nnd raised prices greatly. Tho whole bene tit seems to have gono to the landowners —in the period of twenty years rents increased 70 per cent. Jn 1.7V5 the price of wheat, was so high that famine was averted only by the Government seizins all neutral wheat