Abstract
The repeal of the English Corn Laws on 26 June 1846 was an epoch-making event in the history of international economic policy. The decision was significant, perhaps more because of its symbolic value than for any dramatic impact on international economic relationships.
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Notes and References
Thweatt, op. cit. p. 208.
William D. Grampp, ‘Economic Opinion when Britain turned to Free Trade’, History of Political Economy, vol. 14, no. 4 (1982) p. 508.
Sir James Graham, M.P., Corn and Currency: in an Address to the Landowners (London: Ridgway, 1826) p. 21.
The attitude of one of these landowners, Lord Sheffield: ‘I know nothing of Ricardo, nor of Hume, nor of any of the other writers, nor of their works’ was fairly typical. Remark quoted in Boyd Hilton, Corn, Cash and Commerce: The Economic Policies of the Tory Governments, 1815–1830 (Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1977) p. 9.
G. J. Stigler, ‘Do Economists Matter?’ Southern Economic Journal, vol. 42, no. 3 (Jan 1976) pp. 347–8.
Asa Briggs, The Age of Improvement (London: Longmans, 1959) p. 201.
Gertrude Himmelfarb, The Idea of Poverty: England in the Early Industrial Age (London: Faber & Faber, 1984) p. 101.
Cobbett’s Political Register, issues for November and December 1807.
See Mill’s review of Spence’s pamphlet in Eclectic Review 3 (Dec 1807) p. 1056 and Commerce Defended in D. Winch (ed.) James Mill: Selected Economic Writings (Edinburgh, 1966) pp. 23–35.
See J. S. Chipman, ‘Balance of Payments Theory’, in J. Creedy and D. P. O’Brien (eds) Economic Analysis in Historical Perspective (London: Butterworths, 1984) pp. 209–10.
Torrens, The Economists Refuted, pp. 15–26, 30–1, 50–1.
Spiegel, op. cit. p. 199.
Leonard Horner (ed.) Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner, M.P. 2 vols. (London, 1843) vol. II, p. 227.
Malthus, Essay on Population, 5th ed. pp. 408–9.
Ibid. pp. 426–7.
Malthus, Essay on Population, 2nd ed., p. 166.
Idem. 3rd ed. (1806) vol. II, p. 237.
The full title of Ricardo’s pamphlet is An Essay on the Influence of a low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock; shewing the Inexpediency of Restrictions on Importations: with Remarks on Mr Malthus’s two last Publications
Hollander’s interpretation is contained in his The Economics of David Ricardo, op. cit. pp. 599–642, and ‘Ricardo and the Corn Laws: A Revision’, History of Political Economy, vol. 9, no. 1 (Spring 1977) pp. 1–47.
For the traditional view that Ricardo’s profit theory originated in concern over the Corn Laws see Blaug, Ricardian Economics: A Historical Study (New Haven, Conn.: Yale U.P. 1958) pp. 31–2;
Maurice Dobb, Theories of Production and Distribution Since Adam Smith (Cambridg U.P., 1973) pp. 89–90;
D. P. O’Brien, J. R. McCulloch: A Study in Classical Economics (London, 1970) p. 296.
Ricardo, Works, vol. VI, p. 104.
R. L. Meek, ‘The Decline of Ricardian Economics in England’, Economica, vol. 17 (1950) p. 50.
See Anthony Arblaster, The Rise and Decline of Western Liberalism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1984) p. 249.
Edwin Cannan, History of the Theories of Production and Distribution in English Political Economy from 1776 to 1848, 3rd ed. (London: Staples Press, 1953) p. 391.
Ricardo, Works, vol. IV, p. 26 n.
Ibid. vol. VI, p. 109.
Ibid. vol. IV, p. 179.
Ibid. vol. IV, p. 41.
‘Mr Owen’s Plans for Relieving the National Distress’, Edinburgh Review, 32 (Oct 1819) p. 459. All articles in the Edinburgh were unsigned, but the work has been attributed to Torrens although McCulloch is sometimes mentioned as being the author.
Torrens, Essay on the Production of Wealth (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1821) pp. 252–60.
Ibid. p. 119.
Torrens, Essay Upon the External Corn Trade, p. 257.
Ibid. p. 256.
Ibid. p. 235, 331–2.
Torrens, Tracts on Trade and Finance, no. II (London, 1852) pp. 48–9.
Eclectic Review, n.s. 2 (July 1814) pp. 4–5.
Andrea Maneschi, ‘Dynamic Aspects of Ricardo’s International Trade Theory’, Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 35, no. 1 (Mar 1983) p. 79.
See also the article by Vivian Walsh, ‘Ricardian Foreign Trade Theory in the Light of the Classical Revival’, Eastern Economic Journal, vol. 5, no. 3 (Oct 1979) pp. 421–7
Ricardo, Works, vol. I, p. 132.
Hollander, Economics of Ricardo, op. cit. p. 604.
D. P. O’Brien, ‘Ricardian Economics and the Economics of David Ricardo’, Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 33, no. 3 (Nov 1981) p. 376.
Blaug, Ricardian Economics, op. cit. pp. 31–2. Joan Robinson said: ‘He used it as a horror story.’ Robinson, op. cit. vol. V, p. 141.
For a critique of Berg’s interpretation see the review of her book by Gregory Claeys and Prue Kerr, ‘Mechanical Political Economy’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, vol. 5 (1981) pp. 251–72.
O’Brien, ‘Ricardian Economics …’ (1981) op. cit. p. 381.
Ibid. p. 251.
Blaug, Ricardian Economics, op. cit. p. 211.
Ricardo, Works, vol. V, pp. 187–8.
Ibid. vol. IV, p. 243. See also idem, Ricardo to McCulloch (Mar 1821) vol. VIII, pp. 355–60.
William D. Grampp, ‘Economic Opinion and Free Trade’, op. cit. p. 510.
Ricardo, Works, vol. VIII, p. 208.
Ibid. vol. I, p. 343.
Ibid. p. 340.
See the interesting paper by William Grampp, ‘Scots, Jews, and Subversives among the Dismal Scientists’, Journal of Economic History vol. 36, no. 3 (Sep 1976) pp. 543–71, on the lampooning of the classical economists at the hands of popular, xenophobic writers.
Ricardo, Works, vol. I, p. 94.
J. M. Letiche, ‘Adam Smith and David Ricardo on Economic Growth’, in Bert F. Hoselitz, J. J. Spengler et al., Theories of Economic Growth (Glenco, Ill.: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1960) p. 80.
Ricardo, Works, vol. I, pp. 137–8.
J. S. Mill commented on the issue in two articles for the Westminster Review — ‘The Corn Laws’, Apr 1825 and ‘The New Corn Law’, January 1827 reprinted in Collected Works, op. cit.
Mill, Collected Works, op. cit. vol. IV, p. 47.
Ibid. p. 64.
Ibid. p. 143. For an excellent account of the arguments used in the parliamentary debates on the Corn Laws during 1824–30 see Barry Gordon, Economic Doctrine and Tory Liberalism 1824–30 (London, Macmillan: 1979) pp. 52–66.
Melvyn Krauss, The New Protectionism (New York, 1979) p. XXIII, also p. 6.
Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) 1: col. 673 (30 May 1820).
See the reference in Grampp, ‘Scots, Jews, and Subversives’, op. cit. p. 565.
Annual Register, 1820 (London, 1822) vol. I, p. 70.
For a revealing discussion of the analytical issues and personalities involved in the Australian case for protection see the exchanges between Paul A. Samuelson and Gary J. Manger in Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 96, no. 1 (Feb 1981) pp. 147–70.
Torrens, Tracts on Finance and Trade, vol II (London: Chapman & Hall, 1852) p. 32.
Malthus, Essay on Population, 5th ed. ii, pp. 409–10.
Ibid. pp. 403–4.
Ricardo to Malthus, 16 Sep 1814, Works, vol. VI, p. 134, and
Works, vol. VIII, p. 22.
J. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi, Nouveau Principes d’Economie politique (1819) (Paris: Caiman-Levy, 1971 pp. 265–6.
Jean-Baptiste Say, Letter to Mr Malthus on Several Subjects of Political Economy, and on the Cause of the Stagnation of Commerce, trans. John Richter (London: Sherwood, Neely & Jones, 1821) p. 8.
Robinson, op. cit. vol. I, p. 189.
Chipman, op. cit. pp. 711 and 713. Part 2 The Neo-Classical Theory’.
R. Torrens, A Letter to the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1837) p. 143.
Malthus, Principles of Political Economy (London: John Murray, 1820) p. 329.
Sir W. Sleeman, On Taxes, or Public Revenue (London: Elder & Co., 1829) p. 198.
G. Poulett Scrope, Principles of Political Economy (London: Longman, Rees, 1833) pp. 378–82.
G. Poulett Scrope, ‘The Political Economists’, Quarterly Review, vol. 44 (1831) p. 24.
Arthur I. Bloomfield, ‘Effect of Growth on the Terms of Trade: Some Earlier Views’, Economica, vol. 51 (May 1984).
Torrens, Letter to Lord John Russell, op. cit. pp. 132–3.
Frank Whitson Fetter, ‘Robbins on Torrens’, Economica (Nov 1958) p. 346.
For Senior’s criticism see his article ‘Free Trade and Retaliation’, Edinburgh Review, vol. LXXVIII (July 1843) pp. 1–47.
Ibid. p. 42.
McCulloch’s critique is to be found on pp. 166–8 of the 1849 ed. of his Principles.
McCulloch, Principles (1849) p. 166 and pp. 151–2. O’Brien’s comments are in J. R. McCulloch: A Study in Classical Economics, op. cit. pp. 227–8.
For a good discussion of the controversy between Senior and Torrens, see Marian Bowley, op. cit. pp. 225–8.
Torrens, The Budget, op. cit. pp. 177 and 66.
Torrens, A Letter to Lord John Russell, op. cit. p. 133.
Colonel Torrens, Speech in the House of Commons on the Motion for a Reappointment of a Select Committee on Emigration, February 15 1827 (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, 1828).
Quoted in S. A. Meenai, ‘Robert Torrens 1780–1864’, Economica (Feb 1956) p. 55.
R. Davis, The Industrial Revolution and British Overseas Trade (Leicester: Leicester U.P., 1979) p. 75.
John Craig, Remarks on Some Fundamental Doctrines of Political Economy (Edinburgh, 1821) pp. 101–2.
Hansard, n.s. 18 (1828) cols 1553–5.
Torrens’s speech 15 Feb 1827 quoted in F. W. Fetter, op. cit. p. 163.
On colonisation schemes and the economists’ involvement in the debate, see R. N. Ghosh, Classical Macroeconomics and the Case for Colonies (Calcutta: New Age, 1967) pp. 25–38 and 228–45.
J. S. Mill, Collected Works, op. cit. vol. IV, p. 258.
Ibid. p. 251.
Ibid. p. 258.
Ibid. p. 55.
Ibid. p. 70.
J. S. Mill, Principles (1852) 5th ed. vol II, p. 163.
Mill, Principles (W. J. Ashley ed.) p. 739.
Mill, Some Unsettled Questions, op. cit. p. 45.
Donald N. McCloskey, ‘Magnanimous Albion: Free Trade and British National Income, 1841–1881’, Explorations in Economic History, vol. 17 (1980) pp. 303–20.
See also criticisms of McCloskey by P. J. Nain in Explorations in Economic History, vol. 19, pp. 201–7, and McCloskey’s reply, ibid. pp. 208–10.
See C. P. Kindleberger, Comparative Studies in Trade, Finance and Growth (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U.P. 1978) p. 53.
Torrens, An Essay on the Production of Wealth (1821) pp. 288–9.
W. Sombart, Die deutsche Volkswirtschaft im neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1913) ch. 14.
Hansard, n.s. 12 (1825) col. 1213. When the U.S. Congress increased tariffs sharply in 1828 Huskisson called for retaliation. See Hansard, n.s. 19 (1828) cols 1768–70.
J. H. Clapham, An Economic History of Modern Britain, vol. 1 (Cambridge U.P., 1939) p. 479.
Lord Welby, Cobden’s Work and Opinions, p. 18, quoted in J. A. Hobson, Richard Cobden: The International Man (London, 1919) p. 20.
Wealth of Nations, ed. Cannan vol. I, pp. 422–3.
Hamilton’s argument was presented in his Report on the Subject of Manufactures (1791) and
List’s in The National System of Political Economy (1841) (London: Longman, 1928).
See A. Emmanuel, Profit and Crises (London: Heinemann, 1984) p. 3 n. 4.
Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis, op. cit. p. 505.
Mill, Principles (W. J. Ashley ed.) (London: Longmans Green, 1909) p. 922.
M. C. Kemp, ‘The Mill-Bastable Infant-Industry Dogma’, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 68 (Feb 1960), pp. 65–7.
Cobden Club Pamphlet, John Stuart Mill on the Protection of Infant Industries (London, 1911) pp. 11, 13–15, 17.
See also J. S. Mill, Collected Works, vol. 16, ed. F. E. Mineka and D. W. Lindley (Toronto U.P., 1972) pp. 1043–4, 1150–1, 1419–20 and 1520–1.
Harry Johnson, ‘A New View of the Infant Industry Argument’, in I. A. McDougall and Richard H. Snape (eds) Studies in International Economics: Monash Conference Papers (Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1970) p. 60.
Mill, Principles (1848) (W. J. Ashley ed.) p. 581.
For a good summary of writings on this and other nineteenth-century issues about trade, technology and growth see Arthur I. Bloomfield, ‘The Impact of Growth and Technology on Trade in Nineteenth-century British Thought’, History of Political Economy, vol. 10, no. 4 (1978) pp. 608–35.
Ricardo, Works, vol. V, pp. 302–3.
Ibid. vol. I, pp. 396–7.
Ibid. vol. V, p. XX.
Hansard, n.s. 13 (1825) col. 1233.
Malthus, Additions to the Fourth and Former Editions of Essay on Population (London: John Murray, 1817) p. 108;
J. R. McCulloch, On Commerce (London, 1833) p. 9.
William Playfair, An Inquiry into the Permanent Causes of the Decline and Fall of Powerful and Wealthy Nations (London, 1805) pp. 212, 203.
Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) Second Series, vol. XVI, (6 Dec 1826) cols 294–5. Alexander Baring (the banker), who introduced Torrens to the House, congratulated him afterwards on his speech: ‘It had been for so long a time the habit to look upon any man as a Goth who dissented from the modern doctrine of political economy’, that it was indeed a pleasure to welcome Torrens to the House. Ibid. col. 296.
Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) Third Series, vol. xxiv, 2 July 1834, col. 1088; vol. XXV, (2 Aug 1834) col. 908.
F. W. Fetter, ‘Robert Torrens: Colonel of Marines and Political Economist’, Economica (May 1962) p. 165.
Nassau Senior, Three Lectures on the Cost of Obtaining Money and Some Effects of Private and Government Paper Money (1830) op. cit. pp. 25–6, 30.
Lord King’s Speech, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) n.s. vol. xxiii (29 Mar 1830) cols 969–70, 969–70, 973–4.
For McCulloch’s and Malthus’s testimony before the Committee see Select Committee on Combination Laws, Artisans and Machinery, Parliamentary Papers (1824) vol. V, cols, 592, 596 and 598.
H. R. C. Wright, Free Trade and Protection in the Netherlands, 1816–39; A Study of the First Benelux (Cambridge U.P., 1955) p. 130.
Report of the Select Committee on the Laws Relating to the Export of Tools and Machinery (30 June 1825) no. 504, p. 15.
J. Kennedy, On the Exportation of Machinery (London, 1824) p. 17.
J. S. Mill, ‘Of the Laws of Interchange Between Nations’ in Essays on Some Unsettled Questions (London: John Parker, 1844) op. cit. pp. 31–2.
‘Exportation of Machinery’, Westminster Review, III (Apr 1825) pp. 386–94.
Mill, op. cit. p. 32.
Parliamentary Papers (1841) vol. VII. Testimony of Holland Hooke, p. 52.
P. J. Cain, Economic Foundations of British Overseas Expansion 1815–1914 (London: Macmillan, 1980) p. 20.
For a detailed account of the restrictions and the role of Manchester manufacturers see A. E. Musson, ’The “Manchester School” and Exportation of Machinery’, Business History (Jan 1972) pp. 17–50.
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© 1987 Leonard Gomes
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Gomes, L. (1987). The Economists, the Corn Laws and Commercial Policy. In: Foreign Trade and the National Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08992-5_5
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