Ideology, Interest Groups, and the Repeal of the Corn Laws

Abstract

There is no question that the repeal of the Corn Laws was consistent with classical economic analysis or that free trade policies in Great Britain increased economic efficiency in international markets. But despite the fact that "rivers of ink has been spilled on the repeal of the Corn Laws" (Kindleberger [1975], p. 30), economic analysis has rarely been directed at the repeal campaign itself. While some writers have asserted a conflict between the manufacturing and agricultural classes, the organizational nexus of the repeal agitation - the National Anti-Corn Law League of 1838-1846 - has escaped close scrutiny by economists