In 1859, the Peelites merged with the Whigs and the Radicals to form the Liberal Party. They funded writers like William Cooke Taylor to travel the manufacturing regions of northern England to research their cause. Why was the Corn Law abolished? Scholars have advanced several explanations to resolve the puzzle of why Peel made the seemingly irrational decision to sacrifice his government to repeal the Corn Laws, a policy which he had long opposed. In 1914 Britain was dependent on imports for four-fifths of her wheat and 40% of her meat. "[21] He voted against repeal each year from 1837 to 1845. Cobden and the rest of the Anti-Corn Law League believed that cheap food meant greater real wages and Cobden praised a speech by a working man who said: When provisions are high, the people have so much to pay for them that they have little or nothing left to buy clothes with; and when they have little to buy clothes with, there are few clothes sold; and when there are few clothes sold, there are too many to sell, they are very cheap; and when they are very cheap, there cannot be much paid for making them: and that, consequently, the manufacturing working man's wages are reduced, the mills are shut up, business is ruined, and general distress is spread through the country. [29], In 1845 and 1846, the first two years of Great Famine in Ireland, there was a disastrous fall in food supplies. [46][47] However, unlike most other European governments, his government did not revive tariffs on imported cereals to save their farms and farmers. In 1886, the wheat price decreased to 31 shillings a quarter. The industrialists and urban dwellers were unhappy with the Corn Laws which resulted in the government abolishing the laws. (i) The laws allowing the British Government to restrict import of corn is known as "Corn Law". In 1842,[20] Peel's fellow-Conservative Monckton Milnes said, at the time of this concession, that Villiers was "the solitary Robinson Crusoe sitting on the rock of Corn Law repeal". [41] Agriculture's contribution to the national income was about 17% in 1871; by 1911 it was less than 7%. On 25 June the Duke of Wellington persuaded the House of Lords to pass it. [19], The Importation Act 1822 decreed that corn could be imported when the price of domestically harvested corn rose to 80/- (£4) per quarter but that the import of corn would again be prohibited when the price fell to 70/- per quarter. The laws became the focus of opposition from urban groups who had far less political power than rural areas. Explain. Your IP: 148.251.1.231 In 1878 the price fell to 46 shillings and 5 pence. After Parliament was recalled the CAPS started a campaign of resistance. They were designed to keep grain prices high to favour domestic producers, and represented British mercantilism. "[36], The price of wheat during the two decades after 1850 averaged 52 shillings a quarter. Reduced standard of living and food shortages due to poor harvests led to riots. "[33] The latter defeat forced Peel to resign as Prime Minister. [47] Ensor said that the difference between Britain and the Continent was due to the latter having conscription; rural men were thought to be the best suited as soldiers.