------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------
Published by EH.NET (August 2007)

Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, _From the Corn Laws to Free Trade: 
Interests, Ideas, and Institutions in Historical Perspective_. 
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006. xiii + 426 pp. $47.50 (cloth), ISBN: 
0-262-19543-7.

Reviewed for EH.NET by George R. Boyer, Department of Labor 
Economics, ILR School, Cornell University.


Britain's repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 was a significant event in 
the rise of a global economy in the second half of the nineteenth 
century. Historians have written extensively about the debates over 
the pros and cons of agricultural protection that took place both in 
and out of Parliament from 1815 to 1846. However, Parliament's repeal 
of the Corn Laws in 1846 remains a puzzling event, because it was 
initiated by Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, the leader of the 
Conservative Party which as late as the election of 1841 had been 
committed to maintaining protection. Shortly after the vote to repeal 
the Corn Laws, the Conservative party fragmented and Peel's 
government collapsed. Why did Peel propose repeal, and why did enough 
Conservative MPs vote with him to achieve repeal? Why did the House 
of Lords, which was dominated by the landed aristocracy, vote for 
repeal and against their own economic interests?

In this important study, political scientist Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey 
offers a fresh explanation for the puzzle. She argues that previous 
explanations that focus on changing economic interests (as a result 
of the spread of industrialization) cannot explain the sudden shift 
in preferences that led a number of Conservative MPs (the Peelites) 
to vote for repeal in 1846. While industrialization increased the 
pressure for free trade, repeal occurred in 1846 only because Peel 
convinced his followers that a vote for repeal was in line with 
general Conservative ideology, and that it was necessary to preserve 
the political power of the landed aristocracy.

After two introductory chapters that lay out the argument and set the 
stage for what follows, Part I (Chapters 3-6) examines the growing 
demand for free trade in the 1830s and 1840s. Schonhardt-Bailey 
contends in Chapter 3 that the emergence of the Anti-Corn Law League 
as a powerful lobbying group for free trade in the 1830s was a result 
of the "geographic concentration of the core export industry (cotton 
textiles)" in Lancashire and the geographic and industrial 
deconcentration of the overall export sector. She then (Chapter 4) 
shows how the League was able to "nationalize their interest" (that 
is, appeal to the general public) by arguing that the repeal of the 
Corn Laws would lead to national prosperity, that the Corn Laws were 
immoral and anti-Christian, and that the aristocratic monopoly of 
economic and political resources was unjust. Chapter 5 presents 
evidence that in the decades leading up to repeal landowners 
diversified their portfolios by investing in railways, mining, and 
industry. Schonhardt-Bailey argues that, as a result of 
diversification, landowners in many agricultural districts shifted 
from being staunch protectionists to being neutral or even moderately 
pro free trade. This led to a cleavage in the Conservative Party 
between those MPs who continued to represent mostly agricultural and 
protectionist districts (the Non-Peelites) and those who represented 
districts with greater diversification (the Peelites). In Chapter 6, 
Schonhardt-Bailey examines roll call votes in Parliament in the 1840s 
and shows that well before 1846 "the Peelites thought about issues 
differently than Non-Peelite Conservatives did" (p. 137). However, up 
to 1846 the Peelites continued to vote for protection, and therefore 
against, to some degree, the interests of their constituents. In her 
terminology, the Peelites voted as "trustees" rather than as 
"delegates."

Part II of the book (Chapters 7-10) examines the reasons for the 
abrupt shift in 1846 of Peel and his supporters (the Peelite 
Conservatives) from protection to free trade, which paved the way for 
repeal. Schonhardt-Bailey analyzes parliamentary speeches on repeal 
using computer-assisted content analysis, in order to determine why 
MPs voted as they did. Chapter 7 analyzes 587 speeches on trade 
policy in the House of Commons between the beginning of debate on 
January 22, 1846 and the final vote on May 15, while Chapter 8 places 
the 1846 debate in context by analyzing speeches on trade policy 
during the parliamentary debates of 1814-15, 1826-28, and 1842-44. 
She finds that, largely because of the propaganda of the Anti-Corn 
Law League, "protectionist MPs were increasingly alarmed about the 
prospect of a middle-class and working-class alliance in pursuit of 
far more radical reforms than repeal" (p. 226). By the mid-1840s 
Peelites were looking for a way to remain faithful to Conservatism 
without going against the interests of their constituents. Peel 
offered them a way to do this in 1846, when he characterized repeal 
"as a means to preserve the landed basis of Parliament" (p. 187). By 
reinterpreting repeal, Peel enabled his followers to vote as 
delegates, while claiming to remain trustees of Conservative 
ideology. In Chapter 9 Schonhardt-Bailey examines the debate on 
repeal in the House of Lords. She concludes that peers decided that 
it was necessary to accept repeal in order to delay challenges from 
the middle and working classes to their political power. In sum, both 
Conservative MPs and peers realized by 1846 "that their powers as 
independent political actors (namely, trustees) were becoming limited 
by democratic activism -- made conspicuous by the lobbying of the 
Anti-Corn Law League" (p. 259).

While the book is in general very well researched, a few of 
Schonhardt-Bailey's conclusions are based on little evidence. For 
example, she writes that "had the Peelites (and therefore the 
Commons) rejected repeal, Peel's fear of a revolution similar to that 
seen in France in 1848 may well have erupted in Britain" (p. 290). 
She offers no evidence in support of this assertion (other than a 
statement by Peel in 1848 cited on page 16), and I believe it is 
unfounded. The Chartists demanded parliamentary reform and "a fair 
day's pay," not repeal of the Corn Laws, and they were never allied 
with the Anti-Corn Law League. Some Conservative MPs might have 
feared an alliance of the middle and working classes for 
parliamentary reform, as Schonhardt-Bailey suggests, but there never 
was much chance of such an alliance occurring.

The book helps to fill a hole in the literature by offering a 
detailed examination of the parliamentary debates on the Corn Laws in 
1846. Schonhardt-Bailey offers many fresh insights into the debate 
over repeal, although I suspect that not all will be convinced by her 
story that Peel and his followers, and the House of Lords, chose to 
abandon protection in order to maintain their privileged status.

This book considers only the political debate over the repeal of the 
Corn Laws; those looking for information on how the Corn Laws 
actually worked, and their effect on grain prices, wages, rents, and 
economic growth, will have to look elsewhere. Finally, the book is 
not written in a user-friendly style; readers who are not trained in 
quantitative political science will find large parts of it difficult 
to follow. That is a shame, because there is a lot to be learned 
here. _From the Corn Laws to Free Trade_ should be read by anyone 
interested in understanding one of the most important political 
debates that took place in nineteenth century Britain.


George Boyer is a Professor of Labor Economics in Cornell 
University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He currently 
is doing research on economic insecurity, safety nets, and self-help 
in nineteenth century Britain.

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