------------ 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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