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Untitled Article
than in Paris . Surely , as yet we have evolved no cause for the protection of the landed interest at the expense of the aggregate interest of the commonwealth .
But if no adequate reason appears for the impoverishment of the bulk of the community , in order to aggrandize the landlords , it is easy to trace the maleficent operation of " corn-laws" in the affairs of commerce . Mr . W . R . Grey stated before a Parliamentary Committee , that on account of cheap food in Austria , Hungary , Naples , Switzerland , and in
the north of Germany , cotton mills were being erected ; that our customers would become our competitors . What is the feeling of all corn-exporting countries towards England at this moment ? Tf we wade through the evidence adduced before the last Parliamentary Committee on shipping and commerce ; or if we ask Dr . Bo wring " , we shall find that they have an enmity against us for excluding their grain , and it will be strange if they do not adopt the lex talionis with regard to our manufactures .
It may be contended that we cannot compete with foreigners in our own corn market . Why not ?—They would have to pay expenses amounting to from 6 s . to 12 . 9 . per quarter on their corn before it was put up for sale . Is not that sum a sufficient protection for the home grower?—True , that in some countries the labourers are the mere serfs of the soil . —
But they eat , drink , and are merry . —What are our rural peasants ? High rent * , and high rents alone , prevent our farmers from growing , on all soils that ought to be in arable cultivation , wheat , as cheaply as it can be brought to England . If we look at the report of the Poor-law Commissioners , we find , as in the cases of Lenham and
Eastbourne , the utmost agricultural distress , we find money borrowed to support the poor , but we find also that the landlord took as much for re ? tt as would be required to pay for the labour of the whole cultivation of those places . The cause of agricultural distress is obvious . If farmers were
prosperous instead of distressed , there might be some plausibility in contending for the present system of monopoly , but such is not the fact . Prices must fluctuate as production varies ; and as the landlords make the laws , they will invariably be made for the landlord ' s benefit , malgre his tenant or his tenant ' s customer .
The repeal of these laws of prohibition on importation under a certain price would regulate and render uniform the prices in our market . Such was the case between the years 1773 and 1791 , wheat being allowed to be imported into this country when the price was at 48 s ., paying 6 d . duty . This was deemed a period of agricultural prosperity , and exhibits a valuable lesson to the political economist with regard to this subject .
Untitled Article
tli Corn Laws .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1836, page 214, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2656/page/22/
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