User Tag List

+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Anti-Corn Laws, Irish Potato Famine, and the Manchester Free Traders

  1. #1
    Points: 24,637, Level: 38
    Level completed: 23%, Points required for next Level: 1,013
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation First Class25000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Paperback Writer's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    15998
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    London/New York
    Posts
    5,543
    Points
    24,637
    Level
    38
    Thanks Given
    1,334
    Thanked 2,892x in 1,958 Posts
    Mentioned
    211 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Anti-Corn Laws, Irish Potato Famine, and the Manchester Free Traders

    Great Read Here

    Famine Versus Free Trade: The Forgotten Story of Ireland and the Manchester Liberals

    Most histories paint the great suffering of the Irish peasants as an example of market failure brought about by the hand of their wicked absentee landlords, as heard in the historical line that “the Almighty sent the potato blight but the English created the Famine.” Rather than absentee landownership, the root of the potato famine was the result of the tariff laws and tax increases. What is most often overlooked is that the potato in Ireland helped spark the ascendance of lassie-faire liberalism in English politics.

    During the Napoleonic Wars, owners of large landed estates made a fortune from the inflated prices of corn (wheat and other cereals). However, when the war with France ended and England’s sea lanes were once again safe, the landed gentry lobbied to Parliament to pass a tariff on imported grain to keep the prices at their war time levels. Like protectionists of the modern era, the aristocratic Lords of the Tory party — the same party who a generation earlier drove the American colonies into rebellion through a mercantilist system — defined the law as a patriotic because it protected English agriculture, insuring that the English would never have to depend on other nations for sustinance. Most economists of the day saw through the lies caped in the Union Jack and knew that the law protected the old-landed gentry from market forces at the expense of the poor who paid inflated prices for food.


    The effects of corn laws were most devastating in the growing industrial centers. Cities that depended on trade and industry were the envy of the anti-tory whigs, the anti-mercantilist rival to the Tory party. Whig reforms in the 1830’s expanded the ballot to the male middle class, and from this a very radical classical-liberal faction of the Whigs based in Manchester revolted from the party in the coming decade and formed another of their own, the Liberal Party. Unlike the Tory conservatives, who wanted to uphold that tradition that the state owned the people, the Manchester Liberals believed in individual liberty, being heavily influenced by the writings of Adam Smith and John Baptiste Say. The philosophy of the Liberals could be summed up by the Cobden quote, “Look not to the politicians; look to yourselves.” The Liberals stood against colonialism; to them “force was no remedy.” The quest for empire was excuses to chain the people to more debt whilst dishonoring the British nation itself through uncivilized bloodshed. Wealth was to be gained not through conquest but through trade that fostered good will among nations.
    The English landowners in Ireland made their money in growing grain, but the potato was the staple diet of the Irish laborer because it didn’t debase the soil, allowing for larger grain harvests to be grown for their landlords. There had been over 20 Potato famines since 1728, but none was as deveining as the one that struck the whole of Ireland in 1845. The crop failure that year that wiped out the staple of the Irish diet was more severe than those previous because most of the Irish had switched over to a single variety of potato.


    It is a myth that the English government did nothing for the Irish people during the crisis. They dealt with the starving Irish masses in the same manner as they did with their own poor. They set up workhouses and public works projects which often fed people less than their minimum daily caloric intake. This policy only magnified the suffering of the people, as the Irish were forced to pay a significant tax increase while suffering both a famine and credit contraction in 1844. Needless to say, starving Irish were evicted from their lands for not being able to pay the taxes that were supposed to feed them. Worse yet, many sympathetic English were dissuaded from donating because they believed that their government wouldn’t let millions go hungry.


    The central figures of the Liberal Party were John Bright and Richard Cobden. Hearing reports of the devastation championed louder than ever for the abolishment of the corn laws, they penned numerous pro-free trade pamphlets and delivered speeches in parliament and in packed public squares attacked the corn laws from all angles, social, economic and moral. The anti-corn law campaign attracted attention of Frederick Bastiat, who dreamed of starting a free trade movement on this scale in France. The forcefulness of Bright and Cobden arguments in parliament literally left the their Tory rivals who held a majority speechless. After hearing one of Cobden’s speeches, the conservative Prime Minister turned to his young aide William Gladstone — who would later defect and become the great leader of the Liberal Party — and said, “ You have to answer Cobden because I cannot.” The most unexpected thing that happened was that the Tory Prime Minister was the one who introduced the bill to repeal the corn laws. It passed, and Peel — now despised by his party — resigned. The repeal’s effect on the working classes according to philosopher Bertrand Russell “Improved their condition most remarkably.” Sadly, The repeal did not go into full effect until 1849, by then the famine had killed over a million Irish peasants.


    Like the Soviet famines of the 20th century, the Irish Potato famine was manmade. It was protectionism that killed over a million Irish. Because grain could not be imported, over a million Irish in that decade exported themselves to the United States. The story of Cobdenite liberals and their fight against protectionism has been largely forgotten, mostly because it has not been fashionable for historians to these paint radical lassie-faire advocates for what they were, champions of the poor. Irish historians themselves have ignored the efforts of the English liberals and out of nationalist bias have instead focused more on the career of Daniel O’Connell a generation before the famine. Daniel O’Connell is a figure that deserving of an SFL blog post in his own right. He was the first Irish Catholic to sit in Parliament and Irish rights to the forefront and was considered one of the greatest orators of the 19th century. Like O’Connell, Manchester liberals when arguing grounded their ideas not only with reason but most importantly with morality. The lesson that libertarians should take from the anti-corn law movement is that the ideas that conquer do so when backed with authentic moral force.

  2. The Following User Says Thank You to Paperback Writer For This Useful Post:

    Peter1469 (03-21-2014)

  3. #2
    Points: 24,637, Level: 38
    Level completed: 23%, Points required for next Level: 1,013
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation First Class25000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Paperback Writer's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    15998
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    London/New York
    Posts
    5,543
    Points
    24,637
    Level
    38
    Thanks Given
    1,334
    Thanked 2,892x in 1,958 Posts
    Mentioned
    211 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Thought I'd bring his up so that Americans understand that even libertarianism came from the UK.

  4. #3
    Points: 32,272, Level: 43
    Level completed: 88%, Points required for next Level: 178
    Overall activity: 0%
    Achievements:
    25000 Experience PointsVeteran
    The Sage of Main Street's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    15009
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Posts
    12,431
    Points
    32,272
    Level
    43
    Thanks Given
    9,384
    Thanked 2,249x in 1,927 Posts
    Mentioned
    58 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Free Traders Are Traitors

    Quote Originally Posted by Paperback Writer View Post
    Thought I'd bring his up so that Americans understand that even libertarianism came from the UK.
    You can have it back, and take the Libretardians with you. Their "free trade" is to get the cheapest product from sweatshops, deporting our jobs, and selling it for the highest profit margins in a collusion among retailers.
    On the outside, trickling down on the Insiders

    We won't live free until the Democrats, and their voters, live in fear.

  5. #4
    Points: 11,237, Level: 25
    Level completed: 44%, Points required for next Level: 513
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    SocialVeteran10000 Experience Points
    MrJimmyDale's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    2043
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Tennessee
    Posts
    1,130
    Points
    11,237
    Level
    25
    Thanks Given
    749
    Thanked 401x in 298 Posts
    Mentioned
    2 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    I learned a little.....thanks
    Quote Originally Posted by Germanicus View Post
    Gotta be the dumbest forum comment I have ever seen. And I read my own posts so..

  6. #5
    Points: 24,637, Level: 38
    Level completed: 23%, Points required for next Level: 1,013
    Overall activity: 0.1%
    Achievements:
    SocialRecommendation First Class25000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Paperback Writer's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    15998
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    London/New York
    Posts
    5,543
    Points
    24,637
    Level
    38
    Thanks Given
    1,334
    Thanked 2,892x in 1,958 Posts
    Mentioned
    211 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by The Sage of Main Street View Post
    You can have it back, and take the Libretardians with you. Their "free trade" is to get the cheapest product from sweatshops, deporting our jobs, and selling it for the highest profit margins in a collusion among retailers.
    You're obviously mental.

  7. #6
    Points: 49,511, Level: 54
    Level completed: 37%, Points required for next Level: 1,139
    Overall activity: 0%
    Achievements:
    SocialTagger First ClassRecommendation Second Class50000 Experience PointsVeteran
    Cthulhu's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    72948
    Join Date
    Sep 2013
    Location
    The spaces between cognitive thought and passive nightmares
    Posts
    13,841
    Points
    49,511
    Level
    54
    Thanks Given
    10,369
    Thanked 8,079x in 5,392 Posts
    Mentioned
    577 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    Quote Originally Posted by Paperback Writer View Post
    You're obviously mental.
    Handle with care.
    "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

    Ephesians 6:12

  8. #7
    Points: 23,893, Level: 37
    Level completed: 62%, Points required for next Level: 457
    Overall activity: 1.0%
    Achievements:
    SocialVeteran50000 Experience Points
    Newpublius's Avatar Senior Member
    Karma
    39140
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    Boynton Beach, FL
    Posts
    7,313
    Points
    23,893
    Level
    37
    Thanks Given
    1,556
    Thanked 4,123x in 2,793 Posts
    Mentioned
    94 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)
    "Because grain could not be imported, over a million Irish in that decade exported themselves to the United States."

    Ireland was exporting food during the Famine to England. It could be imported but there were duties and those duties made domestically (British isles) grains cheaper, so in an era of scarcity, Irish grain flowed to England but the Irish didn't 't have the money to import it.

+ Reply to Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts