This revenue in turn supported the system of “Old Corruption” in which benefits and favors went to the elite as pensions, sinecures, and lucrative posts. The Corn Laws were the centerpiece of duties on a wide range of commodities and products, which provided the greater part of government revenue. The great winners were not tenant farmers but large landlords. The poor were particularly hard hit, since bread was the main part of their diet. This transferred income from the masses to agricultural producers. The effect was to artificially support the price of domestic grain and its products, such as bread.

Passed at various times and consolidated after 1815, these prohibited the import of grain unless the price of domestically grown produce passed a certain level.

The central institution was a system of agricultural protection known as the Corn Laws. However, his great contribution to liberty really began the following year.Īt that time Britain’s political and economic order, while more liberal than most, was still clearly a part of the ancien régime. In 1837 he made his first mark in politics when he started a successful campaign to incorporate Manchester as a self-governing borough and abolish the feudal rule of the manorial court. The man was Richard Cobden.īorn in Sussex in modest circumstances, Cobden became a successful businessman as a calico printer after his move to Manchester, the city with which his name is forever associated.

It marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of a great champion of freedom, a man who wrought a revolution not only in his own land but worldwide. June 4, 2004, was a significant date for all who care for the history and cause of human liberty.

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