ABSTRACT
Many students find it strange that in 1846 a great political party should have broken up over a trading regulation. Considered in purely economic terms, of course, the Corn Laws amounted to precisely this. A simple explanation of their purpose, however, will quickly suggest that they had a far more important political resonance. The famous Corn Law of 1815 had been passed to ensure that, with food prices across Europe dropping sharply at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, British producers would have some protection against the dumping of large quantities of grain at rock-bottom prices.
