ABSTRACT
The story of the successful campaign mounted by the Anti-Corn Law League which resulted in the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 – an event which, according to Anthony Howe, launched Britain on a course seeking 'to lead the world towards a peaceful order based on free commercial exchange between nations'. Charles Villiers had sought the repeal of the Corn Laws as early as 1826, during his unsuccessful candidacy at Kingston-upon-Hull, and he had been elected for Wolverhampton on a free trade/anti-corn law platform in 1835. Villiers spent the whole of the parliamentary recess travelling widely on the Continent, where he observed the current state of trade and manufacturing and acquired further evidence to support the case for Repeal. Moreover, Villiers broadened the case for Repeal by emphasising the deleterious effects of the Corn Laws on local and general taxation and illustrating how repeal would lift existing burdens on county and borough ratepayers.
