ABSTRACT
Let us recognize that Cobden was right. It was his resolution rather than Peel’s reluctance which could lay claim to the true parentage of the Repeal of the Corn Laws. And the Repeal will always stand as a grand policy shift to the unilateral adoption of non-discriminatory free trade. There can be many ways of being right, and circumstances vary. But whether or not Cobden was right for all times and places, the Repeal presents us with a paradigm of trade liberalization of a singularly compelling kind.
