[Added by Marjie Bloy, Ph.D. with the full consent and kind permission of Dr Boyd Hilton. The information is taken from his book, Corn Cash, Commerce: the economic policies of the Tory Governments 1815-30 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 6).]
The Corn Laws that have been held responsible for the economic downturn in the British economy after 1815 had a long history. This table traces the changes and proposed changes to the legislation between 1773 and 1815. Information on the currency used may be found by following this link.
| Foreign wheat per quarter |
North American colonial wheat per quarter | ||
| 1773 Corn Law | Export |
prohibited at or above 44/- |
|
| Import | 6d duty at or above 48/- 22/- duty at and under 44/- |
||
| 1804 Corn Law | Export | prohibited about 54/- free at 49/- to 54/- |
|
| Import |
7½d. duty at or above 66/- |
7½d. duty at or above 56/- 3/1½d. duty at 53/- to 55/-. 30/3¾d. duty under 53/- |
|
| This Act rarely operated until after the bumper harvest of 1813 | |||
| 1806 | Anglo-Irish corn trade made free | ||
| 1813 Parliamentary select committee (Parnell's proposals) | Export | prohibited above 90/2d free at or below 90/2d |
|
| Import | 6d duty above 135/2d 2/6d duty at 105/2d to 135/2d 24/3 duty below 105/2d |
The preference on colonial grain to cease and the same duties to apply. | |
| Price levels at which these duties would operate were to be reviewed annually, with reference to averages over the previous twenty years | |||
| May 1814 (Parnell's proposal) | Import | 6d duty above 87s. 2/6d duty at 84/- to 87/- 24/3d duty below 84/- |
6d duty above 77/- 2/6d duty at 74/- to 77/- 24/3d duty below 74/- |
| May 1814 Corn Bill (based on Huskisson's proposal | Import | 1/- duty at or above 87/- |
6d duty at or above 86/- |
|
Duty to fall by 1/- for every 1/- rise in price
|
|||
| 24/- duty at or below 64/- | 12/- duty at or below 64/- | ||
| All corn to be admitted freely to warehouses | |||
| 1814 | all bounties and restrictions on export were repealed. | ||
| January 1815 | Vansittart (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) proposed a fixed 8/- duty on imports | ||
| 1815 Corn Laws | Import |
free at or above 80/- |
free at or above 67/- prohibited below 67/- |
| All corn to be admitted freely to warehouses | |||
| (Appropriate duties were fixed for rye, barley and oats for each of the above proposals) | |||
Last modified 12 March 2002