THE LANDED INTEREST AND THE CORN LAWS 729 
system of the country would go to pieces if they became 4.D.1776 
bankrupt, while the finance of the realm would be thrown 
into disorder. In any case they could urge that they had an 
equitable claim for the fullest consideration, owing to the 
incidence of national and local taxation. It was on these els 
grounds that a stringent Corn Law was passed in 1815, by was passed 
which the importation of foreign corn was prohibited, so long 
as the price of wheat did not rise above 80s.% 
It was possible to urge, and to urge in good faith, that 
the course which was so essential to the landlords asa class 
was also beneficial to the community. There was an obvious ible 
political danger in allowing the country to be normally grounds. 
dependent for its food supply on foreign sources; the nation 
had experienced the misery of famine, during the recent wars, 
at the times when the harvest had fallen short and the in- 
terruption of commerce had prevented adequate importation. 
It was plausible to insist that the country must endeavour to 
raise her own food supply from her own area, and not be 
dependent on maritime intercourse for the necessaries of life ; 
and it seemed possible that by artificially maintaining a high 
price, agricultural production might be so stimulated as to 
call forth an ample supply in good years, and a sufficient 
supply in bad ones. This was only, after all, a modification 
of the immemorial policy of the country’, in seeking to foster 
a vigorous rural population and provide adequate food. 
But times had changed since the English Revolution. but in the 
The public interest no longer coincided with the private ra 
interests of the landlord class, as had been approximately the 2 i io 
case in 16892; it had come to be closely associated with the 
private interest of the manufacturers. The hardware and 
textile industries were becoming the chief source from which 
the wealth of the country was derived. Shipping was needed, 
to fetch materials and to carry away finished goods; it had 
long ceased to have much employment in exporting our 
surplus corn. Maritime prosperity was bound up with the 
development of industry ; the shipping interest was indifferent 
to the maintenance of English tillage; and might even be 
opposed to it, since the regular importation of corn would 
1 55 Geo. III. c. 26. 2 See above, p. 85. 
8 See above, pp. 541, 542.