A.D. 1776 
1850. 
to the detri- 
ment of 
PONSUMETS 
It did not 
serve to 
control 
prices 30 
as to 
encourage 
730 
LAISSEZ FAIRE 
open up lines of steady trade. It was clear, moreover, that for 
the well-being of the manufacturing interest, cheap food was 
of the highest importance. The corn law of 1689 had tended 
bo increase the normal food supply of the country and to 
make prices steady; it had not been inconsistent with the 
interests of the capitalist employer, and it had made for the 
comfort of the labourer on the whole. But the attempt to 
maintain a high price, so as to extort a sufficient supply 
from the soil of England, imposed a very serious burden on 
all consumers. Had it been in the clear interest of the com- 
munity, it might have been borne patiently; but this was not 
the case. The policy was only in the obvious interest of a 
class, and as it could be depicted as demanding the sacrifice 
of the masses of the population for the benefit of a small 
class, it was resented accordingly. 
The issue, which had been concealed when the com- 
promise of 1773 was adopted, came into clear light in 
1815. Industrial progress had changed the internal balance 
of the economic powers within the realm. The policy 
of stimulating agriculture, to meet both home require- 
ments and foreign demand according to circumstances, was 
ceasing to be practical in 1773; in 1815 it was an utter 
anachronism. The advocates of protection failed to recognise 
shat under altered circumstances, the measures which had 
served to stimulate agriculture in the eighteenth century 
were no longer applicable. The conditions of the problem of 
the food supply had entirely changed, it the time when the 
home demand increased so much that England ceased to be 
a corn-exporting country. So long as it had been possible 
to count upon outflow, it was feasible by legislative regulation 
to affect its rate, and thus to keep up a steady supply 
within the country; but when the range of home prices was 
so high that there was no foreign demand for English wheat, 
the mere prohibition of import, except at famine prices, could 
have no effect in rendering the conditions of agriculture 
stable. Indeed, the new enactment only served to exaggerate 
the variations which necessarily occurred with differences in 
the seasons; the effect of the Corn Law of 1815 was to 
render farming a highly speculative business. The normal 
food production, with the existing methods, was insufficient