Summary
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Corn Laws. In 1815 the British Government passed legislation which artificially inflated the price of corn. The measure was supported by landowners but strongly opposed by manufacturers and the urban working class. In the 1830s the Anti-Corn Law League was founded to campaign for their repeal, led by the Radical Richard Cobden. The Conservative government of Sir Robert Peel finally repealed the laws in 1846, splitting his party in the process, and the resulting debate had profound consequences for the political and economic future of the country.
With:
Lawrence Goldman Fellow in Modern History at St Peter's College, Oxford
Boyd Hilton Former Professor of Modern British History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity College
Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey Reader in Political Science at the London School of Economics
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
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| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:38.7 | For more details about in our time and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co. |
| 0:43.2 | UK slash radio 4. I hope you enjoy the program. |
| 0:47.0 | Hello one evening in March 1815 a riot broke out in Canterbury |
| 0:51.8 | according to the following's edition of the Times, |
| 0:55.0 | quote, a number of the lower orders paraded the effigy of a noble Earl through the principal streets |
| 0:59.6 | of the city, and in the evening consigned it to the flames amidst hootings, hisses and groans. |
| 1:05.6 | The protesters then broke the windows of the local MPs before two of their ringleaders |
| 1:09.8 | were arrested and thrown into jail. |
| 1:12.0 | Similar events unfolded elsewhere in Britain. The |
| 1:14.1 | Rioters were protesting against the Corn Laws. Legislation introduced to |
| 1:18.2 | control the price of grain. Past in 1815 the Corn Laws led to an ideological dispute between manufacturers and landowners, |
| 1:26.3 | city dwellers and farmers. |
| 1:28.0 | They were eventually repealed by Robert Pills government in 1846 after three decades of disagreement. The episode led to a major |
| 1:35.3 | alteration in government policy and some argue changed the face of British politics. |
| 1:39.6 | With me to discuss the corn laws are Lawrence Goldman, fellow in Modern History at St. Peter's College, Oxford, |
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