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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Corn Laws
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Laws regulating the import and export of grain, to ensure a sufficient home-grown supply, were a feature of British policy from the Middle Ages. But the disadvantage of restrictions on import was that prices were kept artificially high in times of shortage. The issue became politically sensitive in the 19C for two reasons: the *Napoleonic Wars and bad harvests caused successive periods of shortage; and the landowners in parliament, benefiting from high prices for the grain from their own estates, were perceived to be following naked self-interest in their support for the restrictive laws.
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The *Anti-Corn Law League, set in motion by a small group in Manchester in 1838, was developed by *Cobden and *Bright into a nationwide pressure group of the industrial and urban classes against the land-owning aristocracy. The failure of the Irish potato crop of 1845 and the resulting *Great Famine finally caused the prime minister, Robert *Peel, to act. With great difficulty, and splitting the Conservative party, he forced through the repeal of the Corn Laws on 25 June 1846.
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