New-York tribune., 1903-01-21
CORN LAWS AND BREAD.

CORN LAWS AND BREAD.
Tho british revenue statistics reported the
o+bar dav bv orr London correspondent in his
cable disnatches must be disheartening to the
orists of the simon pure Golden school Ihey
fell us. in brief that the revenue from the NE"
corn laws to wit, the grain duties anu 'ii0
tariff on sugar. will exceed $37, 100000 in the
current fiscal year, and that they nave ca"seu
no increase in the cost, to the consumer ol
bread or sugar. That result is exactly the op-
posite of that which the Cobden1tes connoentis
predicted The new laws were they declaleo'
nrotection1st in character and a shameful de-
parture from the free trade faith once delivered
TO the saints; they would produce only an IN
significant revenue, and they were certain u
cause an oppressive and intolerable increase IN
the cost of the necessary food of the people.
Accordingly they raised a great political cam
naign cry against the government for taxing
the noor mans Loaf Their feelings at finding
both of their predictions exactly contrad'cted
would best be left to the imagination.
Yet the reported result of the new corn
laws" should surprise no one who is tamlllar
with the history of such legislation IN Great
Britain. The notion now and then put Iorth
with fine audacity by free trade theorists thdI
corn laws make bread dear while free traoc
makes it cheap, will not bear the test OF STA
tistical analysis In the last two centuries Eng
land had two periods of strict protection and
two of free trade; and the price Of bread, or OF
wheat in her domestic markets was on the
whole lower in the former than in the latter
Thus from 100 to 1855, under strict protection,
the price remained low and uniform, despite the
fact that for much of that time England was
engaged in serious wars. In 1853 the corn
laws" were abolished, and in the next few
,o,.sao Of hoe
more than So per cent and as soon as serious
foreign wars came on it rose to famine height.
In 1915 protection was re-established, where
upon the price of wheat began to decline rapid
", reaching, in 1885. the lowest figure it knew
in the first half of that century, being then less
than 40 Der cent of what it was in the preced-
ing years of free trade Again, in 1916, the
corn laws were repealed and in the thirty
years following the average price of wheat was
more than two Shillings a quarter higher than
in the years preceding the repeal, and during
the Crimean War it rose to nearly twice what
it was in 1885. Finally, year before last, the
corn laws" were partially remposed, but there
has been no perceptible increase, but in some
cases an actual decrease, of the price of wheat,
while as our London correspondent shrewdly
points out, coffee and meat, on which no new
tax was imposed, have risen in price!
We are not arguing that the relation between
these changes of tariff and changes of price has
invariably been one of cause and effect But,
then, neither can it be correctly argued that
whenever an increase of tariff is followed by
an increase of price, or a reduction Of tariff is
followed by a reduction of price the law of
cause and effect is operative. Other conditions
and circumstances must be taken into consider
alton. We must remember, for example that
the agitation against the corn laws which cul-
minated in the repeal Of 1916 was really in
spired not by scarcity of wheat and high price Of
bread, for wheat plenty and bread was not
costly, but rather by. monetary crisis. The
United States drained the gold out of England,
the Bank of England saved itself from bank
ruptcy by stringently contracting the currency,
and there in consequence great industrial
depression. The trouble not that bread
was dear, for in fact it cheaper than it had
been for half a century, with the exception of
single year, but rather that men were out of
work, or working for very low wages, and so
could not buy it at no matter how low price.
The result of the present corn laws and sugar
duty, in raising handsome revenue without in
creasing the cost of the commodities con ctrned,
will probably go far toward freeing the subject
from the fallacious glamour with which it was
surrounded by the theorists and rhetoricians Of
the Manchester school. AS between such ''pro-
tective" measures these, which produce S37-
100000 year without burdening the people
and the income tax which is either burdensome
or provocative of perjury, the practical minded
Englishman is not likely long to hesitate