Free Trade, Laissez-Faire and the Corn Laws

Many industrial-age thinkers believed in laissez-faire, the idea that governments should interfere as little as possible in the economy. Building on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776), economists such as David Ricardo argued for free trade and specialization. The Corn Laws of 1815, which taxed imported grain to protect landowners, became the great test. Manufacturers argued that they raised food prices, forcing up wages and hurting exports.

The Anti-Corn Law League, founded in 1838 and led by Richard Cobden and John Bright, ran a powerful national campaign. In 1846 Prime Minister Robert Peel, influenced by the Irish famine, repealed the Corn Laws, splitting his Conservative Party. Free trade became British policy for decades. Yet the same era saw growing factory and public health regulation, showing that 'laissez-faire' was a strong ideal rather than a complete description of policy.