ROBERT PEEL E LA RIFORMA DOGANALE DEL 1846: DALL’ABOLIZIONE DELLE CORN LAWS ALL’ETÀ DEL FREE TRADE

The essay seeks to bring out the role of Conservative Prime Minister Robert Peel in establishing the principles of free trade in British politics. The 19th century had seen the blossoming of liberalism in economic theory and the emergence of modern protectionism in trade policies. Paul Bairoch describes that era as “an ocean of protectionism that surrounded a few liberalist islands.” A turning point in this process is the historic abolition of the Corn Laws on May 15, 1846. That date is rightly regarded as the beginning of the age of free trade. In Britain, the political struggle between advocates of liberalism and proponents of protectionism began in the aftermath of the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The Corn Laws introduced in 1815 prohibited the importation of grain; an obstacle to free trade remained the heavy protection afforded to domestic agriculture. In 1846 Peel abolished the Corn Laws after years of debate that arose within the country and within the Conservative Party, the same party that had presented itself to the electorate as the advocate of protectionism. From then on, all British governments would pursue a laissez-faire trade policy, increasingly becoming an open economy. The paper addresses the motivations, both theoretical and practical, that led Robert Peel to follow the path of free trade, effectively splitting his party between supporters and opponents of liberalism. Indeed, O’Rourke and Williamson asked why Peel chose the repeal of the Corn Laws, effectively undermining his political career. Central elements in Peel’s governing actions were, on the one hand, his belief in the benefits brought to the economic system by trade liberalization and, on the other, political realism in the face of the looming famine in Ireland. Having become a champion of liberalism, Peel went against his own party in that he understood the efficiency of free trade in getting his country through that phase of stagnation, aggravated by the situation in Ireland. Also evident in the debate is the growing role assumed by interest groups on policy choices and especially on British public opinion, both those supporting the now declining agricultural classes and those supporting the rising manufacturing classes. In the summer of 1845, inclement weather and a disastrous potato harvest in Ireland accelerated the liberalization process. Customs reform directly and indirectly stimulated international trade, materializing in the ratification of the Anglo-French Trade Treaty of 1860. The treaty, followed by a series of similar treaties, determined a real tariff disarmament on the Continent, reaching the highest point of European liberalism, so much so that it opened a new phase in the history of diplomatic and trade relations; the age of free trade. Finally, this is intended to bring out how the reforms of the Peel government put into practice the theories of the economists of its time, particularly the writings of Frederic Bastiat and the speeches of Richard Cobden, leader of the Anti Corn Laws League, by implementing that complete freedom of trade which, by opening the market to the forces of competitive free enterprise, pursued the ideal of peace among nations through free trade.