Lecture 13 - Feb. 20th, 2019
Britain's Repeal of the Corn Laws 1846
Gary Anderson and Robert Tollison, “Ideology, Interest Groups, and the Repeal of the Corn
Laws”
Reading Notes
Lecture Notes
For the midterm:
ID’s - Fill in a bunch of points about why that term has showed up in this class.
Essay - a few pages minimum
Repeal of the Corn Laws
Domestic Politics and the Role of Ideas
- Cobden and Bright: classical liberal point of view
- Last class we discussed why the Corn laws were repealed from the perspective of a
classical Marxist.
- This lecture we will discuss why the Corn laws were repealed from the perspective of a
classical Liberal.
Britain’s Endowments in the 1840s
Britain’s Comparative Advantage - the mix of resources a country has in terms of what it can do
to make different products, etc.
- When talking about the endowments of the factors of production, we are not talking
about the absolute amounts but rather the relative distribution of these factors of
production.
, ^Capital : labour ratio is on the vertical axis
^^Labour : land ratio is on the horizontal axis
This graph tells us that:
- Britain is relatively rich in capital and labour, poor in land (relative to their other factors
of production)
- This is a reflection of accumulating capital and then winning the Napoleonic wars
- Britain was at the forefront of industrialization at this point
- Applying capital to make goods at a higher rate than elsewhere
- Who are we comparing Britain to? France, Russia, U.S., Germany, Canada
- These countries will be clearly less dense population wise than Britain
- ^this is reflected in content in trade
- What this graph is telling us is that Britain is very good at making manufactured goods
compared to other countries, that require capital and labour as inputs (except maybe
Belgium)
- What is Britain importing? Specifically goods that require a lot of land to manufacture,
i.e. agricultural goods (grain/corn)
Trade Preferences in Britain in the 1840s
How do we understand the impact of trade liberalization on domestic interests? Start with
Stolper Samuelson view;
- Applying Stolper-Samuelson: owners of relatively scarce factor(s) prefer protection,
owners of relatively abundant factor(s) prefer free trade.
- In this case: capitalists and labourers prefer free trade; landowners prefer protection
- Urban/rural cleavage (Rogowski)
- Rogowski described this as an urban/rural cleavage
Britain's Repeal of the Corn Laws 1846
Gary Anderson and Robert Tollison, “Ideology, Interest Groups, and the Repeal of the Corn
Laws”
Reading Notes
Lecture Notes
For the midterm:
ID’s - Fill in a bunch of points about why that term has showed up in this class.
Essay - a few pages minimum
Repeal of the Corn Laws
Domestic Politics and the Role of Ideas
- Cobden and Bright: classical liberal point of view
- Last class we discussed why the Corn laws were repealed from the perspective of a
classical Marxist.
- This lecture we will discuss why the Corn laws were repealed from the perspective of a
classical Liberal.
Britain’s Endowments in the 1840s
Britain’s Comparative Advantage - the mix of resources a country has in terms of what it can do
to make different products, etc.
- When talking about the endowments of the factors of production, we are not talking
about the absolute amounts but rather the relative distribution of these factors of
production.
, ^Capital : labour ratio is on the vertical axis
^^Labour : land ratio is on the horizontal axis
This graph tells us that:
- Britain is relatively rich in capital and labour, poor in land (relative to their other factors
of production)
- This is a reflection of accumulating capital and then winning the Napoleonic wars
- Britain was at the forefront of industrialization at this point
- Applying capital to make goods at a higher rate than elsewhere
- Who are we comparing Britain to? France, Russia, U.S., Germany, Canada
- These countries will be clearly less dense population wise than Britain
- ^this is reflected in content in trade
- What this graph is telling us is that Britain is very good at making manufactured goods
compared to other countries, that require capital and labour as inputs (except maybe
Belgium)
- What is Britain importing? Specifically goods that require a lot of land to manufacture,
i.e. agricultural goods (grain/corn)
Trade Preferences in Britain in the 1840s
How do we understand the impact of trade liberalization on domestic interests? Start with
Stolper Samuelson view;
- Applying Stolper-Samuelson: owners of relatively scarce factor(s) prefer protection,
owners of relatively abundant factor(s) prefer free trade.
- In this case: capitalists and labourers prefer free trade; landowners prefer protection
- Urban/rural cleavage (Rogowski)
- Rogowski described this as an urban/rural cleavage
