The Canada Corn Act was passed in 1843 by the

British Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprem ...

and allowed Canadian grains to enter the British market at reduced duties. The act was repealed in 1846.

History

Origins

British passage of the Importation Act 1815 – the Corn Law – impacted the market for Canadian grains by restricting their importation into Britain, despite the fact Canada was part of the

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Enactment

The 1843 act was enacted to provide some relief to grain farmers in

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

, by reducing the duty of Canada wheat imported into Britain to (a nominal) 1 shilling a quarter. The reduced tariff led to increasingly profitable shipping through the St. Lawrence route. To attract business for shipping businesses in the United States, the American government responded by allowing Canadian grain bound for Britain to pass through the

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without import duties. The Act allowed for the importation to the UK of Canadian grain, be it processed or not. Accordingly, a trade sprung up in American grain, shipped to Canada for milling, and then on to the UK. This impetus caused a boom in the Canadian flour-milling industry.

Repeal

After a short time, the advantages to Canada of the Corn Act were undone when British Prime Minister

Sir Robert Peel Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ...

moved Britain towards free trade. A shortage of food caused by the Great Famine of Ireland created the need for cheap imported grain, and the act was repealed in 1846. This was seen at the time as blow to Canada by abolition of the (effective) imperial preference the act had created;G M Trevelyan, ''British History in the 19th Century'' (London 1922) p. 263 the impact of the repeal to grain exports in practice, in the later 1840s and 1850s, remains a subject of historical debate.

References

Sources