Richard Cobden
Richard Cobden was a British Radical and Liberal politician, manufacturer, and a campaigner for free trade and peace. He was associated with the Anti–Corn Law League and the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty.
As a young man, Cobden was a successful commercial traveller who became co-owner of a highly profitable calico printing factory in Sabden but lived in Manchester, a city with which he would become strongly identified. However, he soon found himself more engaged in politics, and his travels convinced him of the virtues of free trade as the key to better international relations.
In 1838, he and John Bright founded the Anti–Corn Law League, aimed at abolishing the unpopular Corn Laws, which protected landowners' interests by levying taxes on imported wheat, thus raising the price of bread. As a Member of Parliament from 1841, he fought against opposition from the Peel ministry, and abolition was achieved in 1846.
Another free trade initiative was the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty of 1860, promoting closer interdependence between Britain and France. This campaign was conducted in collaboration with John Bright and French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliament's endemic mistrust of the French.
Life
Early years
Cobden was born at a farmhouse called Dunford, in Heyshott near Midhurst, in Sussex. He was the fourth of 11 children born to Millicent and William Cobden. His family had been resident in that neighbourhood for many generations, occupied in trade and agriculture. His grandfather, Richard Cobden, owned Bex Mill in Heyshott and was a prosperous maltster who served as bailiff and chief magistrate at Midhurst. His father William however forsook malting in favour of farming, taking over the running of Dunford Farm when Richard died in 1809. A poor business man, he sold the property when the farm failed and moved the family to a smaller farm at nearby Gullard's Oak. Conditions did not improve and by 1814, after several more moves, the family eventually settled as tenant farmers in West Meon, near Alton in Hampshire.Cobden attended a dame school and then Bowes Hall School in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
Early business career
When fifteen years of age he went to London to the warehouse business of his uncle Richard Ware Cole where he became a commercial traveller in muslin and calico. His relative, noting the lad's passionate addiction to study, solemnly warned him against indulging such a taste, as likely to prove a fatal obstacle to his success in commercial life. Cobden was undeterred and made good use of the library of the London Institution. When his uncle's business failed, he joined that of Partridge & Price, in Eastcheap, one of the partners being his uncle's former partner.In 1828, Cobden set up his own business with Sheriff and Gillet, partly with capital from John Lewis, acting as London agents for Fort Brothers, Manchester calico printers. In 1831, the partners sought to lease a factory from Fort's at Sabden, near Clitheroe, Lancashire. They had, however, insufficient capital between them. Cobden and his colleagues so impressed Fort's that they consented to retain a substantial proportion of the equity. The new firm prospered and soon had three establishments – the printing works at Sabden and sales outlets in London and Manchester. The Manchester outlet came under the direct management of Cobden, who settled there in 1832, beginning a long association with the city. He lived in a house on Quay Street, which is now called Cobden House. A plaque commemorates his residency. The success of the enterprise was decisive and rapid, and the "Cobden prints" soon became well known for their quality.
Had Cobden devoted all his energies to the business, he might soon have become very wealthy. His earnings in the business were typically £8,000 to £10,000 a year. However, his lifelong habit of learning and inquiry absorbed much of his time. Writing under the byname Libra, he published many letters in the Manchester Times discussing commercial and economic questions. Some of his ideas were influenced by Adam Smith.
First publications
In 1835, he published his first pamphlet, entitled England, Ireland and America, by a Manchester Manufacturer.Cobden advocated the principles of peace, non-intervention, retrenchment and free trade to which he continued faithfully to abide. He paid a visit to the United States, landing in New York on 7 June 1835. He devoted about three months to this tour, passing rapidly through the seaboard states and the adjacent portion of Canada, and collecting as he went large stores of information respecting the condition, resources and prospects of the nation. Another work appeared towards the end of 1836, under the title of Russia. It was designed to combat a wild outbreak of Russophobia inspired by David Urquhart. It contained also a bold indictment of the whole system of foreign policy founded on ideas of the balance of power and the necessity of large armaments for the protection of commerce.
Travel
Bad health obliged him to leave Britain, and for several months, at the end of 1836 and the beginning of 1837, he travelled in Spain, Turkey and Egypt. During his visit to Egypt he had an interview with Muhammad Ali, of whose character as a reforming monarch he did not bring away a very favourable impression. He returned to Britain in April 1837. He also visited the United States in this period.First steps in politics
Cobden soon became a conspicuous figure in Manchester political and intellectual life. He championed the foundation of the Manchester Athenaeum and delivered its inaugural address. He was a member of the chamber of commerce and was part of the campaign for the incorporation of the city, being elected one of its first aldermen. He began also to take a warm interest in the cause of popular education. Some of his first attempts in public speaking were at meetings which he convened at Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Rochdale and other adjacent towns, to advocate the establishment of British schools. It was while on a mission for this purpose to Rochdale that he first formed the acquaintance of John Bright. In 1837, the death of William IV and the accession of Queen Victoria led to the 1837 United Kingdom general election. Cobden was candidate for Stockport, but was narrowly defeated.Other interests included his friendship with George Combe and his involvement with the Manchester Phrenological Society in the 1830s and 1840s. In 1850, he asked Combe to provide a phrenological reading of his son.
Corn Laws
The Corn Laws were taxes on imported grain designed to keep prices high for cereal producers in Great Britain. The laws indeed did raise food prices and became the focus of opposition from urban areas, which then had far less political representation than rural Britain. The corn laws imposed steep import duties, reducing the quantity of grain imported from other countries, even when food supplies were short. The laws were supported by Conservative landowners and opposed by Whig industrialists and workers. The Anti–Corn Law League was responsible for turning public and ruling-class opinion against the laws. It was a large, nationwide, middle-class moral crusade with a utopian vision. Its leading advocate was Richard Cobden. According to historian Asa Briggs, Cobden repeatedly promised that repeal would settle four great problems simultaneously:In 1838, the league was formed in Manchester; on Cobden's suggestion, it became a national association, the Anti–Corn Law League. During the league's seven years, Cobden was its chief spokesman and animating spirit. He was not afraid to take his challenge in person to the agricultural landlords or to confront the working class Chartists, led by Feargus O'Connor.
In 1841, Sir Robert Peel having defeated the Melbourne ministry in parliament, there was a general election, and Cobden was returned as the new member for Stockport. His opponents had confidently predicted that he would fail utterly in the House of Commons. He did not wait long after his admission into that assembly in bringing their predictions to the test. Parliament met on 19 August. On the 24th, during the debate on the Queen's Speech, Cobden delivered his first address. "It was remarked," reported Harriet Martineau in her History of the Peace, "that he was not treated in the House with the courtesy usually accorded to a new member, and it was perceived that he did not need such observance." Undeterred, he gave a simple and forceful exposition of his position on the Corn Laws. This marked the start of his reputation as a master of the issues.
File:1846 - Anti-Corn Law League Meeting.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Meeting of the Anti–Corn Law League in Exeter Hall in 1846
On 21 April 1842, with 67 other MPs, Cobden voted for the motion of William Sharman Crawford to form a committee to consider the demands of the People's Charter : votes for working men, protected by secret ballot.
On 17 February 1843, Cobden launched an attack on Peel, holding him responsible for the miserable and disaffected state of the nation's workers. Peel did not respond in the debate but the speech was made at a time of heightened political feelings. Edward Drummond, Peel's private secretary, had recently been mistaken for the prime minister and shot dead in the street by a lunatic. However, later in the evening, Peel referred in excited and agitated tones to the remark, as an incitement to violence against his person. Peel's Tory party, catching at this hint, threw themselves into a frantic state of excitement, and when Cobden attempted to explain that he meant official, not personal responsibility, he was drowned out.
Peel reversed his position and in 1846 called for the repeal of the Corn Laws. Cobden and the League had prepared the moment for years but they played little role in 1846. After Peel's aggressive politicking, the repeal of the Corn Laws passed the House of Commons on 16 May 1846 by 98 votes. Peel had formed a coalition of the Conservative leadership and a third of its MPs joining with the Whigs, with two-thirds of the Conservatives voting against him. That split Peel's Tory party and led to the fall of his government.
In Peel's resignation speech he credited Cobden, more than anyone else, with the repeal of the Corn Laws.