Agriculture and Politics in England, 1815 1939
Also by J. R. Wordie ESTATE MANAGEMENT IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND TOWN AND COUNTRYSIDE: The English Landowner in the National Economy, 1660 1860 (co-editor with C. W. Chalklin)
Agriculture and Politics in England, 1815 1939 Edited by J. R. Wordie Lecturer in Early Modern Social and Economic History Reading University Reading
First published in Great Britain 2000 by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-41036-1 DOI 10.1057/9780230514775 ISBN 978-0-230-51477-5 (ebook) First published in the United States of America 2000 by ST. MARTIN S PRESS, LLC, Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-23435-5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Agriculture and politics in England, 1815 1939 / [edited by] J. R. Wordie. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ). ISBN 978-0-312-23435-5 1. Agriculture Economic aspects England History. 2. Agriculture and politics England History 3. Agriculture and state England History. 4. Corn laws (Great Britain) 5. England Economic policy. I. Wordie, J. R. (J. Ross) HD1930.E5 A34 2000 338.1'842 dc21 00 027832 Editorial matter and selection J. R. Wordie 2000 Chapter 1 J. R. Wordie 2000 Chapters 2 8 Macmillan Press Ltd 2000 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
Contents Preface Notes on the Contributors vi vii 1 Introduction 1 J.R. Wordie 2 Perceptions and Reality: the Effects of the Corn Laws and their Repeal in England, 1815 1906 33 J.R.Wordie 3 Preventing Ourselves from being Plundered by our Betters : Thomas Perronet Thompson and the Corn Laws 70 Michael J. Turner 4 Land, Labour, and Politics: Parliament and Allotment Provision, 1830 1870 98 Jeremy Burchardt 5 The Agricultural Interest and its Critics, 1840 1914 128 David Martin 6 No Longer the Farmers Friend? The Conservative Party and Agricultural Protection, 1880 1914 149 Ewen Green 7 Agricultural Policy and the National Farmers Union, 1908 1939 178 Jonathan Brown 8 Red Tape Farm? Visions of a Socialist Agriculture in 1920s and 1930s Britain 199 Clare Griffiths Bibliography 242 Index 250 v
Preface This present collection of essays constitutes Reading Historical Studies No. 2, a modern companion volume to Reading Historical Studies No. 1, which dealt with a medieval theme. Stenton s Anglo-Saxon England: Fifty Years On was edited by Professor Donald Matthew, with the assistance of Anne Curry and Ewen Green, and was published by Reading University in 1994. The only University of Reading staff member to contribute to this volume was, however, Donald Matthew himself, with his paper, The Making of Anglo-Saxon England. By contrast, the intention was to make this present volume entirely a University of Reading production. At the time of its conception, Ewen Green and Clare Griffiths were members of the History Department s staff, and Professor E.J.T. Collins was to have contributed a paper on the 1850 1914 period. However, shortly after the project was launched, Ewen and Clare secured posts at Oxford University, Ewen becoming a fellow and tutor at Magdalen College, and Clare becoming a junior research fellow at Wadham. In the event, Professor Collins proved to be too deeply committed to other ventures to provide a paper for us, but Dr David Martin, who has been working in related fields for many years, was able to step into the breach with his own chapter, The Agricultural Interest and its Critics, 1840 1914. The resulting collection has been planned to provide a full chronological coverage of the period 1815 to 1939, and to focus upon specific topics of interest within it concerning the changing relationship between agriculture and politics during this time. Some of its themes, inevitably, will be familiar ones, but each paper is based on original research, and has new findings to present on each of the topics dealt with. J.R.W. vi
Notes on the Contributors Jonathan Brown is a research fellow and archivist at the Rural History Centre of Reading University. His publications include, with S.B. Ward, Village Life in England, 1860 1940 (1985), and The English Market Town: a Social and Economic History, 1750 1914 (1986). Jeremy Burchardt is a lecturer in Rural History at the Rural History Centre of Reading University. He is now the country s leading authority on the English allotment movement of the nineteenth century, and has contributed to Agricultural History, Rural History, and The Agricultural History Review. Ewen Green is a fellow and tutor of Magdalen College, and lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Oxford. His publications include The Crisis of Conservatism, 1880 1914 (1995), and the editing of Parliamentary History, Vol. 16, pt I, 1880 1914 (1997). Clare Griffiths is a junior research fellow at Wadham College, Oxford. She is an authority on the Labour movement and rural Britain between the wars, and has contributed to Rural History and The History Workshop Journal. David Martin is a lecturer in Social and Economic History at the University of Sheffield. His publications include, with D. Rubinstein (eds), Ideology and the Labour Movement: Essays presented to John Saville (1979) and John Stuart Mill and the Land Question (1981). Michael J. Turner is a lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Reading. His special field is the Social and Economic History of nineteenth-century England, and his publications include, Reform and Respectability: the Making of a Middle-Class Liberalism in Early Nineteenth-Century Manchester (1995). J.R. Wordie is a lecturer in Social and Economic History at the University of Reading. His publications include Estate Management in Eighteenth-Century England (1982) and with C.W. Chalklin (eds), Town and Countryside: the English Landowner in the National Economy, 1660 1860 (1989). vii