8
Britain and Free Trade.
§Smith’s Wealth of Nations attacks mercantilism.
§The Corn Laws.
§Import controls after Napoleonic wars.
§Ricardo discovers comparative advantage.
§Anti-Corn-Law League founded in Manchester, 1836.
§Corn Laws repealed, 1846.
§Reflects shift of economic power from agriculture to manufacture.
§Anglo-French commercial treaty (1860) virtually eliminates tariffs.
David Ricardo (1772-1823).
 Image courtesy of the Warren J. Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University.