Richard Cobden - Legacy

Legacy

Cobden, and what is was called "Cobdenism" and later identified with laissez-faire, was subjected to much criticism from the school of British economists who advocated protectionism, on the ideas of Alexander Hamilton and Friedrich List. However, during much of what remained of the nineteenth century, his success with the free-trade movement was unchallenged, and protectionism came to be heterodox. The tariff reform movement in Britain started by Joseph Chamberlain brought new opponents of Manchesterism, and the whole subject once more became controversial. The years of reconstruction following World War II saw a renewed fashion for government intervention in international trade but, starting in the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the U.S. led a revival of laissez-faire that, as of 2006, holds some sway in mainstream economic thinking.

Cobden left a deep mark on British history. Though he was not a "scientific economist", many of his ideas and prophecies were valid. He considered that it was "natural" for Britain to manufacture for the world and exchange for agricultural products of other countries. Modern economists call this comparative advantage. He advocated the repeal of the Corn Laws, which not only made food cheaper, but helped develop industry and benefit labour. He correctly saw that other countries would be unable to compete with Britain in manufacture in the foreseeable future. "We advocate", he said, "nothing but what is agreeable to the highest behests of Christianity—to buy in the cheapest market, and sell in the dearest." After the repeal of the Corn Laws, British manufacturing did see significant productivity rises, while British agriculture ultimately went into decline due to import competition. He perceived that the rest of the world should follow Britain's example: "if you abolish the corn-laws honestly, and adopt free trade in its simplicity, there will not be a tariff in Europe that will not be changed in less than five years" (January 1846). His cosmopolitanism—which made him in later Imperialists' eyes a "Little Englander"—led him to deplore any survival of the colonial system. Cobden also saw the connection between peace and free trade. "Peace will come to earth when the people have more to do with each other and governments less." "The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is—in extending our commercial relations—to have with them as little political connection as possible."

His biography, Richard Cobden's Life by John Morley, written with the input of contemporaries such as John Bright and Sir Louis Mallet, was published in 1881 (Roberts Brothers: Boston).

In 1866 the Cobden Club was founded to promote "Peace, Free Trade and Goodwill Among Nations". This was due to the efforts of Thomas Bayley Potter, Cobden's successor at his Rochdale seat, who wanted an institution which would support Cobden's principles. On 15 May 1866 the inaugural meeting of the Club was held at the Reform Club in London and the first Club dinner was held on 21 July 1866 at the Star and Garter Hotel in Richmond, presided over by Gladstone. The Club energetically diffused free trade literature for propaganda purposes.

Joseph Chamberlain's proposal for Tariff Reform, launched in 1903, reignited the free trade versus protectionism debate in Britain. For the centenary of Cobden's birth 10,000 people assembled at Alexandra Palace in London in June 1904. Cobden "symbolized the liberal vision of a peaceful, prosperous global order held together by the benign forces of Free Trade" like no other nineteenth century figure. Addressing the meeting, the Liberal leader Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman said:

The motive which inspired those who composed the assemblage was twofold. They wished to show their admiration of, and their gratitude towards, a great Englishman whose sympathetic heart, wisdom, intuition, courage, and praise-worthy eloquence wrought for them a great deliverance in the days of their fathers. They also wished to declare their adherence to the doctrines which he taught, and their determination that the power of those doctrines should not, God helping them, be impaired. What they owed to him and to themselves was to make it clear in the sight of all men that they meant to hold fast to the heritage which he, perhaps more than any other individual, won for them; and that the fruits of the battle which he waged against tremendous odds should not be lightly wrested from them. They were not there to acclaim Cobden as an inspired prophet, but they saw in him a great citizen, a great statesman, a great patriot, and a great and popular leader... Cobden spent his life in pulling down those artificial restrictions and obstructions which at the present time rash and reckless men were seeking to set up again—obstructions not merely to commerce, but also to peace and good will, and mutual understanding; yes, and obstructions to liberty and good government at home. Those who expressed astonishment that the intelligent workman did not look askance at the manufacturer, Cobden, had overlooked the fact that he gave the people cheap food and abundant employment, and did far more—that he exploded the economic basis of class government and class subjection.

Stanley Baldwin said in December 1930, during the Great Depression, that the Conservatives were "a national party of all those who believe that any improvement in the industrial and economic position of this country can only be achieved by cutting loose from the Cobdenism of the last generation and putting this country on what is and must be a protectionist basis". Two weeks later Baldwin attacked the Labour government's handling of the Imperial Conference: "At that Conference the Government had a splendid opportunity of doing something practical to help British industry and to bind the Empire together in a close partnership of trade. They failed to seize this opportunity because the Dominion proposals could not be reconciled with the ancient and obsolete free-trade theories of Cobdenism". Britain abandoned free trade in 1932 and adopted a general tariff. In 1932 the former Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden said there was never a greater mistake than to say that Cobdenism was dead: "Cobdenism was never more alive throughout the world than it was to-day.... To-day the ideas of Cobden were in revolt against selfish nationalism. The need for the breaking down of trade restrictions, which took various forms, was universally recognized even by those who were unable to throw off those shackles". F. W. Hirst said in 1941, during the Second World War, that Cobden's ideas "stand out in almost complete opposition to the "gospel" according to Marx":

Cobden's international ideas were based on patriotism and peace, the harmony of classes, reform by constitutional methods, goodwill among men and nations. Cobden... believed in individual liberty and enterprise, in free markets, freedom of opinion and freedom of trade. whole creed was anathema to Karl Marx. He had no sense of patriotism or love of country. He urged what he called "the proletariat" in all countries to overthrow society by a violent revolution, to destroy the middle classes and all employers of labour, whom he denounced as capitalists and slave drivers. He demanded the confiscation of private property and a new dictatorship, the dictatorship of the proletariat. Just as Cobden interpreted and practised the precepts of Adam Smith, so Lenin interpreted and practised the precepts of Karl Marx. These two great men though dead yet speak. They stand out before the civilised world as protagonists of two systems of political economy, political thought and human society... when this war is over, we in Britain will certainly have to choose whether our Press and Parliament are to be free, whether we are to be a conscript nation, whether private property and savings are to be secured or confiscated, whether we are to be imprisoned without trial; whether we are again to enjoy the right of buying and selling where and how we please—in short whether were are to be ruled as slaves by the bureaucracy of a Police State or as free men by our chosen representatives. This conflict will be symbolised and personified by Richard Cobden and Karl Marx.

Ernest Bevin, Labour Foreign Secretary, said on 26 July 1947 that "We cannot go back to the Cobdenite economy". In 1966 the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson attacked Philip Snowden for holding the views of "Puritan Cobdenism" which "prevented any expansionist action to relieve unemployment" by the government during the Great Depression.