The Corn Laws were a series of policies which aimed to stabilize the price of corn by imposing some tariffs and restrictions on corn imports. For example, they prohibited the importation of wheat when the home price fell below 80 shillings a quarter. The Parliament discussed them between the 1815 and 1846. The issue interested all the social classes, as corn was the principal food of the labouring class and farm animals, and its price variations concerned landlords’ rents. The heated debate involved several economists and statesmen, who argued on the benefits and disadvantages of the policies from different perspectives. One of its most fervid supporter was Thomas Malthus, who gave a particular contribution on the Corn Laws debate between 1814 and 1815. Although Malthus was, in general, in favour of the principle of free trade, he argued that Corn Laws could have been a stimulus for the British agricultural production. He thought that, in order to protect the agricultural sector and promote the expansion of grain production, was necessary to set a high tariff on the import of wheat and other grains, as “Great Britain should naturally grow an independent supply of corn.” (Malthus 1814, p.7), to be less dependent from grain imports. In this particular circumstance, a system of free trade would have created supply problems in period of scarcity, whilst Corn Laws would have protected crop prices and landlords’ rents.

On the issue Malthus wrote, first in 1814, Observations on the effect of the corn laws and, then in 1815, Grounds of an opinion on the policy of restricting the importation of foreign corn. Through his essays, he attempted to enlighten the pro and the cons of the policies aiming “to state what appear to me to be the advantages and disadvantages of each system” (Malthus 1815, p.1). He thought that was needed a clarification about the issue as “some important considerations have been neglected on both sides of the question” (Malthus 1814, p.1). At the beginning of his Observations (1814)he concentrated his analysis in refusing the Adam Smith’s argument in favour of corn export, labelling the idea as “fundamentally erroneous” (p.1). Malthus (1814) wrote that Adam Smith considered the corn

so peculiar a nature, that its real price cannot be raised by an