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European History: 1600s-1800s
 The Corn Laws

The Corn Laws
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.62

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    tariff, illegal, engraving, military, demonstration, cavalry, armed, necessity, politics, especially, better, multiplied, opposition, public, rebellion, horseback
     content words:    Peterloo Massacre, George Cruikshank, Napoleonic Wars, Importation Act, Corn Laws, In Ireland

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The Corn Laws
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     Caption: Colored engraving of "Peterloo Massacre" (military suppression of a demonstration in Manchester, England, by cavalry charge on August 16, 1819, with loss of life) by George Cruikshank.
 
2     During the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, England had blockaded the European coast. A side effect of this was that England couldn't import grain from Europe so it began to grow more of its own. Still, bread became very expensive in England. The landowners who owned the farms grew accustomed to getting high prices for their crops of grain.
 
3     When the wars ended, landowners feared that imports of grain would begin again and lower the prices that they received for their own crops. They passed a law, the Importation Act of 1815, which made it illegal to import grain unless the price of grain was above a certain high level. This law kept the landowners' profits high but made other people unhappy.

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