A closer look
The British Corn Laws (1815-1846) were a masterclass in unapologetic legislative greed. Landowning aristocrats in Parliament passed heavy tariffs on imported grain purely to keep domestic prices artificially high. While this guaranteed fat profit margins for their own estates, it made bread unaffordable for the working class, literally starving factory workers and exacerbating the Irish Potato Famine. It took decades of riots and the birth of modern free-trade lobbying to finally convince the government that mass starvation was bad for business.
