Although government in Britain had regulated the prices of grain , the Corn Laws originated in 1815 . At the end of the Napoleonic Wars that year , Parliament passed legislation banning the importation of foreign corn into Britain until domestic corn cost 80 shillings per quarter . The high price caused the cost of food to increase and caused distress among the working classes in the towns . It led to serious rioting in London and to the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in 1819
Peterloo Massacre
Peterloo Massacre
Thomas Robert Malthus