Act of Parliament of Great Britain
United Kingdom legislationThe Importation and Exportation (No. 2) Act 1791 (31 Geo. 3. c. 30) is an act of the Parliament of Great Britain that consolidated acts relating to the importation and exportation of corn and amended the payment of duties on imported corn and the bounty on exported corn.
Background.
As a staple of life, as well as an important commodity of trade, corn and its traffic was long the subject of debate and of government regulation – the Tudors legislating against speculating in corn, and the Stuarts introducing import and export controls. Import had been regulated as early as 1670; and in 1689 traders were provided bounties for exporting rye, malt and wheat (all classified as corn at the time, the same commodities being taxed when imported into England). In 1773, the Corn Act 1772 (13 Geo. 3. c. 43), "An act to regulate the importation and exportation of corn" repealed Elizabethan controls on grain speculation; but also shut off exports and allowed imports when the price was above 48 shillings per quarter (thus compromising to allow for interests of producers and consumers alike).
By the 1790s, the issue remained one of public debate (by figures such as Edmund Burke), and parliament desired to make changes to favour agricultural producers.
Provisions.
Repealed acts.
Section 1 of the act repealed 7 enactments, listed in that section, taking effect on the commencement of the act. Section 1 of the act also repealed "all and every provision in any other act contained for regulating the importation from foreign parts, of wheat, rye, barley, peas, beans, oats, beer or bigg, Indian corn or maise, whether ground or unground, and of malt, bread, or biscuit, made of any of the said sorts of corn, and for the payment of the duty thereon, and also all and every provision in any other act contained, for regulating the exportation of any of the said sorts of corn or other articles as aforesaid, and for payment of the bounty thereon, except so far as the malt for exportation, or to the exportation thereof".
Section 2 of the act also repealed so much of the "as prohibits the buying of corn to sell again, and the laying it up in granaries, when the several sorts of corn are above certain prices therein mentioned". 
Legacy.
The Select Committee on Temporary Laws described this act as a Consolidation Act.
In 1804, the Importation and Exportation Act 1804 (44 Geo. 3. c. 109) amended the act, further agricultural producers.
The act was wholly repealed by the Importation and Exportation Act 1821 (1 &amp; 2 Geo. 4. c. 87). This formed part of the Corn Laws, tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846.
References.
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