PETERLOO MASSACRE

Peterloo massacre is a public disturbance in St. Peter's Field, in Manchester, that took place on the 16^th of August 1819, also called the Manchester massacre.

On that day a crowd of some 60,000 men, women, and children were peaceably gathered under the leadership of Henry Hunt to petition Parliament for the repeal of the corn laws and for parliamentary reform. The magistrates ordered the meeting to disband. A cavalry charge in order to help the untrained Manchester yeomanry made 11 deaths and injuries after estimated at over 400.

The government's approval of the magistrates' action created widespread indignation, which added moral force to the reform movement.

The name Peterloo, later given the incident, was suggested by the name Waterloo. 

CORN LAWS

The British repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 is usually seen as the beginning of a unilateral move to free trade that served as the pivotal event in the spread of economic liberalization throughout western Europe.

The Corn Laws referred to the various restrictions on both imports and exports of grain and related agricultural products put into place beginning in 1804, which were then followed by further restrictions culminating in the Corn Law of 1815. These laws, in turn, extended regulations in 1773 that had prohibited exports of wheat when prices reached a preset level, and imposed a sliding scale of duties on wheat that declined if market prices were high enough.