1782, when the business of this department of the executive government was made over to a permanant committee of the privy council, according to the arrangement that still subsists.
The Revolution was immediately followed by an innovation, which demands our special notice, in the law regulating the foreign trade in the most important of all productions, the article of corn. As far as the subject can be historically traced, the first law permitting the exportation of corn from England, without the royal licence, was passed in 1394 (17 Rich. II. c. 7). By this law exportation, which appears to have been hitherto strictly prohibited, was made free in all circumstances, that is to say, whatever might be the price at home. The only check reserved was, that, as the king had formerly the power of allowing exportation in particular cases, so now he might forbid it when to do so appeared to him to be for the profit of the realm. The matter, therefore, in fact remained still, as before, under the control of the crown—with this difference, that, whereas non-exportation had been the general rule formerly, liberty of exportation was established as the general rule now. The alteration of the law may be taken as indicating the increased political power of the agricultural interest, and probably also the increased cultivation and produce of the soil. And these same two causes we find operating, with almost uninterrupted constancy, in moulding our corn laws more and more into the form most accordant with the interests of the producer down to the date at which we are now arrived. In 1436 (by 15 Hen. VI. c. 2), the right of exportation, in the case of the home price being under a certain point, was given absolutely, without any restriction or reservation whatever; the old power of prohibition was wholly taken from the king so long as prices remained below the sum specified; it was merely provided that he should have his customs and duties, as usual, upon the exported commodity. And, of course, by the unrepealed act of 1394, exportation, whatever might be the state of prices at home, was still also free, unless when expressly
