How to Pronounce Richard Cobden
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Jun 03, 1804 Heyshott, England, United Kingdom Died on 02 Apr 1865 (aged 60)
English manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman
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Richard Cobden, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Family, Facts, Age, Net Worth, Biography and More in FamedBorn.com
About Richard Cobden
- Richard Cobden (3 June 1804 – 2 April 1865) was an English manufacturer, Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with two major free trade campaigns, the Anti-Corn Law League and the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty. As a young man, Cobden was a successful commercial traveller who became co-owner of a highly profitable calico printing factory in Sabden but lived in Manchester, a city with which he would become strongly identified.
- However, he soon found himself more engaged in politics, and his travels convinced him of the virtues of free trade (anti-protection) as the key to better international relations. In 1838, he and John Bright founded the Anti-Corn Law League, aimed at abolishing the unpopular Corn Laws, which protected landowners’ interests by levying taxes on imported wheat, thus raising the price of bread.
- As a Member of Parliament from 1841, he fought against opposition from the Peel ministry, and abolition was achieved in 1846. Another free trade initiative was the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty of 1860, promoting closer interdependence between Britain and France.
- This campaign was conducted in collaboration with John Bright and French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliament’s endemic mistrust of the French.
