Richard Cobden

British politician and radical liberal who, with John Bright, led the Anti-Corn Law League to success (1846) — the most consequential free trade campaign in history.

The Anti-Corn Law campaign as template: Cobden's campaign combined economic argument (the Corn Laws raised bread prices, hurting workers and manufacturing competitiveness), moral argument (free trade as peace-promoting), and sophisticated grassroots political organization. The repeal (1846) committed Britain to free trade for a century and is considered the paradigmatic case of an interest-group campaign changing entrenched policy through argument, organization, and moral pressure. Cobden's broader 'Manchester School' liberalism (free trade, non-intervention, international peace through commerce) influenced Gladstone and the Victorian liberal tradition.