British Parliamentary Divisions on Repeal of the Corn Laws, Including Party Affiliation of Members of Parliament and Constituency Characteristics, 1832-1846

These data were gathered to explain the timing of the repeal of the Corn Laws by developing and testing a model that links the economic composition of British county and borough constituencies to the voting behavior of Members of Parliament (M.P.s) on trade policy. The model seeks to demonstrate that electoral reform and export growth and diversification during the 1830s and the early 1840s, both independently and through their influence on the party affiliation of M.P.s, raised the political cost to M.P.s of maintaining a protectionist policy, thereby contributing to the policy shift from protectionism to free trade. The data include constituency characteristics derived from death duty registers and income tax returns.