‘God’s Corn Laws’: Poverty, Providence and Political Economy in the Anti-Corn Law Rhetoric of William Gadsby (1773–1844)

This article examines the religious rhetoric of Particular Baptist pastor William Gadsby (1773–1844) in the anti-Corn Law campaign. Influenced by a deep concern over poverty, Gadsby condemned the Corn Laws as a form of aristocratic oppression and a fundamentally unjust interference with the providential natural order, drawing on resonant traditions of religious discourse like the Exodus narrative. In doing so, he expressed in religious terms the understanding of the natural order which characterised the liberal political economy of the Anti-Corn Law League. This political intervention reveals that Gadsby was not as devoid of political ideology as some have suggested, and also that he was able to convey these arguments to new audiences (such as his own congregation) by expressing them in religious contexts and language.