1804-1865. British Liberal politician and
economist, co-founder with John Bright of the
Anti-Corn Law League 1839. A member of
Parliament from 1841, he opposed class and
religious privileges and believed in
disarmament and free trade. Born in Sussex,
the son of a farmer, Cobden became a calico
manufacturer in Manchester. With other
businessmen he founded the Anti-Corn Law
League and began his lifelong association
with John Bright, until 1845 devoting himself
to the repeal of the Corn Laws. A typical
early Victorian radical, he believed in the
abolition of privileges, a minimum of
government interference, and the securing of
international peace through free trade and by
disarmament and arbitration. He opposed trade
unionism and most of the factory legislation
of his time, because he regarded them as
opposed to liberty of contract. His
opposition to the Crimean War made him
unpopular. He was largely responsible for the
commercial treaty with France in 1860.