Cobden, Richard known as the Apostle of Free Trade 1804-65
English economist and politician

He was born in Heyshott, near Midhurst, Sussex. His father had to sell his farm in 1814 and Richard, the fourth of his eleven children, was sent for five years to a 'Dotheboys' school in Yorkshire, and afterwards went to work in an uncle's warehouse in London. Cobden set up an establishment for calico-printing with two friends in Lancashire (1831), and settled in Manchester (1832). He visited the USA (1835), and the Levant (1836-37), the result being two pamphlets, England, Ireland, and America (1835), and Russia (1836), the former preaching free trade and non-intervention, and the latter directed against 'Russophobia'. He failed to be elected to the parliament for Stockport on free-trade principles (1837). In 1838 seven Manchester merchants founded the Anti-Corn-Law League, its most prominent member being Cobden. His lectures all over the country and his speeches in parliament (to which Stockport had returned him in 1841) were characterized by clear, quiet persuasiveness. Sir Robert Peel acknowledged that Cobden had played a large part in abolition of the Corn Laws (1846). His public work had detracted from his business, but when he ended up a ruined man, a subscription of �80,000 was raised in recognition of his services. He was elected for both Stockport and the West Riding and he chose West Riding. He shared John Bright's unpopularity for opposing the Crimean War (1853-56) and on Lord Palmerston's appeal to the country to support him in his Chinese policy, of which Cobden was a firm opponent, he retired from the West Riding and contested Huddersfield, where, however, he was defeated (1857). In 1859 he revisited the USA, and meanwhile was elected for Rochdale. Palmerston offered him the presidency of the Board of Trade but Cobden declined. Ill health prevented him from being active in parliamentary proceedings, but in 1859-60 he arranged the Treaty of Commerce with France. He spoke out strongly in favour of the North during the American Civil War (1861-65), and in 1864 strongly opposed intervention in favour of Denmark. His Speeches on Questions of Public Policy were edited by John Bright and Thorald Rogers (1870).

Bibliography: Wendy Hinde, Richard Cobden: A Victorian Outsider (1987)