Influenced by the economic reaction which took place in 1879 in consequence of the state of affairs in Germany, where Bismarck had introduced the protectionist system, a Protectionist party had been formed, which tried to gain adherents in the Riksdag. It is true that in the Riksdag of 1882 the commercial treaty with France was renewed, but since 1885 the protectionist party was prepared to begin the combat, and a duty on barley, which had been proposed in the Riksdag of the same year, was rejected by only a slight majority. During the period of the unusually low price of barley of 1886, which greatly affected the Swedish farmers, protection gained ground to such an extent that its final triumph was considered as certain within a short time. During the Riksdag of the same year, however, the premier, Themptander, emphatically declared himself against the protectionist party, and while the parties in the Second Chamber were equal in number, the proposed tax on barley was rejected in the First Chamber. In the Riksdag of 1887 there was a majority for protection in the Second Chamber, and in the first the majority against the tax was so small that the tax on barley would have triumphed in a combined meeting of the two chambers. The government, availing itself of its formal right not to dissolve the chamber in which it had the support of a majority, therefore dissolved only the Second Chamber in March 1887.