5 - Poverty Flashcards
Failure of the earlier examples of Poor Relief
Speenhamland System 1795 – but never a law (calculated from the price of bread) –> as a result of the French Wars ending in 1794
–> Landowners did not pay workers, so governmnet had to top it up = high taxes
–> loophole = controversy = 1830 Swing Riots [as agricultural workers were seasonal workers so poor in winter
–> Corn Laws 1815 = made Speenhamland more expensive as the law increased the price of bread so the system became more expensive + A Year Without A Summer = agriculture despression 1816 [so unemploymed agrisultural workers and soldiers from nap. wars, which ended in 1815]
In 1817, Poor Relief cost £7.9 million vs. Abolished in 1834 with the Poor Law Amendment Act
Individualism AND Collectivism arguement towards the Poor
I:
William Pitt the Younger withdrew a Bill he had introduced that called for the extension of Poor Relief due to the idea of population control from Thomas Malthus
C:
Thomas Paine’s Declaration of the Rights of Man (1792)
–> A direct response to Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
Robert Owen is viewed as one of the founders of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement
Utilitarianism arguement to poverty
Bentham critised the Poor Bill introduced by William Pitt the Younger in 1796, in his ‘Observations on the Poor Bill’
Chadwick drafted the famous report of 1834, recommending the reform of the Poor Laws
–> In 1834, he was appointed secretary of the Poor Laws Commissioners
= Led to the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834
The Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population Great Britain was published in 1842 by Chadwick
–> Chadwick’s report led to the Public Health Act of 1848
The Rising Cost of the Old System
The Post-Napoleonic Dpression = increase in claims of Poor Relief = £7.9 million in 1817
Napoleonic Wars ended 1815
By the early 19th century 1 in 4 men were in uniform so when the war ended they were unemployed
- 400,000 soldiers returned home to find no work
- In Shropshire, 7,000 iron workers lost their jobs becuse they had no client
Agricultral Depression = the Year without a Summer/the Lost Summer in 1816 — led to the passing of the Corn Laws in 1815
Middle class had gained the right to vote by the 1832 Great Reform Act so would want to change their taxes being wasted
Attitudes towards the poor changing
The governmnet passed the Poor Employment Act 1817
– made public money available to able-bodied paupers in public works such as roas building = only a short term solution
Attitudes towards poverty did not change significantly as the Poor Law Amnedment Act which increased the use of workhouses.
The 1855 Union Chargeability Act = wealthy paid more based on land to pay for expensive Poor Laws
What did the Royal Commission into the Poor Laws find
The report was launched in 1832 (Whig)
The wealthy investigators found that “the current Poor Laws were completely inadequate”
–> However, only 10% of questionaires sent to parishes were returned
It suggested th eincrease of workhouses for able-bodied paupers
–> despite, them only making up 2% of the entire population.
CHANGE = 1847 Poor Law Commision was replaced by the Poor Law Board - controlled by the governmnet
Workhouses facts
It costs £6,200 to open a workhouse at Banbury
Historian George Boyer estimated that indoor relief 50%-100% more than outdoor relief
The Andover Workhouse scandal 1845 = inmates ate bone marrow due to starvation
Between 1851-1866, another 100 workhouses were built to add to the areaddy 402 in use.
The 1855 Union Chargeability Act = wealthy paid more based on land to pay for expensive Poor Laws
Charities facts
The Charity Organisation Societies = 1869 following the ‘Goschen Minute’ – the President of the Poor Law Board in December 1868 sought to severely restrict outdoor relief distributed by the Poor Law Guardians. = wanted to restrict the distribution of outdoor relief to the elderly.
Groups such as the Workhouse Visiting Society (established in 1858) inspected workhouses
Thomas John Barnardo= childrens homes formed – From the foundation of the first Barnardo’s home in 1867 to the date of Barnardo’s death, nearly 60,000 children had been taken in.
Self-help movement
In 1859, Samuel Smiles published his book Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct = sold 250,000 copies – although the working class could not read
He joined several cooperative ventures = By the 1870s there were over 1,000s shops across the country.
Thomas Carlyle = in ‘past and present’ in 1843 he described workhouses as ‘poor law prisons’
Dicken’s importance
Hard Times = published in 1854.
Emphasised self-help in Oliver Twist [book in 1838] as education could break the cycle of poverty
Angela Burdett Coutts + Dickens founded in 1846 Urania Cottage for poor women = about 100 women graduated between 1847 and 1859.
In 1849 he wrote a series of articles for The Examiner highlighting the cholera outbreak and subsequent deaths of 180 children at an establishment for pauper children in Tooting.
Government response to poverty
PLAA ‘34 following the Royal Commission into the Poor Laws 1832
1844 Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Act abolishes outdoor relief
1847 = Poor Law Commission replaced by Poor Law Board which was controlled by the government
1852 Outdoor Relief Regulation - reintroduced outdoor relief
The 1865 Union Chargeability Act = wealthy paid more based on land to pay for expensive Poor Laws
