knowledge test

Question 1

What was the main reason for the reform of the poor laws and why??

Answer 1

Rising costs; parliament unprepared to spend more on it as it was already rising, idealogical pressures influenced the attitudes of people, both of which had economic motives and were concerned with how the rising cost would be dealt with ie taxes on the which, therefore ideas of collectivism and individualism. Other failures of the poor laws only increased the costs

Question 2

How did Napoleon and the corn laws contribute to their reform??

Answer 2

-combination of Napoleon blockading ports 1806-1812 and corn laws which increased the price of living therefore people became worse off and more reliant on the system, increasing its costs

Question 3

What % of GDP did the poor laws rise to and how much was this in £

Answer 3

2% between 1815-1833

£7.5 million

Question 4

What was population in 1801 and how did this compare to when the poor laws were introduced??

Answer 4

9 million in England, more than double when the poor laws were introduced in 1601

Question 5

Why was the poor law not right for the 1800s??

Answer 5

introduced 200 years earlier, clearly not applicable in this day and age, couldn’t accommodate everyone

Question 6

What other failures did the poor law have??

Answer 6

• failure to accommodate for deserving poor
• subjective, non-universal system
• lacked incentives and training for the poor to better themselves

Question 7

Who did the poor laws fail to accommodate for?

Answer 7

• soldiers returning from war with France

- workers in war-time industries

Question 8

How many workhouses housed how Many people??

Answer 8

2000 workhouses holding 20-50 people

Question 9

Why were earlier workhouses bad??

Answer 9

they provided no incentive or training that would increase the price of labour and make the poor better off, it made them lazier and poorer

Question 10

Who were considered ‘deserving’ poor and why was it wrong??

Answer 10

old and sick

-people who weren’t old and sick could still be poor due to inconsistent work or the nature of their industries

Question 11

What idealogical pressure did Robert Owen advertise?

Answer 11

collectivism

• uplifting society
• educating workers to raise the price of labour and increase their wages/ employability
• train them to work in new roles and get themselves out of poverty

Question 12

What idealogical did the whigs/ upper class advertise?

Answer 12

Individualism

• workers were becoming lazy and too reliant on the system
• felt it was taking money out of the hard workers pockets
• reforming the law therefore became more popular among upper class to get rid of the undeserving

Question 13

Why did some upper class people like poverty?

Answer 13

The fear of destitution motivated them to strive to work harder and better themselves to keep away from poverty

Question 14

Why was the existence of poverty making poverty worse

Answer 14

Hysteris

Question 15

When was the elizabethan poor law introduced and why was it a failure for industrial towns?

Answer 15

1601- population had doubled since its introduction especially in towns, exacerbates rising cost

Question 16

What were average wages in urban areas?

Answer 16

12-15shillings

Question 17

How were poor relief receipts different across the country and when?

Answer 17

1802-1803

-10% received in the north and 23% in the south

Question 18

what was the population in 1801?

Answer 18

9 million

Question 19

How did the growth of industrial towns lead to PLAA overall?

Answer 19

• growth of towns meant that it exacerbated the rising cost because of more people relying on relief, combined with the comparatively poorer wages. the laws of settlement meant people who were in poverty in the towns couldnt move away

Question 20

When was the laws of settlement and what was it?

Answer 20

1662- people who were in a certain parish wasn’t allowed to move so parishes had more responsibility to look after its own people

Question 21

what was the intention of the PLAA?

Answer 21

To ban outdoor relief and provide indoor relief to lower the rising costs of the old poor rate

Question 22

How did people get round the PLAA??

Answer 22

Persuading guardians in their area that poor relief was a cheaper and better alternative compared to indoor relief

Question 23

What group sometimes received poor relief which shouldn’t have?

Answer 23

People with houses

Question 24

How much did a workhouse cost to run compared to outdoor relief

Answer 24

4s8d for a workhouse a week per person compared to 2s3d for outdoor relief

Question 25

How much did the workhouse in Banbury cost for how many people

Answer 25

£6200 for 300 people

Question 26

why was their less incentive to build workhouses in the north than the south??

Answer 26

-industrialisation of the north meant that there was seasonal fluctuations in demand for labour, so the workhouses would be empty for most of the year, and when they needed to provide relief outdoor relief was cheaper

Question 27

How many subsequent workhouses were built after PLAA and what did this show about change??

Answer 27

402, shows there was some attempt to change the monetary aspects with the PLAA but this wasn’t universal

Question 28

What happened regarding poor relief in 1838 and what does it show about the extent of poor relief change??

Answer 28

• opposition to poor relief in Lancashire and Yorkshire got so great that they reintroduced outdoor relief if necessary, clearly undermining the extent of poor relief

Question 29

What other reasons were there for the failure of the PLAA??

Answer 29

IT was not universally enforced well and so some guardians gave into pressures and allowed outdoor relief whereas others didn’t

Question 30

how were parishes changed under the PLAA??

Answer 30

15,000 parishes grouped into groups of 30 to help share the cost of building workhouses

Question 31

How many parishes remained outside the poor law unions in 1840 compared to inside the unions, and what did this show about the extent of poor relief?

Answer 31

14,000 in the system compared to 800 outside the system, showed there was an official attempt to provide PLAA, even if unofficially they continued with outdoor relief

Question 32

What effect did the PLAA have on paupers?? (speenhamland system)

Answer 32

-speenhamland system used to top up the wages of people to the price of 3 loaves of bread, and now this was gone and not replaced with any monetary stimulus, making the lives of paupers worse

Question 33

Why did the PLAA have a limited effect on some paupers??

Answer 33

Some people bypassed the act and continued to receive relief and so there was a limited change to them as they weren’t Put in workhouses

Question 34

How did workhouses remain unchanged after the PLAA?

Answer 34

-they continued to be a place of destitution and starvation, and therefore they continued to lack any good training or motivation

Question 35

What new scandal emerged after the PLAA and what happened??

Answer 35

Andover scandal 1845- McDougal was known to exploit and abuse inmates, starved them, made them do bone crushing and sent them to sleep in the mortuary for punishment

Question 36

What was the purpose of workhouses after PLAA?

Answer 36

To be terrible and act as a deterrent for the poor, even though they couldnt avoid them due to the removal of poor relief

Question 37

How did the PLAA show a more positive concern for the well being of society??

Answer 37

• tories argued that the poor unfortunates didn’t have the same advantages as others and were ignored in PLAA
• argued that prior to PLAA employers were keeping wages low to have them topped up (speenhamland system) and the PLAA may have been trying to target this to help poor workers

Question 38

Why was the utilitarian principle held by many after PLAA not a positive concern for societies poor

Answer 38

it purposefully made poor relief/ workhouses harsh so only the most destitute would apply or use it

Question 39

What did the continuation of poor relief after PLAA show about its effect on concern for the poor/changing attitudes

Answer 39

-the fact people felt they were still in need of outdoor relief shows that the government didn’t recognise the demands of the poor and would rather put them into workhouses built by parishes to lower the costs

Question 40

What were built after PLAA which showed a lack of positive attitudes towards paupers?

Answer 40

workhouses that incorporated utilitarian attitudes to make workhouses a strong deterrent to the poor, 2000 workhouses that existed before PLAA were just as bad after PLAA, with 402 more built

Question 41

what was created in 1858 and what did it show about attitudes to poverty??

Answer 41

Workhouse visiting society in 1858 collected info on the experiences of the poor to gain a better understanding of poverty and organising private relief; more efforts to help the poor later on

Question 42

What was written in 1865 and what did it do to help poverty/wellbeing?

Answer 42

-the lancet 1865 was a medical journal which investigated the quality of health care in London, shifting importance towards wellbeing of society

Question 43

What did Angella Burdett Coutts do in 1847 and how did it help poverty/ show changing attitudes?

Answer 43

-Angelina Burdett Coutts was a leading female philanthropist and inherited £1.8MN, set up a hospital in 1847 with Dickens called Urania for prostitution as well as funding education projects for Britains poorest

Question 44

what role did Dickens play in evidencing changing attitudes towards poverty in society?

Answer 44

-Dickens had experienced 1st hand poverty from age 12 and was committed to finding other alternatives, developing a strong social conscience and giving a voice to the poor- most famous for Oliver twist in 1839

Question 45

How did the growth of charities, self help and philanthropic societies not show more positive attitudes towards poverty?? ie a society created in 1869

Answer 45

• Self help and collectivism by people like Owen had more of an economic motive more than anything rather than direct positive concern for society
• charity organisation society 1869 reinforced earlier problems of deserving v underserving, and instead of helping everyone they just wanted to help the deserving get back on their feet.

Question 46

what government law was Introduced in 1842 to try and help poverty (positive pauper attitudes)

Answer 46

-1842 outdoor labour test order is passed formally allowing the use of outdoor relief for able-bodied workers during times of economic decline, despite the PLAA prohibiting it. Some level of concern for society, but only in poor economic climates

Question 47

what was introduced in 1867 to help wellbeing of society and how did it help/ show changing attitudes

Answer 47

• 1867 Metropolitan act: demanded separate medical facilities from workhouses and provided for the creation of the metropolitan asylum board to look over sick paupers.
• paved the way for more specialised care of the sick but also began to modernise the system of the general poor relief, more concern for society

Question 48

What was introduced in 1844 by govt which showed they weren’t particularly helpful for poor people/ lack of concern for society

Answer 48

-1844 outdoor prohibitory order passed to try and bring an end to outdoor relief, obvious attempts to direct poor people towards work houses

Question 49

What was introduced in 1852 by govt which showed they weren’t particularly helpful for poor people/ lack of concern for society

Answer 49

1852 outdoor relief regulation order passed bringing an end to the provision of poor relief
-seems purely cost related again and the shift towards the workhouses even though they were worse for the welfare of people in poverty, less concern for society

Question 50

What person from which paper evidenced a changing concern for the poor after Andover?

Answer 50

-being known as a scandal and being criticised by John Walter at the Times perhaps indicative of their being a more positive concern towards poverty due to the outrage

Question 51

What happened after Andover to bring poor law under increased government control due to its failure?

Answer 51

-Poor Law Commission was dissolved following Andover and replaced with a Poor Law Board which signalled relief brought more closely under government control

Question 52

what was Henry Mayhews contribution to changing attitudes to poor after PLAA

Answer 52

• As a result of the scandals, Henry Mayhew published London Labour and the London Poor in 1849 that concluded that it was poor wages that produced pauperism because they were insufficient to protect the recipients from unforeseen fluctuations in the economy. This challenged the belief that idleness was the real cause of poverty.

Question 53

What did the existence of scandals like Andover and huddersfield show about attitudes towards poverty after PLAA??

Answer 53

• negligence
• • They were both symptoms of a government which did not care about the well-being of society.
• -their existence showed that even by 1845 after PLAA the workhouses were epitomising deterrence ie Andover where people were starved, abused and punished by sleeping in mortuary

Question 54

How many more workhouses were built after Andover and what did this show about poor attitudes later on?

Answer 54

• Despite the scandals, a further 100 workhouses were built between 1851 and 1866 to augment the 402 which had been constructed immediately after 1834.

Question 55

How could the overall changing of attitudes towards poverty be summarised?

Answer 55

-it was a very gradual change in attitudes, helped out by individuals like Mayhew and Dickens, but even later on, the government still had no alternative to the workhouses and they continued to act as a deterrence, there was no National outcry for fast changes to help the poor, but gradually laws were introduced to being to benefit the wellbeing of society