WHY DID THE PRESSURE FOR CHANGE INTENSIFY IN THE YEARS 1780-1834? Flashcards
When was the war with France?
How did this impact poor relief?
- 1783-1815.
* greater demands for poor relief.
How was the harvests of 1813 and 1814 linked to the end of the wars with France in terms of putting pressure on poor relief?
• 1813-14- good harvests across all of Europe, so cheap foreign corn could be imported driving down prices of English corn. Farmers has war time taxes and enclosure costs to cover so many went bankrupt, meaning farmers made redundancies and reduced wages= pauperism.
How did the Tory government attempt to improve the corn situation in 1815?
• corn laws introduced to protect British farmers. Prevented the import of foreign corn until the price of British corn reached 80shillings a 1/4. Hoped to hold the price of corn steady and therefore the price of bread steady too. Landowners profits wouldn’t fluctuate widely, so neither would wages.
In practice, why did people resent the Corn Laws?
- believed they kept the price of bread artificially high.
- violence across country as poor couldn’t afford to buy sufficient bread- their staple diet.
- systems pegging relief to the price of bread struggled to provide sufficient relief.
After the wars with France, what were the main crisis years and why?
- 1817-19.
* returning soldiers, continuing dislocation of trade, appalling weather and poor harvests.
What did poor law expenditure reach between 1817-19?
• £8million per year- 12-13 shillings per head of population.
How did the government react to continuing radical protests after the wars with France? How did this effect poor relief?
- suspended habeas corpus (stopped imprisonment without trial) in 1817 and introduced the Six Acts in 1819- repressive action to curtail individual liberties in the face of protest.
- repressive government unlucky to ease legislation for the provision of poor relief.
When were the swing riots?
• 1830.
Where were the swing riots based?
• over 20 counties in southern abs eastern England.
What were the swing rioters protesting for?
- higher wages.
* the removal of steam powered threshing machines which deprived them of autumn and winter employment.
How did the swing rioters protest?
• arson attacks on property of overseers, poorhouses abs workhouses burnt down, smashed threshing machines and intimidated their employers.
What specific examples of geographical areas are there of swing rioters protesting?
- Brede, Sussex- campaigned for higher allowances and the removal of an overseer who had been using the parish cart to remove paupers.
- Headley and Selbourne, Hampshire- broke threshing machines and pulled down workhouses.
- Wiltshire- violent demonstrations against the particularly harsh scale for poor relief.
Why did the swing riots appear to be an organised revolt?
• petitions and threats signed ‘Captain Swing’- but there was no leader or organisation.
Why did the authorities find the swing riots particularly threatening? What action did they take?
- believed it was organised, made them think there was a real threat of revolution, which was worsened as one had just happened in France.
- dealt with rioters harshly- special Commission appointed to try and find the rioters, 19 rioters sentenced to death, 400 sentenced to transportation, 650 imprisoned.
How did the swing riots impact pressure for change?
• created a political climate where reforming the poor laws wasn’t just a possibility, but now abs urgent necessity.
How had the average Poor Law expenditure increased between 1783 and 1829?
- 1783- average expenditure of £2,000,000.
* 1829- average expenditure of £6,800,000.
Why was the cost of poor relief rising in the early 19th century?
• the population was becoming more mobile so people crowded into parishes industrial areas, then claiming poor relief that parishes couldn’t afford.
What county was relatively prosperous and held up for its experimentation poor relief system? Why was this?
- Nottinghamshire- thriving framework knitting industry and industrial expansion provided work in times of downturn in rural employment.
- 1820-23- per capita relief was less than 11shillings, way bellow the national average.
- allowance system in operation, but it clearly didn’t impact heavily on the poor rates.
- amalgamation in 1823 of 49 parishes into a Gilbert Union, building 2 strict deterrent workhouses but kindness was shown to the aged, infirm and children.
How was their success in a community in Gloucestershire with their relief system?
- JP reformed the poor law administration here due to little regular employment and a declining woollen industry.
- allowance system previously in place, but JP made rigorous reforms by abolishing outdoor relief and making workhouse conditions awful.
- within 2 years the number of paupers fell from 977 to 125.
- similar policies in Cornwall and Derbyshire.
How did the authorities reduce to cost of poor relief in Cookham, Berkshire?
- when the able-bodied applied for relief, he offered them a wage lower than what was generally paid in the parish.
- 63 long term recipients immediately left the parish.
- similar approaches in London, Bristol and Norwich.
Who was Thomas Malthus and what did he believe in?
- economist.
- population was rising and outstripping all available food supplies- the Poor Law was making this worse as it encouraged paupers to have more children so they could claim more relief.
- said the Poor Law should be abolished all together- families would stay small as there was no financial advantage to having more children, wages would rise as poor rates would no longer have to be paid by employees, everyone would prosper.
Who was David Ricardo and what did he believe in?
- political economist.
- wrote On the Principles of the Political Economy and Taxation- put forward an iron law of wages (wage necessary to sustain life) instead, said the more that was paid out in poor relief, the less there was available for wages, so more people were being driven into pauperism.
- only way to break this cycle was to abolish the poor laws all together.
Who was Thomas Paine and what did he believe in?
- writer and republican.
- criticised the Poor Law saying it was inadequate.
- proposed a property tax on the very rich to support systems for the poor- family allowances and old age pensions.
- had a problem was the able-bodied okie abs implied they had to go to workhouses before receiving relief.
Who was Robert Owen and what did he believe in?
- radical factory owner.
- blamed the capitalist system and abuse of the factory system for creating poverty.
- New Lanark, Scotland factory- cotton spinning mill and mill workers village, he tried to build a new community.
- working hours of maximum 10 hours per day, sick pay provides at times of illness and accidents, children educated until 10 years old, shop with goods sold at their cost price.
- his mills ran at a profit.
- said if workers were employed in cooperative communities, everyone would share the profits fairly and therefore work harder, so there would be no need for poor relief apart from for the impotent poor.
