Paper 3 Depth 1 Flashcards
What was problem of the able bodied pauper? How were the poor classified?
poor people were classified into deserving and undeserving poor
- deserving e.g elderly, orphans, disabled etc- they were deserving of receiving poor relief
- undeserving e.g ex-criminals, single mothers etc
- people thought ‘undeserving poor’ didn’t deserve relief
SOLUTION: came up with classification of poverty
1. Henry Mayhew gave 3 categories of poor people- those who will work (unskilled workers), those who cannot work (elderly,orphans) and those who will not work (criminals and beggars)
- William Booth- came up with the idea that poverty is fluid, people could go from a skilled worker to unemployment and vice versa
why were they classified?
- to ensure deserving poor got relief and to avoid undeserving poor being encouraged to live on handouts
How were the poor helped? (parish-based relief)
Medieval: Catholic Church provided relief through monasteries
Tudor: Henry VIII closed down monasteries and took responsibility for the poor
1601 Poor Law:
- the parish was responsible for the poor, had overseers of the poor who would administer relief
- each parish paid local tax called the poor rate
1662 Law of Settlement- poor only received help from the parish they were born in or where the lived for more than a year
1697- strangers would be refused access to some parishes without proof
- why wasn’t it working? industrial revolution in the 1700s meant urban parishes were overwhelmed by demand for poor relief
ways people would be helped:
- indoor relief: putting paupers inside a place to get relief e.g workhouses
- 1776- 2,000 workhouses in England giving 90,000 places to people
- outdoor relief- giving people handouts, more popular as it was easier and cheaper BUT anyone could apply and they didn’t know whether people applying were deserving or undeserving
How did indoor relief help poor people?
- almshouses for deserving poor, workhouses for able-bodied poor, houses of correction for criminals
- urban parishes amalgamated for purpose of workhouse building, 1780- half of rural parishes in Suffolk were in some form of combination with neighbouring parishes, 2,000 workhouses with places for 90,000 people
PROBLEM: not cost effective for each parish to provide for paupers in this way, never really worked in practice
What were changes to indoor relief and how effective were they?
problems with it: expensive- each parish had to have 3 separate workhouses, it was inflexible- cyclical unemployment meant sometimes there would be lots of poor in workhouses (winter), other times there would be no poor (summer)
- 1782 Gilbert’s Act
problem- lots of people couldn’t find employment, early stages of industrialisation put pressure on urban parishes
solution: Thomas Gilbert presented a bill stating: parishes could combine in Poor Law Unions if 2/3 of major landowners and rate payers agreed
- able-bodies workers were excluded from the Gilbert’s Union, workhouses were for deserving poor- parish guardian had to find work for able-bodies workers, if this couldn’t be found outdoor relief could be provided
effectiveness: bad- it was permissive
- overseers required to submit annual returns of Poor Law expenditure- gave evidence of cost of poor relief (good)
- ministers and churchwardens were required to provide information about local charities that mirrored support by poor law
- 1818 and 1819 Sturges-Bourne Acts
- rich taxpayers of poor relief took control of local poor relief and were voted onto a select vestry, people who paid the most money got the most votes
- select vestries denied outdoor relief
- a second act instructed vestries to take account of who was deserving of receiving relief- kept principle of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor
effectiveness: good- by 1824 46 vestries had been formed and many experienced a drop on overall cost of relief
- (bad) cost reductions of relief were at the expense of the poor, they got less relief
- overall permissive- only applied to parishes whose vestries voted to adopt new provisions and some towns didn’t have them
What were changes to outdoor relief and how effective were they?
- outdoor relief was easier to administer and more flexible- for most families, help was only needed in short-term, workhouses wouldn’t be appropriate
- there was more demand on parishes due to industrial revolution and a migrant population- more solutions were needed
3 types of outdoor relief:
1. Speenham Land System- was in the South and East of Britain by 1800 and worked out how much relief people would get compared to the price of bread in the area and how many children a family had
POSITIVE: it was a much more consistent form of outdoor relief which was linked to economic conditions and was widespread
- Roundsman System- instead of giving handouts people were sent to work for a farmer for a day, the farmer would fill out a ticket which the person would have to present in order to get money
- there was a basic minimum rate for a day of work, the parish would then change this to fit family size and the price of bread
PROBLEM: farmers only wanted to pay bare minimum wage so the parish had to subsidise for more people which in turn became expensive - Labour Rate- a basic minimum rate was given to paupers by the parish
- anyone who employed local paupers did not have to pay the Poor Rate (tax)
POSITIVE: solved the problem of the Roundsman system whereby most paupers’ wages were paid by the parish, by 1832 1 in 5 parishes had some form of labour rate
How did financial pressures demand change in the poor law?
impact of the wars with France:
- in 1813 and 1814 cheap foreign corn could be imported form Europe which forced English farmers to keep prices low
- caused problems as many people had to pay wartime taxes and some had interest to pay on loans
- many farmers went bankrupt which caused unemployment for their labourers- many were forced to ask for relief and farmers who survived were forced to reduce wages for workers
Corn Laws:
- 1815 Tory govt introduced them to protect British workers
- they wouldn’t allow the import of foreign corn until the price of British corn reached 80 shillings a quarter (because foreign corn had low prices so farmers made less money)
- govt hoped to keep the price of corn and bread steady BUT people resented the laws because they thought it kept the price of bread and corn too high
- riots and outbreaks of violence happened as the poor found they could not buy sufficient bread
post-war:
- distress from the war meant more people claimed relief than before- soldiers returning from war in 1815 demanded relief, some people regarded relief as a right
- 1817-1819 the crisis years- there were problems from returning soldiers, dislocation of trade, appalling weather and poor harvests- food was expensive due to lack of it so expenditure on poor relief rose to £8 million a year, 12 to 13 shillings per person (because relief was linked to the price of bread more relief was given out because price of bread was high)
radical protests:
- they forced govt to suspend habeas corpus (prevented people from being imprisoned in secret)
- the Six Acts of 1818 was passed and confirmed the govt’s policy of repression and reducing liberties in fear of protest
- repressive govt was unlikely to bring about any legislation to improve poor law provision
How did social pressures demand change in the poor law?
1830 Swing Riots:
- rioters in 20 different counties demanded higher wages and removal of steam-powered threshing machines that deprived them of employment in Autumn and Winter (poor people felt relief wasn’t being provided- the poor had lack of support)
- in the village of Brede, Sussex, a group of labourers launched a local movement against overseers of the poor, demanding higher allowances and removal of Mr Abel, who consistently wanted to remove paupers
- two villages in Hampshire had a combined operation against threshing machines and overseers of the poor, they broke a threshing machine and pulled down workhouses
- petitions and threats signed ‘Captain Swing’ gave the impression of an organised revolt- there was no leader, radicalism or revolutionary intent but authorities ordered that rioters should be dealt with harshly e.g in Tolpuddle people argued for better pay, formed a union and govt sent to Australia which shows govt was scared of a revolution
- 19 rioters were sentenced to death, 644 sentenced to imprisonment and 400 were to be transported to Australia
How did ideological pressures demand change in the poor law?
Poor Law does too much:
Thomas Malthus- argued that population was too high and they were stripping supplies of food, argued Poor Law made the situation worse because it encouraged the poor to have more children so they could get more relief, favoured abolition of the poor law- the poor would then have to keep their families small because there would be no advantage to having more, Poor Rate would no longer be levied and employers could pay employees more
David Ricardo- had idea of iron law of wages which would give a wage fund from which money for wages and poor relief would be paid, argued that the more that was paid out in poor relief the less would be available for wages, wanted to abolish poor law
Jeremy Bentham- Utilitarianism- believed any society should be organised to enable greatest amount of happiness, Poor Law gave too high taxes so people are unhappy, rich have to pay tax so they are also unhappy, abolishing it would make everyone happy
Poor Law doesn’t do enough:
Thomas Paine- poor law is inadequate, proposed a tax on the very rich to be used for a variety of support systems for the poor e.g family allowances and old age pensions, believed able-bodied poor should go to workhouses before receiving relief
Robert Owen- believed in co-operative communities, which the govt should set up, in which everyone would share in the profits of whatever organisation they were working for, this way the harder people worked the greater their income would be so they would have no need for poor relief
How did political pressures demand change in the poor law?
- 1831 general election- change of govt fore the first time in a few decades
- the Tory party were beaten by the Whig party who were more intent on bringing about change- Whigs gave votes to more people
- Whig govt was under pressure to make changes to the poor law but they were more prepared to bring about change
- 1832 Senior govt official Lord Althorpe promised to set up a Royal Commission to look into the Poor Law
How did political regional alternatives demand change in the poor law?
The Nottinghamshire Experiment:
- amalgamation of 49 parishes in 1823 was organised by Rev. JT Becher because poor rate was low
- Becher insisted on kindness being shown to the elderly and infirm and workhouse schools were established for children, also opened to ‘the outside’ which improved conditions for workhouse children
- 1818 Rev. Robert Lowe went further and insisted that outdoor relief should be abolished and the workhouse should be a place of fear- wanted deterrent workhouses so people wouldn’t want to go to them which he believed would stop people wanting to be paupers
- 1819 George Nichols reached the conclusion that allowance systems were responsible for the continuation of poverty and he claimed to have ended outdoor relief
Success in Gloucestershire:
- 1830 JH Lloyd Baker started reforming poor law administration, introduced rigorous reforms and within 2 years number of paupers fell from 977 to 125
- an allowance system was in full swing with an annual relief bill of £3,185
- Uley- poor rate is cut, outdoor relief was abolished, the workhouse was so dreadful that no one wanted to go there
Challenge in Cookham, Berkshire:
- poor relief is reduced because the parish gave a low rate of pay
- people moved away because it was so bad
