AN ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH POOR LAW 1750-1850 [...]... the southeast of England and the west and north, and it analyzes the effect of poor relief on wages, profits, birth rates, and migration The issues raised are not new; each of them was debated by contemporary observers of the early-nineteenth-century Poor Law The writings of contemporaries and historians who have addressed these issues can be 1 2 An Economic History of the English Poor Law divided into... hours at the Black Buoy, the Rose and Crown, the Horse and Groom, and the Flag passing on to me the famous oral tradition of the economics department (see O E Covick, "The Quantity Theory of Drink: A Restatement," Australian Economic Papers, December 1974) Acknowledgments xiii I would like to thank the Economic History Association and the editors of Explorations in Economic History and the Journal of Political... portions of my earlier articles: "An Economic Model of the English Poor Law circa 1780-1834," Explorations in Economic History 22 (April 1985): 129-67 (copyright 1985, by Academic Press); "The Old Poor Law and the Agricultural Labor Market in Southern England: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Economic History 46 (March 1986): 113-35 (copyright 1986, by the Economic History Association); "The Poor Law, ... underemployed The changes in relief methods led to changes in the economic role of the Poor Law in rural parishes A knowledge of the methods of relief that were adopted, the time when they were adopted, and the changes in the economic environment that brought about their adoption is essential for an evaluation of the economic role played by the Poor Law from 1795 to 1834, the so-called Speenhamland era This... Norfolk, and Bedford found that the use of allowance systems occurred primarily during the years 1795, 1796, 1800, and 1801 3 The use of allowance systems was particularly widespread in the grain-producing southeast; 50% of the responding southeastern districts admitted paying allowances-in-aid-ofwages (Parl Papers 1825: XIX) 12 An Economic History of the English Poor Law not the case The use of allowances-in-aid -of- wages... perform work for the parish in order to obtain relief 22 An Economic History of the English Poor Law relief to anyone who refused to enter them Data on the extent of workhouses are available for 1803 and 1813-15 In 1803, 26% of the 14,611 "parishes or places" included in the Abstract of Returns Relative to the State of the Poor maintained some of their poor in workhouses The number of workhouses was... all the points on the MX line would be optimal 20 An Economic History of the English Poor Law Income Figure 1.1 The work-leisure decision under the allowance system either unwilling or unable to be selective in their granting of relief Because of the small size of parishes, however, overseers of relief usually knew the employment situation of each labor-hiring farmer and the "industrious" nature of. .. during the second half of the eighteenth century I conclude that the adoption of outdoor relief in the southeast was a response to a decline in family income caused by the decline of cottage industry and laborers' loss of land Chapter 2 surveys the historiography of the Old Poor Law, from the beginning of the traditional critique of outdoor relief in the late eighteenth century to the development of the. .. and for the support of his wife and every other of his family Is 6d When the gallon loaf shall cost Is 4d., then every poor and industrious man shall have 4s weekly for his own, and Is lOd for the support of every other of his family And so in proportion as the price of bread rises or falls (that is to say), 3d to the man and Id to every other of the family, on every penny which the loaf rises above... Royal Poor Law Commission: In perhaps a majority of the parishes in which the allowance system prevails, the earnings of the applicant, and, in a few, the earnings of his wife and children, are ascertained, or at least professed or attempted to be ascertained, and only the difference between them and the sum allotted to him by the scale is paid to him by the parish (Royal Commission 1834: 24) The most . Interpretations of the Poor Law 65 4. Polanyis Analysis of the Poor Law 71 5. The Revisionist Analysis of the Poor Law 75 6. Conclusion 83 3. An Economic Model of the. AN ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH POOR LAW 1750-1850