Policies towards the poor were shaped more by fear than compassion
Social history in early modern England
Subject: “Policies towards the poor were shaped more by fear than compassion”. Discuss.
“Rising unemployment caused by the increase in population, growing numbers of people who had lost or been thrown of their land, high prices and stagnant wages were creating ever greater numbers of poor people.”1 Indeed, early modern England had to face an increasing number of paupers, due to bad harvests, diseases or the enclosure phenomenon. Relief had to be given to the poorest families and individuals, but soon, classes were created to differentiate the deserving and the underserving poor. The basis of this classification seems to have several roots; English citizens feared poor people, but could also feel compassion towards the ones who lacked of chance. But we have to keep in mind that early modern English citizens, who could afford a living and did not need helps, were afraid of the general ideas behind poverty; this class was thought to have all sorts of defaults, and was supposed to threaten order and society in general. So, were policies towards the poor shaped more by fear than compassion? I am going to begin by defining what it was to be poor in early modern England, as well as explaining the radical differences between those two categories of poor people. I will then try to explain the general view that contemporaries had about those two classes; I will finally show what governments and parishes did to help or punish them.
In the early modern England, the poor were very numerous; between 10 and 20 percent of the English people were considered too poor to support themselves and their eventual families: “It has been estimated that at the end of the Tudor period, depending on the current state of the economy, something like 10 to 20 percent of the general population could not meet their expenses out of their income, about a third resorted begging, and some 20000-40000 people were in a state of near-perpetual migration”.2
Subject: “Policies towards the poor were shaped more by fear than compassion”. Discuss.
“Rising unemployment caused by the increase in population, growing numbers of people who had lost or been thrown of their land, high prices and stagnant wages were creating ever greater numbers of poor people.”1 Indeed, early modern England had to face an increasing number of paupers, due to bad harvests, diseases or the enclosure phenomenon. Relief had to be given to the poorest families and individuals, but soon, classes were created to differentiate the deserving and the underserving poor. The basis of this classification seems to have several roots; English citizens feared poor people, but could also feel compassion towards the ones who lacked of chance. But we have to keep in mind that early modern English citizens, who could afford a living and did not need helps, were afraid of the general ideas behind poverty; this class was thought to have all sorts of defaults, and was supposed to threaten order and society in general. So, were policies towards the poor shaped more by fear than compassion? I am going to begin by defining what it was to be poor in early modern England, as well as explaining the radical differences between those two categories of poor people. I will then try to explain the general view that contemporaries had about those two classes; I will finally show what governments and parishes did to help or punish them.
In the early modern England, the poor were very numerous; between 10 and 20 percent of the English people were considered too poor to support themselves and their eventual families: “It has been estimated that at the end of the Tudor period, depending on the current state of the economy, something like 10 to 20 percent of the general population could not meet their expenses out of their income, about a third resorted begging, and some 20000-40000 people were in a state of near-perpetual migration”.2