Poverty Depth 3: 1847-80

• The prevailing orthodoxy throughout most of the 19th century (especially from 1847 to 1880) was that:

  • poverty was necessary, and even desirable, if people were to strive to improve their lot
  • indigence, the inability of individuals to provide for themselves and their families even at the most basic level, was the fault of the poor themselves
• It was the prevailing orthodoxy that led to the workhouse test and the principle of less eligibility and even the division of paupers into the 'deserving' and 'undeserving'.