poverty

• By the 1580s, around 30% of people were in poverty
• Vagrants or vagabonds were unemployed people who roamed from town to town looking for work
• The middling sort and gentry were worried about vagrancy because:

  • they worried that vagrants would commit crime
  • that vagrants would spread the plague
• At the time no one knew what caused poverty but we now know that its caused by:

  1. population increase - from 2.4 million to 4.1 million - higher demand for wheat but not enough supply
  2. Inflation - increased demand led to inflation - price of wheat increased by 250%
  3. Failed harvests - 1595 1596 and 1597 - led to further inflation making bread more expensive
  4. sheep farming - wool became more profitable than wheat so less farmers farmed wheat - led to further inflation making it more expensive for the poor
• The government introduced harsh punishments for vagabonds since they thought they caused poverty:

  • Vagrants caught the first time were whipped and burned through the ear with a hot iron
  • If they were caught again, they could be hanged
  • this approach did not work as it didnt deal with the causes of poverty
• The 1601 poor law introduced a system that treated some poor people with more compassion. The system remained in place for over 200 years
• The 1601 poor law divided the poor into 2 categories:

  • The deserving poor: people who wanted to work but couldn't (elderly, children, disabled)
  • The undeserving poor: people who could work but didn't (criminals, lazy people)
• The 1601 poor law treated different types of poor differently

  • The deserving poor treated with compassion:
  • Poor relief
  • Materials for work
  • apprenticeships for young people
  • The undeserving poor was treated differently
  • Whipping
  • hard labour
• 1601 poor law was paid for by a tax called the poor rate and manged by the justices of peace