The Poor Law Policy at the Time of the Industrial Revolution

Most economic historians have had an opinion that there was a sharp division between the agricultural and the industrial interests concerning the Gilbert & Speenhamland System. Some of them said that the System protected landlords' interest, and others paying attention to the heavy poor-rate paid by the landlord held an opinion that the System protected industrialists' interest at the sacrifice of the agricultural interests. The author, however, rejects such an opinion and puts stress on other aspects to the problem. One point which the author empihaszed was the difference between those who promoted the industrial and the agricultural revolutions and those who disappeared during the process of the revolutions. The former were factory-owners, farmers and landlords, the latter being the poor manufacturers who put materials on the domestic workes, handloom weavers, framework knitters and the agricultural poor. The other point was the function of the System to maintain peace, which was sometimes overlooked by historians. Though landlords were burdened heaviest with the poor-rate, they did not dare to ask to repeal or to amend the old Poor Laws until 1834. The reason was that it was necessary to keep peace in order to perform the agricultural revolution. The small landholders were becoming the laboring poor as a result of the parliamentary enclosure, and lived upon the parish relief. If there were not the Poor Laws, the landlord would have to come across labouers' serious attack. It mattered least to the factory-masters how the Poor Laws worked, for the factory-labouers had the relatively good wage compared with such domestic workers as handloom weavers. They did not rely upon the parish relief cven during industrial depression, for they had their own union for self-help, that is, the friendly societies. The factory-masters, therefore, were not so much helped by the Poor Laws as against it. The reason was that the parish relief, as it were, encouraged the poor manufacturers to reduce domestic workers' wage through eking out it with allowance. The poor manufacturers' constant practice was to attempt to realize a profit by underselling their more respectable competitors. that is, the factory-masters, The factor-masters, therefore, asked the Parliament to fix minimum wage in Concert with the domestic workers. The Gilbert-Speenhamland System appeared to be very helpful to the poor manufacturers as well as to the domestic workers who eked out their wage with allowance. But in reality it was not so helpful. It only postponed their disappearance. It was, in the end, useful both to landlords and to factory-masters. They could accomplish the revolutions due to the existence of the system.