[
296 ] Notes on Sources
cent.) There was but very little long-distance migration, as Redford has shown,
and a large part of the reserve army of labor was kept at the employers' disposal by
means of liberal relief methods in village and in manufacturing town. No wonder
that there was simultaneous "overpopulation" both in town and country, while
actually at times of peak demand Lancashire manufacturers had to import Irish
workers in large numbers and farmers were emphatic that they would be unable
to carry on at harvest time if any of the village paupers were induced to emigrate.
Some Contemporary Books on Pauperism and
the Old Poor Law
Acland,
Compulsory Savings Plans (1786).
Anonymous,
Considerations on Several Proposals Lately Made for the Better Main-
tenance of the Poor. With an Appendix (2nd ed., 1752).
Anonymous,
A New Plan for the Better Maintenance ofthe Poor ofEngland (1784).
An Address to the Public, from the Philanthropic Society, instituted in 1788 for the
Prevention of Crimes and the Reform of the Criminal Poor (1788).
Applegarth, Rob.,
A Plea for the Poor (1790).
Belsham, Will,
Remarks on the Bill for the Better Support and Maintenance of the
Poor (1797).
Bentham, J.,
Pauper Management Improved (1802).
,
Observation on the Restrictive and Prohibitory Commercial System (1821).
,
Observations on the Poor Bill, Introduced by the Right Honourable William
Pitt; written February 1797.
Burke, E.,
Thoughts and Details on Scarcity (1795).
Cowe, James,
Religious and Philanthropic Trusts (1797).
Crumple, Samuel, M.D.,
An Essay on the Best Means of Providing Employment for
the People (1793).
Defoe, Daniel,
Giving Alms No Charity, and Employing the Poor a Grievance to the
Nation (1704).
Dyer, George,
A Dissertation on the Theory and Practice of Benevolence (1795).
,
The Complaints of the Poor People of England (1792).
Eden,
On the Poor (1797), 3 vols.
Gilbert, Thomas,
Plan for the Better Reliefand Employment ofthe Poor (1781).
Godwin, William,
Thoughts Occasioned by the Perusal of Dr. Parr's Spiritual Ser-
mon, Preached at Christ Church April 15, 1800 (London, 1801).
Hampshire,
State of the Poor (1795).
Hampshire Magistrate (E. Poulter),
Comments on thePoorBill (1797).
Howlett, Rev. J.,
Examination of Mr. Pitt's Speech (1796).
James, Isaac,
Providence Displayed (London, 1800), p. 20.
Jones, Edw.,
The Prevention of Poverty (1796).
Luson, Hewling,
Inferior Politics: or, Considerations on the Wretchedness and
Profligacy of the Poor (1786).
M'Farlane, John, D. D.,
Enquiries Concerning the Poor (1782).
Notes on Sources
[297]
Martineau, H.,
The Parish (1833).
,
The Hamlet (1833).
,
The History of the Thirty Years'Peace (1849), 3 vols.
,
Illustrations of Political Economy (1832-34), 9 vols.
Massie, J.,
A Plan... Penitent Prostitutes. Foundling Hospital, Poor and Poor Laws
(1758).
Nasmith, James, D. D.,
A Charge, Isle of Ely (1799).
Owen, Robert,
Report ofthe Committee ofthe Association for the Reliefofthe Manu-
facturing and Labouring Poor (1818).
Paine, Th.,
Agrarian Justice (1797).
Pew, Rich.,
Observations (1783).
Pitt, Wm. Morton,
An Address to the Landed Interest of the defic. of Habitation and
Fuel for the Use of the Poor (1797).
Plan of a Public Charity, A (1790), "On Starving," a sketch.
First Report of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Com-
forts of the Poor.
Second Report oithe Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor (1797).
Ruggles, Tho.,
The History of the Poor (1793), 2 vols.
Sabatier, Wm., Esq.,
A Treatise on Poverty (1793).
Saunders, Robert,
Observations.
Sherer, Rev. J. C,
Present State of the Poor (1796).
Spitalfields institution,
Good Meat Soup (1799).
St. Giles in the Field, Vestry of the United Parishes of,
Criticism of "Bill for the Bet-
ter Support and Maintenance ofthe Poor" (1797).
Suffolk Gentleman,
A Letter on the Poor Rates and the High Price of Provisions
(i795).
[Townsend, Joseph],
Dissertation on the Poor Laws 1786 by A Well-Wisher of
Mankind.
Vancouver, John,
Causes and Production of Poverty (1796).
Wilson, Rev. Edw.,
Observations on the Present State of the Poor (1795).
Wood, J.,
Letter to Sir William Pulteney (on Pitt's Bill) (1797).
Young, SirW.,
Poor Houses and Work-Houses (1796).
Some Modern Writings
Ashley, Sir W J.,
An Introduction to English Economic History and Theory (1931).
Belasco, Ph. S., "John Bellers, 1654-1725,"
Economica, June 1925.
, "The Labour Exchange Idea in the Seventeenth Century,"
Ec. ]., Vol. I,
p. 275.
Blackmore, J. S., and Mellonie, F. C,
Family Endowment and the Birthrate in the
Early Nineteenth Century, Vol. I.
Clapham, J. H.,
Economic History of Modern Britain, Vol. 1,1926.
Marshall, Dorothy, "The Old Poor Law, 1662-1795," in
TheEc. Hist. Rev, Vol. VIII,
1937-8,
p. 38.
[298]
Notes on Sources
Palgrave's
Dictionary of Political Economy, Art. "Poor Law," 1925.
Webb, S. and B.,
English Local Government, Vol. 7-9, "Poor Law History," 1927-29.
Webb, Sidney, "Social Movements,"
C.M.H., Vol. XII, pp. 730-65.
10. Speenhamland and Vienna
The author was first drawn to the study of Speenhamland and its effects on the
classical economists by the highly suggestive social and economic situation in
Austria as it developed after the Great War.
Here, in a purely capitalistic surrounding, a socialist municipality established
a regime which was bitterly attacked by economic liberals. No doubt some of the
interventionist policies practiced by the municipality were incompatible with the
mechanism of a market economy. But purely economic arguments did not ex-
haust an issue which was primarily social, not economic.
The main facts about Vienna were these. During most of the fifteen years fol-
lowing the Great War, 1914-18, unemployment insurance in Austria was heavily
subsidized from public funds, thus extending outdoor relief indefinitely; rents
were fixed at a minute fraction of their former level, and the municipality of Vi-
enna built large tenement houses on a nonprofit basis, raising the required capital
by taxation. While no aid-in-wages was given, all-round provision of social ser-
vices, modest though they were, might have actually allowed wages to drop exces-
sively, but for a developed trade union movement which found, of course, strong
support in extended unemployment benefit. Economically, such a system was cer-
tainly anomalous. Rents, restricted to a quite unremunerative level, were incom-
patible with the existing system of private enterprise, notably in the building
trade. Also, during the earlier years, social protection in the impoverished coun-
try interfered with the stability of the currency—inflationist and interventionist
policies had gone hand in hand.
Eventually Vienna, like Speenhamland, succumbed under the attack of politi-
cal forces powerfully sustained by the purely economic argument. The political
upheavals in 1832 in England and 1934 in Austria were designed to free the labor
market from protectionist intervention. Neither the squire's village nor working-
class Vienna could indefinitely isolate itself from its environment.
Yet obviously there was a very big difference between the two interventionist
periods. The English village, in 1795, had to be sheltered from a dislocation caused
by economic progress—a tremendous advance of urban manufactures; the in-
dustrial laboring class of Vienna, in 1918, had to be protected against the effects of
economic retrogression, resulting from war, defeat, and industrial chaos. Eventu-
ally, Speenhamland led to a crisis of the organization of labor, which opened up
the road to a new era of prosperity; while the
Heimwehr victory in Austria formed
part of a total catastrophe of the national and social system.
What we wish to stress here is the enormous difference in the cultural and
moral effects of the two types of intervention: the attempt of Speenhamland to
prevent the coming of market economy and the experiment of Vienna trying to
transcend such an economy altogether. While Speenhamland caused a veritable