The Early History of English Poor Relief

by of Girton College E. M. Leonard

Between 1629 and 1644 the interference of the Council is not confined to the years of scarcity but is continued for a long period of time. There are every year important entries concerning the poor in the Privy Council Register, and this fact seems to indicate that the attention of the Privy Council was thoroughly aroused, and that there was a determination to make the execution of the poor law a reality. The years 1629 to 1631 like those of 1621 to 1623 were years of high-priced corn and of a crisis in the cloth trade, and some of these Orders in Council in 1629-31 are of the same character as those of 1622-3. In 1631 however the interference of the Council is better organised than before and is continued until the outbreak of the Civil War. We will first enumerate a few of the measures relating to grain.

The first proceeding of the Government was to forbid the transportation of corn out of the country. In 1629 and 1631 proclamations were issued to this effect[335]. In 1630 the export of beer also was forbidden[336], so as to husband the barley as much as possible. The restrictions were extended to Ireland, a survey was ordered of the quantities of grain there, and it was found that there was a very good harvest. Exportation to foreign countries was prohibited, licenses already granted were revoked, and all corn not needed for Ireland was to be brought to England[337].

At one time, moreover, an attempt was made to limit the export from county to county and to regulate the supply by means of licenses. Thus the bakers of London were to have the right of purchase for twenty miles round the City; Bristol had special license to buy in other markets and import by sea. Gloucester, Exeter, and London were allowed to buy in Cornwall, Tewkesbury in Pembroke, Carmarthen and Portsmouth in the Isle of Wight[338]. But this system of licensing proved insufficient, and in April 1631 the justices of the home counties received general orders to remember that the transport of corn from one shire into another was not forbidden[339]. The Government then recurred to the Books of Orders which were drawn up in 1587, and had been re-enforced in every season of scarcity since that time. In Sept. 1630 these orders were amended and reissued by Charles I.[340]; it is to this Book of Orders that the corn reports of the justices refer[341]. These Orders we have seen work through the justices, and require justices' reports. In fact they establish the organisation for the provision of corn that was afterwards used for the relief of the poor.

One other method of the central Government is perhaps worth noting. Other laws connected with the poor were enforced, such as those relating to the suppression of beggars and the labour laws. But these times of famine were especially the times when inquiries were made about enclosures. The enclosing of land necessarily excited opposition when there was not corn enough. There were riots in Northampton and in other places in 1607-8, and in 1631 "a large number of rebels" pulled down fences in Braydon Forest[342]. A great inquiry was made into the whole subject in 1609, and in 1631 also the justices return a few special reports upon enclosures, and sometimes make their answer a part of the report concerning the poor. In Appletree, Derby, very little land had been lately enclosed "for that the greatest parte of this hundred hath been enclosed long since[343]," but in other cases a few new fences had been erected[344]. There is enough to show that even in 1631 enclosures continued to be made and continued to excite the old opposition.

Thus the Council in 1629-30 endeavoured to minimise the amount of grain consumed, to secure a proper supply for the markets, and to see that all laws designed to benefit the poor were rigorously enforced. These measures are of much the same character as those of the sixteenth century, but the orders are much more detailed and much stronger in the parts designed to secure efficient administration. They were better administered, and in the reports sent in by the justices we can see a marked improvement, and signs that the organisation which broke down in the sixteenth century was successful in the seventeenth.

5. Action of the Privy Council after 1629 with regard to the unemployed.

But after 1629 the Orders of Council relate to many other methods of relieving the poor. Some concern provision for the unemployed poor, others deal with the Royal commission and Book of Orders of 1631, and a few have reference to interference with wages undertaken by the Government with the object of relieving distress.

The want of employment in the cloth-making counties again became a serious difficulty at the beginning of the year 1629. It was partly connected with political troubles; the merchants refused to pass their goods through the Custom House in order to avoid paying exactions which they regarded as illegal. The clothiers therefore could not sell their cloths or continue to employ their workmen. Pressure on employers and merchants was a not infrequent way of helping the poor. The Council sent for the London merchants and thought they had persuaded them to buy the unsold cloths[345], but apparently the merchants drew back; in any case "divers merchant strangers and denizens" were summoned, and on May 12th they are said to be "inclined" to buy the "bayes made at Braintree, Bocking, and Coxall[346]." The privileges possessed by the Merchant Adventurers for the export of cloth enabled the Council to put especial pressure on the merchants when cloth was concerned. The threat had only to be made that the trade would be thrown open to foreign traders and the London merchants had to choose between competition from rivals or the loss involved in buying the stocks in the manufacturers' hands. In 1637 there was again depression in the cloth trade, and again the Merchant Adventurers were told that the trade would be thrown open if they did not buy the cloths[347]. Moreover one of the last acts connected with the poor enforced by the personal government of Charles I. was of the same kind. At the outbreak of the Civil War the clothing trade was the first to suffer, clothmakers all over the country petitioned the king for help, and one of the few resolutions of the Privy Council entered between 1640 and 1645 was that the cloth trade should be thrown open to relieve the distress, and free license to export be allowed at those seaport towns that remained faithful to the king[348].

Relief of the unemployed cloth-workers.