Malthus tells us that his book was suggested by Godwin's Inquiry,but it was really prompted by the rapid growth of pauperism which Malthus saw around him,and the book proved the main influence which determined the reform of the English Poor Laws.The problem of pauperism came upon men in its most terrible form between 1795and 1834.This was the highest rate ever reached.But really to understand the nature of the problem we must examine the previous history of pauperism,its causes in different periods,and the main influences which determined its increase.
Prejudices have arisen against Political Economy because it seemed to tell men to follow their self-interest and to repress their instincts of benevolence.Individual self-interest makes no provision for the poor,and to do so other motives and ideas must take its place;hence the idea that Political Economy taught that no such provision should be made.Some of the old economists did actually say that people should be allowed to die in the street.
Yet Malthus,with all his hatred of the Poor Law,thought that 'the evil was now so deeply seated,and relief given by the Poor Laws so widely extended,that no man of humanity could venture to propose their immediate abolition.'The assumed cruelty of political economy arises from a mistaken conception of its province,and from that confusion of ideas to which I have before alluded,which turned economic laws into practical precepts,and refused to allow for the action of other motives by their side.
What we now see to be required is not the repression of the instincts of benevolence,but their organisation.To make benevolence scientific is the great problem of the present age.
Men formerly thought that the simple direct action of the benevolent instincts by means of self-denying gifts was enough to remedy the misery they deplored;now we see that not only thought but historical study is also necessary.Both to understand the nature of pauperism and to discover its effectual remedies,we must investigate its earlier history.But in doing this we should take to heart two warnings:first,not to interpret medieval statutes by modern ideas;and secondly,not to assume that the causes of pauperism have always been the same.
The history of the Poor Laws divides itself into three epochs;from 1349to 1601,from 1601to 1782,and from 1782to 1834.Now,what was the nature of pauperism in medieval society,and what were then the means of relieving it?Certain characteristics are permanent in all society,and thus in medieval life as elsewhere there was a class of impotent poor,who were neither able to support themselves nor had relatives to support them.This was the only form of pauperism in the early beginnings of medieval society,and it was provided for as follows.The community was then broken up into groups -the manor,the guild,the family,the Church with its hospitals,and each group was responsible for the maintenance of all its members;by these means all classes of poor were relieved.In the towns the craft and religious guilds provided for their own members;large estates in land were given to the guilds,which 'down to the Reformation formed an organised administration of relief'('the religious guilds were organised for the relief of distress as well as for conjoint and mutual prayer';)-while outside the guilds there were the churches,the hospitals,and the monasteries.The 'settled poor'in towns were relieved by the guilds,in the country by the lords of the manor and the beneficed clergy.'Every manor had its constitution,'says Professor Stubbs,and,referring to manumission,he adds,'the native lost the privilege of maintenance which he could claim of his lord.'Among what were called 'the vagrant poor'there were the professional beggars,who were scarcely then considered what we should now call paupers,and 'the valiant labourers'wandering only in search of work.Who then were the paupers?In the towns there were the craftsmen,who could not procure admission into a guild.In the country there was the small class of landless labourers nominally free.It is a great law of social development that the movement from slavery to freedom is also a movement from security to insecurity of maintenance.There is a close connection between the growth of freedom and the growth of pauperism;it is scarcely too much to say that the latter is the price we pay for the former.The first Statute that is in any sense a Poor Law was enacted at a time when the emancipation of the serfs was proceeding rapidly.This is the Statute of Labourers,made in 1349;it has nothing to do with the maintenance of the poor'.Its object was to repress their vagrancy.
This Statute has been variously interpreted.According to some,it was simply an attempt of the landowners to force the labourers to take the old wages of the times before the Plague.
