The increase of poverty in Britain referred indeed to a group of interrelated factors. The black plague, which stroke England in the 14th century for example, had an awful impact on economy and society likewise. Terrible human and material losses were produced; therefore, it was indispensable for the state to intervene for help.

As an immediate measure, the Poor Law Act of 1388, called also the Statute Cambridge, restricted wages and freedoms of labourers to prevent them from leaving their parishes in such a depressing situation. Moreover, the Parliamentary Act of Supremacy signed in 1534 permitted the dissolution of monasteries that provided work and alms. As a result, the poor’s life became deeply offended under the rule of King Henry VIII.

The Origin of the British Poor-Law System 

During the sixteen century, the British people, whether wealthy or poor, depended mostly on lands as a main source for their lives. However, the country suffered from wet summers all along the period of 1594 and 1597. Then, the scarcity of food impelled a terrible crisis. The worst of all was that of 1596, the prices rose and people starved. Consequently, riots against hunger and redundancy dominated the last years of the century .

Such hardship made it necessary to think about other sources apart from lands. Farm-owners, for instance , exploited their animals by buying their meat and wool to factories in East Anglia and other places in the west and the north . Yet, agriculture and industry were not the only activities on which the British economy depended; trade overseas was based on cloth which was imported from the Spanish Indies and used broadly in local industries.

However, the transition from land to factory and the shift from being peasants to being businessmen brought also a change at the level of the political thought. That poor man, who was at the bottom of the social ladder having neither a shelter nor food for survival, became a vital theme in political controversies for the first time in British history. Being aware that the problem of vagrancy, rogues, and wanderers might disturb the security of people and properties, the Queen Elizabeth I decided to relieve the poor and improve their lives.

For the same purpose, three categories of houses were legally founded. The Corporation of London accomplished the first type, called houses of correction, at the old royal palace of Bridewell in 1555. These houses were intended to deal with idlers and rogues, whereas the second type named the abiding places, being called afterwards the poorhouses, concerned the impotent poor who had no source of living. However, the third kind of houses dealt with the able- bodied unemployed who were provided with work in their homes or in workhouses, which appeared few years later.

Teaching children how to be producers was one of the most basic preoccupations of the Tudor Government, which put into practice the statute of apprentices in 1563. Observing that the number of the poor, moving from town to town increased despite the fact that it was restricted by the legislation of 1572, Sir Robert Cecil and Sir Francis Bacon debated the issue of indigence in Parliament. As a result, the Act of 1598 induced children of the poor families as well as jobless persons, married or single, to work. The amendment pointed correspondingly to the assistance of the blind and the old.

In the meantime, the Queen Elizabeth I followed regularly the news on the application of the poor laws through her private council to be sure that her orders were adequately executed. Furthermore, the government convinced wealthy people to collaborate in all bequests so that poverty would diminish. Different schools, hospitals, and workhouses were built due to those charities. The same legislation was re-enacted in 1601; it classified the poor into three categories. The first category was of the impotent poor which included the old and the ill persons who benefited from the parish’s outdoor relief. The second category was of the able-bodied who were sent to work in houses of correction, while the third category dealt with a group of persistent idlers . This amendment was still practiced after the Queen’s death in 1603.

On the other hand, signs of an economic distress were obvious, the export of cloth which was prosperous in 1614 started to diminish some years after. Trade became less active than it was earlier. Harvests were worse and industries based on wool declined , while prices were flatting out continuously. The case grew more drastic by the death of King James I.

The conflict between King Charles I and Parliament, which opposed all religious reforms suggested by His Majesty, was developed to a terrible disaster. The country sank into a bloody civil war from 1642 to 1645. Finally, the King Charles I was defeated, but he constantly disdained the parliamentary power. Being assisted by the Scottish army, he rebelled again in 1648. The British Parliament considered this war a high treason and executed him in 1649. As a result, monarchy was abolished.

The fear of unknown future made the Confederation of Kilkenny founded by Irish Catholics support the return of Charles II to the crown. Learning about this plan, Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army conquered Ireland in 1949. This military campaign against the Irish Catholics was dreadful. In his book To Hell or Barbados O’ Callaghan Sean discussed ‘the worst atrocities committed in Ireland, such as massacres, evictions, killings and deportation of over 50.000 men, women and children as slaves to Bermuda and Barbados’.

More than that, hundreds of new settlers came from England to occupy the lands taken by force from the natives as the Act of the settlement of Ireland recommended in 1652. Being more powerful, Cromwell’s military forces crushed the Royalist and confederation coalition’s army which failed to resist. Consequently, a new state called the Cromwellian Interregnum, or the Republic of Commonwealth of England was founded under the leadership of the lord protector Oliver Cromwell in 1653.

What happened in Ireland influenced certainly life in the United Kingdom as a whole. Most of the areas were subjected to a more increasing poverty, starvation, and dangerous diseases. Financial difficulties restrained the parishes’ relief. After all, no impairment is everlasting. The Cromwellian rule of both the father and the son Richard ended up in 1659. Monarchy was, then, restored in 1660 and Charles the Second became the King of Great Britain.

The political power reconsidered the poor- law’s legislation, therefore the Act of 1662 obliged each parish to take care of its poor, and at the same time, it objected to receive any comers from other parishes. Thus, joining another parish was quite troublesome, for parishes feared that the new settlers might be under their own charge permanently.

Some years later, the Act of 1697 enabled paupers to introduce their certificate testifying settlement whenever they visited a new parish, while their relief depended most on political decisions and legislation which were changing in each period. Nonetheless, the poor living standard was getting from bad to worse. Charities failed to satisfy the needs of all the British destitute in the entire Kingdom.

Such bitter realities made the politician Thomas Gilbert introduce a bill to Parliament; he suggested an out relief for the unemployed able – bodied and a relief of the unable- bodied that could be done by workhouses. Gilbert’s Act of 1782 encouraged strongly the idea of combining the parishes into a single union so that the control might be easier; he believed in unity and mutual help as keys of strength and improvement. Gilbert’s optimistic theories were highly significant for those who expected a better future for Britain.

The Impact of French Revolution on British Radicalism

The late years of the eighteen century were characterised by an expanding poverty and a rising threat of the working class not only in Britain but also in the other territories. In France, for instance, the Sans-culottes representing the French lower and working classes declared war against their political system in May 1789. This great revolution fascinated workers of all nations, as it motivated historians to record this outstanding event for the future generations.

For a similar purpose, the French author Albert Soboul wrote a book that he called Les Sans– Culottes Parisians En L’ AN II. The belief in change made those French protestors support any group sharing their ideas; they did so with the Jacobians till their collapse after Maxmillien Robespierre’s execution on 28 July, 1794.

Being so close to France, geographically, the British radicals appreciated the way the French revolted. Dr Richard Price praised the French Revolution openly in his speech at the Meeting-House in the Old Jewry in November of 1789. Beyond that, he inspired ‘people, as the true source of power . . . to choose their governors, to cashier them for misconduct, and to institute a new form of government’. In fact, the idea of rebelling against corruption and tyranny of the British system split the community into two distinctive divisions. The backers induced revolutionaries while the opponents did not.

The belief that the stability of the Kingdom was in danger made Edmund Burk response. In his book Reflections on the Revolution in France , published in November 1790, he advised the British people to avoid violence; at the same time, he never kept denouncing, in writings and meetings, the radical thoughts imported from the French Revolution. For example, in a parliamentary debate on the Army Estimates, in February of the same year, he expressed his grief towards France which was devastated by its own people, he said: . . . they had completely pulled down to the ground, their monarchy; their church; their nobility; their law; their revenue; their army; their navy; their commerce; their arts; and their manufactures.. [there was a danger of] an imitation of the excesses of an irrational, unprincipled, proscribing, confiscating, plundering, ferocious, bloody and tyrannical democracy.

Burk’s statements intensified the radicals’ support for the French question which drew incessantly thousands of sympathisers not from the entire world Thomas Paine was one of those who admired the revolution in France, he believed in personal freedoms and abhorred slavery; his famous work Rights of Man that he issued in 1791 was greatly appreciated.