SECTION IV. The Relief of the Poor and the Regulation of Prices

THE RELIEF OF THE POOR AND THE REGULATION OF PRICES

1. Regulations made at Chester as to Beggars, 1539--2. A Proclamation Concerning Corn and Grain to be brought into open Markets to be sold, 1545--3. Administration of Poor Relief at Norwich, 1571--4. The first Act Directing the Levy of a Compulsory Poor Rate, 1572--5. The first Act Requiring the Unemployed to be set to Work, 1575-6--6. Report of Justices to Council Concerning Scarcity in Norfolk, 1586--7. Orders devised by the Special Commandment of the Queen's Majesty for the Relief and Ease of the Present Dearth of Grain Within the Realm, 1586--8. The Poor Law Act of 1601--9. A note of the Grievances of the Parish of Eldersfield, 1618--10. Petition to Justices of Wiltshire for Permission to Settle in a Parish, 1618--11. Letter from Privy Council to Justices of Cloth-making Counties, 1621-2--12. Letter from Privy Council to the Deputy Lieutenants and Justices of the Peace in the Counties of Suffolk and Essex concerning the Employment of the Poor, 1629--13. The Licensing of Badgers in Somersetshire, 1630--14. Badgers Licensed at Somersetshire Quarter Sessions, 1630--15. The Supplying of Bristol with Grain, 1630-1--16. Proceedings against Engrossers and other Offenders, 1631--17. Order of Somersetshire Justices Granting a Settlement to a Labourer, 1630-1--18. Report of Derbyshire Justices on their Proceedings, 1631--19. Letter from Privy Council to Justices of Rutlandshire, 1631--20. Judgment in the Star Chamber against an Engrosser of Corn, 1631.

The national system of Poor Relief which was built up in the course of the sixteenth century was composed of three elements, experiments of municipal authorities, Parliamentary legislation, supervision and stimulus supplied by the Privy Council. The first step taken by towns was usually to organize begging by granting licences to certain authorized beggars, while punishing the idler (No. 1); the next to provide establishments where necessitous persons could be set to work on materials provided at the public expense (No. 3). The action of the State followed the same lines of development. During the first three quarters of the sixteenth century it (a) left the provision of the funds needed for relief to private charity, (b) directed the relief of the "impotent poor," but treated all able-bodied persons in one category, that of "sturdy rogues." But in 1572 it recognized the inadequacy of voluntary contributions by directing the levy of a compulsory poor rate (No. 4), and in 1576 made the important innovation of discriminating between persons unemployed because they could not get work and persons unemployed because they did not want work, by enacting that the former should be set to work on materials provided for them, and that the latter should be committed to the House of Correction (No. 5). The system was completed by the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1601 (No. 8). Its administration was in the hands of the Justices of the Peace, who were much occupied with questions of settlement (Nos. 9, 10, 17), with carrying out instructions sent to them by the Privy Council for relieving distress (Nos. 12 and 19), and with making reports to the Privy Council of their proceedings (No. 18).

The provision of relief was never intended to be, and down to 1640 was not, the sole method of coping with problems of distress. It was in its origin associated with measures of a preventive character, attempts to prevent the eviction of peasants (Part II, Section I, Nos. 9, 10, 13-17, 20 and 21), occasional attempts to raise wages (Part II, section III, Nos. 10, 18, 19 and 20), attempts to prevent employers dismissing workpeople in times of trade depression (No. 11), attempts to regulate the price of food stuffs and to secure adequate supplies for the markets (Nos. 2, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20). In the latter matter, as in many others, the Tudor governments tried to make a regularly administered national system out of what had for centuries been the practices of local bodies. The Justices of the Peace were required in 1545 to inspect barns and to compel the owners of supplies of grain to sell it in open market (No. 3). Under Elizabeth the system was elaborated. The Justices from time to time made returns to the Privy Council of the stocks of grain available (No. 6), and of the prices ruling (No. 18); and extremely detailed instructions for their guidance were drawn up by Burleigh in 1586 (No. 7). The licensing of "Badgers," or dealers in corn, was part of their regular business (Nos. 13 and 14); the movement of grain from one district to another was carefully supervised (No. 15); and engrossers and regrators were frequently brought before them (No. 16). The efficiency of the system depended very largely on the close supervision of local government and economic affairs by the Privy Council, and on the fact that offenders against public policy could be tried before the Court of Star Chamber. One case before that Court is printed below (No. 20). It is interesting as showing both the economic ideas upon which the policy of regulating prices was based, and the way in which attempts to supervise economic relationships brought the government into collision with the interests of the middle and commercial classes.

AUTHORITIES

The only modern English writer who deals adequately with the subject of this section is Miss E.M. Leonard, The Early History of English Poor Relief. Short accounts of different aspects of the subject are given by Cunningham, English Industry and Commerce, Modern Times,