England in the 1790’s:
There was a population explosion in the 1700’s. In 1790’s Industrial revolution took place and this meant that people were leaving the agricultural trade and pursuing something exciting with better prospects. The cities of England were becoming overcrowded by all of the ‘newcomers’. Many of the people that had made the big trip to the city had failed in their attempt to become rich. This left people poor with no- where to go. No one had thought about doing anything about the poverty in the cities. Cities eventually overflowed with poor people and in 1793 The Napoleonic Wars had begun and huge numbers of soldiers arrived back home redundant with nothing to do and the poverty across England started to become a growing problem.
Three systems for the parishes to use were devised in the 1830’s to help the poor to survive:
The Roundsman System
The Speenhamland System
The House of Industry (Workhouse)
The Roundsman system:
It was created in 1830’s. It was implying that the poor were to blame for their laziness and for that they were punished.
The paupers had to work to get paid, they helped out around the parishes keeping them clean.
The Speenhamland system:
The Speenhamland system started in Berkshire. It was implying that the poor were not to blame for their laziness and should be helped as much as possible. The paupers needed money to live and they would use the money-received form their poor tax to buy food and water. The parishes came up with the idea of giving the poor extra money for having children.
The House of Industry (Workhouse):
This form of work was based inside a factory and was a form of indoor relief. It was probably one of the most successful of system but there was one problem, money. To design a House of Industry it took time, effort and a lot of money and this is why not a lot were built.
The actual work was tough but in exchange for your hard work they gave you clean clothes, food and water.
Conclusion:
I think the overall state of the poverty throughout England was terrible and something should have been done about it a long time ago. Their methods used to cure the poverty weren’t very well thought out and had several flaws. It only really got better when the three systems; Roundsman, Speenhamland and The House of Industry were introduced but even then things weren’t exactly perfect and several of these systems had flaws in them. Something needed to be done before it went spiralling out of control.
