What is it about?
The results show that in this period a substantial share of GDP, up to 3 per cent, could be spent on formal relief, offering subsistence to up to 8–9 per cent of the population, with a gradual rise over time and the highest figures being reached in the Netherlands in the eighteenth century. The three cases show a steep decline around 1800, a pattern found more generally in Europe. Next, these results are placed in a broader geographical perspective. This highlights the sharp differences within countries—which could be even larger than those between countries—and the high levels reached in the regions bordering the southern shores of the North Sea. In the last section, the results are used to discuss the possible causes underlying these long‐run patterns and geographical differences, including urbanization, wealth, religion, and social‐organizational features.
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Why is it important?
Poor relief in the pre‐industrial period is a much‐investigated topic, but we still lack an idea of its quantitative importance and development, especially in a comparative perspective. This is also important to place current poor relief in a historical perspective.
Perspectives
Two findings stand out to me: 1. the very sharp differences in the level of relief at the sub-national level 2. the sharp decline in the levels of relief around 1800. Perhaps this has coloured our idea of pre-modern relief negatively, since we tend to compare the present levels with those in the nineteenth century - which were very low. Earlier levels, before 1800, however, were very much higher, as this paper shows.
Professor Bas van Bavel
Utrecht University
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This page is a summary of: How important were formalized charity and social spending before the rise of the welfare state? A long-run analysis of selected western European cases, 1400-1850, The Economic History Review, June 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/ehr.12111.
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