Assess The Causes Of Poverty In The 19th Century

In the 19th century the attitude of the British Governments towards poverty was ‘laissez-faire’ meaning that the government did not interfere with people’s lives. They believed that people were ‘’too lazy’’ to work therefore they should look after themselves. Booth and Rowntree did surveys in the 19th century about the causes of poverty in the British cities such as London and York. Booth and Rowntree were not the main reason for the Liberal Government of 1906-1914 introducing their social welfare since the Boer War was more important as it made the government aware of the unfit population across Britain. However, there were also other factors that had an influence in the reforms introduced such as New Liberalism, Political Advantage, Municipal
Charles Booth found out that over 35% of the population of the city of London were living in poverty. Also, he published ‘’Labour and Life of the People’’ in which he argued, that poverty was such a big problem that only government could really help. Whereas Seebohm Rowntree found out that 30% of people from York live in poverty and they needed 21 shillings to stay out of poverty. This was important because their surveys identified the percentage of people that were living below the poverty line, mainly due to illness or unemployment. However, some MP’s still challenged their surveys and argued that poor people wasted their money on insufficient items such as alcohol so they did not do much change. Booth and Rowntree were only responsible for the Liberal reform to an extent, as there were other significant motives such as the national security. Britain was involved in the Boer War and many soldiers/individuals were rejected by doctors, which caused a major concern for the government as it signified the lack of good health in the population, however, national efficiency was more influential as it challenged Britain’s position. Peter Murray also points out that concerns over national efficiency were reinforced by the findings of Booth and Rowntree. (Poverty
Also, in 1880’s Germany’s system of welfare benefits and old age pensions had already been set up. This was important because Germany was seen as a threat due to its healthier and better educated population therefore it may have influenced the introduction of the reforms because it made Britain lag behind other countries therefore if Britain wanted to keep its position as a world power it had to be run efficiently with a strong, healthy and well-educated workforce. However, some historians argued that politicians have passed the reforms mainly for the political advantage as the Liberal party wanted to gain working class votes over Labours. Even though, the Liberals showed that they were trying to improve the standards of living. They operated the First Labour Exchanges and have minimised the time a worker was unemployed, thereby increasing the efficiency of the Labour Market and therefore allowing people to get more money making this factor more important than the surveys of Booth and Rowntree. Historian Andre Marr argues that “Rowntree had begun to show that the condition of the poor was not simply a matter of their moral failure” (BBC The Making of Modern Britain from Queen Victoria to V.E.