Self help

in the 18th c there was a distinc btw categories of 3 ppl who “ decreased the wealth of the
nation” in gregory’s king word: first the poppers, second the labour in poor, finally the idle
poor.
the poppers at the time were the children, the sick and all people : bcz of their age or the
state of their health that they could not earn a living
2nd: ppl who had a job but who couldn’t save any money and in the case of a slight accident
such as a bad harvest, temporary unenmployment, a large family, an illness or the death of
the bread winner. these ppl were thrown on the parish .
the idle poor: ppl who wouldn’t work , lived on the community, who could be arrested under
the vagrant( vagabond) act , beggers.

Malthus considers only the 2nd category in the doc. they could be found both in the country
among the peasentry and in the
they could be workmen employed by master manufactorers.
There was the time when England was passing from an agricultural economy to an
undestrial and urban civilization. Indeed Britain was finishing the Agrarian revolution to the
undestrial revolution ( cotton age)

This transition was not an easy one and came along with social problems. And so those who
were hit by poverty could not provide by themselves. And so they fell on the parish.

Early 18thc Parish assitance has Since the reign of Elizabeth when the Act for the relief of
the poor passed in 1601. Provided that each parish should look after its own poor: 1-to find
work for the unemployed 2- to give children some technical informations. 3- to releave those
who could not work.

Workhouses:
Provided shelter and food, clothes
The less eligible principle: s.o living in a workhouse should not live better than someone who
works
by 1815 there were 400 WorkHss

2nd problem: Outdoor relief which was enhanced that was called the Speen ham land. It was
known as the burksher ; bread scale. It was an allowance granted to the poor according to
the price of bread and the number of children. and because of that “a poor man could marry
without little or no prospect of being able to support a family”. lines 34 35 = p…. created
dependency and poverty.

3rd point: Explain what Malthus calls: “ the laws of our nature” is a short reference to the first
chapter of his essay. for him like all animals and plants. human nature is ruled by two laws “
the necessity of food” and secondly “ the instinct of reproduction. Malthus talked of the
passion of se
Should explained once again. The population increases more rapidly than the means of
subsistence and for Malthus there were natural Checks. L 1802 1803.
That’s why the poor law actually went against the law of nature “ the poors of england tend
to depress..” line 1 and 2
indicment of the poor law:
Malthus arguments were scientific , structured, logic.
A demographic arguments,economic, finally a moral argument.. he offers a coprehesnive
criticism of the poor laws.
one quote line 27:
First tendency: they increase population
first because the poor may have encouraged the poor to get married.
The spleen ham system
anither prob: Employers prefered married man with a family: would ask help from the
parishes. there were no official statistics. there were a feeling that the population was rising.
1715: in the middle of the agrarian revolution: there was 6 million ppl in england and in 1801
there were 9 million. Population increase mean the poor number increase.
‘Cities got bigger like Manchester in the 19th c’
First senses: John Rickman explained that it was impossible to improve the condition of the
poor anyway without encouraging them to increase their number in the same way.
The problem is the mean of subsistence do not increase so quickly as the population “ in
consequence” he adressed the issue of racials. the increase was
1793-1815 : Malthus did not include the imports of food

The problem: part of the food available was given to people living in the workhouses and
according to malthus “ this diminishes the shares “ the feast of nature” not everybody had
the same right of the food “ those who do not earn their bread take it out of the mouths who
labor to support themselves
the consequence on the price of the food
the obvs remarks he makes: the law of supply and demand.. demand-push inflation
1793: begining of the napoleonic wars: to get bread it cost at the time 50shelling a quarter.
if you take the year 1800 the price had gone up to 127 shellings
the growth of the population tends to lower the real price of labour
At the turn of the 19th century England became The W of the W.
The poor were responsible for the decline of wages for decreasing their living standards and
were responsible
number of poor was increasing
Enmunberugh had made the same type of observation 1785. his essay was entitled thoughts
and details on scarcity. “ the labouring classes are only poor bcz they are numerous and
numbers in their nature implies poverty”
Malthus put a heavy responsibility on the poor. bcz poor get married and multiply very
quickly without any means to raise their fam. a poor man ruins more industrious
The Moral Argument: To help the poor is to radicate the spirit of help
The poverty was not economically desirable. for moral discipline
defo wrote a pamphlet giving no arms no charity
the idea was any help is an encouragement to idleness.
Bernard demandvil: Essay on charity schools
The Fable of the bees 1723.
The ideology of poverty had not changed at the end of the century. If we take a man called
Joseph Townsed who wrote in 1785 : dessertation on the poor laws. when hunger is either
felt or feard the desire of obtaining bread will dispose the mind to undergo the greatest
hardships. At the time where a prosperity of a country rested only on human labour. the
laziness of the …. was seen as an evil that could not been tolerated. spend money on
drunkenness and dissipation.
The poor laws weeaken one of the local incentives
the best way to help poor at that time was to teach them to help themselves and be
independant. “ furgality, sobriety, industry”

Malthus’ solutions
Why mindset/mentality should be changed : according to Malthus the poor should no longer
take parish relieve for granted , “ l21-30 dependent pov ought to be held disgraceful
Poverty is no social evil resulting from economic circumstances, it is a personal failure.
→ The sanction of ilderness and imprudence while at the same time prosperity is divine reward for
hard work and virtue
Malthus has a moral pt of view which can be understood if one approach it like a
combination of puritanism and capitalism.
This moral argument was actually prevailing in the late 18thc but also during the victorian
period. It was actually possible to approve your own lot. Emergence of a new s class: no
owners anymore
→ the idea of the new self made man
Didn’t just reveal but also suggests more arguments
the idea to refer to marriage, put off mariage until one can afford to provide for a family.
chapter4 foresight of the difficulties attending a family. The idea would be to encourage a
man to remain single as long as his situation is precarious even with all the vices attending
celibacy. because marriage was even worse in terms of vice.
This encouragement should be voluntary .
Neo Malthusian Thinkers started to think about birth control after marriage.
His enemies ; coleridge in order to discreditMalthus: mariage malthus wanted a specific law
If the preventif check failed ; nature itself would solve the problem
Hunger and sickness
All causes of death except old age were confined mainly to the lowest orders of society
“ the reward that the poor would get if they are
The poor laws only postponed the problem

1- La conclusion: c’est bien de montrer que avez bien répondu à la problématique.

Your thesis statement. L’ouverture à la conclusion.
2- si on n’a pas traité l’aspect politique= on s’ouvre sur ça

This excerpt is definitely a central text in malthus theory. given the basic laws of our nature ,
the poor laws were only a wrong solution to the problem raised by the principle of population.
His ideas did not make him iconoclast (Maverick), an outcast despite them being harsh.
Malthus Cared about the idea of happiness. Poor Law did not lead to happiness
A reduction in population

Ouverture: Later on in the 19th c. There was more realism from him and he softened his
indictment
1834: New Poor Laws
W.H p
Food shelter and clothing but the less eligible principle their lives should be more awful
get job to avoid dependency.
in order to identify; smiles wrote self help to defend the new poor law.

Samuel Smiles was a Champion of self help

he had a complex career: medicine - journalism - head of railways companies
he idolized s.o called Georges Stephenson = steam locomotive .
Smiles wrote a biography about him and other engineers and inventors. Pioneer of
Modernity.
Stephenson embodied the cardinal virtues that smiles prevented or promoted. hard work
personal effort. courage.
economically speaking smiles believed in free trades and laissez faire. series of morals book
in which he reached the main mid victorian values. Self help obviously was a prevailing
victorian values ( like self help)
Nat of doc:primary resource. it’s an excerpt from a moralizing book.
Title of book: Religious undertone = aides toi et le ciel t’aidera.
The upper class loves his ethic and the new middle class
1859: peak of the century , power+ free trade ( The W of the W)
the end of the railways
the most powerful industrial nation
the industrial bourgeoisie had emerged
Work relations: 1830-1831 The Factory Acts: Reforms
THere had been only one reformal act 1832
could the
Reform acts 1832 Lib party/1867 conservative party/1884 liberal party again
People had to show they owned property, and money
at the end of the 19th c : no women could vote and scndly middle class men and high
workers could vote

There was a reform in the representation of the ppl act: gave suffrage to any man who had
31 . for women they had to be married
In 1928 everyone aged 21 could vote = more modern democracy

59 a lot of ppl excluded from franchise. Marxist writings in the 40s predicted a revolution
than never took place
Self help was dominant