Chapter 3 - Why Poor Relief Arrived So Late

Summary

Did safety nets for the neediest have to wait for government to build them with taxes? If so, why did it take so long for any government in the world to channel a significant share of national income to those with needs based on inability to produce? Why did tax-based social spending then appear only in the forms of poor relief and public elementary schooling, and primarily in Northwest Europe? This chapter locates and explains the delayed arrival of tax-based help for those in poverty. The following historical forces dominated both the timing and the Northwest European location of the emergence of government social spending: (1) Private safety-net mechanisms existed for millennia, but never came close to curing poverty, either today or in centuries past. (2) The rise of government revenue-raising capacity had to precede social-spending. This fiscal capacity arrived in Northwest Europe first. (3) Those in power were not motivated to provide safety nets until they feared disorder or until political voice had diffused far down the socioeconomic ranks. See Appendix A for detailed sources and notes.