7 - Crisis Poverty

Summary

The condition of the nation and church is very sad. The pitiful uncertain foot that things stand upon. Religion on tiptoes. Division out against us, so as it hath rarely been, in such concurrence of so many things. 1. A destruction of corn and hay, in the time of it. 2. Great loss of cattle. 3. Great dearth. 4. Great want of money. 5. Inveterate deadness of trade. 6. The late sad storm, with the dreadful effects of it. 7. A threat in the present great rain to prevent the fruiting of the earth. 8. A miserable security and senselessness, among the people notwithstanding all this.

Autobiography of Henry Newcome (1 May 1674)

The level of hardship in any economy will fluctuate, with certain years seeing particular prosperity, others extreme difficulty and social dislocation, and this basic truism has informed some work on poor relief. James Sharpe and Steve Hindle, for example, have highlighted the link between the social experience of the dearth and famine of 1594-97 and the Parliamentary codifications of the Poor Laws in 1598, amongst a raft of other social legislation. Yet little work has been produced on the relationship between economic crises and the day-to-day operation of the Poor Law. Moreover, although there are studies of economic fluctuations in both the early seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, there is no comparable literature on the later Stuart period.