FROM SUBSISTENCE TO SELF-BETTERMENT THE POST-SMITHIAN REPLY TO THE SPEENHAMLAND SYSTEM
The aim of this essay is to inquiry into the attitude toward poverty and its remedies as emerging in the sphere of political economy from late Eighteenth century to mid-1830’s. In doing so, it deals with two issues often considered peripheral by historians of economic thought. First, though voluntary associations have been thoroughly analysed by leading economic and social historians [HOBSBAWM: 1957; GODSEN: 1974; GORSKY: 1998; ISMAY: 2018], the economic arguments underpinning their establishment and diffusion have received scanty attention by professional historians of economic thought [COWHERD: 1977; HENDERSON: 1997; KATSUYSHOY: 2009; GEHRKE: 2020;]. Second, by putting into perspective an array of statements eulogising self-betterment and self-help this paper helps identify interesting connections between economic theorising and social legislation and offers a broader perspective of the historical and cultural context leading to the 1834 round of reforms.
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Keywords: Poor Law, Classical political economist, self-betterment, self-help
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