Mortality and the Poor Law in England and Wales c.1830-1860 – an exploratory analysis

  • Les Lundis de l'Ined

12/12/2022

l'Ined en salle Sauvy de 11h30 à 12h30 et en hybride via zoom

Intervenants : Simon Szreter (St John's College – University of Cambridge) & Gabriel Mesevage (King's College of London - University QS World Rankings 2023) ; Discutant : Gian Carlo Camarda (Unité de recherche 05 - Ined)

Since Wrigley and Schofield’s Population History of England 1541-1871 (1981) it has been clear that a negative inflection in national mortality trends occurred c.1820-1870, during the same period in which the British economy grew at its fastest. Various explanations have been offered which can each partly account for this. This presentation offers a first report on a research project to evaluate a further, new factor - the possible relationship between the health of the population and the major changes which were implemented from the late 1830s in the social security and welfare system of England and Wales following the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. This resulted in marked cuts to expenditure on the poor and the creation of a network of deterrent workhouses across the country. The team, comprising the two presenters and Prof David Green (KCL) and Prof Graham Mooney (Johns Hopkins), have constructed a database of Poor Law expenditures to match against the detailed life table estimates of mortality among local populations that can be constructed for England and Wales. The project and its rationale will be introduced and the first results from the statistical analysis of these two databases will be presented for discussion.

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Biographies de Simon Szreter & Gabriel Mesevage

Simon Szreter is Professor of History and Public Policy, Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge. He is co-founder of History&Policy and is the Editorial Director of its website, www.historyandpolicy.org. He researches and supervises aspects of social, demographic, economic and public policy history and has published many articles and books, including Fertility, Class and Gender, Health and Wealth, Registration and Recognition and Sex before the Sexual Revolution. Most he edited the volume, The Hidden Affliction. Sexually transmitted infections and infertility in history (University of Rochester Press 2019) and co-authored with Hilary Cooper, After the Virus. Lessons from the Past for A Better Future (Cambridge University Press September 2021).

Gabriel Mesevage is a Lecturer in British Economic History in the Department of History at King’s College London. Before moving to London he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, and prior to that a Marie-Curie Early Stage Research Fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Oxford. He completed his PhD in History with a minor in Economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva in 2016. His research focuses on 19th century British economic and financial history, political economy, and quantitative methods.