Cycle of Poverty.

Taken from "A Social History of Britain. The nineteenth century by Robin Nonhebel"

The food on which most labourers depended was bread, and wheat prices which had averaged well below 50s a quarter before 1790, reached 126s by 1812. This inflation was caused by wheat shortages which occurred for two reasons. First, harvests in Britain were poor between 1793 and 1815, and secondly the wars with France made it more difficult to import wheat from Europe when these bad harvests took place. With population rising and less bread available, prices inevitably soared.

In the growing industrial towns of northern England, there was also extreme poverty. This was caused by fluctuations in the trade cycle. The cotton and iron industries were increasingly relying on foreign countries to buy their goods. Huge orders were placed for British goods by Europeans and Americans whose own countries had as yet no large industries. But foreign demand was never constant; a bad harvest would reduce the income of an agricultural country and so she would be unable to afford to buy so many British manufactures.

Large cotton firms therefore in towns like Manchester and Bolton would employ thousands of workers when demand was high; but when there was a slump in demand employers would reduce production thus dismissing workers or placing them on short-time. The industrial working-class were at the mercy of such fluctuations. They might be in work for a few months but then unemployed for a similar period, and their wages were so poor that they found it impossible to save for hard times. When a slump occurred over a long period, their misery became acute as was the case in the years after the end of the Napoleonic wars and between 1836-42.

Unemployment and low wages undoubtedly caused much poverty in both town and country. It should be remembered though that sickness, injury, old-age and bereavements also caused great distress. What might be called a "poverty cycle" affected many families. A worker and his wife might obtain jobs in a factory town and for a time as long as they remained in employment, manage to live fairly comfortably. Then with the birth of children, their living standards would decline since more food and clothing had to be purchased. As their children grew up they might be able to add to the family income if fortunate enough to find menial jobs and so prosperity would return. But when the children left home to start their own lives and when the wife grew too old or perhaps too ill towork, the worker would find it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Destitution would be the inevitable result of old age and failing health.