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3 - Insecurity, Safety Nets, and Self-Help in Victorian and Edwardian Britain

from PART I - HEALTH AND LIVING STANDARDS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2009

By
George R. Boyer
Edited by
David Eltis ,
Frank D. Lewis  and
Kenneth L. Sokoloff
David Eltis
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
Frank D. Lewis
Affiliation:
Queen's University at Kingston, Canada
Kenneth L. Sokoloff
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Summary

The main need of the English working classes is Security.…The meshes of our safety net are only adapted to subscribers [to friendly societies and trade unions], & all those who are not found on any of those innumerable lists go smashing down on the pavement. It is this very class, the residue,…for whom no provision exists in our English machinery, who have neither the character nor the resources to make provision for themselves, who require the aid of the state.

(Winston Churchill to A. Wilson Fox, January 4, 1908)

Workers' insecurity of income has not been given the attention it deserves in the standard of living debate. Despite steady improvements in material living standards from 1830 to the First World War, as measured by average full-time wages or earnings, a large share of manual workers in Britain continued to experience “acute financial” distress at some point in their lives (Johnson 1985, 3). The examination of long-term trends in wage rates masks workers' income losses due to unemployment and sickness, and it tells us little about their ability to cope with these periodic losses of income.

Workers dealt with financial insecurity by saving, by insuring themselves against income loss through membership in friendly societies and trade unions, and by applying for public and private assistance when necessary. The relative importance of these coping strategies changed significantly from 1830 to the eve of the First World War.

Type
Chapter
Information
Human Capital and Institutions
A Long-Run View
 , pp. 46 - 90
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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