The Great Dearths and the Old Poor Law, 1795-1801

FAIN: FA-11836-77

Daniel A. Baugh
Cornell University (Ithaca, NY 14850-2820)

To study the Great Dearths, bad harvests in Britain between 1794 and 1801, by tracing the nature and geography of scarcity, noting regional variations in diet as well as crop failure, by examining the responses to the problem, mob action and the efforts of local officials and that of the national government. The ministers of state were convinced that intervention in the free market was a serious error. The dearths thrust the new principles of political economy into a better confrontation with traditional ideals of community responsibility which were not just a habit of the "ignorant" poor, but of people at all social levels.