POVERTY IN 19th CENTURY SCOTLAND 

This engraving from the 1830s shows the Town's Hospital and Poorhouse, built in 1733 on Great Clyde Street 

The economic and social changes ushered in by industrialisation dramatised the problem of poverty in Scotland by concentrating it in large pockets within the rapidly growing urban centres. The boom and bust economics of the free market added to the problem as it brought with it periodic mass unemployment which in a pre-welfare society left thousands of workers in poverty. The extent of the social devastation of mass unemployment in Victorian Scotland can be grasped from a comment by the Provost of Paisley made at the height of the 1842 depression: "Unemployment was the rule .... few workmen of Paisley were employed: they were broken up and found to be wandering about in every town in the country, begging for bread, independent of those thousands whom they had at home supported by charity".

 Obviously the periodic occurrence of mass unemployment had a distorting effect on the level of long-term poverty in Scottish society. Mass unemployment therefore has to be discounted if we are to get a more accurate picture of the problem. However, in measuring the numbers in poverty a complication arises. The Scottish poor laws, both old and new, did not recognise the 'able-bodied' poor, since they were assumed to have brought their poverty upon themselves. As our measurement of poverty is the numbers claiming relief from the authorities at this time, those denied relief, although poor, do not show up in the statistics. Thus, the available figures seriously underestimate the level of poverty in Scotland. For example, in 1843 there were only 4,000 able-bodied persons in receipt of poor relief in Scotland in spite of the harsh conditions. Using the yardstick of those in receipt of poor relief to measure the level of poverty it would seem that between the years 1807-1816 the average number of people in receipt of relief each year was 44,199, or 2.5% of the total population.

 The cost of this relief each year amounted to just 1s 3d (6p) per head of population. Two decades later little had changed. Recipients of relief had increased to 3.4% of the population, and the cost of relieving them had only risen slightly to 1s 4d (7p). In 1840 it fell back again to 1s 3d (6p), compared to 5s 10d (29p) in England. As the century wore on the numbers claiming relief began to fall. In 1868 there were 136,444, or 1 in 24 of the total population, claiming relief; in 1894 the respective figure was 1 in 44 and falling. Moreover, on the surface, it would appear that expenditure on the poor was rising in spite of falling numbers. In 1864 expenditure was £740,000. By 1914 it had more than doubled to £1.6m, although it has to be admitted that the greatest increase in expenditure was on the lunatic rather than the able-bodied poor. 

The increased spending was partly a reflection of the fact that rates of relief in Scotland were extremely low compared to England. Despite the evidence that paupers as a percentage of population were more numerous in England than in Scotland, the English were more generous. In the period 1860-1864 the annual cost of relief per head of population in Scotland was 4s 4d (22p) compared to 5s 11d (29p) south of the border; forty or so years later the respective figures were 4s 11d (24p) and 7s 5d (37p). Given the low levels of relief in Scotland what could claimants expect to receive before 1914? This depended to a large extent on what part of the country a pauper lived in as well as their nationality.

 In 1867 the average allowance received by a pauper was 3d (1.25p) per day; in Aberdeen it was 2d (1p) per day; in Glasgow it was 4d (1.5p) per day. A study for Edinburgh provides some finer detail in regard to the distribution of relief. Here 17% of single claimants received 1s 6d (7.5p) per week, 42% between 1s 6d-2s (7-10p), and 34% between 2s-2s 6d (10-12.5p). In families of one adult and one child 78% received 1s 10d-3s (9-15p) per week. Some 30% of families of one adult and four dependants received between 2s and 4s (10p and 20p) per week. One estimates suggests that if a shilling (5p) was set aside for accommodation over 90% of families on relief in Scotland would have been left with 1s 6d (7.5p) a week to provide for food, clothing and fuel.

 The denial of relief to certain classes of claimant was still practised since the able-bodied had no legal right to relief. The Irish were especially badly treated. Under the poor law of 1845 a pauper could only claim relief from his place of settlement if he or she could prove that they had lived there continuously for five years. However, this was not applied to the Irish. If an Irish person became destitute in Scotland they were forcibly removed back to their place of origin and it was not until 1898 that this policy was relaxed. Until then removal rates were alarmingly high.

 In the late 1840s nearly 6,000 Irish paupers were sent home annually. The authorities in Dundee and Edinburgh refused relief to them whenever possible, and when they did it was at rates below those given to the Scots-born population. If things were rough in the urban areas for the poor, they were desperate in some parts of rural Scotland. The highest rates of pauperism were found in the Highlands. In some parishes people were too poor to pay rates and the cost of relief fell on the landlords, many of whom were themselves heavily in debt. In the 1880s agricultural depression saw the Poor Law collapse in Skye and the only source of support for the crofters came from Highland societies in London. In Barra in 1906 the population of 2,545 could not support its 53 paupers as the council went bankrupt and the councillors resigned. The sums awarded to poor relief applicants were miserly considering it was the most vulnerable sections of society who were most at risk.

A study undertaken on 31 March 1906 by the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws shows that in Scotland 94,724 people were claiming relief. Of these 16,440, or 17% were adult males; 39,782, or 42%, were adult females; 19,717, or 21% were boys under 14; and 18,785, or 20%, were girls under 14. Therefore, 83% of paupers claiming relief were women and children. Widowhood was the chief cause of poverty for women, with more than half of women paupers being widows. As one might expect pauperism was lowest in the age group 14-25, but increased in each succeeding age group until reaching one in five of the population over the age of 75. The old constituted over 50% of the poor in the Highlands, but around 20% in urban areas. The difference was due to the high rates of emigration from the Highlands which saw the youngest leave and the oldest remain.

 Statistical Society, Vol LXI 1898 Paterson, A. 'The Poor Law in 19th century Scotland' in The New Poor Law in the 19th century D. Fraser (ed) 1976 Robertson, D J. 'Wages' in The Scottish Economy AJ. Cairncross (ed) Cambridge, 1954 Rodger, R. 'Employment, Wages and Poverty in the Scottish Cities 1841- 1914' in Perspectives of the Scottish Cities G. Gordon (ed) Aberdeen, 1985 25-63 Page 7.INCOME Rubenstein, W D. 'The Victorian Middle Classes: Wealth, Occupation and Geography' in Economic History Review Vol 30 1977 Scott, J. & Hughes, M. The Anatonomy of the Scottish Capital 1980 Smout, T C. A Century of the Scottish People, 1830-1950 1986 Smout, T C. & Levitt, I. The State of the Scottish Working Class in 1843 (1979) Page 8