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The first poverty line? Davies and Eden’s investigation of rural poverty in late 18th-century England

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posted on 2023-06-08, 22:34 authored by Ian Gazeley, Nicola Verdon
Two important and well-known surveys of the household budgets of the English rural labouring poor were produced by David Davies and Frederick Eden in the 1790s. We revisit these from the point of view of their original rationale — an investigation of the characteristics and extent of poverty in the countryside. We argue that Davies' standard of ‘tolerable comfort’ can lay claim to being the first poverty line based upon the application of a minimum consumption standard to household income. We find that the majority of households fall below this standard, although those in the south of England were worst off, that family size was the largest coefficient and poverty reduced as the age of the first child increased. The incidence of poverty was not highly correlated with the absence of a woman wage earner.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Explorations in Economic History

ISSN

0014-4983

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

51

Page range

94-108

Department affiliated with

  • History Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-09-18

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2015-09-18

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2015-09-18

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