Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m42fx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T10:26:48.967Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Welfare Policy and Economic Development: A Comparative Historical Perspective*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Gaston V. Rimlinger
Affiliation:
Rice University

Extract

Over a century ago the American economist Henry C. Carey wrote that the masters of slaves “feel that they consult their own interests in feeding, clothing, and lodging them well, because wealth increases faster than population, and their labor becomes daily more valuable.” The change in the wealth/labor ratio which Carey noted is a fundamental aspect of economic growth. Carey saw its consequences in terms of the better care bestowed upon the slave by his master, but with appropriate modifications the same consequences apply to the free worker in a maturing industrial society.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1966

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Carey, Henry C., The Past, the Present, and the Future (Philadelphia, 1859), p. 229.Google Scholar

2 Block, Camille, L'assistance et I'étal en France á la veille de la Révolution (Paris: Alphonse Picard, 1908), p. 5.Google Scholar

3 Clark, G. N., The Wealth of England from 1496 to 1760 (London: Oxford University Press, 1946), pp. 192–93.Google Scholar

4 Ashton, T. S., An Economic History of England: The 18th Century (London: Methuen, 1955), pp. 2223Google Scholar ; Henri See, La France èconomique et sociale au xviiie sidcle (Paris: Armand Colin, 1946), p. 36 and passimGoogle Scholar ; Levasseur, E., Histoire des classes ouvrieres avant 1789 (Paris: Rousseau, 1901), II, 849 ffGoogle Scholar . Investigations carried out in Reims in the 1780's claimed that two thirds of the population lived from day to day and were often in a state of “absolute distress.” See Laurent, Gustave, “Un conventionel ouvrier: Jean-Baptiste Armonville,” Annales historiques de la revolution francaise, I (05 1924), 218Google Scholar.

5 Sidney and Beatrice Webb, English Poor Law History (London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1927), I, 396.Google Scholar

6 For the development of poor relief measures, ibid.; Ashley, W. J., An Introduction to English Economic History and Theory (New York, 1893), Vol. II, ch. vGoogle Scholar ; Schweinitz, Karl de, England's Road to Social Security (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1943)Google Scholar ; Marshall, Dorothy, The English Poor in the Eighteenth Century (London: George Routledge, 1926)Google Scholar ; Balch, E. G., “Public Assistance of the Poor in France,” Publication of the American Economic Association, Vol. VIII (1893), Nos. 4–5Google Scholar ; Lallemand, L., Histoire de la charite (4 vols.; Paris: Picard, 1912)Google Scholar ; Cole, C. W., Colbert and a Century of French Mercantilism (2 vols.; New York: Columbia University Press, 1939)Google Scholar.

7 French Predecessors of Malthus (Durham: Duke University Press, 1942), p. 20.Google Scholar

8 Schumpeter, J. A., History of Economic Analysis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), p. 147.Google Scholar

9 Mandeville, Bernard, “An Essay on Charity and Charity-Schools,” in The Fable of the Bees (, Kaye ed.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), I, 287.Google Scholar

10 Furniss, E. S., The Position of the Laborer in a System of Nationalism (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920)Google Scholar , ch. vi, calls this the “Doctrine of the Utility of Poverty.”

11 Mandeville, I, 287.

12 See Hecksher, E. F., Mercantilism (trans. Shapiro, M.; London: Allen & Unwin, 1934), II, 24Google Scholar ; Schumpeter, p. 251.

13 Brentano, L., Hours and Wages in Relation to Production (trans. , Arnold; London, 1894), pp. 23Google Scholar ; Johnson, E. A. J., Predecessors of Adam Smith (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1937), p. 283Google Scholar.

14 Cited in Fumiss, p. 118.

15 Cited in Hauser, H., La pensie et faction Sconomique du cardinal de Richelieu (Paris: Presses Universitaires, 1944), p. 145.Google Scholar

16 See for instance Gregory, T. E., “The Economics of Employment in England, 1660-1773,” Economica, I (1921), 3751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17 Koulischer, J., “La grande Industrie aux xviie et xviiie siecles: France, Alle-magne, Russie,” Annales d'histoire Sconomique et sociale, Vol. III, No. 1 (01 1931).Google Scholar

18 For some observations on comparative social thought on this subject, see Bufill, Carlos Marti, Tratado Comparado de Seguridad Social (Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo, 1951), p. 47 and passim.Google Scholar

19 For an interpretation of the Speenhamland system along these lines, see Polanyi, K., The Great Transformation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1957), ch. vii.Google Scholar

20 The Wealth of Nations (New York: Modern Library, 1937), pp. 135–40.Google Scholar

21 Redford, A., Labour Migration in England, 1800-1850 (Manchester: University Press, 1926), p. 77.Google Scholar

22 For an opposing view, see Blaug, M., “The Myth of the Ol d Poor Law and the Making of the New,” The Journal of Economic History, XXIII (06 1963), pp. 151–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Malthus, Thomas, Essay on the Principle of Population (6th ed.; London, 1826), II, 339.Google Scholar

24 Malthus, First Essay on Population (1798; reprinted, London: MacMillan and Company, 1926), pp. 8387.Google Scholar

25 Bonar, James, Malthus and His Work (London, 1885), p. 304Google Scholar ; , Malthus, Principle of Population (1826), p. 339Google Scholar.

26 A Treatise on Political Economy (trans, from 4th ed.; Philadelphia, 1836), p. 438.Google Scholar

27 Cited by Spengler, J. J., “French Population Theory since 1800,” Journal of Political Economy, XLIX (10 1936), 558.Google Scholar

28 Bastiat, F., Harmonies Economiques in Oeuvres Completes (Paris, 1870), VI 530.Google Scholar

29 Cited in Schaller, F., Vn aspect du nouveau courant social (Neuchatel: Baconniere, 1950), p. 49.Google Scholar

30 Woodroofe, K., From Chanty to Social Work (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962), p. 92.Google Scholar

31 Devine, E. T., The Principles of Relief (New York: MacMillan, 1914), pp. 291–93.Google Scholar

32 Woodroofe, pp. 94 ff; Bremner, R. H., From the Depths (New York: New York University Press, 1956), chs. iv and vGoogle Scholar ; Bruno, F. J., Trends in Social Work (New York: Columbia University Press, 1957), passimGoogle Scholar.

34 Hofstadter, R., Social Darwinism in American Thought 1860-1915 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1945), ch. iGoogle Scholar ; Fine, S., Laissez-Faire and the General Welfare State (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1956), ch. iiiGoogle Scholar.

34 Social Statics (London, 1868), pp. 353–54.Google Scholar

35 Ibid., p. 355; see also his Man Versus the State (1892; reprinted, Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1946), pp. 24 ff.Google Scholar

36 “The Concentration of Wealth: Its Economic Justification,” in Essays of William Graham Sumner (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934), II, 172Google Scholar ; “The Abolition of Poverty,” ibid., I, 108; also, What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (New York, 1885), p. 21Google Scholar.

37 See for instance Koster, J., “Der rheinische Fruehliberalismus und die soziale Frage,” Historische Studien, No. 342 (1938)Google Scholar ; Hansemann, David, “Denkschrift iiber Preussens Lage und Politik” (1840)Google Scholar , and Harkort, Friedrich, “Bemerkungen iiber die Hindernisse der Zivilisation und Emancipation der unteren Klassen” (1844)Google Scholar , in Schrapler, E. (ed.), Quellen zur Geschichte der sozialen Frage in Deutschmd, 1800-1870 (2d ed.; Goettingen: Musterschmidt, 1960), Vol. IGoogle Scholar . T. von Laue has noted the lack of individualism in German liberalism; see “The Beginning of Social In surance in Imperial Germany” (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Princeton University, 1944), p. xxvGoogle Scholar.

38 See Baxa, J., “Die Wirtschaftlichen Ansichten von Joseph Maria von Radovitz,” Jahrbuch fur Nationalokonomie und Statistik, Vol. 139, No. 2 (1933), pp. 188210Google Scholar ; Stein, Lorenz, “Das Konigtum, die Republik, und die Souveranitat,” in Schrapler, Vol. IGoogle Scholar.

39 Hellwig, Fritz, Carl Ferdinand Freiherr von Stumm-Halberg (Heidelberg: Westmarck, 1936), p. 189.Google Scholar

40 Bismarck liked to recall that young Frederick the Great once said: “Quand je serai Roi, je serai un vrai roi des gueux”; Werke, Gesammelten, ed. Wilhelm Schtis-sler (Berlin: Stollberg, 1929), XII, 360Google Scholar . See also Luetge, F., “Die Grundprinzipien der Bismarckschen Sozialpolitik,” Jahrbuch fiir Nationalb konomie und Statistik, Vol. 134, No. 1 (1931)Google Scholar.

41 Cited in Dawson, W. H., Social Insurance in Germany, 1883-1911 (London: Fisher Unwin, 1912), p. 16Google Scholar ; Schiissler, XII, 270.

42 Dawson, ch. ix; also his Evolution of Modern Germany (London: Fisher Unwin, 1908), pp. 155–57.Google Scholar

43 Schwedtman, F. C. and Emery, J. A., Accident Prevention and Relief (New York: National Association of Manufacturers, 1911), passim.Google Scholar

42 Schmoller, G., Die soziale Frage (Munich: Duncker and Humblot, 1918), p. 416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 , Zeller, “Der Wirkungskreis des Par. 12 des Invaliditats-und Alters-Versicherungs-gesetz zu Gunsten der Krankenversicherung,” Die Invaliditats-und Alters-Versicherung im deutschen Reiche, VI (1895-1896), 8283.Google Scholar

46 The Works of Theodore Roosevelt (National ed.; New York: Scribner, 1926), XVII, 266 ff.Google Scholar

47 Institutional Economics (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1959), II, 857.Google Scholar

48 “A Reconstruction Health Program,” The Survey (09 6, 1919), p. 798.Google Scholar

49 Steigerwalt, Albert K., The National Association of Manufacturers: A Study in Business Leadership, 1895-1914, (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Dean-Hicks, 1964)Google Scholar ; Taylor, A. G., Labor Policies of the National Association of Manufacturers, University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, Vol. XV, No. 1 (1927), pp. 148–49Google Scholar ; Bonnett, C. E., Employers Associations in the United States (New York: MacMillan, 1922), pp. 120, 125, 253Google Scholar.

50 Sickness Insurance,” American Labor Legislation Review, III, No. 2, (06 1913), 162–71.Google Scholar

51 National Vitality: Its Wastes and Conservation (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1910).Google Scholar

52 The Need for Health Insurance,” American Labor Legislation Review, VII, No. 1 (03 1917), 17.Google Scholar

53 Rimlinger, G. V., “Social Security, Incentives, and Controls in the U. S. and U. S. S. R.,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. IV, No. 1 (11 1961)Google Scholar ; The Trade Union in Soviet Social Insurance : Historical Development and Present Functions,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. XIV, No. 3 (04 1961)Google Scholar ; Schwarz, S. M., Labor in the Soviet Union (New York: Praeger, 1952), ch. viiGoogle Scholar.

54 Gintsburg, L. la., Trudovoi stazh rabochikhi sluzhashchikh (Moscow, 1958), p. 66.Google Scholar

55 Kozlov, I., “I vpred uluchshat delo gosudarstvennogo sotsial nogo strakho-vaniia,” Okhrana truda i sotsial noe strakhovanie (07 1958), p. 54.Google Scholar

56 Krasnopolskii, A. S., Osnovnye printsipy Sovetskogo gosudarstvennogo sotsial nogo strakhovaniia (Moscow, 1951), p. 54.Google Scholar

57 For a theoretical analysis of productivity effects, see Rimlinger, Gaston V., “A Theoretical Integration of Wages and Social Insurance,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, LXXVII (08 1963), 470–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58 The Economic Costs of Absenteeism,” Progress in Health Services (Health Information Foundation), Vol. XII, No. 2 (03-04 1963).Google Scholar