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Caught between Law and Practice: Migrants and Settlement Legislation in the Southern Low Countries in a Comparative Perspective, c. 1700–1900

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

ANNE WINTER
ANNE WINTER*
Affiliation:
Postdoctoral Fellow of the Research Foundation, Flanders, Department of History, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
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Abstract

Historiographical debates on the causes and implications of early modern and early industrial settlement legislation, which determined the locality where one could apply for poor relief, have so far focused mainly on England and Wales. These regions are deemed exceptional for the national character and universality of their Poor Laws (1601), associated Act of Settlement (1662) and later amendments. However, if the focus is shifted from the national legislative framework to actual practice, several continental regions had relief and settlement arrangements that bore many resemblances to those in England and Wales. This article draws on existing literature and archival research to explore the evolution of settlement law and practice in the Southern Netherlands, i.e. present-day Belgium, from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth centuries, and compares its main features with the situation in England and Wales. This comparative exercise brings to the fore a number of striking resemblances and remarkable differences, which question the precise nature of the British exception. While further research is needed to gauge fully the causes and consequences of the observed similarities and differences, this article aims to demonstrate how a comparative approach towards issues of settlement and relief not only elucidates our understanding of the particularities and generalities of the English/Welsh case, but also widens our insight into the social, economic, and cultural implications of settlement arrangements in general.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , October 2008 , pp. 137 - 162
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

Notes

1. Among many others: Lis, C. and Soly, H., Poverty and Capitalism in Pre-Industrial Europe (Brighton, Sussex, 1979), pp. 83–96, 194–214Google Scholar; King, S., Poverty and Welfare in England, 1700–1850: A Regional Perspective (Manchester, 2000)Google Scholar.

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3. For studies stressing the importance of settlement arrangements in relation to economic and social development, see for instance Taylor, J. S., ‘The Impact of Pauper Settlement 1691–1834’, Past and Present, 73 (1976), 42–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Boyer, G. R., An Economic History of the English Poor Law, 1750–1850 (Cambridge, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Solar, P., ‘Poor Relief and English Economic Development before the Industrial Revolution’, Economic History Review, 48 (1995), 11–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Innovatively examining the cultural implications of settlement legislation: Snell, Parish and Belonging, pp. 81–161.

4. Among others: Taylor, J. S., ‘A Different Kind of Speenhamland: Nonresident Relief in the Industrial Revolution’, Journal of British Studies, 30 (1991), 183–208CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Solar, ‘Poor Relief’; Song, B. K., ‘Agrarian Policies on Pauper Settlement and Migration, Oxfordshire 1750–1834’, Continuity and Change, 13 (1998), 363–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5. Most explicitly: Solar, ‘Poor Relief’.

6. For the Netherlands, see for instance: Van Leeuwen, M., ‘Amsterdam en de armenzorg tijdens de republiek’, NEHA Jaarboek, 59 (1996), 132–61Google Scholar; Spaans, Armenzorg in Friesland. For the Habsburg empire: Hahn, S., ‘Migrants and the Poor Law System in late Habsburg Empire Cities’, in Berglund, M. (ed.), Sakta vi gå genom stan - City Strolls (Stockholm, 2005), pp. 121–34Google Scholar.

7. Lis and Soly, Poverty and Capitalism, pp. 83–96, 194–214; Lis, C. and Soly, H., ‘Policing the Early Modern Proletariat, 1450–1850’, in Levine, D. (ed.), Proletarianization and Family History (Orlando, 1984), pp. 177–8Google Scholar; Slack, P., The English Poor Law, 1531–1782 (Basingstoke, 1990), pp. 11–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lees, L. H., The Solidarities of Strangers: the English Poor Laws and the People, 1700–1948 (New York, 1998), pp. 14–16Google Scholar.

8. On the evolution of settlement legislation, see Taylor, ‘The Impact’, pp. 47–54.

9. Styles, P., ‘The Evolution of the Law of Settlement’, University of Birmingham Historical Journal, 9 (1963), 33–63Google Scholar; Taylor, ‘The Impact’, p. 45.

10. Cf. Webb, S. and Webb, B., English Poor Law History, vol. I: The Old Poor Law (London, 1927), p. 327Google Scholar; A. Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Amherst (NY), 1991 (1776)), pp. 145–50.

11. Taylor, ‘The Impact’, pp. 50–53.

12. Snell, K. D. M., Annals of the Labouring Poor: Social Change and Agrarian England, 1660–1900 (Cambridge, 1985), passimCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wells, R., ‘Migration, the Law and Parochial Policy in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Southern England’, Southern History, 15 (1993), 93–4Google Scholar.

13. Snell, Parish and Belonging, pp. 114–20.

14. Rose, M., ‘Settlement, Removal and the New Poor Law’, in Fraser, D. (ed.), The New Poor Law in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1976), pp. 35–6Google Scholar; Wells, ‘Migration’, pp. 103–7; Sokoll, T., Essex Pauper Letters, 1731–1837 (Oxford, 2001), pp. 10–17Google Scholar; King, S., ‘“It is impossible for our vestry to judge his case into perfection from here”: Managing the Distance Dimension of Poor Relief, 1800–1840’, Rural History, 16 (2005), 161–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15. Taylor, ‘A Different Kind of Speenhamland’, p. 191.

16. Song, ‘Agrarian Policies’; Song, B. K., ‘Landed Interest, Local Government and the Labour Market in England, 1750–1850’, Economic History Review, 51 (1998), 465–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sokoll, Essex Pauper Letters, pp. 10–17.

17. Sokoll, Essex Pauper Letters, passim; King, ‘It is Impossible’, pp. 183–4.

18. Styles, ‘The Evolution’, pp. 34–45, 57–62.

19. Snell, K. D. M., ‘Pauper Settlement and the Right to Poor Relief in England and Wales’, Continuity and Change, 6 (1991), 382–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar, questioning the view that before 1795 local administrators used settlement legislation more broadly as a means of ‘monitoring’ almost all immigration, expressed by Landau, N., ‘The Laws of Settlement and the Surveillance of Immigration in Eighteenth-Century Kent’, Continuity and Change, 3 (1988), 391–420CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Landau, N., ‘The Regulation of Immigration, Economic Structures and Definitions of the Poor in Eighteenth-Century England’, Historical Journal, 33 (1990), 541–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20. Caplan, M., ‘The New Poor Law and the Struggle for Union Chargeability’, International Review of Social History, 23 (1978), 267–300CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21. King, Poverty and Welfare, pp. 29–39.

22. Cf. King, ‘It is Impossible’, pp. 163–85.

23. On the different interests involved, see Winter, A., Divided Interests, Divided Migrants. The Rationales of Policies Regarding Labour Mobility in Western Europe, c. 1550–1914, GEHN Working Paper no. 15 (London School of Economics, 2005), pp. 10–19Google Scholar. See also Wells, ‘Migration’, p. 103; Hindle, S., ‘Exclusion Crises: Poverty, Migration and Parochial Responsibility in English Rural Communities, c. 1560–1660’, Rural History, 7 (1996), 125–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24. Wells, ‘Migration’, pp. 92–7; Song, ‘Agrarian Policies’; Song, ‘Landed Interest’.

25. Landau, ‘The Laws of Settlement’, pp. 404–5; Taylor, J. S., Poverty, Migration, and Settlement in the Industrial Revolution : Sojourners' Narratives (Palo Alto, 1989), p. 173Google Scholar; Snell, ‘Pauper Settlement’, pp. 383, 390ff; Wells, ‘Migration’, pp. 103–5; Song, ‘Agrarian Policies’, pp. 370–83; Song, ‘Landed Interest’, p. 480.

26. Cf. Taylor, ‘The Impact’, pp. 66–7.

27. Digby, A., ‘The Labour Market and the Continuity of Social Policy after 1834: The Case of the Eastern Counties’, Economic History Review, 28 (1975), 70–74, 82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Redford, A., Labour Migration in England, 1800–1850 (Manchester, 1976), pp. 81–96Google Scholar; Snell, Annals of the Labouring Poor, pp. 15–66; Boyer, An Economic History, pp. 193–232; Song, ‘Agrarian Policies’; Song, ‘Landed Interest’.

28. This ‘favour’ towards rural interests arose partly as a compensation for the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846: Caplan, ‘The New Poor Law’, p. 270.

29. Caplan, ‘The New Poor Law’, p. 267. On open and close parishes, see Song, ‘Landed Interest’; Spencer, D., ‘Reformulating the ‘closed’ Parish Thesis: Associations, Interests and Interactions’, Journal of Historical Geography, 26 (2000), 83–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30. For an overview: Whyte, I. D., Migration and Society in Britain, 1550–1830 (Basingstoke, 2000)Google Scholar.

31. Rose, ‘Settlement’, pp. 27, 39–40; Pollard, S., ‘Labour in Great Britain’, in Mathias, P. and Postan, M. M. (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. VII, Part 1 (Cambridge, 1978), p. 118Google Scholar; Boyer, An Economic History, pp. 246–57; Taylor, ‘A Different Kind of Speenhamland’, pp. 187–8.

32. Rose, ‘Settlement’, pp. 37–38; Wells, ‘Migration’, p. 123.

33. King, ‘It is Impossible’, pp. 167–82.

34. Taylor, ‘The Impact’, pp. 66–7; Solar, ‘Poor Relief’, pp. 11–12.

35. Bonenfant, P., Le problème du pauperisme en Belgique à la fin de l'ancien régime (Bruxelles, 1934), pp. 87–8, 239–44Google Scholar; Lis and Soly, Poverty and Capitalism, pp. 87–8.

36. Plakkaten van Vlaanderen, I, pp. 7–8 (28/11/1527); Mesures concernant les mendiants, vagabonds, 28/09/1617 (Recueil des Ordonnances des Pays-Bas, série 2, II, pp. 355–7).

37. Plakkaten van Vlaanderen, I, pp. 5–7 (22/12/1515); Plakkaten van Vlaanderen, I, pp. 28–30 (15/06/1556), art. 11.

38. du Laury, R. A., La jurisprudence des Pays-Bas autrichiens etablie par les arrets du Grand Conseil de sa Majesté Impériale et Apostolique (Bruxelles, 1761), I, p. 288Google Scholar.

39. Bonenfant, Le problème du pauperisme, pp. 116–17.; R. A. du Laury, La jurisprudence des Pays-Bas autrichiens, I, pp. 286–9.

40. Often this financial liability was expressed in terms of a certain sum of money, i.e. that a given sum, often 150 guilders, was available from the home parish's funds to refund possible relief costs incurred by the bearer. Hence, the practice of demanding a financial warranty from newcomers in certain towns or villages did not necessarily imply that they paid the required sum by themselves or upon arrival, as if often mistakenly assumed. Cf. Nooyens, F. J., ‘De borgbrieven’, Ons Heem, 3 (1947), 142Google Scholar.

41. Cf. Styles, ‘The Evolution’, pp. 34–43.

42. Delvaux, H., ‘Borgbrieven in het kerkarchief van Grobbendonk’, Vlaamse Stam, XI (1975), 415Google Scholar.

43. Bonenfant, Le problème du pauperisme, pp. 123–4.

44. Virtually all communal and church archives in today's province of Antwerp hold relatively large collections of (mostly incoming) certificates. See the series Oud Gemeentearchief and Oud Kerkarchief in the State Archives in Antwerp [RAA: Rijksarchief Antwerpen] and the many source publications by H. Delvaux in the genealogical journal De Vlaamse Stam in the 1970s.

45. Or in any case very differently archived: certificates are only very sporadically found in the communal and church archives of present-day Brabant and the Brussels region. See for rare instances: State Archives in Louvain [RAL: Rijksarchief te Leuven], Kerkarchief Brabant, 24.672: Borgstellingen, 1736–1745 (Leefdaal); 23.666: Borchstelling, 1767 (OLV Tielt); 23.100: Borchtbrieven, 1698–1734 (Tildonk); 25.899: Borgstellingen, 1768–1769 (Houwaart); 26.859: Borgbrieven, 18de eeuw (Ternat); 28.085: Borgstellingen (Eppegem); 30.678: Borgstelling 1726 (Boortmeerbeek).

46. Cf. in the communal archive of the village of Arendonk in the north-east of today's province of Antwerp there is a ‘List of non-settled residents who want to marry and therefore have to provide a certificate’: RAA, Oud Gemeentearchief Arendonk, 4280: Lijst van buitenpersonen die willen trouwen en daarom een ontlastbrief moeten meebrengen, 04/03/1700. The certificates kept in these archives often explicitly refer to the occasion of marriage, and often state responsibility for half of the possible relief costs incurred by the couple's future children, and sometimes one quarter of the costs of their future grandchildren. See for example RAA, Oud Gemeentearchief Arendonk, 4555: Borgbrief voor Margriet Melis vanwege haar geboortegemeente Retie, 8 mei 1756.

47. RAA, Kwartier van Arkel, 53: Resoluties & andere bescheiden (08/05/1776–01/10/1777), f° 1–10.

48. General State Archives in Brussels [ARA: Algemeen Rijksarchief], GR 1283: Avis des fiscaux du Grand Conseil 05/08/1750: ‘[the practice of demanding warranties] fait quelquefois que des villages se trouvent chargés d'habitans inutiles, parce qu'ils ne peuvent point s'établir ailleurs, et empêche que d'autres ne se peuplent ey augmentent le nombre de leurs habitans, par où le commerce et l'agriculture souffrent.’ Other officials, however, held a much more conservative point of view: ARA, GR 1284/B: Avis du fiscal de Brabant Decock, 07/05/1764: ‘ceux qui ne sont pas en état de donner la caution eux-mêmes ou par de bons répondans sont en quelque sorte à réputer pour pauvres et n'ont qu'à rester au lieu de leur naissance ou bien dans l'endroit où ils ont acquis le droit d'incolat’. Both cited by Bonenfant, Le problème du pauperisme, pp. 118 n. 2, 124.

49. Décret de Marie-Thérèse touchant l'entretien des pauvres dans la province de Flandres, 24/10/1750 (Recueil des Ordonnances des Pays-Bas Autrichiens, série 3, VI, p. 577).

50. Plakkaten van Vlaanderen, V, p. 38 (06/06/1750), p. 46 (05/12/1750). Also: Bonenfant, Le problème du pauperisme, pp. 118–23.

51. Décret de l'Impératrice Reine approuvant une convention faite, en forme de règlement, entre les lois subalternes, vassaux et contribuants dus pays de Waes et de Beveren, pour l'entretien des pauvres, et révoquant le décret du 18 juin 1759, 27/02/1764 (Recueil des Ordonnances des Pays-Bas Autrichiens, série 3, IX, pp. 72–4).

52. RAA, Kwartier van Arkel, 53: Resoluties & andere bescheiden (08/05/1776–01/10/1777), f. 8–9: ‘For example, when a village notices that one of their residents is likely to soon become chargeable, it often happens that this village tries to send out this resident to another village, where it provides him secretly with some relief from time to time, with which he can live quietly, until the three years necessary to acquire a new settlement have elapsed, after which he is abandoned, and left to the charge of his new place of residence.’

53. And many more arrangements existed with other local authorities: Geudens, E., Le compte moral de l'an X des hospices civils d'Anvers (Antwerpen, 1898), p. CIIGoogle Scholar; Bonenfant, Le problème du pauperisme, pp. 124–5; E. Pais-Minne, ‘Weldadigheidsinstellingen en sociale toestanden’, Antwerpen in de achttiende eeuw: Instellingen, economie, cultuur (Antwerpen, 1952), pp. 162–3. See also the Archives of Antwerp's Public Centre for Social Welfare [OCMWA: OCMW-archief te Antwerpen], Kamer van Huisarmen, 866: Memorieboeck 1633–1783, f. 108, 115, 221.

54. OCMWA, Kamer van Huisarmen, 866: Memorieboeck 1633–1783, f. 108.

55. Bonenfant, Le problème du pauperisme, pp. 125–126; Dalle, G., De bevolking van Veurne-ambacht in de 17de en 18de eeuw (Brussel, 1963), pp. 84–88Google Scholar; Lis, C., ‘Sociale politiek in Antwerpen, 1779. Het controleren van de relatieve overbevolking en het reguleren van de arbeidsmarkt’, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis, 2 (1976), 157Google Scholar.

56. Antwerp Communal Archives [SAA: Stadsarchief Antwerpen], Privilegekamer, 928, f.5: Fondatie genietenden: naemen der selven over te brengen (03/07/1780), art. 9–11. Compare with SAA, Privilegekamer, 927, f. 256: Bedelrye naer 23 deser verboden, op penen van apprehesie ende gecolloceert te worden in het Provinciaal dwinghuys te Vilvoorde (09/08/1779), art. 24–26.

57. SAA, Vierschaar, 177: Domicilie-boeck alias Poortersboek 1780–1795, f. 1.

58. Especially in Flanders. For a selection of settlement-related cases in the supreme regional court, see State Archives in Ghent [RAG: Rijksarchief te Gent], Raad van Vlaanderen, 21332, 21340, 21341, 21447, 21486, 21604, 26560.

59. For instance RAG, Raad van Vlaanderen, 21341: De armendis van Iddergem c. de armendis van Ninove: onderhoud van armen van sommige gehuchten (1762–1763), in particular the original request by Petrus van Geert, Adriaen van Eijnde, Adriana Menschaert and Joanne Marie van Geert. In this case, the appealing paupers received intermediate relief until the court made its final decision, while both the relief and lawsuit costs were to be paid by the parish eventually appointed as their settlement.

60. If at all, servants and apprentices appear to have been excluded from gaining settlement via residence. See for instance the bilateral settlement agreement between Antwerp and Deurne and Borgerhout on September 11th 1771 in OCMWA, Kamer van Huisarmen, 866: Memorieboeck 1633–1783, f. 221.

61. Cf. note 48 above.

62. Bonenfant, Le problème du pauperisme, pp. 134–44; Lis, ‘Sociale politiek in Antwerpen’, pp. 154, 160–161; E. Vanhaute, ‘De armenzorg op het Antwerpse platteland, 1750–1850: onderzoek naar een instelling tijdens de scharniereeuw’, Machtsstructuren in de plattelandsgemeenschappen in België en aangrenzende gebieden (12de-19de eeuw) (Brussel, 1988), pp. 653–6.

63. Bonenfant, Le problème du pauperisme, pp. 81–3, 172–6, 239–44.

64. Lis, C., Soly, H., and Van Damme, D., Op vrije voeten? Sociale politiek in West-Europa (1450–1914) (Leuven, 1985), pp. 61–68Google Scholar.

65. Cf. Lis and Soly, Poverty and Capitalism, pp. 99–115; Vanhaute, E., ‘Rich Agriculture and Poor Farmers. Land, Landlords and Farmers in Flanders in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’, Rural History, 12:1 (2001), 19–38CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

66. Lis and Soly, Poverty and Capitalism, pp. 141–50, 174–6; Lis, Soly, and Van Damme, Op vrije voeten?, pp. 110–16; Winter, A., ‘Vagrancy as an Adaptive Strategy: The Duchy of Brabant, 1767–1776’, International Review of Social History, 49 (2004), 249–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

67. See for instance the files in ARA, Geheime Raad, Cartons Oostenrijkse Periode, 1283: Mendicité, 1751–1783; 1284/A: Mendicité, 1777–1784; 1284/B: Mendicité, 1776–1792; 1285/A-B: Mendicité, 1770–1790. Also Bonenfant, Le problème du pauperisme, pp. 117–26, 408–14.

68. Interestingly, the different advice and disputes concerning these criteria do not seem to reflect any general conflict of interests between town and country, as it would when growing urbanisation and industrialisation altered the stakes involved in later periods.

69. Lebrun, P. et al. , Essai sur la révolution industrielle en Belgique, 1770–1847 (Bruxelles, 1979)Google Scholar; Veraghtert, K., ‘De economie in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden 1790–1970’, in Blok, D.P. (ed.), Algemene geschiedenis der Nederlanden (Haarlem, 1981), pp. 128–129Google Scholar; Deprez, P. and Vandenbroeke, C., ‘Population Growth and Distribution and Urbanisation in Belgium during the Demographic Transition’, in Lawton, R. and Lee, R. (eds.), Urban Population Development in Western Europe from the Late Eighteenth to the Early Twentieth Century (Liverpool, 1989), pp. 233, 235Google Scholar.

70. Décret concenant des mesures pour l'extinction de la mendicité, 15/10/1793 (Promulgated in Belgium in 1797: Pasinomie, série 1, V, pp. 501–5.)

71. Van Damme, ‘Onderstandswoonst’, p. 495.

72. Loi tendant à determiner les lieux où les indigents peuvent participer au secours publics, 28/11/1818 (Pasinomie, série 2, IV, pp. 481–5).

73. Loi relative au domicile de secours, 18/02/1845 (Pasinomie, série 3, XV, pp. 13–24).

74. Loi sur le domicile de secours, 14/03/1876 (Pasinomie, série 4, XI, pp. 34–94).

75. Loi sur l'assistance publique, 27/11/1891 (Pasinomie, série 4, XXVI, pp. 459–509). See also Pandectes Belges, vol. 96 (Bruxelles, 1909), s.v. ‘Secours (domicile de)’, art. 8–10.

76. Van Damme, ‘Onderstandswoonst’, pp. 496 ff.

77. Even the ministry of internal affairs interpreted the clauses facilitating out-resident relief as installing a ‘duty’ to relieve non-settled paupers, while retaining a ‘right’ for disbursement: ‘la loi du 18 février 1845 a reproduit le système de la loi de 1818 en formulant plus explicite, l'obligation de l'assistance aux indigents étrangers à la commune, et le droit au remboursement’, in Exposé de la situation du Royaume. Statistique générale de la Belgique (Période décennale de 1851–1860), III (Bruxelles, 1864), p. 100 Q. Compare with the qualifications in Pandectes Belges, vol. 96 (Bruxelles, 1909), s.v. ‘Secours (domicile de)’, art. 11: ‘Cette administration [de bienfaisance du lieu où se produit la nécessité des secours] est seule juge du point de savoir si les dits indigents réunissent les conditions requises pour être assistés (. . .) ni l'autorité supérieure ni la commune du domicile de secours n'ont action sur l'administration charitable de la commune où l'indigent se trouve: celle-ci est souveraine, elle ne peut subir ni injonction d'avoir à accorder des secours à tel ou tel individu, ni défense d'en accorder. La commune du domicile de secours ne pourrait donc se soustraire au remboursement des secours fourmis (. . .) sous prétexte que l'individu secouru n'était pas indigent.’

78. See for instance the Circulaire du ministre de la justice, relative au domicile de secours, 23/04/1851 (Pasinomie, série 3, XXI, pp. 161–3).

79. On the 1845/6 crisis, which struck particularly hard in the provinces of East-Flanders and West-Flanders, see Jacquemyns, G., Histoire de la crise économique de Flandres, 1845–1850 (Bruxelles, 1929)Google Scholar.

80. Although there existed – at least in the first half of the nineteenth century – no direct link between the level of local taxes and the volume of local relief subsidies, as other expenses and sources of income played a role too: Vanhaute, ‘De armenzorg’, pp. 641–56.

81. Van Damme, ‘Onderstandswoonst’, pp. 524–5.

82. Compte moral administratif de l'administration des hospices civils d'Anvers pendant l'année 1870 (Antwerp, 1871), p. 25, and Compte moral administratif de l'administration des hospices civils d'Anvers pendant l'année 1871 (Antwerp, 1872), p. 24.

83. Van Damme, ‘Onderstandswoonst’, pp. 514–17.

84. Caplan, ‘The New Poor Law’, pp. 267–300.

85. Lis and Soly, Poverty and Capitalism, pp. 141–4; Vanhaute, E., ‘Eigendomsverhoudingen in de Belgische en Vlaamse landbouw tijdens de 18de en de 19de eeuw’, Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste geschiedenis, 24 (1993), 185–226Google Scholar; Vanhaute, ‘Rich Agriculture’, pp. 19–38.

86. In that respect, one can draw a parallel with the compromise struck on railway commuting. The subsidisation of workmen's season tickets for the well-developed national railway system from the 1870s onwards represented a conscious policy to enhance labour mobility towards centres of industry while retaining workers and their families under the stabilising influence of village priests. Cf. Mahaim, E., Les abonnements d'ouvriers sur les lignes de chemins de fer belges et leurs effets sociaux (Bruxelles, 1910), pp. 34–35Google Scholar; Deprez and Vandenbroeke, ‘Population Growth and Distribution’, pp. 231–2. This commuting policy might in several respects even have taken over the role of settlement legislation as an instrument to temper large-scale rural-urban migration, thus allowing an easing of settlement criteria in 1876.

87. See for instance the explicit comments on the background of the 1818 Act in Pandectes Belges, vol. 96 (Bruxelles, 1909), s.v. ‘Secours (domicile de)’, art. 4: ‘La nécessité de garantir les villes contre l'invasion des indigents qui allaient s'y faire assister devint surtout pressante après les guerres de l'empire et la disette survenue en 1816. Ces circonstances motivèrent la loi du 20 novembre 1818.’

88. Cf. Van Damme, ‘Onderstandswoonst’, pp. 509–14.

89. Van Damme, ‘Onderstandswoonst’, pp. 525–7.

90. Cf. Dhondt, J., ‘Notes sur les ouvriers industriels gantois à l'époque française’, Revue du Nord, 36 (1954), 309–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Scholliers, P. and Avondts, G., Herkomst, huisvesting, arbeids- en levensomstandigheden van de werkkrachten van het bedrijf A. Voortman - H.V. Texas te Gent (Brussel, 1977)Google Scholar; De Belder, J., ‘Stad en platteland: Inleiding tot de problematiek’, Taal en Sociale Integratie, 4 (1981), 174Google Scholar; Winter, A., ‘De microcontext van verstedelijking: Posities en trajecten van immigranten op de Antwerpse arbeidsmarkt in de tweede helft van de achttiende eeuw’, Stadsgeschiedenis, 1 (2006), 122–47Google Scholar; A. Winter, ‘Patterns of Migration and Adaptation in the Urban Transition: Newcomers to Antwerp, c. 1760–1860’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2007).

91. Cf. Winter, ‘Patterns of Migration’, pp. 355–66 and passim.

92. OCMWA, Bureel van Weldadigheid, 933: Renseignements concernant le domicile de secours des indigents belges, 1854–1859. See Winter, ‘Patterns of Migration’, pp. 148–55 and chapters 8 and 9 for the uses of these settlement examinations in relation to migration research. It is worth noting that the five cases where applicants were refused out-resident relief and instead removed consisted of two widows with children, two families with more than four children, and one female prostitute.

93. OCMWA, Bureel van Weldadigheid, 946: Indigents étranger à la Belgique, 1844–1858. On the sample, see: Winter, ‘Patterns of Migration’, pp. 148–60.

94. Van Damme, ‘Onderstandswoonst’, pp. 525–7.

95. Therefore, much is to be gained from new pioneer project at the State Archives in Bruges in collaboration with the University of Ghent to start an inventory of pauper letters in the state archives.

96. Van Ginderachter, M., ‘Public Transcripts of Royalism. Pauper Letters to the Belgian Royal Family (1880–1940)’, in Deneckere, G. and Deploige, J. (eds.), Mystifying the Monarch: Studies on Discourse, Power and History (Amsterdam, 2006), pp. 223–34Google Scholar.

97. Of course, the specific nature and destination of the pauper letters studied so far, i.e. addressed to the King, imply that several factors, such as senses of royalism, might have played an important part too. However, if at all, these are likely to have been smaller in the, politically more radicalised, Walloon areas than in Flanders.