Subsidies to the rescue : the funding of poor relief in Flemish village communities during the crisis of the 1840s, a comparative analysis

This article questions changes in the funding of local poor relief during the 1845-1848 food crisis in Flemish village communities. This will be studied comparatively between three distinct regions in Flanders: inner-Flanders, coastal Flanders, and the Waasland. In all three regions it was local relief institutions that increased their financial capacity in order to accommodate rising poverty, despite the long-term advance of nationalized welfare in the background. However, considerable regional differentiation could be detected in the nature and degree by which the funding strategies were ada... Mehr ...