Social Insurance and Public Assistance

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720 SeriesBf 1–7 Bf SOCIAL INSURANCE AND PUBLIC ASSISTANCE POOR RELIEF Joan Underhill Hannon and Stephen T. Ziliak TABLE Bf1–7 Poor relief in Philadelphia – recipients, expenditures, and tax levied: 1709–1775 Contributed by Stephen T. Ziliak Poor relief Poor tax Expenditures levied per per 1,000 Recipients per Expenditures per Population annum Expenditures population Recipients 1,000 population recipient Bf1 Bf2 Bf3 Bf4 Bf5 Bf6 Bf7 Pounds Period Number Pence Pounds per 1,000 Number Per 1,000 Pounds 1709 2,500 1.5 158 59 13 4.8 12.00 1739 9,100 3.0 800 83 80 1 8.3 1 10.00 1 1756–1758 15,600 3.0 1,175 72 110 1 6.7 1 10.90 1 1765 18,100 5.0 2,385 123 310 16.0 7.14 1768–1771 19,700 6.0 3,681 175 590 28.1 6.50 1772–1775 22,300 6.0 3,868 163 720 30.3 5.70 1 Estimate based on the known number of outreliefers plus an estimated 40 to 50 inmates in the small almshouse. Source Gary B. Nash, “Poverty and Poor Relief in Pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia,” William and Mary Quarterly 33 (1976): 3–30. Table 1, p. 9. Documentation All values are in Philadelphia currency. The data are derived from numerous archival sources. For example, the figures for 1768 to 1775 are derived from the annual reports of the Records of the Contributors of Relief to the Poor, Treasurer’s Accounts, City Archives, Philadelphia. The figures for 1739, on the other hand, are found in the Philadelphia Poor Day Book, 1739. “Although food prices rose steeply in the 1770s, there was general stability in prices and sterling exchange rates in Philadelphia during the colonial period, so money values have not been converted to English sterling” (Nash 1976, p. 9). Series Bf2. The source suggests that the tax was a flat tax on any assessable property. TABLE Bf 8–16 Poor relief expenditures in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York: 1700–1775 Contributed by Stephen T. Ziliak Boston Philadelphia New York Poor relief Poor relief Poor relief Average Expenditure Average Expenditure Average Expenditure annual per 1,000 annual per 1,000 annual per 1,000 Population expenditure population Population expenditure population Population expenditure population Bf8 Bf9 Bf10 Bf11 Bf12 Bf13 Bf14 Bf15 Bf16 Pounds Pounds Pounds Pounds sterling per Pounds sterling per Pounds sterling per Period Number sterling 1,000 Number sterling 1,000 Number sterling 1,000 1700–1710 7,500 173 23 2,450 119 48 4,500 — — 1711–1720 9,830 181 18 3,800 — — 5,900 249 32 1721–1730 11,840 273 23 6,600 — — 7,600 276 25 1731–1740 15,850 498 31 8,800 471 49 10,100 351 21 1741–1750 16,240 806 50 12,000 — — 12,900 389 21 1751–1760 15,660 1,204 77 15,700 1,083 67 13,200 667 39 1761–1770 15,520 1,909 123 22,100 2,842 129 18,100 1,667 92 1771–1775 15,500 2,478 158 27,900 3,785 136 22,600 2,778 123 Source Gary B. Nash, “Urban Wealth and Poverty in Pre-Revolutionary America,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 6 (4) (1976): 545–84. Table 4, p. 557. Documentation See the text for Table Bf1–7 for a description of the data source for Philadelphia. Between 1754 and 1775, the town records of Boston provide, with few interruptions, an annual report of the treasurer on disbursements to the Overseers of the Poor. These reports provide direct counts. For the period 1700–1720, Nash “estimated poor relief costs at one-third the town expenses (given yearly in Boston Town Records), the ratio that prevailed in the five years between 1727 and 1737 when poor relief expense figures are given” (Nash 1976, p. 556 n. 24). The figures for New York have been reconstructed from the Minutes and Accounts of the Church Warden and Vestrymen of the City of New York, 1696–1715, New York Historical Society; and Minutes of the Meetings of the Justices, Church Wardens, and Vestrymen of the City of New York, 1694– 1747, New York Public Library. The salary of the clergymen for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which was included in these expenditures, has been subtracted from the yearly totals. Nash reports that “the New York
POOR RELIEF Series Bf 17–22 721 TABLE Bf 8–16 Poor relief expenditures in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York: 1700–1775 Continued records after 1747 have apparently not survived, but the level of expenditures on the eve of the Revolution was reported by the vestrymen and churchwardens in a petition to the Continental Congress in May 1776” (1976, p. 556 n. 25). All values, which in the inventories are given in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania currency, have been converted to sterling. Nash used the conversion figures given in U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957 (1960), p. 773, and filled in the missing years from the price per ounce of silver cited in the inventories for these years. For Philadelphia, the yearly sterling equivalents for Pennsylvania currency are taken from Anne Bezanson, Robert D. Gray, and Marian Hussey, Prices in Colonial Pennsylvania (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1935), p. 431. TABLE Bf 17–22 Tax assessments and expenditures for the poor in Philadelphia: 1800–1854 1 Contributed by Stephen T. Ziliak Almshouse expenditures Outdoor expenditures Poor-tax Total expenditures Percentage of Percentage of assessment for the poor Total total expenditures Total total expenditures Fiscal year Bf17 Bf18 Bf19 2 Bf20 Bf21 Bf22 beginning Dollars Dollars Dollars Percent Dollars Percent 1800 50,000 47,212 25,330 4 54 21,882 46 1801 75,000 59,830 37,568 4 63 22,262 37 1802 60,000 73,507 38,004 4 52 35,503 48 1803 75,000 79,684 50,192 63 29,492 37 1804 70,000 91,702 55,202 60 36,500 40 1805 90,000 96,025 62,309 65 33,716 35 1806 90,000 89,795 57,942 65 31,854 35 1807 91,160 103,856 67,537 65 36,318 35 1808 90,000 113,952 79,414 70 34,537 30 1809 83,000 113,049 76,704 68 36,345 32 1810 88,000 92,203 58,154 63 34,049 37 1811 102,954 88,040 49,023 56 39,067 44 1812 102,595 — — — — — 1813 90,000 103,981 45,409 44 58,572 56 1814 100,000 120,488 64,424 53 56,064 47 1815 110,000 124,660 70,788 57 53,872 43 1816 110,000 117,892 63,222 54 54,670 46 1817 150,000 107,598 52,031 48 55,567 52 1818 135,000 116,408 48,811 42 67,596 58 1819 135,000 98,014 51,393 52 46,621 48 1820 140,000 95,010 51,501 54 43,509 46 1821 130,000 97,847 50,511 52 47,337 48 1822 105,940 111,120 59,506 54 51,530 46 1823 114,468 129,125 57,227 44 71,898 56 1824 132,317 110,020 52,423 49 55,597 51 1825 129,383 100,170 52,842 52 47,329 48 1826 89,961 119,798 70,789 59 49,009 41 1827 80,000 83,088 52,419 63 30,669 37 1828 90,000 82,154 55,190 67 26,964 33 1829 90,000 83,508 53,877 65 29,631 35 1830 80,564 86,614 54,494 63 32,120 37 1831 91,828 106,139 69,513 66 36,626 34 1832 139,891 106,252 64,814 61 41,438 39 1833 — 101,597 68,308 67 33,289 33 1835 168,942 114,092 97,720 86 16,372 14 1836 — 112,107 100,297 89 11,810 11 1837 — 130,360 114,933 88 15,427 12 1838 — 122,612 105,921 86 16,691 14 1839 169,043 111,292 84,902 76 26,390 24 1840 — 98,763 70,621 72 28,142 28 1841 — 120,035 88,910 74 31,125 26 1842 181,094 115,511 80,755 70 34,756 30 1843 178,003 113,034 79,489 70 33,546 30 1844 194,825 — — — — — Notes appear at end of table (continued)
Page 1 and 2: CHAPTER Bf Social Insurance and Pub
Page 3 and 4: PUBLIC ASSISTANCE: COLONIAL TIMES T
Page 9 and 10: SOCIAL WELFARE: 1929 TO THE PRESENT
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Page 31 and 32: POOR RELIEF Series Bf 23-27 723 TAB
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