Robert Schwartz examines the French government's attempts to
suppress mendicity from the reign of Louis XIV to the Revolution.
His study provides a rich account of the evolution of poverty, the
varied and shifting attitudes toward the delinquent poor, and the
government's efforts to control mendicity by strengthening the
state's repressive machinery during the eighteenth century. As
Schwartz demonstrates, popular conceptions of the mendicant poor in
the ancient regime increasingly focused on the threat that they
presented to the rest of society, thereby opening the way for the
central state to augment its authority and enhance its credibility
by acting as the agent protecting the majority of the populace from
its threat to public security.
Government efforts to control the activity of the "unworthy poor"
-- those of sound mind and body who were seen to prefer idleness
over productive work -- were most pronounced during two periods of
repressive policing, one in the early eighteenth century and the
other in the last two decades before the Revolution. From 1724 to
1733 beggars were interned in "hopitaux," existing municipal
institutions intended for the care of the "worthy poor," including
orphans, the infirm, and the aged. But from 1768 until the outbreak
of the Revolution, more stringent measures were taken. Sturdy
beggars and vagrants were confined apart from the worthy poor on
specially established, royal workhouses called "depots de
mendicite," and in the case of some repeat offenders, were
sentenced to the galleys.
This stepped-up level of policing arose not only from royal
administrators' long-standing view of mendicity as criminal
activity; it was also made possible because the propertied classes
had likewise come to believe the mendicant poor were a danger
rather than a nuisance. Economic and demographic conditions
combined to swell the ranks of paupers and vagrants, especially in
the 1760s and 1770s, and social tensions, along with calls for
government action, multiplied in proportion to their numbers. As
villagers came to call upon the improved royal police for help, a
popular mental association of the state with public security began
to take root.
In arriving at these conclusions, Schwartz concentrates on law
enforcement in a single area, Lower Normandy, but continually
provides a perspective on local events by putting them in the
context of national trends and realities. He tells the story of the
poor in eighteenth-century France in sympathetic terms, giving a
human face to poverty and to the men who policed its effects.
Originally published in 1987.
A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the
latest in digital technology to make available again books from our
distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These
editions are published unaltered from the original, and are
presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both
historical and cultural value.
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