Social Enterprise Experiments in England: 1660 1908

1. Social Enterprise Experiments in England: 1660 � 1908 Matthew MacDonald and Carole HoworthInstitute for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development Lancaster University Management School

3. The First Social Enterprises 1660-1700 �Some proposals for the employment of the poor, And for the prevention of idleness and the consequence thereof, begging, a practice so dishonourable to the nation and to the Christian religion� (Firmin, 1678) �the loss of two pence in the shilling as money well spent� (Firmin in Owen, 1965, p18)

4. Effects of the French and Industrial Revolutions �The principle legacy of the French Revolution was a paranoid fear of working class insurrection� (Hudson 2001) �Distinctions between classes, spiritually sanctioned and inevitable�to be industrious and tractable was, of course, the obligation of the poor�the deference owed by the poor to the rich was the ubiquitous theme� (Owen, 1965)

5. Social Attitudes to Poor Relief ��little better than savages and barbarians, with whom any familiar intercourse would be degrading� (Trimmer, 1814)

6. Late 18th and Early 19th Century �correcting the little pilfering habits of the infant poor, the source �of so many vices and crimes in society; and of preserving them from idleness and bad example, and training them in virtuous and industrious habits, so as to make them � useful and valuable members of society.� (The Reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor. 1798)

7. Housing Provision �Mr. Waterlow has the ulterior purpose in view, on which he lays great stress, of convincing others and especially capitalists, that it is a mode of investing money insuring a profitable return. He repudiates every consideration of charity as offensive to the working classes themselves� (The Times, March 1863)

8. Late 19th and Early 20th Century �They do their little industries in the big hall, and knit trifles for the morrow's sale by which they are to secure their right to their board and lodging here.� (account of a visit to the Hanbury Street Women�s Shelter, 1891)

9. Impact �signally failed either to do the job itself or to stimulate the State to do it adequately� �tended to obscure the magnitude of the real problem by a false sense of achievement� (Macadam, 1934) �They felt that material assistance on its own was worthless unless it was accompanied by a concern for the moral and spiritual needs of the recipient. Indeed it was the spiritual welfare of the needy which was the primary concern� (Whelan 1996)

10. Conclusions Social enterprise one of a number of responses to shortcomings in existing relief provision Malthusian view of the �deserving� and �undeserving� poor A primary concern with moral improvement Does this view now extend to �grant dependant� voluntary organisations as well as to individuals?