ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one factor affecting the evolution of social policy which has been unduly neglected, not only in connection with the 1870–1914 period but for earlier and later periods also. The development of a public system of welfare benefits includes an inherently redistributive element, in that it necessarily involves taking money from some sectors of society in the form of rates and taxes in order to finance help for those in certain other sectors of society. A major element in the evolution of social policy in the 1870–1914 period was the continuing importance of unofficial philanthropy in the establishment of welfare provision. Indeed it is highly probable that a study of the taxpayer and the ratepayer will tell us more about the evolution of social policy than a study of the poor. The continued increase in national wealth was an indispensable prerequisite for the elaboration of more enlightened social policies.
