ABSTRACT
The establishment of ‘modern charity’ was primarily due to the positive action by the State ( Jordan 1958, pp. 98-108). In the absence of any conceivable alternative, after the dissolution of the Catholic Church, the State encouraged charity to meet a crisis which had arisen, a crisis precipitated by the change from a feudal economic system to an emerging capitalist State. However, the Tudors had not left it entirely to charity. As Beveridge (1948) noted, the 1601 Statutes of Elizabeth were co-ordinated with the Poor Law, specific relief for soldiers and mariners and the statute of charity uses, all being part of the same programme. Statutory assistance was afforded to the destitute by the State with charity having to meet a greater variety of purposes and needs through voluntary funds. A binary system for social welfare was developed, partly as insurance against social unrest but also because charity was seen as a vehicle for opportunity. For example, promoting education through charitable schools, Eton School was founded for bright ‘poor’ scholars. The respective relationship between State and charity from the onset was established as the State providing the absolute minimum, with charity intended as the principal agent of delivery. This was to be the pattern of delivery until the advent of the twentieth century.
