ABSTRACT
This chapter indicates the extent of statistical enquiry relating to the working and living conditions of the labouring classes. Some of these enquiries relating to poverty in order to find out the causes and remedies which they suggested, and to analyse the impact of these studies on the subsequent growth of state functions and of economic thought. The problem of poverty appears to have been the main concern of the Christian and Fabian social reformers and of a large number of economists in the last quarter of the 19th century. Measuring changes in poverty has continued to interest English statisticians and economists. The next section deals with the impact of these studies on the prevailing views on state functions. State pensions continued to be a fruitful subject of debate in the pages of the Economic Journal, but statistical investigations had also shown the appalling conditions in which the children of the poor lived.
