ABSTRACT
The phrase laissez-faire implies that government policy towards social and economic affairs was dictated by an ideology, albeit a negative one, that intervention was likely to be harmful. The government's attitude to other specific economic interests was shaped much more by pragmatic considerations, although laissez-faire ideas can be detected behind the repeal of various pieces of grandmotherly legislation such as the Usury Laws and the restrictions on joint-stock banking and limited liability. Health benefits were one such, but improved fire-fighting capabilities may have been equally in people's minds, while the whole local economy gained from the provision of greatly improved industrial water supplies for processes such as chemicals and paper making. Municipal provision of services can be categorised as both 'economic' and 'social'. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 set up a central Poor Law Commission, and enforced the union of parishes to form large groupings, in order to aid efficiency.
