A Study Of The Transition Of Welfare Pattern For English Farmers During 15-17^th Century

It was the transitional period during 15-17th century. The English society transferred from feudalism and agriculture-oriented economy to the market economy of capitalism and mercantilism during this period. English farmers’ welfare issues became increasingly urgent during this time. Which ultimate factors that hold together with farmers’ welfare did shake during this time? Which negative effect was led by this shake? What did change on welfare pattern? These were not only the reasons why this paper was written, but also the questions that the author wanted to try to resolve.People’s perspective to the concept of "welfare" was some parochialism in China. But "welfare" was an idea with rich connotation and continuous development in western context. In general abstract sense, welfare was the various conditions that made people happy. Land and the labor that was built on the land were the base for the English farmers in the Middle Ages. This was the jumping-off point on which the arguments were given in this paper. The Society assistance for labors on land and the people with inability was the main connotation of the welfare pattern for farmers in the Middle Ages.There were five chapters in principal part of this paper. The stability of the tenure for English farmers and their income were mainly discussed in Chapter I. The change of land tenure system from villein to copy hold reflected continuously ameliorative course of the land tenure for farmers. This was continuously promotional process of the farmers welfare. This was incarnated in farmers’food, housing, clothing etc.. The instability of farmers working namely "natural risk" and the society salvation in the Middle Ages were mainly discussed in Chapter Ⅱ. Nature disaster, famine, sickness, plague, troops made up of the old and weak etc. were all damaged the ability of the farmers working. Thus traditional society salvation system which was made up of churches, manors and villages took on the main burden to minister to the people with inability. The social mobility of farmers during the social transitional period was mainly discussed in Chapter Ⅲ. During the transitional period, farmers’ social mobility was sped up. This was the important reason that the risk of famers welfare changed from "natural risk" to "social risk". The expansion of "social risk" that threatened farmers welfare during this time was mainly discussed in Chapter Ⅳ. During this period, the land tenure of farmers lost its stability. The population of landless farmers continuously increased. The farmers became the unstable labors for wage from the relatively steady land labors. Thus the welfare base that they had enjoyed was shaken. And the social troubles of the unemployment, poverty and vagrant of farmers were increasingly. Rebuilding the farmers welfare under "social risk" was mainly discussed in Chapter Ⅴ. There were not only the people with inability in a traditional sense, but also landless people who were unemployed with the ability to work. So it challenged the function of traditional salvation system. It became the main task to design a new welfare pattern. This pattern not only could help the person who was "the lost ability", but also should carry the practice of "job help". The main connotation of new welfare pattern was not only to continue to help persons with "inability" by state intervention measures, such as reform on relieving poor, economic regulating etc., but also to ensure landless farmers not to be land labors, but to be workers with payment as welfare, such as emigration, absorbing "the jobless" by industrialization and urbanization.The following conclusions could be drawn by researching transition of English welfare pattern during the transitional period:The radical power of transition of welfare pattern came from social transition and social mobility of farmers; the direct imptus came from insufficiency and decline of traditional salvation; the main tend of the welfare pattern was from help the poor to help the jobless; the essential attribute was the transition from the relationship between society and human to the relationship between state and people. The transition of welfare pattern succeeded. It became another factor that accelerated the development of English capitalization. By researching on welfare pattern for English farmers during the transitional period in this paper, the author hopes to offer some senses to our agriculture modernization, urbanization and peasantry welfare.