<Articles>The New Poor Law and Local Society in Nineteenth-Century England : The Anti-Poor Law Movement in the Huddersfield Area

個人情報保護のため削除部分あり本稿では、ウェスト・ライディングにおける新救貧法反対運動(一八三七〜三八年) の牙城とみなされたハダズフィールド地域に即して、当該運動を考察する。まず、地域の主要産業(紡毛織物工業) の生産点レヴェルにおける緊密な社会的結合関係こそが、反対運動の凝集力の規定要因であったという見解を提示する。地域政治の枠組みにおいては、リチャード・オースラと急進派グループとのトーリ＝ラディカル「同盟」が、反対派勢力の結びつきを強める「触媒」として機能したことなどが重要である。旧救貧法時代の救貧行政においては、地域住民の監督のもとに救貧負担の抑制と救貧の必要性との微妙なバランスを取る、という地域主義的・相互扶助的な規範が窺われた。新救貧法が地域社会に及ぼした衝撃の核心とは、このような規範とは相いれない不道徳の象微として人々の危機感をかき立てたことにあったといえよう。Recent scholarship on the New Poor Law has emphasized 'continuity' in the local poor law administration before and after 1834, and has pointed out the important role of the Anti-Poor Law Movement in compelling the Poor Law Commissioners to allow discretion to boards of gurdians in the industrial North. This paper focuses on the Huddersfield area, a stronghold of this movement in the West Riding, and attempts to interpret the impact of the New Poor Law on this locality. After reconstructing the course of the Anti-Poor Law Movement in this area, this paper flrst suggests that intimate social networks in the workplace contributed to the cohesion of this movement. Second, in local politics, the Tory-Radical 'alliance' between R. Oastler and the Huddersfield Radicals played a catalytic role in strengthening the solidarity of the anti-poor law groups. Lastly, the ratepayers' interest in economy and the demand for poor relief had been balanced by flexible relief practices under the Old Poor Law and this local and reciprocal norm influenced the majority of the population. The impact of the New Poor Law consisted in the fear and unrest aroused by its representation as a frightfully alien and immoral threat to the abovementioned norm. This representation of the New Poor Law as a threat to the established order centered on its plan for central control and the workhouse system