Becoming Poor in Eighteenth-Century Turin

Bibliographic Data

ID3182989
AuthorsLuciano Allegra (University of Turin, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume46
Issue2
Pages153-183
Publication date2015-08-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Interdisciplinary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-1953 • E-ISSN: 1530-9169
PublisherThe MIT Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1162/jinh_a_00830
OpenAlexW2118320980
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited9

The notion that becoming poor was primarily the result of an economic crisis in the labor market or a rise in the price of food does inadequate justice to the evidence in the records of the Hospital of Charity in eighteenth-century Turin. Although any crisis has the potential to reduce the standard of living in a general population, only certain families become impoverished; others manage to withstand difficult times more or less unscathed. Moreover, individuals and families become poor not only during widespread economic hardships but also under normal conditions. A general crisis may be an aggravating factor, increasing the likelihood of poverty, but it is neither a necessary nor a sufficient cause. The case of Turin suggests a combination of multiple contingencies as the key to how people became poor. Among them, an imbalance in the ratio between workers and mouths to feed in a family was the most important

Poor people · Standard of living · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Cold Fusion and Nuclear Reactions · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies

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