Generating generosity. Financing poor relief through charitable collections in Dutch towns, c. 1600-1800

Abstract

The early modern Dutch welfare system has often been described as relatively generous and efficient. Not only foreigners visiting the Dutch Republic, but also present-day historians have asserted that the Dutch, together with their English neighbours, stood out in early modern Europe in terms of solidarity with the poor and needy in society. Different from the English case, in the Northern Netherlands an extensive national legal and regulatory framework on social care was absent, as were obligatory poor rates for the financing of charitable activities. In Dutch towns social care was organized at a local level and largely financed from donations made to collections in the churches and in the streets. As contributions to these charitable appeals were in principle voluntary and not enforced by law, the question arises how the early modern Dutch managed to finance a substantial part of their welfare system through charitable collections. To understand how charitable donations could form the financial backbone of sustainable and relatively generous relief provisions, this thesis studies the policies of town councils and church boards in organizing collections as well as the population’s giving behaviour. Based on archival research in the towns of Delft, Utrecht, Zwolle and ’s-Hertogenbosch, it is argued that despite the absence of a legal and compulsory framework for giving, secular and religious authorities still had effective means at their disposal to persuade and exhort the population to donate. Municipalities and church boards made use of both organizational and rhetorical tactics to influence giving behaviour. By supervising the collection process, by strictly scheduling charitable appeals, by extensively advertising collections beforehand, and by asserting pressure on the population to give, they attempted to fill the collection bags, boxes and plates. Overall the authorities’ fundraising campaigns, in which creating awareness, establishing trust, and exerting pressure formed the key components, can be described as successful. Many relief institutions managed to collect large amounts year after year, and to fund a substantial share of their activities from donations made to church offertories and door-to-door collections. This thesis moreover demonstrates that the authorities succeeded to mobilize large parts of the population to give to collections. In early modern Dutch towns, the financing of poor relief was considered the shared responsibility of the whole urban community. Collectors often went door-to-door, and municipalities and church boards urged all town inhabitants who could afford to miss a few coins to donate. Studying the population’s giving behaviour reveals that not only the elites, but also the less well-off contributed to the financing of social care provisions.