From the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century
'Unemployment'
A dramatic interlude by HUGH ROSS WILLIAMSON
'.Be it ordained.... that in every city and town corporate within this realm, a competent store and stock of wool, hemp, flax, iron, or other stuff .... shall be provided. The collectors of the poor shall, of the same stock and store, deliver to poor and needy persons a competent portion to be wrought into yarn or other matter, for which they shall make payment to them which work the same according to the desert of the work.'
This is one of the clauses of Elizabeth's famous Poor Law, which was one of the earliest efforts to deal with the problem of unemployment. In this, the last broadcast of the term, listeners will hear how it worked, how the problem continued, and what was done about it.