English poor laws in the process of commodification of labor power

This work focuses on the English Poor Law which is an important step in social politics from the aspect of the commodification of labor power. To this aim, first the process of commodification is explained, and commodity, pre-capitalist and capitalist commodity production, and the value of commodity are analyzed. In the following, the emergence of the labor power as a specific commodity is described. In relation to that, the process of the period of separation of the labor power from feudal bonds and dispossession is gone through. Thereafter, the role of the law, particularly labor contracts, in the aforementioned period is discussed. Following to that, the historic context in which the Poor Law emerged is focused. The Poor Law acts before and after 1834 are categorized as the Old Poor Law and the New Poor Law, respectively. The Act of Settlement (1662), The Gilbert's Act (1782), and the Speenhamland system are analyzed under the Old Poor Law section. In the following section, the Paternalist approach which was the dominant view in the social politics during the Old Poor Law is described. Subsequently, it was aimed to indicate that the transition form the paternalist approach to laissez faire economy is dependent on the advancement of capitalism. This work ends with the section in which the relationship between the Poor law and commodity and the commodification of the labor power is pointed out. Particularly, the role the New Poor Law, dated as 1834, in the process of the labor class becoming dependent to capital. The study claims that the Poor Law created the necessary conditions for the commodity of labor power to be present.