A targeted public: public services in fifteenth-century Ghent and Bruges

Abstract

Though the phrase 'public services' is a nineteenth-century invention, which was supported by a developed rhetoric of political economy, this article shows that the concept, practice and supply of such services could also be found in the medieval city. It specifically analyses three areas of urban service provision: jurisprudence and legal security, infrastructure and finally health care and poor relief. Although the available sources tend to stress the involvement of municipal authorities in providing public services, it turns out that in fact the furnishing of services was highly multi-layered. In all three areas studied, a wide range of public and private institutions offered services to specific groups within late medieval urban society. In contrast to what the notion of 'public services' lets us presume, however, public services in the medieval city were not available to all inhabitants. Instead, the provision of services was usually quite restrictive, and targeted particular groups in society.The allocation of public services in late medieval towns was as multilayered as urban society itself. Because not only the urban government, but also the court, the church and voluntary associations of citizens could organize public services in the medieval cities, both the provision of public services and people's eligibility to use those services were highly fragmented and multi-layered in the medieval city. Several institutions provided comparable services within the same geographical area. For example, a survey of welfare provision (one of the hallmarks of the city as Caroline Barron has called it) in late medieval London shows that this relief was secured by a series of measures, of which some were provided by the city corporately, some by religious houses, some by fraternities and

The king of dirt: public health and sanitation in late medieval Ghent

“…88 It fits into a broader investment in public works, which on average took up 7.7 per cent of the city's annual funds. 89 In addition, the city gave the coninc and his helpers small alms, including peat and wine, while also using them to deliver alms that the city donated to various institutions such as hospitals, monasteries and guild houses. 90 Governmental interest in regulating the presence of unemployed strangers and foreign beggars increased considerably during the fifteenth century, reflecting a growing concern throughout the Low Countries.…”

Sociale mobiliteit binnen de ambachten van de metselaars en timmerlieden in het 15de-eeuwse Gent.

“…72 We kunnen deze actieve rol die het stadsbestuur op zich nam inzake openbare werken beschouwen als een vorm van publieke dienstverlening. 73 Het betekende een stimulans voor de stedelijke economie. 74 Het onderhoud van infrastructuur en de bouw van prestigieuze gebouwen gaf een positief elan aan de stad.…”

How important were formalized charity and social spending before the rise of the welfare state? A long‐run analysis of selected westernEuropean cases, 1400–1850

“…For example, Haemers and Ryckbosch, ‘Targeted public’, pp. 222–3, on Flanders; Henderson, Piety , p. 241, on Florence.…”