Industrialisation, the Growing Working Class, and Philanthropy
The population in Finland grew steadily during the nineteenth century. In 1850, the population was approximately 1.6 million, and by 1900, it had reached over 2.6 million. However, growth did not occur evenly throughÂout the country.[467] The second half of the nineteenth century was a time of industrialisation and urbanisation in Finland.
The growth of Finnish industry was spurred by increased freedom of trade globally and new developments in transportation. Both the export industry and the domesÂtic manufacturing industry grew during this period.[468] This also shifted the structure of work in society, and as a result, significant internal migrations took place within the country: growing towns drew thousands and thouÂsands of people from the countryside where the so-called excess populaÂtion was a big problem.[469] While in 1860, 6% of the population lived intowns, by 1900, the share was 13%. Especially the capital Helsinki drew construction workers, general workers, and domestic servants in great numbers. Around the middle of the century, Helsinki still grew at a modÂerate pace, but after 1860, growth was very rapid. Between 1870 and 1900, the population almost tripled as people from the countryside headed to the capital in pursuit of work. In 1910, Helsinki had around 150,000 inhabitants, of which a good two-thirds had come from elsewhere.14
As society’s economic structure was changing, wage labourers became a new and growing part of society. Indeed, the growth of the working class marks the last decades of the nineteenth century. However, working and living conditions were poor, especially for factory workers. Wages were small, working hours were long, and as the number of workers grew, there was a dire housing shortage. Grievances caused wide dissatisfaction and occasionally led to work stoppages.
While urban workers were struggling, also the landless population of the countryside grew increasingly disconÂtent and impoverished. Crofters15 (Fi. torppari), for example, saw their contracts worsened.16 Trade unions were founded since the 1870s and especially 1880s, when strikes became more common. The political labour movement in Finland arose in the 1880s. It was started by the educated class and was dubbed the “Wrightian labour movement” after its founder, factory owner Viktor Julius von Wright (1856-1934). The core idea was to tackle problems in working and living conditions carefully without aggravating conflicts and with the hope of stopping the spread of socialism to Finland. The movement had a patronising undertone which furthered discontent among workers. By the late 1890s, socialism had gained ground in Finland, too, and the labour movement sought its independence from the educated class. In 1899, the Finnish Labour Party, the future Social Democratic Party, was founded.17The social problems of the late nineteenth century needed to be addressed. Poverty was nothing new in the nineteenth century. Famine, described with the term “excess population of the countryside” (Fi. maaseudun Iiikavaesto).
14 Waris ([1932/1934] 2016), pp. 30-31; Rasila (1982), pp. 136, 138-139; Jaakkola et al. (1994), pp. 53-55.
15A crofter would rent a part of land from a larger farm. He would build a croft (Fi. torppa), that is, a house for his family and could grow the land for his own use. Crofters paid their rent by performing day labour at the landowner’s farm.
16 Haataja et al. (1978), pp. 33-37.
17 Haataja et al. (1978), pp. 38-40, 49-51.
wars, and diseases had always caused distress, and the question of vagrancy was recurrent. Yet, in the nineteenth century new problems emerged. Population growth led to increased poverty in the countryside, and indusÂtrialisation and urbanisation caused their own problems in towns.
Public debate on poverty, poor relief, and the right to receive help was especially intense from the 1840s onwards.[470]Since its beginnings, poor relief had largely been in the hands of the church, and during the eighteenth century, this aid, provided by the parÂishes, became more organised and efficient.[471] However, in 1865 and 1873, new legislation shifted the responsibility for organising poor relief from the parishes to the municipalities. This changed how poor relief was perÂceived: ideas of mercy and charity were no longer as pronounced, and rather it was seen as just one part of the municipal budget, to be covered by collecting taxes. However, in the towns this change was not drastic as there, in practice, the leadership in matters of poor relief was already in the hands of town burghers.[472] In Helsinki, a board for poor aid (Sw. fat- VigvArdsdirektion) had been working since 1814. As described above, industrialisation and urbanisation and the growth of the working class caused societal problems and more people were in need of poor aid. At the turn of the 1880s, as the financial burden on the upper class grew, the requirements for receiving aid were tightened.[473]
However, societal grievances were not only tackled by poor relief but also through private charity and philanthropy.[474] Philanthropy became especially important during the industrial revolution, as the growth of the urban population, poor conditions of factory work, as well as crowded housing brought about great human distress. In Finland, the first organÂised attempts of charitable associations were made in Helsinki in the late 1840s when two women’s associations, the “Ladies’ association” (Fruntimmersforeningen) and the “Friends of orphan children” (Orpolasten ystdvAt), were founded to help poor women and children. In the aftermath of the late-1860s famine, wealthy people founded many other charities. In Helsinki, philanthropy bloomed especially between 1885 and 1895, and the number of charitable organisations grew steadily—most of them focused on children’s wellbeing.[475]
The beginning of legal aid in Finland in the 1880s coincides with this period in which people of the educated class (Fi. sivistyneisto) attempted to tackle problems caused by societal change. Certainly, the problems faced by the new urban working class at the time were also reflected as a growÂing need for legal assistance. Workers were confronted with new kinds of legal problems concerning wages and rent, for example. Indeed, in the late nineteenth century, as part of broader social reform movements, philanÂthropy was a driving force behind the establishment of legal aid in many countries. Philanthropic organisations were also instrumental in providing legal aid to immigrants, for example.[476]