<P> The Poor Law system fell into decline at the beginning of the 20th century owing to factors such as the introduction of the Liberal welfare reforms and the availability of other sources of assistance from friendly societies and trade unions, as well as piecemeal reforms which bypassed the Poor Law system . The Poor Law system was not formally abolished until the National Assistance Act 1948, with parts of the law remaining on the books until 1967 . </P> <P> The earliest medieval Poor Law was the Ordinance of Labourers which was issued by King Edward III of England on 18 June 1349, and revised in 1350 . The ordinance was issued in response to the 1348--1350 outbreak of the Black Death in England, when an estimated 30--40% of the population had died . The decline in population left surviving workers in great demand in the agricultural economy of Britain . Landowners had to face the choice of raising wages to compete for workers or letting their lands go unused . Wages for labourers rose, and this forced up prices across the economy as goods became more expensive to produce . An attempt to rein in prices, the ordinance (and subsequent acts, such the Statute of Labourers of 1351) required that everyone who could work did; that wages were kept at pre-plague levels and that food was not overpriced . Workers saw these shortage conditions as an opportunity to flee employers and become freemen, so Edward III passed additional laws to punish escaped workers . In addition, the Statute of Cambridge was passed in 1388 and placed restrictions on the movement of labourers and beggars . </P> <P> The origins of the English Poor Law system can be traced back to late medieval statutes dealing with beggars and vagrancy but it was only during the Tudor period that the Poor Law system became codified . Prior to the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the Tudors Reformation, monasteries had been the primary source of poor relief, but their dissolution resulted in poor relief moving from a largely voluntary basis to a compulsory tax that was collected at a parish level . Early legislation was concerned with vagrants and making the able - bodied work, especially while labour was in short supply following the Black Death . </P> <P> Tudor attempts to tackle the problem originate during the reign of Henry VII . In 1495, Parliament passed the Vagabonds and Beggars Act ordering that "vagabonds, idle and suspected persons shall be set in the stocks for three days and three nights and have none other sustenance but bread and water and then shall be put out of Town . Every beggar suitable to work shall resort to the Hundred where he last dwelled, is best known, or was born and there remain upon the pain aforesaid ." Although this returned the burden of caring for the jobless to the communities producing more children than they could employ, it offered no immediate remedy to the problem of poverty; it was merely swept from sight, or moved from town to town . Moreover, no distinction was made between vagrants and the jobless; both were simply categorised as "sturdy beggars", to be punished and moved on . </P>

Who was in charge of creating laws in victorian england