In the period 1829 to 1854 an average of 25 per cent of the entire population of Amsterdam was in receipt of poor relief on a regular basis. Some 90 per cent of the relief consisted of work. Three out of every four paupers were still supported by the Reformed Church, as was also the case in the bustling port of Rotterdam, where in 1859 some seventeen out of every hundred people were in receipt of poor relief.
