本文旨在從馬克思的學說來探究圈地運動擴大、工人自由擴大與貧窮問題擴大之間的歷史關聯，尤其針對貧窮問題提出一個兼具歷史性與社會性的詮釋。本文並非歷史學著作，文中後引一些英國史料，主要的目的在於闡明「貧窮社會問題」的時代意涵，而「貧窮問題」實為社會福利領域，乃至於社會科學的重要研究範疇。本文另一個特色，就是要闡明濟貧政策的意義，因濟貧政策實為當代社會福利及社會政策的重要基礎，它不但關係到近代英國的興起，也鍛造了英國福利政策成為西方和非西方世界仿效的版本。

The article aims at exploring the historical relevance among the enlargement of enclosure movement, the increase of worker’s liberty, and the exacerbation of poverty problem, especially at trying to provide an interpretation for proverty problem, which is historical as well as sociological. However, The article is not the writing about history. Although I use some data of British history to state my arguments, my main purpose is to articulate the historical implication of “the social problem of poverty”, which is an essential issue of social welfare research. Furthermore, the article also attempts to formulate the meaning of poor law policy. Indeed, poor law policy is the important foundation of contemporary welfare programs and social policies, which do not only contribute to the formation of modern British society, but also make British welfare policies as the paradigm that western and non-western world both want to imitate.