previous 2.3.The poverty
2.3.1.The poor Klerken
About the beginning of the fourteenth century there was big poverty in Klerken. Articles in the "Standaert van Vlaenderen" give us a very good sight on this poverty. On the sixth of Mai 1845 you could read in this journal a complaint of a passer-by who said that when he passed the town hall of Klerken, he saw two rows poor, who were mistreated to be after that hired out as slaves. The answer to that was that Klerken had to much poor an that they ware not mistreated, but at the town hall they got only work. The consequences of this poverty ware that large gangs the whole time terrorised and plundered the region.

2.3.2.The rescue from the poverty

This poverty couldn't rest, because the gangs also made that the rest of the region became also poor. The religious government searched an found a solution. The pries an the assistant priest set up a committee. This committee had to learn the people to spin and weave. By doing so, many who otherwise should be forced to beg had a job again. Also by the obtained results on the exhibition of Gent (for the ordinary linen a bronze medal and for

the lace also a bronze medal) Klerken was part of the "westvrijlaten", who had the privilege of the fabricate of cloth and had right on an annual fair.

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