I didn't understand what they said when the doctor went with Nobby to help a woman giving birth. He found another child there, dying, and there was something about how people let their children starve to death to make a profit. I didn't get the details of that horrible fact. Can someone explain please? Thank you.
"Occasionally I'm callous and strange."
I'll take a stab at it.
My understanding of history is that the poorest of families took out insurance for a small pittance, but to them alot, like a shilling or two per payment.
I don't know if this is the case with this scenario shown, but alot of poor families couldn't afford to bury or have a funeral for dead children or adults. So they had this special insurance, especially working class families that had pride in having a proper burial.
But this family was poorest of the poor, so not sure what scam was going on there.
My guess is they collected on the death insurance for the burial, but just disposed of the kids' bodies in the river or something, and collected it as a payment without using it for what it was intended for.
It was just an income stream, because life was cheap in the EastEnd.