© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Walter Leal Filho

,
Anabela Marisa Azul
,
Luciana Brandli
,
Amanda Lange Salvia
,
Pinar Gökcin Özuyar
and
Tony Wall
No Poverty
Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
10.1007/978-3-319-69625-6_69-1

History of Poverty
Marta Pietras-Eichberger1

(1)Wyższa Szkoła Prawa i Administracji Rzeszowska Szkoła Wyższa, WSPiA Univeristy of

Rzeszów, Rzeszów, Poland

Marta Pietras-Eichberger
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]

Without Abstract

Synonyms
Absolute poverty; Developing countries; Extreme poverty; Food insecurity; Genesis of poverty;
Hunger; Poverty; Roots of inequalities; Roots of poverty; Social inequalities; The extreme poverty
measurement; The poverty line

Definition
Poverty is a problem which can be found in every society regardless of geographical latitude;
however its scale is very different. The level of poverty in a given community is measured on the
basis of economic and social indicators. The dominating indicator of poverty, yet not the only one, is
its degree measured according to the criterion income per capita. On the basis of this indicator we
can distinguish extreme and relative poverty. It is assumed that extreme poverty is when the basic
life needs are not met. The level of relative poverty is defined according to more subjective factors
taking into account social standards which define the level of wealth of people in a given country.
The World Bank on the basis of the monetary value of a person’s consumption sets the extreme
poverty measurement – the International Poverty Line. Until 2015 the measure of poverty was “one
dollar per day,” but in 2015 the World Bank revised the poverty line to 1.90 international dollars per
day. However, parameters applied by the World Bank are not reliable in the assessment of the scale
of poverty in the history of mankind. Throughout the history, the majority of humanity has been
materially poor, with hunger and food insecurity being the norm, life expectancies short, epidemic
disease levels, and mortality high. Taking into consideration the access to goods such as food,
housing, clothing, medical services, education, etc. today and conditions 200 years ago, it can be
assumed that in the nineteenth century the majority of people lived in poverty. The situation of class
inequalities and the exploitation of some social groups by others were socially acceptable at least
until the end of the nineteenth century. It pleads in favor of the functioning of the colonial system
which contributed to the division of the world into developed and developing countries. The fight
with poverty was started by the international community only after World War II together with the
establishment of different international organizations which in their statutes included protection of
human rights. From 6 to 8 September 2000 in New York the United Nations Millennium Summit
took place which concluded with defining Millennium Development Goals. From the data quoted in
the MDGs Report, it states that within the scope of execution of goal 1, a decrease in the number of
people living in extreme poverty was achieved from 1,751 million people in 1999 to 836 million in
2015. In 2017 at least 750 million people lived below the extreme poverty line. The proportion of
undernourished people in the developing regions has fallen by almost half since 1990, from 23.3% in
1990–1992 to 12.9% in 2014–2016. It is worth noting that in 1820 there were just under 1.1 billion
people in the world and more than 1 billion were living in extreme poverty. To compare, in 2017
there were approximately 7.6 billion people in the world, and 750 million people were living in
extreme poverty. Bearing in mind successes of the MDGs, a new agenda for development was drawn
up and on 25 September 2015, a resolution defining goals for the next 15 years was passed
(A/Res/70/1).

Introduction
This entry explores the history of poverty taking into account historical origins of poverty and the
root causes of poverty. The main source of data on poverty today is the World Bank. However, in
order to present the topic of poverty in terms of history with the use of synthetic and comparative
methods, information was collated about the living standards of the more distant past which have
been reconstructed by other researchers. Undoubtedly, trying to reconstruct the history of poverty
taking into consideration the interdisciplinary nature of this issue, the author of the present entry
based some of the assumptions on the knowledge and research of representative of greatly different
scientific disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, economy, history, and even farming and
nature conservation. Different views on the problem of poverty by representatives of various
disciplines also result in the creation of numerous definitions of poverty.
Moreover, over the last few years also, the parameters by means of which the scale of poverty is
measured have changed both within a particular community and in the global perspective. The
World Bank on the basis of the monetary value of a person’s consumption sets the extreme poverty
measurement – the International Poverty Line. Until 2015 the measure of poverty was “one dollar
per day,” but in 2015 the World Bank revised the poverty line to 1.90 international dollars per day.
Since then a person is considered to be in extreme poverty if they live on less than the
abovementioned sum of money. Nevertheless, it should be remembered that the purchasing power of
the dollar is different in particular countries, similarly to the so-called national average earnings.
That is why, it is not sufficient to convert the consumption levels of people in different countries
using the market exchange rate. It is also necessary to adjust to cross-country differences in
purchasing power. It should be noted that consumption per capita is the preferred welfare indicator
for the World Bank’s analysis of global poverty (Roser and Ortiz-Ospina 2013).

Historical Preconditions of Poverty

Throughout history, the majority of humanity has been materially poor, with hunger and food
insecurity being the norm, life expectancies short, epidemic disease levels, and mortality high. Yet,
the history of poverty evolved differently on every continent. Scientists of various disciplines have
analyzed factors which had an impact on the level of poverty of people dwelling on particular
continents. The major poverty roots include such conditions as the geographical location, climate,
epidemics, and diseases being the consequence of living in a given climatic zone, as well as wars,
exploitation, the slave trade, political systems, and the resulting economic and cultural processes.
Admittedly, geographical conditions and differentiated climates on particular continents created
different endowments for food and livestock. Eurasia had the most favorable climate for the growth
of cereals and the spread of big mammals. It resulted in the rapid development of farming. Constant
access to products rich in proteins contributed to the growth of the muscle mass and human strength,
which resulted in higher efficiency at work. This, in turn, brought about the development of
technology and knowledge. Western Europe had fertile soil, reliable rainfall, and few devastating
diseases, since a colder climate is less favorable for the spread of diseases. On the other hand,
numerous epidemics which the population underwent over the centuries helped the Eurasian
population developed vital immunity against many epidemic diseases. Stronger and stronger
populations started the conquest of the world giving rise to the colonial system. Many of the Native
Americans died of diseases transferred by the Europeans, to which the Europeans were resistant,
e.g., small pox. The development of the art of war and weapons led to many colonial conquests and
the creation of the slave trade (Bhattacharyya 2017).

The Impact of the Colonial Period on the Level of Poverty

in Developing Countries
From the point of view of the recent research run by, among others, M. Lange, J. Mahoney, and M.
vom Hau, the colonial period, commonly associated as the exploitation period of the local people by
the colonizers from Europe, is analyzed very differently. The authors in their paper “Colonialism
and Development: A Comparative Analysis of Spanish and British Colonies” from 2006 discredited
a thesis that colonialism caused a great reversal in development in the world outside Europe, which
at the same time influenced the gap between the level of living in Western Europe and in former
colonies.
They put forward economic-political arguments stating that colonialism, in a way, contributed to a
faster development of, among others, industry and state institutions, such as courts and the police.
The local conditions of these countries, which indisposed effective transfer of European institutions
to the ground of colonial countries, are to blame for the contemporary consequences of colonialism.
In their paper the authors distinguished two ideal-typical economic models that can characterize
colonizing powers: mercantilist and liberalism. Under the mercantilist model, political authorities
use the state to establish trade restrictions and support extra market institutions that provide rents to
certain groups and deny privileges to others.
In this way mercantilism led to concentrating resources in few hands and contributed to
the impoverishment of the rest of the society. Moreover, it led to the situation that the majority of the
population was dependent on a small elite. Such a model of colonial policy according to the authors
was executed by Spain in relation to their 18 colonies (mainly located in South America).
Meanwhile, a liberal model was not associated with a state, but political authorities use the state to
uphold private property through the encouragement of commercial production. Such a model of
colonial policy was attributed to Great Britain on the basis of research of 39 countries that were
formerly British colonies. A hypothesis by M. Lange, J. Mahoney, and M. vom Hau that mercantilist
and liberal powers impose different levels of colonialism in territories with similar levels of
precolonial development has a weak point. Periods (as stated by the abovementioned authors are
estimated due to the fact that it is difficult to define a single starting point of colonialism on
particular territories), in which Spain and Great Britain had colonies, are not the same. It should be
noticed that Spain had colonies mainly in the period from the first half of the sixteenth century to the
first half of the nineteenth century (with the exception of Cuba until 1899), whereas Great Britain,
not taking into account Barbados (1627), Canada (1610), the United States (1607), created colonies
in the second part of the seventeenth century and had their power upto the second part of the
twentieth century. During this time, political and economic transformations took place in the very
metropolises (Lange et al. 2006). Admittedly, however the present level of poverty in countries, such
as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, or Venezuela (former Spanish colonies), is considerably higher than in the
majority of former British colonies. It is especially visible on the example of Australia, Canada, and
the United States. Nonetheless, it should be remembered that the former British colonies also include
countries which currently have the highest rates of poverty among people (Sierra Leone, Uganda,
Sudan, Malawi, and Bangladesh). Thus, it seems that economic models of colonizing powers were
only among many parameters which influenced the contemporary level of sovereignty (achieved
peacefully or by means of military conflicts). In an artificial division of Africa by areas of influence
of particular European countries, the former metropolises led to the situation that the institution of
state did not adopt in Africa, as it took place in both the Americas and Australia. The main reason
for this state of affairs was a complete omission of belonging for ethnic African peoples while
creating state structures and marking borders in the process of decolonization.

History of Poverty in the Nineteenth–Twentieth Centuries

Historical demographers estimate that around the year 1800, the world population was only around
one billion people. This implies that on average the population grew very slowly over this long time
from 10,000 BC to 1700 (by 0.04% annually). The world population was around one billion in the
year 1800 and increased sevenfold since then. Around 108 billion people have ever lived on our
planet. This means that today’s population size makes up 6.5% of the total number of people ever
born (Roser and Ortiz-Ospina 2017).
Until now poverty has not been totally eliminated in any of the countries. It is especially visible in
countries where the middle class is not big and the society comprises of a minor privileged class,
financially speaking, and the majority living in poverty or extreme poverty. In these countries GDP
(gross domestic product) per capita can be very high, yet it means that a few percent of the wealthy
minority have such high incomes that after averaging it with the income of people living in poverty,
this value is not disturbed. That is why in the analysis of the history of poverty, one should take into
consideration also the history of social inequalities. The most commonly used measurement of
inequality is the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient is based on the Lorenz curve, and it shows
 inequalities in income of a given society – it should be interpreted as follows: the higher it is, the
higher the inequalities in income in a particular country are. World inequality worsened quickly
more or less continuously from 1820 to 1950, pausing only between 1910 and 1929. On average the
Gini coefficient rose by 1% point every decade from 1820 to 1950 and then almost leveled off
between 1950 and 1992 (Bourguignon and Morrisson 2002 ). It can be then assumed that the lower
the stratification, the lower the problem of poverty in a given country. Thus, the higher the ratio of
average income of the richest 20% of a population to the poorest 20% of people, the higher the scale
of poverty at the level of a particular country.
The problem of social inequalities can be also looked at from the viewpoint of the gap in the level of
real income between developed and developing countries. Nowadays this gap is large but it was
smaller in the past. The reason is much slower per capita growth in the developing world over the
past 160 years (Maddison 1983).
That is why the degree of impoverishment of the society sometimes seems to be out of touch with
the general economic situation of the country. A perfect example is the United States. In 1820 in
New York, the rise of the first ghettoes was recorded and a place called Five Points slum was
created. This place was not only polluted and dirty, but it was also the cradle of crime. In the slums
the death rate was three times higher for children under five. The situation was similar in Harlem
where the Afro-American community was concentrated as the citizens of the second sort. At the turn
of the twenty-first century, the situation of the majority of American society living in cities did not
look any better. According to estimates, 40% of people living in cities were in poverty, of which
eight million citizens lived in modern ghettoes (Pimpare 2008).
In the twentieth century in some rich countries (the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Japan,
Canada), a fraction of the population still lives in extreme poverty as a result of exceptionally high-
income inequality. However, it should be remembered that in 1800 the population living in extreme
poverty was as follows:
.
The United States approx. 40%
.
Australia, New Zealand ,and Canada above 70%
.
Japan 80%
Yet, in 2000 in all these countries, the number of people living in poverty dropped below 5% (in
Japan below 1%). In case of these data, the absolute poverty was assumed as living with less than
$1.25 per day (Ravallion 2016).
Taking into consideration, the access to goods such as food, housing, clothing, medical services,
education, etc. today and 200 years ago, it can be assumed that in the nineteenth century, the
majority of people lived in poverty. When we analyze data collected by F. Bourguignon and Ch.
Morrisson in 1820, 94% of people were living with less than $2 per day (in poverty), while 84% of
these people were living in extreme poverty (living with less than $ 1 per day). The world population
living in absolute poverty gradually decreases despite the abovementioned fact that the number of
people records a systematically high growth, while the highest demographic peak is seen in
developing countries. In 1900 the number of people living in poverty decreased to 85%, of which
69% lived in extreme poverty. An insignificant downward trend also maintained at the end of the
post-World War II period. In 1940 the number of people living in poverty amounted to approx. 73%,
of which 55% lived in extreme poverty. The parameters decreased dramatically starting from the
1950s (Bourguignon and Morrisson 2002).
During the second half of the previous century, the vast majority of the intellectual efforts by
economists and social scientists in the quest for growth were focused on exploring the post-World
War II period. However, simple plots of GDP per capita across nations show that there is very little
change in the relative positions of countries since the war. The differences in living standards in poor
and rich countries have hardly changed since the war. The only two exceptions are China and South
Korea. China as the Chinese economy showed immense dynamism since the 1970s and is rapidly
catching up with the industrial West (Bhattacharyya 2017).
Numerous internal armed conflicts, which were the consequence of territorial divisions which
disrupted particular African countries in the second half of the twentieth century, led to a situation in
which in the twenty-first century, Africa is the continent with the largest number of people living in
extreme poverty. To use an example of Eritrea, which at the end of the Italian colonial period was
economically advanced compared to other sub-Saharan African countries. There were factories for
food processing, tanneries, salt works, and breweries. The Italians also developed a fishing industry
and built railways, roads, and airports. This led to the rise of towns and cities and to an improvement
of people’s living standards. After 1941 the British occupied Eritrea and the British administration
established some industries. The development slowed down starting from the mid-1970s onward
when the liberation struggle intensified during the Derg regime. The 30 years of war that ended with
the liberation of Eritrea in 1991 devastated the economy and disrupted the country’s economic and
social infrastructure. Decades of lost opportunities for growth have therefore made Eritrea one of the
poorest countries in the world. After the war of independence, about half the households in Eritrea
were estimated to be poor (Rena 2009).
In the second half of the twentieth century, newly created international organizations took an active
interest in the problem of poverty. To a large extent, these organizations took over the task of
fighting poverty. The World Bank, economic institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO),
the United Nations, and other UN funding bodies and agencies, such as the United Nations
Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and so on, have actively participated in poverty
reduction and human development. Due attention needs to be paid to the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) setup under the General Assembly Resolution No 1029. The
UNDP came into being on 1 January 1966. The UNDP and the UN system work on several levels,
for example, they act as development advisors to developing countries, and they assist the
international community to enact and diffuse norms and practices designed to resolve global
problems. When the Berlin Wall came down, the organization opened bureaus in Eastern European
countries. By 1999 the UNDP was operating in 136 countries and funding approximately 7,000
projects (Bellot and Châtaigner 2011).
Here, the Group of 77 is also worth mentioning, which constitutes an international discussion forum
on the ways and methods of reconstructing international economic relations in order to increase the
transfer of finance from the countries of rich North to the poorer South. It is a consequence of the
decolonization process. As previously stated, the majority of colonized areas regained political
independence in the 1950s and 1960s. However, new countries had enormous economic problems
resulting from the underdevelopment. The improvement could take place only thanks to external
financial aid. As a result, the countries started to require material help as compensation for
colonialism from international organizations and colonial metropolises. Such postulates were put
forward on the forum of disengaged countries. Consequently, in 1964 in Geneva the first United
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) was held. Its aim was to transform
international economic relations in the interest of developing countries. During the session, 77
countries decided to establish a pressure group which would help to enforce concessions from the
rich countries. The name Group of 77 was held despite a further increase in the number of countries
which created it ( http://www.g77.org/doc/).

The Great Depression of the Twenty-First Century

The last decade of the twentieth century has been punctuated by a series of broad-based economic
crises and negative shocks, starting with the global financial crisis of 2008–2009, followed by the
European sovereign debt crisis of 2010–2012 and the global commodity price realignments of 2014–
2016.
The global economic scene has witnessed dramatic changes since 2005. Crude prices per barrel
started moving up from the year 2004. These prices increased from US $30 in 2003 to US $100
during 2007–2008. The increase in crude prices was followed by an unprecedented increase in
commodity prices including prices of food commodities. The index of food prices increased by more
than 50% between 2005 and 2008. A steep increase in the price of food caused worldwide concerns
and a large number of countries faced food emergencies during 2007 and 2008. After reaching a
peak level in 2008, food prices declined untill 2009, but in 2012 again the food prices crisis returned
in a greater scale. The large proportion of low-income population in developing countries meant that
countries suffered from the increase of food prices which translated into a big setback to reduction in
global hunger and poverty. Interestingly enough, in 2010 bumper a food harvest was recorded,
which did not reflect in food prices. Experts and international organizations made a diagnosis and
looked for an answer to the question about factors contributing to food crisis and inflation (Chand
2015).

Millennium Development Goals as a Period of History of

Eradicating Poverty
From 6 to 8 September 2000 in New York, there was a United Nations Millennium Summit which
concluded with defining Millennium Development Goals. All member states declared that they will
have reached goals listed in this document by 2015 including the action to:
1.
Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2.
Achieve Universal Primary Education

3.
Promote gender equality and empower women

4.
Reduce child mortality

5.
Improve maternal health

6.
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
 7.
Ensure environmental sustainability

8.
Develop a global partnership for development

In 2015 Secretary-General of the United Nations Ki-moon issued a final report on Millennium
Development Goals, in which he summarized 15 years of activity on fighting poverty. Nevertheless,
it should be noted that in this report data also refers to the 1990s. It may result from the fact that
within the scope of fighting poverty most progress has occurred since 2000.
From the data quoted from the MDGs Report, it shows that within the scope of execution of goal 1, a
decrease in the number of people living in extreme poverty was achieved from 1,751 million people
in 1999 to 836 million in 2015. In 2017 at least 750 million people lived below the extreme poverty
line, with almost no change from 2017 (the United Nations 2018).
The proportion of undernourished people in the developing regions has fallen by almost half since
1990, from 23.3% in 1990–1992 to 12.9% in 2014–2016.
However, in 2016 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that 815
million people were undernourished compared to 777 million in 2015. Put simply, this means that
raising people above the extreme poverty line of $1.90 per day may only be sufficient to provide
them with adequate food. To provide some perspective, supporting around 750 million people in
2017 with $1.90 a day would cost around 0.7% of global GDP, or 1.1% of GDP of the richest (the
United Nations 2018).
Within goal 2 the primary school net enrolment rate in developing regions has reached 91% in 2015,
up from 83% in 2000. A special success was recorded within the scope of decreasing the number of
children deprived of the access to education at the primary level. The number of out-of-school
children of primary school age worldwide has fallen by almost half, to an estimated 57 million in
2015, down from 100 million in 2000. The situation improved significantly in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is worth stressing that within goal 2 the main stress was on fighting illiteracy among the youth.
Despite a certain improvement in 2015 globally, still 9% of the youth aged 15–24 remained illiterate.
Within goal 3 it was observed that poverty is a consequence of social inequalities based on
discrimination of women and female children. It was especially visible in the access to education,
which further mirrored in the labor market. This, in turn, led to more frequent poverty in women
than in men. The difficult financial situation of women and lack of economic independence
consequently influence the living standard of their children. Therefore, within goal 4 steps were
taken to decrease the global number of deaths of children under five. Despite population growth in
the developing countries, the number of deaths of children under five declined from 12.7 million in
1990 to almost 6 million in 2015 globally. Goal 5 was directly related to it. In 2000 the global
maternal mortality ratio (deaths per 100,000 live births) equaled 330 and has declined to 210 in
2013. It was a result of, among others, a growth in births attended by skilled health personnel. Still
approx. 30% of births take place without skilled health personnel.
Poverty is also related to incidences of diseases and the spread of epidemics. As it was stated above,
in the history of mankind, the so-called tropical diseases negatively influenced the standard of living
of people dwelling in climatic zones prone to the development of such diseases. Some diseases are a
consequence of malnutrition and lack of personal hygiene. Within goal 6 the global malaria
incidence rate has fallen by an estimated 37% and the mortality rate by 58% primarily among
children under five. The tuberculosis mortality rate fell by 45% between 1990 and 2013.
The access to drinking water and sanitation (goal 7) is also related to poverty. In 2015 91% of people
had access to drinking water (in 1990s this parameter was 76%). 147 countries reached the goal
related to the provision of drinking water to its citizens. 95 countries reached the goal by providing
people with sanitation, and 77 countries reached both goals. The proportion of people inhabiting
slums in developing countries dropped from 39.4% in 2000 to 29.7% in 2014.
Within the last goal 8, it was possible to develop a global partnership for development, among
others, by increasing by 66% the official development assistance from developed countries. It was
also possible to lower from 12% in 2000 to 3% in 2013 the proportion of external debt service to
export revenue in developing countries.
The United Nations in the final report acknowledged that Millennium Development Goals are the
most efficient movement counteracting poverty in the history. Undoubtedly, thanks to various
actions of countries, there was a success in decreasing the number of people living in extreme
poverty practically by half (The Millennium Development Goals Report 2015).

Period After 2015

Bearing in mind successes of the MDGs, a new agenda for development was drawn up, and on 25
September 2015, a resolution defining goals for the next 15 years was passed. Thus, at the United
Nations Organization’s level, more political than legal actions take place which, however, bring
measurable effects in the protection of people living in poverty. Of special value is the diagnosis of
needs and seeking for particular tools which can be used in fighting the problem of poverty (M.
Pietras-Eichberger 2017). In 2017, 13 years before the 2030 Agenda aims to end extreme poverty
and hunger, around 10% of the population live below the $1.90 threshold. Despite an enormous
progress, especially in the last 20 years, the evidence shows that not enough has been done to ensure
the SDG target of eradicating extreme poverty is met by 2030. Current estimates based on
projections for consumption growth and population growth estimates from the United Nations
Population Division suggest that there may be around 650 million people living in extreme poverty
in 2030 (the United Nations 2018).
Because of its geographical, historic, economic, and climate complexity, the changes among African
regions and countries are far from even. The scenario suggests that all countries on the continent will
reduce the share of people living below the poverty line. In the region of the Sahel, progress is likely
to be minimal as a result of challenging climatic conditions, as well as multiple conflict situations.
The fastest growing economies in East and West Africa are expected to see the steepest falls in
poverty rates, raising more than 10 percent of their populations out of extreme poverty by 2030,
although given the strong population growth, the number of people in extreme poverty may
nonetheless rise (the United Nations 2018).

Final Remarks
All things considered a conclusion that arises comparing income and consumption; thus the level of
richness/poverty of people living over long periods of time is difficult to achieve, yet it encourages
reflection on the future of mankind. On the other hand, while tracking the history of poverty, we
start to realize that fighting poverty is more and more efficient. It is indicated by a gradually
increasing number of people living in poverty, despite the fact that globally the population
significantly increased.
Therefore, in 1820 there were just under 1.1 billion people in the world, and more than one billion
were living in extreme poverty. To compare, in 2017 there were approximately 7.6 billion people in
the world, and 750 million people were living in extreme poverty.
A quotation from Nelson Mandela can serve as a summary of the history of poverty “Like slavery
and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made, and it can be overcome and eradicated by the
actions of human beings. And overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice
(…)” (as cited in Yamin 2016). Taking the above into consideration, we must hope that the history
of poverty will find its end in the forthcoming decades.

Cross-References
. Historical Aspects of Eradication of Poverty Action
. Poverty Myths
. Rural Poverty
. Urban Poverty
. Vulnerable People

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