beggary

私はこれまでに三十数か国の外国に行ったことがありますが、日本と違うなと感じた二つの点があります。一つは、外国の都会では昼間から酔いつぶれている人を見かけることが多いのと、もう一つは金をせびる乞食の存在です。酔っ払いは東京でも夜は見かけますが、昼間から地面に寝そべっているような酔っ払いはまず、いません。そして、余り多くはいませんが、ホームレスは確かにいます。しかし、日本のホームレスが人に金をせびるのは見たことも聞いたこともありません。Isabella Birdの "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" を読んでると、彼女が日本に乞食がいないことに気が付いたことが書かれていました。

Very few horses are kept here. Cows and coolies carry much of the merchandise, and women as well as men carry heavy loads. A baggage coolie carries about 50 lbs., but here merchants carrying their own goods from Yamagata actually carry from 90 to 140 lbs., and even more. It is sickening to meet these poor fellows struggling over the mountain passes in evident distress. Last night five of them were resting on the summit ridge of a pass gasping violently. Their eyes were starting out; all their muscles, rendered painfully visible by their leanness, were quivering; rills of blood from the bite of insects which they cannot drive away were literally running all over their naked bodies, washed away here and there by copious perspiration. Truly “in the sweat of their brows ” they were eating bread and earning an honest living for their families! Suffering and hard-worked as they were, they were quite independent. I have not seen a beggar or beggary in this strange country.

"beggary" も "beggar" に関係する単語と思いますが、辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A state of extreme poverty.: they have no benefits to stand between them and beggary
・Collins English Dictionary: 1. extreme poverty 2. the act of begging or state of being a beggar 3. beggars as a group: He wants the couple to marry, to be united in beggary.