If it's poverty en masse then it's either due to environmental factors such as say being situated in a desert lacking basic resources, or a corrupt oppressive government controlling everything. I think those are the big ones.
in ancient times people could survive in any conditions. the concepts of poverty and non-poorness began to exist in a social society, and therefore their signs are also created by society. and they must be eliminated by the society too, so nature has nothing to do with it