Chapter I: Front Matter

2
THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND

STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW

EDITED BY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Volume LXXX] [Number 2

Whole Number 186

THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND
AN ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION

BY
HARRIETT BRADLEY, Ph.D.

_Assistant Professor of Economics, Vassar College
Sometime University Fellow in Economics_

New York
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS
LONDON: P.S. KING & SON, LTD.
1918

"It fareth with the earth as with
other creatures that through
continual labour grow faint and
feeble-hearted."
_From speech made in the House of Commons, 1597_

To
EMILIE LOUISE WELLS

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 11
The subject of inquiry--No attempt hitherto made to verify the
different hypothetical explanations of the enclosures--Nature of the
evidence.

CHAPTER I
THE PRICE OF WOOL 18
Accepted theory of enclosure movement based on price of
wool--Enclosures began independently of Black Death and before
expansion of woollen industry--Price of wool low as compared with that
of wheat in enclosure period--Seventeenth-century conversions of
pasture to arable--Of arable to pasture--Conversion not explained by
change in prices or wages--Double conversion movement due to condition
of soil--Summary.

CHAPTER II
THE FERTILITY OF THE COMMON FIELDS 51
Dr. Russell on soil fertility--Insufficient manure--Statistical
indications of yield--Compulsory land-holding--Desertion of
villains--Commutation of services on terms advantageous to serf--Low
rent obtained when bond land was leased--Remission of
services--Changes due to economic need, not desired for improved
social status--Poverty of villains--Cultivation of demesne
unprofitable.

CHAPTER III
THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE OPEN FIELDS 73
Growing irregularity of holdings--Consolidation of holdings--Turf
boundaries plowed under--Lea land--Restoration of fertility--Enclosure
by tenants--Land used alternately as pasture and arable--Summary of
changes.

CHAPTER IV
ENCLOSURE FOR SHEEP PASTURE 86
Enclosure by small tenants difficult--Open-field tenants
unprofitable--Low rents--Neglect of land--High cost of
living--Enclosure even of demesne a hardship to small
holders--Intermixture of holdings a reason for dispossessing
tenants--Higher rents from enclosed land another reason--Poverty of
tenants where no enclosures were made--Exhaustion of open fields
recognised by Parliament--Restoration of fertility and reconversion to
tillage--New forage crops in eighteenth century--Recapitulation and
conclusion.

INDEX 109