Produced by Chris Curnow, Stephanie Eason, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net 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.