For centuries land has been the most profitable
asset for humankind. It would bring wealth, cause wars, encourage
progress and establish titles and statuses. Millions throughout history have died trying
to protect or capture lands and it was in the center of many significant societal conflicts. The usage and division of lands within a country
would often cause such societal conflicts and political upheavals. Enclosure in England was such a process and
in today’s video, we are going to talk about how Enclosure transformed land ownership in
England, caused hardships on the poor and conflict among various societal groups. As a result, currently, nearly half of England’s
lands are owned by 0.06% of the population, the most wealthy landowners. Shoutout to Babbel for sponsoring this video! Babbel is the #1 language learning app in
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sign up to Babbel via our link and get 65% off a Babbel subscription! So, what is Enclosure? The enclosure was a process of enclosing or
establishing private ownership over communal lands in England, which went on for some 6
centuries between the 13th and 19th centuries. The enclosures had been carried out by force
or agreement, based on the decisions of the government and the parliament or in spite
of the crown’s opposition against this process. But in essence, it was a process of lords
of manors, big landlords, gentry, and other powerful actors taking communal lands, which
had been used for centuries by the English peasantry for free, into their private ownership. We should first look at how the lands were
divided in England prior to the start of Enclosure. The so-called open field system was used,
diving the land among the population of the manor, county, town, or village. Each landholder was in possession of a number
of such land strips. Most often the land strips held by a single
person would be miles apart from each other as landholders would each get their shares
of land of various quality. Land strips were divided by narrow strips
of unused lands between the peasants. The private use of the land was restricted
for the periods of cropping and gathering harvest, which would be used by the person
or family, who had worked on this land. In other periods it was common grazing land
for the village flocks. There was also common land, which was not
used for agriculture, but rather as a common pasture. The largest landowner in any given land unit
would be the Lord of the Manor, who in one sense of the word owned an estate and land
adjacent to it as its primary benefactor, but peasants could still use this land to
grow crops or graze cattle. The open-field system of farming described
above dominated the flatter more arable central counties of England throughout the later medieval
and into the modern period. It is a classic common property system that
existed in many countries of the world deep into the 20th century. It had its own advantage for the peasants,
as no matter how small the land used by the peasants would be, the harvest and profits
from it allowed them to survive. But since the land was in common usage, it
was very difficult for individuals to change their style of farming and to apply new techniques
to improve the quality of crops and increase harvest, since a compromise between a large
group of stakeholders on what probably looked like a risky affair would be difficult to
achieve. A peasant might have decided to grow a different
crop and start tillage at a different time, but then they would risk the crop being destroyed
by grazing cattle and lose any income. It is necessary to note that the communal
lands had different types of management. Some had been shrewdly managed by the community
and different techniques were applied to increase income, while other common lands were so badly
managed that they turned into waste. So how did the Enclosure movement start? What were the underlying political and economic
reasons? The Statute of Merton passed by the English
parliament in 1235 was the first document touching upon this issue. It allowed large landowners and manorial lords
to enclose lands adjacent to their manors and fence them for their exclusive use. It was done in a piece-meal fashion and was
not a widespread phenomenon at the time. It is necessary to view the Statute’s legitimization
of enclosures from the perspective of the struggle between the monarch and the lords,
as the Statute increased the authority of the nobility vis-a-vis the crown. The most widely accepted explanation behind
Enclosure is the price of wool. The enclosure process had become more widespread
by the 15th-16th century in England, because in this period the price of wool was higher
than that of grain and was rising more rapidly. Large and powerful landowners started enclosing
more lands and making it their private property and then turning the arable lands to pasture
for sheep in search of higher profits. Historian Harriett Bradley has opposed this
explanation by stating that the underlying reasons for enclosure had been in place as
early as the 13th century, when the process actually started. Moreover, the figures of the 15th-16th century
demonstrate that the price of wool fell during the 15th century and its increase rate in
the 16th century had been lower than that of wheat. The average price for the decade 1451–1460
was just about one-half of the average price for the period 1261–1400. According to Bradley, the process of transformation
of arable lands into pastures started earlier due to the lack of labour force caused by
the Black Death, since tillage required more labour. The loss of labour force was also linked to
the process of peasants vacating the lands they worked on due to a constantly decreasing
productivity of the land connected to the pressure on the soil as a result of uninterrupted
tillage. Peasants lacked fertilizers to ensure nutrition
necessary for continuous tillage of lands. Hence, the harvest gradually decreased to
the level, which made it impossible for peasants to sustain themselves and their families. Bradley argues that the process of substituting
cultivated lands with pasture had not been specific to any particular era, as it had
been just a necessary step to take for farmers to allow the soil to recover. Pastures attracted cattle, which provided
manure for faster recovery of the soil. Thus, the enclosure was not dictated by market
preference to sheep farming in comparison with cultivation, but by gradual loss of productivity
of common field land as a result of uninterrupted cultivation, along with the desire of large
landowners to own more land. As the Enclosure movement was broadening in
England, the parliament started paying more attention to the situation. Often Enclosure would be accompanied by the
eviction of peasants from their homes situated on enclosed lands. Moreover, peasants would sometimes abandon
their homes and villages due to decreased productivity of lands they cultivated, and
the homelessness issue was creating significant problems for Tudor England. The crown was concerned that more homeless
people would lead to crime and an increase of rebellious sentiments. Thus, in 1489 the parliament adopted a statute
aiming to limit the problems caused by Enclosure. The statute prohibited the occupation of more
than one farm by the same person. Moreover, the destruction of homes in the
enclosed lands would cause a penalty of half of the profits from those lands being confiscated
by the Crown, until houses would be rebuilt. In 1514 conversion of arable lands to pasture
became an offence, as half of the profits from them would be confiscated by the state. In 1517 a commission was ordered to inquire
into the destruction of houses since 1488 and the conversion of arable lands to pasture. In 1533 a law proclaiming possession of more
than two farms by the same person an offence was adopted. It is evident that the Crown wanted to deal
with the problem and limit Enclosure, but it did not want to exacerbate its relations
with the landowners and these half-hearted attempts could not prevent it from spreading. As if recognizing the futility of struggle
against the enclosing landowners, in 1597 the parliament allowed conversion of arable
lands to pasture on condition that another strip of land would be cultivated. The adoption of anti-enclosure legislation
was going simultaneously with the process of prominent English intellectuals speaking
up against it. Thomas More complained of the enclosure, conversion
of cultivated lands to pasture, destruction of houses in his Utopia: “The increase of
pasture by which your sheep, which are naturally mild, and easily kept in order, may be said
now to devour men and unpeople, not only villages, but towns; for wherever it is found that the
sheep of any soil yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary, there the nobility and
gentry, and even those holy men, the abbots! not contented with the old rents which their
farms yielded, nor thinking it enough that they, living at their ease, do no good to
the public, resolve to do it hurt instead of good. They stop the course of agriculture, destroying
houses and towns, reserving only the churches, and enclose grounds that they may lodge their
sheep in them” . Other influential Englishmen of their time
like lord chancellors Francis Bacon and Thomas Wolsey, scholar William Tyndale had spoken
out against Enclosure. The process, which caused so much opposition
from the Crown to the English peasantry was inevitably going to cause revolts. The first notable rebellion against Enclosure
took place in Norfolk. In July 1549, a group of rebels started destroying
fences of enclosed lands in Norfolk. One of their targets was a large landowner
Robert Kett, but in an interesting turn of events, he joined and became the leader of
the rebels after hearing out their grievances. On August 1, some 16 thousand men led by Kett
captured Norwich, but less than a month later the royal army was able to defeat the rebels
and end the uprising, which would be called the Kett’s Rebellion. The Midland Riot started in April 1607 in
Northamptonshire and soon spread to Warwickshire and Leicestershire. John Reynolds, known as Captain Pouch for
carrying a pouch, the contents of which were supposedly going to protect the rebels, was
the leader of the rebellion. He led thousands of people in destroying enclosed
lands and protesting Enclosure, after promising the people that he was acting under the authority
of the King. Edward Montagu, who had earlier spoken against
enclosure in the Parliament, was ordered by the King to suppress the riot, but local armed
groups refused to act against the people. Only after the attack of the local gentry
and forces loyal to it, the Midland Riot was suppressed. While, the anti-Enclosure rebellions were
not directed against the crown and might have implicitly hoped for royal support, since
the anti-Enclosure acts adopted by the Parliament might have been an indication of the royal
opposition against Enclosure, in the end the Crown and its government sided with the landlords
against the people and played the key role in their suppression. Not all anti-Enclosure protests were violent. In 1649 the movement of diggers emerged under
the leadership of Gerrard Winstanley, when they started to cultivate land on St. George’s
Hill in Surrey and declared it a free Commonwealth. Their manifesto stated: "Take note that England
is not a Free people, till the Poor that have no Land, have a free allowance to dig and
labour the Commons, and so live as Comfortably as the Landlords that live in their Inclosures." Diggers did not aim to stop Enclosures, they
did not destroy fences and even acknowledged the economic advantages of enclosing, while
wishing for its benefits to be extended to the poor as well. It is ironic that they enclosed land themselves,
albeit for the common use of the poor. The final wave of enclosures in England took
place between 1750 and 1850 and is called the Parliamentary Enclosure. It ordered enclosure of much of the remaining
common lands and with it strips of lands in the common usage were consolidated into larger
and more cohesive land units. Unlike the previous enclosures, this time
other strips of land were offered to commoners as their private holdings in compensation,
but most of the time they were of poorer quality and smaller in size. The parliament also legalized the enclosure
of common wastes - mostly unused lands, which were not fit for cultivation or grazing. Between 1760 and 1870 approximately 4000 enclosure
acts were adopted by the parliament causing enclosure of about 7 million acres - one-sixth
of the area of England. This process clearly benefited the rich, as
by the end of the 19th century 0.6% of Englishmen owned 98.5% of the agricultural lands. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Enclosure
process was virtually complete. The 1876 Commons Act ruled that enclosure
would only be allowed, if it had some public benefit. The historians still argue about the impact
of Enclosure and focus on different consequences of the process depending on their ideological
stance. Some argue that the Enclosure was a necessary
evil and ultimately benefited agricultural productivity in England. Enclosure enabled large strips of lands to
be consolidated paving the way for experimentation with the cultivation of non-traditional crops
ultimately leading to increased agricultural productivity and the so-called agricultural
revolution. Large landowners had the luxury to experiment
with new techniques and sow new crops, since even in case of failure the rest of the available
lands would compensate for profit losses. While even opposers of Enclosure agree that
it led to progress in English agriculture, there is evidence that similar innovative
techniques had been used in unenclosed lands too. Introduction of rotation of cultivation and
grazing of open fields to allow the soil to recover and sowing of new crops based on communal
decision had not been such a rare occurrence in England. Several historians have argued that agricultural
innovation had been continuous throughout centuries and was not exclusive to the period
of the enclosure. The critics of the Enclosure state that it
left the English peasantry landless, homeless, even more impoverished, while disproportionately
benefitting rich landowners. Whereas depopulation and poverty caused by
Enclosure are acknowledged, Harriet Bradley argues that even in Northamptonshire, where
enclosure had been prohibited in the fields of royal manors, peasants were suffering from
the same problems. Thus, the overall destitution of the English
peasantry and rural depopulation should not be solely linked to Enclosure. Other historians like Neeson bring the example
of the disappearance of smallholders in Northants directly linking it to the Enclosure. Whatever the reason, the rural population
in England and Wales dwindled from 65 percent in 1851 to 23 percent in 1901. This process was considerably slower in continental
Europe. The increased urban population was among the
factors behind the rapid industrialization of England, one of the key events of modern
history. We are planning more episodes on the economy,
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