/ 



Vd 



58 ENCLOSURES OF THE FIFTEENTH III 



This estimate is supported by Mr. Gay's hypothetical 

 tables. According to these the number of houses decayed 

 during the same period comes to some 4,900, and if we 

 assume that for every house decayed a plough was put 

 down, and every plough or ploughland would support five 

 men, 1 the number thrown out of employment would come 

 to over 24,000 (exactly 24,705), or for the whole period 

 from 1455 to 1637, some 34,000. 2 



When we remember that we are dealing with about half 

 of England only, and that at the same time and for the 

 same reason wages were falling, while the value of money 

 was also decreasing, owing to the debasement of the cmnao-e. 

 nd the influx of silver from the new world, wa have jno 

 cTnScalty in accounting for the discontent nor for the 

 facjTthat it is just at this time that the existence of the 

 poor both sturdy and valiant, and impotent is becoming 

 a serious question for the statesman. 



The problem, however, with which I am mainly con- 

 cerned has yet to be dealt with. How far did these 

 enclosures Diminish t,hp nnmKpy of thf 



flancL In approaching this question we are reminded 



ploughs decayed, and says every plough supported six persons. But 

 that would come to a total of 300,000, one-tenth of supposed population 

 of England. 



1 On this question cf. Domesday of Enclosures, vol. i, p. 54; Four 

 Supplications, Early English Text Soc., p. 101, puts it at five men and 

 the wife. 



3 HYPOTHETICAL TABLE OF PERSONS DISPLACED, ACCORDING TO 

 GAY'S CALCULATIONS. 



Mr. Leadam puts the number higher and makes a distinction between 

 displacement and eviction, a distinction which Mr. Gay thinks un- 

 tenable, Transactions Royal Hist. Soc., xiv. 258. 



