V AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES 87 



the partial enclosure of a man's own lands, whereas in the 

 eighteenth century the enclosure affected all the land in the 

 parish or manor. 



\/ Hasbach l insists that the primary motive for enclosure 

 in the eighteenth century was not, as is often supposed, 

 the necessity of producing more corn to meet the needs of 

 a growing population, but, as it had been in the sixteenth 

 century, the financial interests of the landlords, and that the 

 largest proportion of the land enclosed was at first used for 

 pasture. By enclosing either the common field or the 

 waste they would increase their rents, by consolidating 

 their farms after enclosure they would find it less expensive 

 and easier to collect the rent from a few big farmers than 

 from many small ones. He further points out that at 

 first in most parts of England, especially in the Midlands, 

 it was the net produce rather than the gross which was 

 increased by enclosing the common field, whether it was used 

 for pasture or for tillage, although he omits to remind us 

 that if, as is probably true, more corn was grown under the 

 open-field system, many more hands were employed, and 

 that it was therefore an uneconomical method. 



The average price of corn he shows was lower from 

 1715 to 1765 than it had been in the previous twenty-one 

 years. 2 Indeed, it was the very lowness of price which 

 influenced the landlords to find some method by which the 

 cost of production might be lessened, and their rents in 

 consequence enhanced, and also to enclose the waste which 

 had, hitherto, paid no rent. This, at least, was the case in 

 the Midlands, although in Norfolk, Suffolk, and some few 



1 Hasbach, Die englischen Landarbeiter, 39 ff., now translated ; 

 J. Massie, Plea for establishment of Charity Houses, 1758, says 

 expressly, that of late years those getting lands together put such 

 lands ... to pasture and not to tillage.' 



3 From 1693-1714, 45s. 8d. ; from 1715-65, 34s. lid. 



