42 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH RURAL HISTORY 



.numerous Enclosure Acts already referred to was made 

 easy because Parliament was composed of landowners. 

 In 1710 a statute had decreed that only landowners could 

 sit in Parliament. It would have been, impossible, how- 

 ever, for a poor man to enter upon a Parliamentary career 

 in those days, owing to the enormous expenses connected 

 therewith. Thus the wealthy landowners were in a position 

 to enrich themselves still further by passing measures 

 favourable to their class. 



Effect on the People. 



By means of these statutory enclosures, the conditions 

 under which agriculture was carried on were ultimately 

 improved. The value of the produce was naturally en- 

 hanced, thereby enabling the farmers to make unusually 

 big profits. But the landowners benefited to a still 

 greater extent by exacting higher rents from their tenants. 



To the small farmer the new methods were not an advan- 

 tage. It was necessary for him to fence-in his allotment, 

 and this was an expensive undertaking. He no longer 

 had the advantage of pasturing his cattle upon the village 

 common, of cutting turf, and of gathering wood for fuel. 

 Then came the improved machinery which dealt a death- 

 blow to the domestic spinning and weaving, by means of 

 which he had been able to eke out, especially during the 

 long winter evenings, his small profits derived from farm- 

 ing. Under these circumstances, he was unable to pay 

 the higher rent demanded, and therefore was compelled to 

 give up his small holding. These yeomen farmers, as they 

 were called, who had formed for generations the backbone 

 of the nation, were thus gradually driven out. 



Holdings thus vacated were soon seized by the richer 

 class of farmer then rapidly coming into existence. Many 

 of these, who had amassed fortunes by means of commerce, 

 found that the possession of big estates would give them 

 the social status they were seeking. Hence agriculture 

 came to be regarded as a fashionable undertaking, and 

 rich men eagerly bought up land in large quantities. Thus 

 arose the capitalist farmer who was able to apply the latest 

 scientific apparatus to farming operations such as draining 

 and hedging, and the use of expensive manures and newly 

 invented machinery. 



Increased agricultural prosperity was the result, but 

 the decrease in the rural population was appalling. Thus 



