The Revolution in Agriculture 67 



were much more generally either one thing or another all the 

 time. This great hiving-off of industries made a vast difference 

 to farmers. The larger the population which did not live by 

 agriculture the greater became the demand for everything which 

 the farmers produced. The people who earned wages as spinners, 

 weavers, metal-workers, miners, merchants, and carriers by land 

 and sea became good customers for corn, meat, dairy produce, 

 wool, and leather. They themselves were beginning to supply 

 the whole of the world with the things they produced, and the 

 towns where they lived were good markets. 



One kind of progress makes other kinds necessary. The means 

 of communication between one town and another and between 

 country and town had to be improved. Telford and Macadam 

 as builders of bridges and roads, Brindley and the Duke of 

 Bridge water as constructors of canals, led enterprise in' this 

 direction. Rivers were widened, deepened, and straightened to 

 make transport easier. Produce from the farms could be carried 

 in wagons and in barges instead of on pack-horses. 



The high prices made a strong appeal to landlords and farmers. 

 Instead of farming for little more than a bare subsistence under 

 the old, common-field system and with common flocks and herds, 

 they saw a way to become wealthy by getting complete control 

 of arable and grazing land and by producing as large a surplus 

 as possible to sell. The only way of obtaining this control was 

 by enclosure. The movement which had gone on slowly after 

 1607 became active again. Between 1455 and 1607 515,673 

 acres had been enclosed. It was the demand for wool and its 

 high price that had caused this. The far greater demand and 

 the high prices for everything the farmer produced called for 

 a much greater area in the eighteenth and nineteenth, centuries. 

 Between 1700 and 1845 6,042,569 acres were enclosed, and since 

 1845 a further area of 532,227 acres has been added. 



We can imagine how great was the upheaval, how many 



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