240 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



bringing people into the world." However that may be, we 

 find the population, from the reign of Henry VII to the 

 death of Henry VIII, increasing from two and one half 

 millions to four millions. 



But this change in population without corresponding dis- 

 tribution of wealth, this transference of one third the na- 

 tional wealth, was attended by another still more disas- 

 trous effect, and that was "the change in the character of 

 the demand for labor, which reduced to the ranks of the 

 unskilled those whose skill was no longer in demand." 

 The land taken up by the king was bestowed upon his 

 nobles and favorites, and these, desirous of securing im- 

 mediate and larger profits, enclosed immense areas and 

 turned to the breeding and pasturing of sheep. It was 

 the substitution of pasture for tillage, of sheep for corn, 

 of commercialism for a simple, self-sufficing industry, of 

 individual gain for the old agrarian partnership in which 

 the lords or abbots, the parsons, yeomen, farmers, copy- 

 holders, and laborers were associated for the supply of the 

 wants of the villagers. 1 A perfect frenzy for raising sheep 

 took possession of the agricultural community. No pains 

 were spared to increase the extent of pasturage. Small 

 tenants were evicted, laborers' cottages were pulled down, 

 the lords' demesnes turned into pastures, and wastes and 

 commons which had before been open to all were now en- 

 closed for the same purpose. Every one was now con- 

 vinced that "the foot of the sheep would turn sand into 

 gold," and hastened to substitute grazing for tillage. 



But while there was this sudden and wholesale trans- 

 ference of the arable land to pasturage, as sudden and vio- 



1 Traill, Social England. 



