30 THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND [i86 



noblemen, and gentlemen : yea and certeyn Abbottes . . . leave 

 no grounde for tillage, thei inclose al into pastures : thei throw 

 doune houses : they plucke downe townes, and leave nothing 

 standynge, but only the churche to be made a shepe-howse.^ 



These enclosures were not caused by an advance in the price 

 of wool relatively to that of wheat, as the rise in the price of 

 wool in the decade 15 10-1520 was no greater than that of 

 corn. Nor does sheep fanning seem to have been especially 

 profitable at this time, as More himself attributes the high 

 price of wool in part to a " pestiferous morrein." Again, 

 the complaint is also made that unemployment was caused, 

 showing that scarcity of labor was not the reason for the 

 conversion of arable to pasture : 



The husbandmen be thrust owte of their owne, . . . whom no 

 man wyl set a worke, though thei never so willyngly profre 

 themselves therto. For one Shephearde or Heardman is 

 ynoughe to eate up that grounde with cattel, to the occupiyng 

 wherof aboute husbandrye manye handes were requisite.- 



In 1 5 14 a new husbandry statute was passed, penalising 

 the conversion of tillage to pasture, and requiring the restor- 

 ation of the land to tillage. It was repeated and made per- 

 petual in the following year. In 15 17 a commission was 

 ordered to enquire into the destruction of houses since 1488 

 and the conversion of arable to pasture. In 15 18 a fresh 

 commission was issued and the prosecution of offenders was 

 begun. These facts are cited as a further reminder of the 

 fact that the period for which the prices of wool and wheat 

 are both known is the critical period in the enclosure move- 

 ment. It is the enclosures covered by these acts and those 

 referred to by Sir Thomas More which historians have ex- 



1 More, Utopia (Everyman edition), p. 23. 



2 Ibid., p. 24. 



