IC,3] THE PRICE OF WOOL 37 



The relative rate of increase is the only point significant 

 for the present discussion. No statistics are available to 

 show whether the price of cattle rose more rapidly than that 

 of grain, and the evidence afforded by the reduction of arable 

 land to pasture is counterbalanced by the equally well-estab- 

 lished fact that much pasture land was plowed and planted 

 in this period. It is equally probable on the basis of this 

 evidence that the prices of wheat and barley advanced more 

 rapidly than those of meat and butter and cheese. The ' 

 same difficulty is met in the suggestion that the increase 

 in pasturage was due partly to higher wages for farm labor. 

 The extension of tillage over much land formerly laid to 

 pasture as well as that which had never been plowed at all is 

 sufficient cause for doubting a prohibitive increase in wages. 

 Moreover, in modern times, wages lag in general rise of 

 prices. Unless conclusive evidence is presented to show that 

 this was not the case in the seventeenth century, it must be 

 assumed to be inherently probable that the increased wages 

 of the time were more than offset by the rapidly advancing 

 prices. 



During the seventeenth century, then, when it is admitted! 

 that the high price of wool was not the cause which induced 

 landowners to convert arable to pasture, it cannot be shown 

 that the high price of cattle or exorbitant wages will account 

 for the withdrawal of land from cultivation. This is an 

 important point, for historians frequently support their main 

 contention with regard to the enclosure movement {i. e., 

 that it was caused by an increase in the price of wool), by 

 the statement that increasing wages made landlords abandon 

 tillage for sheep- farming, with its smaller labor charges. 

 It has been shown that the conversion of arable to pasture 

 in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries cannot be explained 

 by the prjjce of wool, but it may still be urged that agricul- 

 ture was rendered unprofitable by high wages. Indeed, it is 



