40 THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND [196 



merely on the basis of the husbandry statutes. Nor is the 

 law itself to be dismissed without further examination, for 

 in it we find the explicit statement that fresh land could be 

 substituted for that then under cultivation, because common- 

 field land was in many cases exhausted; it was therefore 

 better to allow this to be laid to grass while better land was 

 cultivated in its place. ^ Here then, is the simple explanation 

 of the whole problem. The land which was converted from ^ 

 arable to pasture was worn out; but there was fresh land 

 available for tillage, and some of this was brought under 

 cultivation. 



No alternative explanation can be worked out on the basis 

 of hypothetical wage or price movements. The historian is 

 indeed at liberty to form his own theories as to the trend of 

 prices in the seventeenth century, for he is unhampered by 

 the existence of known records such as those for the six- 

 teenth century ; but it is impossible to construct any theory of 

 prices which will explain why the conversion of arable land 

 to pasture continued at a time when much pasture land was 

 being plowed up. It is necessary to choose a theory of prices 

 which will explain either the extension of tillage or the 

 extension of pasture ; both cannot be explained by the same 

 prices. If, as some historians assume, the increase of popu- 

 lation or some such factor was causing a comparatively rapid 

 increase in the price of grain in this period, the continued 

 conversion of arable to pasture requires explanation. If , as 

 Miss Leonard supposes, the contrary assumption is true, and 

 the products of arable land could be sold to less advantage 

 than those of pasture, then the cause of the conversion of 

 pasture to arable must be sought. 



It is not only in the seventeenth century that this double 

 conversion movement took place. In the second half of 



1 Cf. infra, p. 98. 



