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12 THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND [i68 



jfields into sheep pasture. This involved the eviction of the 

 [tenants who had been engaged in cultivating these fields and 

 the amalgamation of many holdings of arable to form a few 

 large enclosures for sheep. ClThe enclosure movement was 

 not merely the displacement of one system of tillage by an- 

 other system of tillage; it involved the temporary displace- 

 ment of tillage itself in favor of grazing. 



In this monograph two things are undertaken: first, an 

 analysis of the usually accepted version of the enclosure 

 movement in the light of contemporary evidence; and, 

 secondly, the presentation of another account of the nature 

 and causes of the movement, consistent with itself and with 

 the available evidence. The popular account of the enclosure 

 movement turns upon a supposed advance in the price of 

 wool, due to the expansion of the woollen industry in the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Landlords at this period 

 (we are told) were increasingly eager for pecuniary gain 

 and, because of the greater profit to be made from grazing, 

 were willing to evict the tenants on their land and convert 

 the arable fields to sheep pasture. About the end of the six- 

 teenth century, it is said, this first enclosure movement came 

 to an end, for there are evidences of the reconversion of 

 pastures formerly laid to grass. An inquiry into the evi- 

 dence shows that the price of wool fell during the fifteenth 

 century and failed to rise as rapidly as that of wheat during 

 the sixteenth century. Moreover, the conversion of arable 

 land to pasture did not cease when the contrary process set 

 in, but continued throughout the seventeenth century with 

 apparently unabated vigor. These facts make it impossible 

 to accept the current theory of the enclosure movement. 

 There is, on the other hand, abundant evidence that the fer- 

 tility of much of the common-field land had been exhausted 

 by centuries of cultivation. Some of it was allowed to run 

 to waste; some was laid to grass, enclosed, and used as 



