96 THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND [252 



ing and converting the part of the land which could not be 

 profitably cultivated because of its bad condition. The capi- 

 tal necessary for this process itself was considerable, and 

 besides, it was necessary to wait several years before there 

 was a return on the investment, while the sod was forming, 

 to say nothing of the large expenditure necessary for the 

 purchase of the sheep. The land when so treated, however, 

 enabled the investor to pay higher rents than the open-field 

 husbandmen who " rubbed forth their estate in the poorest 

 plight." ' 



A lord who was willing to consider only pecuniary ad- 

 vantage had everything to gain by clearing the land entirely 

 of small holders, and putting it in the hands of men with 

 capital. It is, therefore, to the credit of these landowners 

 that there are so few authentic cases of the depopulation 

 of entire villages and the conversion of all of the arable 

 land into sheep runs. These cases made the lords who 

 were responsible notorious and were, no doubt, exceptional. 

 Nearly fifteen hundred places were covered by the reports 

 of the commissions of 15 17 and 1607, and Professor Gay 

 has found among these " but a round dozen villages or 

 hamlets which were all enclosed and emptied of their inhabi- 

 tants, the full half of them in Northamptonshire." ^ For 

 the most part, the enclosures reported under the inquisitions 

 as well as those indicated on the maps and surveys of the 

 period involved only small areas, and point to a process of 

 piece-meal enclosure. The landowners seem to have been 

 reluctant to cause hardship and to have left the open-field 

 tenants undisturbed as far as possible, contenting themselves 

 with the enclosure and conversion of small plots of land. 



The social consequences of so-called depopulating en- 



1 Carew, as quoted by Leonard, op. cit., vol. xix, p. 137. 



* " Enclosures in England," Quarterly Journal of Ec, vol xvii, p. 595. 



