19*21.] The Enclosx:re of Open-Field Fahms. 903 



the shape of grass and sheep farming. Was the rise in the 

 price of wool, relatively to that of wheat, so great as to afford 

 a sufficient temptation to make the change? During the whole 

 of the period 1270 to 1430, the price of wool had been con- 

 sistently higher than that of wheat. But from 1430 to 1540 — 

 the period during which the progress of enclosures excited 

 most alarm, and was attributed to the superior profits of sheep 

 farming — this relation was completely reversed, and the price 

 of wheat, in every decade but one, was higher than that of 

 wool. It is true that in 1541-50 the price of wool suddenly 

 soared high above that of wheat, but that was after the 

 original force of the movement was to some degree spent. The 

 general trend of prices seems to show that the usual explana- 

 tion of the immense profits derived from sheep farming will 

 not satisfactorily account for the extension of pasture. Some 

 other reason must have lain behind the movement. It is 

 submitted that that reason was agricultural, and is to be 

 found in the exhaustion of the existing tillage land, and in 

 the consequent difficulty of maintaining the open-field system. 



The following table* of the decennial average prices of 

 wheat and wool for 1361 to 1561 illustrates the foregoing 

 statements : — 





Wheat per qr. 



Wuol per tod. 



1361-70 





9- 3 



1.371 80 



6- H 



10-11 



1381-90 



5- 2 



8- 



1391-1400 



5- 3 



8- 4 



1401-1410 



5- 8i 



9- 2^ 



1411-20 



5- 6| 



7- 8i 



1421-30 



5- 4i 



7- 5^ 



1431-40 



611 



5- 9 



1441-50 



5- 5i 



4-10^ 



1451-60 



6- 6i 



4- 3i 

 4-11^ 



1461-70 



5- U 



1471-80 



5- 4} 



5- 4 



1481-90 



6- 3i 



4- 8^ 



1491-1500 



5- 0} 

 5- 5^ 



6- Of 



1501-10 



4- 5f 



1511-20 



6- Si 



6- 7i 



1521-30 



7- 6 



5- ^ 



1.531-40 



7- 8i 



6- 8i 



1541-50 



10- 8 



20- 8 



1551-60 



15- 3| 



15- 8 



It is not disputed that the extension of sheep-farming was 

 ene of the causes of enclosures in 1485-1560. But it is argued 

 that in many cases sheep-walks were themselves the effect of 

 an underlying cause, namely, the dechne in the productivity of 



■* The table is taken from The Enclosures in England and Economic 

 Beeonstruction. By Harriet Bradley. Ph.D. New York, 191^. 



