Enclosure Movement: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 10:20, 18 January 2017

Process which describes the resolution of common fields in Western Europe and first of all in English agriculture. Common land, open fields and shared pastures were enclosed and transformed into the modern pattern of small hedged fields and consolidated forms which promised to be more profitable. Thus, the traditional rights of the peasants were ended abruptly which caused massive resistance.

Purpose and Realization

In England the enclosure movement started in the 15th and 16th centuries. In those times, the purpose was mainly to increase pasture by consolidating land. A second period of enclosure proceeded in the 18th and 19th centuries and can be seen as result of or parallel movement to the industrial revolution. Here, the main reasons were agricultural efficiency. Combining tracts of land also meant that fewer people got the chance to lease. Therefore, a new landless working class was created which mostly moved to the North of England to find work in the developing industry. According to traditional accounts, moving displaced people to the town, where they were needed as industrial workers, was the chief domestic impact of these enclosures in the late 18th century. The trend of enclosure ended in the 1860s.

Development

The impulse for those measures of enclosure came mainly from individual landowners who had to float with the current. It was authorized by means of privately sponsored acts of Parliament. Between 1730 and 1830 over 5000 of such acts were passed which had the effect of enclosing some 6.8 million acres which made 21% of English land (Mingay, 649). About 2/3 of this was common-field arable, 1/3 was common- and waste-land. 38% of all acts of enclosure took place in the period between 1755 and 1780 (Vaughan, 602). Those embraced mainly the heavier-soiled countries of the midland, particularly Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, and Leicestershire. In the reign of Queen Anne parliament passed two enclosure acts only (Vaughan, 602). George I assented to sixteen acts and George II to two hundred and sixteen ones (Vaughan, 603). Before the end of the 18th century more than fifteen hundred such acts past the legislature embracing 2,804,197 acres (Mingay, 649). The produce of such acres is supposed to have been made more than four-fold by the change. Thus, since 1815 the increase of corn from the English soil has kept pace with the rapid increase of the English population.

Sources:

Hoppen, K. Theodore. The Mid-Victorian Generation 1846-1886. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.

Mingay, G.E. The Agrarian History of England and Wales 1750-1850. CUP, 1989.

The New Encyclopædia Britannica, in 30 Vol.[1976] Encyclopædia Britannica.

Vaughan, Robert. Revolutions in English History. London: Longman, 1863.

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-Enclosure or inclosure is a process which describes the resolution of common fields in Western Europe and first of all in English agriculture. Common land, open fields and shared pastures were enclosed and transformed into the modern pattern of small hedged fields and consolidated forms which promised to be more profitable. Thus, the traditional rights of the peasants were ended abruptly which caused massive resistance.
+Process which describes the resolution of common fields in Western Europe and first of all in English agriculture. Common land, open fields and shared pastures were enclosed and transformed into the modern pattern of small hedged fields and consolidated forms which promised to be more profitable. Thus, the traditional rights of the peasants were ended abruptly which caused massive resistance.
-'''Purpose and Realization'''
+== Purpose and Realization ==
-In England the enclosure movement started in the 15th and 16th century. In those times, the purpose was mainly to increase pasture which was only possible by consolidating land.
+In England the enclosure movement started in the 15th and 16th centuries. In those times, the purpose was mainly to increase pasture by consolidating land.
-A second period of enclosure proceeded in the 18th and 19th century and can be seen as result of or parallel movement to the industrial revolution. Here, the main reasons were agricultural efficiency. Combining tracts of land also mend that fewer currents got the chance to lease. Therefore, a new landless working class was created which mostly moved to the North of England to find work in the developing industry. According to traditional accounts, moving displaced people to the town, where they were needed as industrial workers, was the chief domestic impact of these enclosures in the late 18th century. The trend of enclosure ended in the 1860s.
+A second period of enclosure proceeded in the 18th and 19th centuries and can be seen as result of or parallel movement to the industrial revolution. Here, the main reasons were agricultural efficiency. Combining tracts of land also meant that fewer people got the chance to lease. Therefore, a new landless working class was created which mostly moved to the North of England to find work in the developing industry. According to traditional accounts, moving [[Urbanisation|displaced people to the town]], where they were needed as industrial workers, was the chief domestic impact of these enclosures in the late 18th century. The trend of enclosure ended in the 1860s.
-'''Development'''
+== Development ==
-The impulse for those measures of enclosure came mainly from individual landowners who had to float with the current. It was authorized by means of privately sponsored acts of Parliament. Between 1730 and 1830 over 5000 of such acts were passed which had the effect of enclosing some 6.8 million acres which made 21% of English land. About 2/3 of this was common-field arable, 1/3 was common- and waste-land. 38% of all acts of enclosure took place in the period between 1755 and 1780. Those embraced mainly the heavier-soiled countries of the midland, particularly Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, and Leicestershire.
+The impulse for those measures of enclosure came mainly from individual landowners who had to float with the current. It was authorized by means of privately sponsored acts of [[Parliament]]. Between 1730 and 1830 over 5000 of such acts were passed which had the effect of enclosing some 6.8 million acres which made 21% of English land (Mingay, 649). About 2/3 of this was common-field arable, 1/3 was common- and waste-land. 38% of all acts of enclosure took place in the period between 1755 and 1780 (Vaughan, 602). Those embraced mainly the heavier-soiled countries of the midland, particularly Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, and Leicestershire.
-In the reign of Queen Anne parliament passed two enclosure acts only. George I asserted to sixteen acts and George II to two hundred and sixteen ones. Before the end of the 18th century more than fifteen hundred such acts past the legislature embracing 2,804,197 acres. The produce of such acres is supposed to have been made more than four-fold by the change. Thus, since 1815 the increase of corn from the English soil has kept pace with the rapid increase of the English population.
+In the reign of [[Anne I|Queen Anne]] parliament passed two enclosure acts only (Vaughan, 602). [[George I]] assented to sixteen acts and George II to two hundred and sixteen ones (Vaughan, 603). Before the end of the 18th century more than fifteen hundred such acts past the legislature embracing 2,804,197 acres (Mingay, 649). The produce of such acres is supposed to have been made more than four-fold by the change. Thus, since 1815 the increase of [[Corn Laws|corn]] from the English soil has kept pace with the rapid increase of the English population.
 ----
 Sources:
-Vaughan, Robert. Revolutions in English History. London: Longman, 1863.
+Hoppen, K. Theodore. ''The Mid-Victorian Generation 1846-1886''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
-Hoppen, K. Theodore. The Mid-Victorian Generation 1846-1886. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
-Mingay, G.E. The Agrarian History of England and Wales 1750-1850. Cambridge University Press, 1989.
+Mingay, G.E. ''The Agrarian History of England and Wales 1750-1850''. CUP, 1989.
-The New Encyclopædia Britannica, in 30 Vol.[1976] Encyclopædia Britannica.
+''The New Encyclopædia Britannica'', in 30 Vol.[1976] Encyclopædia Britannica.
+Vaughan, Robert. ''Revolutions in English History''. London: Longman, 1863.