The idea that land can be owned outright by one person was manufactured, not found in nature. England's enclosure movement turned shared open fields into exclusive private title, Act by private Act of Parliament, and created a landless wage-labor class. The episode weighs the improvement and dispossession readings honestly.
Who's who
- Arthur Young+1 more episodeAgricultural writer associated with the improvers who argued for consolidation
- J. L. HammondCo-author of the 1911 dispossession account The Village Labourer
- Barbara HammondCo-author of The Village Labourer, 1760-1832
Where it happens
- England+5 more episodesWhere open-field commons were enclosed into private title
- English MidlandsArable belt where parliamentary enclosure was concentrated
Timeline
- 1549Kett's Rebellion erupts amid Tudor complaints over enclosure
- c. 1750-1850Parliamentary enclosure by private Act becomes the norm
- 1801Inclosure (Consolidation) Act standardizes clauses to cut cost
- 1845General Inclosure Act creates permanent commissioners who can authorize enclosure
- 1604-1914Over 5,200 enclosure bills enacted, covering roughly 6.8 million acres
Still debated
Historians disagree about how much dispossession enclosure caused, how much it raised output, and whether it threw labor off the land. Fairness of compensation and whether enclosure was the direct template for colonial land law are also argued.
