Ruined for Life: Phoenix Edition

From http://cla.calpoly.edu/~lcall/enclosures.html

What were enclosures?

1. Enclosure meant joining the strips of the open fields to make larger compact units of land. These units were then fenced or hedged off from the next person’s land. In this way a farmer had land in one farm, rather than in scattered strips. This brought greater independence. Enclosing land was not new; it dated back to at least the Medieval period.
2. The areas of England affected by the enclosure movement of this period were mainly the counties of the Midlands, East Anglia and Central Southern England.

How was land enclosed?

• Before about 1740, most villages were enclosed by agreement. This was when the main owners of the land made a private agreement to join their strips together. This may have involved buying some strips from the small farmers to get rid of any possible opposition. Where all the land in a village was owned by one or two people, enclosure by agreement was relatively straightforward. Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell how much land was enclosed in this way, as little documentation was kept.
• Where a number of smaller landowners provided determined opposition to enclosure by agreement, an Act of Parliament had to be obtained. This became the accepted procedure after 1750. It had a number of factors in its favor:

1. Each enclosure had legal documentation and certification
2. It provided the machinery for opposition to be heard
3. It allowed the whole of the village to be enclosed at the same time (that is, commons, waste
4. land, meadows and open fields.) Up to 1750, many villages had been enclosed a little at a time.

• Between 1750 and 1850 there were approximately 4,000 Enclosure Acts of Parliament.

Why was Parliamentary Enclosure so widespread in the periods 1760-1780 and 1793 to 1815?

• Between 1760 and 1780, some 900 Enclosure acts were passed. Historians agree that high cereal prices motivated farmers to enclose land in order to produce a greater amount, thereby earning bigger profits. Also, where land was enclosed, landlords could charge tenants higher rents.
• The years of the French Wars (1793-1815) saw almost 2,000 Enclosure Acts being passed. This can also be explained by high cereal prices, which were the results of a series of poor harvests and the difficulty of importing foreign corn at a time when Europe was involved in a major war. This led to widespread enclosure with even marginal waste land being enclosed. With enclosures the farmers could grow more food to feed the domestic population and make larger profits.