The Enclosure Movement or inclosure is the process which was used to end traditional rights, and has historically been accompanied by force, resistance, and bloodshed. It has been referred to as “among the most controversial areas of agricultural and economic history in England.” The Enclosure Movement was a push in the 18th and 19th centuries to take
land that had formerly been owned in common by all members of a village, or at least available to the public for grazing animals and growing food, and change it to privately owned land, usually with walls, fences or hedges around it. The most well-known Enclosure Movements were in the British Isles, but the practice had its roots in the Netherlands and occurred to some degree throughout Northern Europe and elsewhere as industrialization spread. Some small number of enclosures had been going on
since the 12th century, especially in the north and west of England, but it became much more common in the 1700s, and in the next century Parliament passed the General Enclosure Act of 1801 and the Enclosure Act of 1845, making enclosures of certain lands possible throughout England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The English government and aristocracy started enclosing land claiming it would allow for better raising of crops and animals (particularly sheep for their wool). They claimed
that large fields could be farmed more efficiently than individual plots allotted from common land — and the profit could be kept by the aristocrats who now owned the legally confiscated land. Some claim this was the beginning of commercial farming.
The Industrial Revolution had several causes, but one of the most important was the impact of the Agricultural Revolution. The Agricultural Revolution many involved innovations in farming that led to a dramatic increase in food production. For example, Charles Townshend’s idea of crop rotation allowed farmers to grow more food, while Jethro Tull’s seed drill allowed faster and more efficient farming practices. While these were important features of the Agricultural Revolution, there was another that also had a big impact on the Industrial Revolution. |
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Another important feature of the Agricultural Revolution was the Enclosure Movement. In the decades and centuries before the 1700s, British farmers planted their crops on small strips of land while allowing their animals to graze on common fields shared collectively. However, in the 1700s, the British parliament passed legislation, referred to as the Enclosure Acts, which allowed the common areas to become privately owned. This
led to wealthy farmers buying up large sections of land in order to create larger and more complex farms. Ultimately, this forced smaller farmers off of their land. Having lost their way of life, many of these farmers went to local towns and cities in search of work. This was important to the overall Industrial Revolution, because it helped create a system that created a large workforce for the factories and mines.
In general, the Enclosure
Movement involved the British parliament passing a series of acts that allowed increased private ownership, which was a key characteristic of the Industrial Revolution. It forced the poor people to migrate to centralized locations such as industrial cities and towns and to seek work in factories and mines. Therefore, historians often view it as one of the main causes of the Industrial
Revolution.