The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Enclosures in England, by Harriett Bradley

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Title: The Enclosures in England
An Economic Reconstruction

Author: Harriett Bradley

Release Date: June 27, 2009 [EBook #29258]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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2
THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND

STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW

EDITED BY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Volume LXXX] [Number 2

Whole Number 186

THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND
AN ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION

BY
HARRIETT BRADLEY, Ph.D.

_Assistant Professor of Economics, Vassar College
Sometime University Fellow in Economics_

New York
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS
LONDON: P.S. KING & SON, LTD.
1918

"It fareth with the earth as with
other creatures that through
continual labour grow faint and
feeble-hearted."
_From speech made in the House of Commons, 1597_

To
EMILIE LOUISE WELLS

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 11
The subject of inquiry--No attempt hitherto made to verify the
different hypothetical explanations of the enclosures--Nature of the
evidence.

CHAPTER I
THE PRICE OF WOOL 18
Accepted theory of enclosure movement based on price of
wool--Enclosures began independently of Black Death and before
expansion of woollen industry--Price of wool low as compared with that
of wheat in enclosure period--Seventeenth-century conversions of
pasture to arable--Of arable to pasture--Conversion not explained by
change in prices or wages--Double conversion movement due to condition
of soil--Summary.

CHAPTER II
THE FERTILITY OF THE COMMON FIELDS 51
D