rked rise in the price of wool occurred after 1460,
it might be argued that enclosures spread and the price of wool rose
together, and that the latter was the cause of the former. Turning
again to the record of prices, we see that although the low level of
the decade 1451-1460 marks the end of the period of falling prices, no
rise took place for several decades after 1460. Rous gives a list of
54 places "which, within a circuit of thirteen miles about Warwick
had been wholly or partially depopulated before about 1486."[18] Two
or three years later acts were passed against depopulation in whose
preambles the agrarian situation is described: The Isle of Wight "is
late decayed of people, by reason that many townes and vilages been
lete downe and the feldes dyked and made pastures for bestis and
cattalles." In other parts of England there is "desolacion and pulling
downe and wylfull wast of houses and towns ... and leying to pasture
londes whiche custumably haue ben used in tylthe, wherby ydlenesse is
growde and begynnyng of all myschevous dayly doth encrease. For where
in some townes ii hundred persones were occupied and lived by their
lawfull labours, now ben there occupied ii or iii herdemen, and the
residue falle in ydlenes."[19] It may be remarked that while the price
records show conclusively that no rise in the profits of wool-growing
caused these enclosures, the language of the statutes shows also that
scarcity of labor was not their cause, since one of the chief
objections to the increase of pasture is the unemployment caused.

It would seem hardly necessary to push the comparison of the prices of
wool and wheat beyond 1490. In order to establish the contention that
the enclosure movement was caused by an advance in the price of wool,
it would be necessary to show that this advance took place before the
date at which the enclosure problem had become so serious as to be the
subject of legislation. By 1490 statesmen were already alarmed at the
progress made by enclosure. The movement was well under way. Yet it
has been shown that the price of wool had been falling for over a
century, instead of rising, and that the price of wheat held its own.
Even if it could be established that the price of wheat fell as
compared with that of wool after this date, the usually accepted
version of the enclosure movement would still be inadequate. But as a
matter of fact the price of wheat rose steadily after 1490, reaching a
higher a