t quite so profitable as was at first
expected."[25] Others refer to the contemporary complaints of the bad
effect of enclosure upon the quality of wool. The breed of sheep which
could be kept in enclosed pastures was said to produce coarser wool
than those grazing on the hilly pastures, and this deterioration in
the quality of wool so cut down the profits from enclosures that men
now preferred to plow them up again, and resume tillage. The extent to
which the plowing up of pasture can be attributed to this cause must
be very slight, however, as even contemporaries disagreed as to the
existence of any deterioration in the quality of the wool. Some
authorities even state that the quality was improved by the use of
enclosed pasture: when Cornwall,

through want of good manurance lay waste and open, the sheep had
generally little bodies and coarse fleeces, so as their wool bare
no better name than Cornish hair ... but since the grounds began
to receive enclosure and dressing for tillage, the nature of the
soil hath altered to a better grain and yieldeth nourishment in
greater abundance to the beasts that pasture thereupon; so as, by
this means ... Cornish sheep come but little behind the eastern
flocks for bigness of mould, _fineness of wool, etc._[26]

The plowing up of pasture land for tillage cannot, then, be explained
by the effect of enclosure upon the quality of wool. It has been
ordinarily taken as an indication that the price of grain was now
rising more rapidly than that of wool, partly because a relaxation of
the corn-laws permitted greater freedom of export, and partly because
the home demand was increasing on account of the growth of the
population. Graziers were as willing to convert pastures to
corn-fields for the sake of greater profits as their predecessors had
been to carry out the contrary process. The deciding factor in the
situation, according to the orthodox account, was the relative price
of wool and grain. When the price of wool rose more rapidly than that
of grain, arable land was enclosed and used for grazing. When the
price of grain rose more rapidly than that of wool, pastures were
plowed up and cultivated.

Up to this point, the account is consistent. If the price of wool was
rising more rapidly than that of grain during the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries (in spite of the statistical evidence to the
contrary) it is reasonable that the differential ad