The Enclosures in England: An Economic Reconstruction

A systematic economic analysis argues that the breakup of the common-field system resulted from local soil fertility, patterns of tenancy, and rent incentives rather than chiefly from rising wool prices. The author analyzes price statistics, manorial records, and parliamentary responses; she traces cycles of conversion between arable and pasture, decline of communal cultivation, tenant poverty and dispossession, and the role of enclosure in restoring fertility and enabling new crops. The work challenges price-centered explanations and emphasizes structural agrarian and social factors that drove enclosure.