Land-holding

Abstract

Enclosure was intimately connected with the changing structure of landholding, and the nature of this relationship is perhaps the central issue of the whole enclosure story. It is generally agreed that the period under consideration saw a decisive shift towards a distinctively English pattern of large tenanted farms, and that this reflected increased commercialisation, and with it the adaptation of farm structures, and indeed rural societies, to new economic requirements. But was the enclosure of common fields an essential step on the way to this new economy and society, focusing the necessary economic and social adaptations in one crucial event? Or was enclosure more a reflection of the fact that these adaptations had already taken place?