Enclosure and Revolution

Paper Summary:

This essay discusses whether the Enclosure of open fields in eighteenth century England led to the agricultural revolution. The writer maintains that the answer is that it both did and did not, depending on how one defines the terms. The writer points out that it did not necessarily lead to greater efficiency - at least not right away. However, the writer concludes that Enclosure did change farming, and this change eventually led to the agricultural revolution.

From the Paper:

"In popular usage, when we say that something is an `academic question', the term is vaguely critical. We are implying that the answer to the question depends entirely on how we choose to label certain concepts, and whether the answer is negative or affirmative based on these terms makes little practical difference. It seems as though the question of whether Enclosure in Britain led to the agricultural revolution is an academic question in this sense. We can find evidence for both points of view, and neither significantly changes the facts. That is, the efficiency of agricultural output did or did not increase sharply following enclosure depending on how we define `efficiency'. Output in other countries also increased."

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