Inclosure Act
The Inclosure Acts were a number of United Kingdom Acts of Parliament which inclosed open fields in the country. This meant that the rights that people once held, to graze animals on these areas when not planted by crops, were now being denied. [Note that, although modern usage is enclosure, this is not the name of the acts.]
Inclosure acts for small areas had been passed sporadically since the 12th century but the vast majority of them were passed between 1750 and 1860. Much larger areas were also inclosed during this time and in 1801 the Inclosure Consolidation Act was passed to tidy up previous acts. In 1845 another General Inclosure Act allowed for the employment of Inclosure Commissioners who could inclose land without submitting a request to parliament.
Under this process there were over 5000 individual Inclosure acts and 21% of land in England was inclosed, amounting to nearly 7 million acres (28,000 km²).
The Inclosure acts caused many English peasants, deprived of land, to move to
urban areas where they were employed in wage labour jobs
and became the proletariat. Some wealthier peasants contributed to English
Among critics of these acts were the Church and the Levellers.
See also
- Kett's Rebellion 1549
Diggers 1650- Tragedy of the commons
- Enclosure
Further reading
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