econ234 did the enclosure of the open fields cause the agricultural revolution?

Econ234

Did the enclosure of the open fields cause the agricultural revolution

The process of enclosure signified the end of communal harvesting and transition to the private property on land . Causing a lot of social misery and unrest , enclosure at the same time created prerequisites for the British Agricultural Revolution . While enclosure alone would have been insufficient to spearhead such a large-scale process , in combination with technological breakthroughs like mechanization four-field crop rotation , and selective breeding , it helped bring about one of the most important economic shifts in the history of

mankind

Before the process of enclosure , English farmers had access to large open land spaces that were commonly used by groups of people . It was possible to rent some strips in such commonly owned field and plant one 's own crops fields for cattle grazing were also communally owned What enclosure did was to divide these communal fields into individually owned plots that were then separated by fences , or `enclosed . The same process was repeated with fens and marshes , moors and other "wastes (Wikipedia , 2006 . In this case , the change was even more radical because land had already been owned by individuals whereas marshes and other uninhabited land had for centuries been communally owned . After the enclosure , it was separated into `severals , or individual plots

As is commonly the case with private property , after its introduction some people had access to the land , and some lost it . The legislation ending with the epochal General Inclosure Act of 1801 favored enclosure and many farmers , after receiving a very small compensation for their enclosed strips , were forced to move to the city because they no longer had land to work on , which created the background for the Industrial Revolution . The Agricultural Revolution was also precipitated by the fact that some displaced farmers found work in the (increasingly mechanised ) enclosed farms (Wikipedia , 2006

The most important link between enclosure and the Agricultural Revolution is that enclosure created a situation in which the emergence of large farms that employed hired labor became possible . Enclosure finally led to the appearance of such large entities that had the scope to enable them to use technological innovations effectively

These innovations included the seed drill invented by Jethro Tull in 1701 , Rotherham iron plough manufactured by Joseph Foljambe in 1730 , and the threshing machine made by Andrew Meikle in 1786 (Wikipedia , 2006 These machines created prerequisites for successful farming that was superior in productivity to the previous patterns . However , the introduction of such machines required upfront investment that was unattainable to poor small farmers with their small strips . Another innovation was the four-field rotation system that reformed the previously used three-field system . Before the innovation , farmers planted first wheat , then barley , then left the field fallow . After that , the introduction of turnips and clover allowed farmers to increase production and fill the fallow year with these crops , increasing overall productivity and availability of fodder . Selective breeding , or mating together two animals with particularly desirable characteristics helped improve...