Prior to the introduction Enclosure in England in 1235 land was held in common though strips of land were typically cultivated by the same family year after year. Farm productivity tended to decline as a result because it was difficult to ...See morePrior to the introduction Enclosure in England in 1235 land was held in common though strips of land were typically cultivated by the same family year after year. Farm productivity tended to decline as a result because it was difficult to introduce new farming methods even as basic as crop rotation. Enclosure permitted private ownership of land which, over the next 500 years increasingly benefited the rich at the expense of the poor but eventually lead to more productive land management methods freeing labor for the early industrialization of England. Written by
David Foss
See less