Reply to “parliamentary enclosure and population change in England, 1750–1830”

Abstract

Michael Turner is to be commended for improving our understanding of the enclosure movement in lh the other to assume that none of the area enclosed by agreement was commons or waste. The second approach gives us a lower bound for the figure we need. The first approach gives 5.5% + Y$ x 7.3% = 9.15% of the area of England, consisting entirely of commons and waste, enclosed in the 130 years from 1700 to 1830, equivalent to 3,250,OOO acres and a rate of 25,000 acres per annum. The second gives 5.5% of the area of England, again consisting entirely of commons and waste, enclosed during the same time period, 1,950,OOO acres in all, and 15,000 acres per annum. Our revised figures thus involve comparing a rate of enclosure of 4,000 acres per annum during the period 1455-1637, with arable predominating,