The Enclosure Movement and the Industrial Revolution, Part 4 (Final)

The Enclosure Movement and the Industrial Revolution

4 (

Final Installment

)

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Lessons from the History of the Enclosure Movement and the Industrial Revolution

Timeline

14th-century plague. 1347~1351

Late 14th century~15th century: “the golden age of English peasants”

14th~16th centuries: Renaissance

15th~16th centuries: population crisis (the population increased, but per capita productivity improvement stagnated)

16th~17th centuries: Reformation

17th~18th centuries: the Second Hundred Years’ War (continued wars between Britain and France)

1660-1760: British Commercial Revolution

18th century: Agricultural Revolution

1750~1820: 2nd Enclosure

1760-1840 (18th~19th centuries): Industrial Revolution

Monetary instability brings about the collapse of the lower classes.

What ignited the 1st Enclosure was the Price Revolution, which caused inflation—in other words, inflation in silver currency.

Of course, in the earlier period, the decline in the rural population caused by the plague collapsed the manorial system and elevated serfs into the status of tenant farmers, but those changed conditions later came to act like poison because of monetary instability.

Laws targeting specific classes bring disaster over time.

The Statute of Labourers, enacted to suppress wage increases for peasants and workers, and laws preventing people from leaving their place of residence later became disastrous for those classes during the Enclosure period.

Even if legal provisions targeting specific classes were intended at the time of enactment to maintain social balance, as time passes and social conditions change, they can turn into terrible poison.

Non-universal laws should be avoided as much as possible, and even when they are unavoidable, mechanisms should be put in place so that they expire after a certain period.

The trauma of history is deeply rooted and transmitted for a long time.

The 1st Enclosure movement was a socially shocking experience.

The sight of the landlord class, pressed by urgency, tearing down the old tradition of the manorial system with their own hands was difficult to accept in the stable culture of feudalism.

Although the 1st Enclosure period was relatively short and its scale was limited, the aftereffects of the social shock were so great that it drew severe public criticism and even provoked opposition movements.

This shock later caused even enclosure movements of a different character to be remembered as unjustified, and it even led to hostility toward the very process of establishing property rights.

What became an even bigger problem was that even the Industrial Revolution, which was the solution to the poverty problem, came to be understood through the lens of criticism of the 1st Enclosure movement—as the activity of a greedy entrenched elite.

Trauma produces distorted historical perceptions and leads to rejection of rational analysis.

Any abrupt change creates trauma, and overcoming it requires the efforts of several generations.

Revolutions that proceed spontaneously create less social shock.

The Agricultural Revolution that led to the 2nd Enclosure did not draw much social attention.

Because it was a spontaneous revolution, not one pushed rapidly by artificial government measures, it took time for new farming methods to be tested, imitated, and spread, and in that slow process peasants had room to adapt to change.

The 3rd (Parliamentary) Enclosure movement was the most destructive because it was compelled by laws enacted by Parliament and carried out within a short period of time.

Although it was legislation meaningful in that it established private property rights, we must not forget that laws restructuring society produced countless victims.

The Poor Laws actually made the situation worse.

From the beginning, the Poor Laws focused less on helping people in difficulty and enabling self-reliance than on reducing vagrants.

Provisions that prohibited the movement of workers and beggars and banned charity for the sake of social convenience later led to the addition of provisions that made children into apprentices and forced them to work, and even to situations in which marriage was prohibited in order to prevent the emergence of new dependents, resulting in the birth of many illegitimate children.

Even if good intentions are placed in the foreground, we must remember the lesson that relief laws can become a cause of disaster when they prioritize social stability and administrative convenience.

The problem of urban guilds

At the time, large-scale industry could hire labor only outside the organization of artisan guilds.

That was because the power of guilds, as interest groups, was extremely strong.

Since labor could be hired among women and children in small towns where guild power was not strong, the conditions of the urban poor in large cities could not easily improve.

Because of low skill levels, the output of labor was also low, making lower wages and longer working hours unavoidable compared with guild artisans.

Only after machinery gradually became more productive and it became possible to hire skilled male workers at high wages did female and child labor disappear.

Summary

1. In the late 18th century, the rapid 2nd Enclosure movement carried out through the power of the government and Parliament produced large numbers of unemployed people in rural areas, turning them into vagrants.

2. The reason they were unable to properly establish themselves as urban workers, and why a structure emerged that produced large numbers of orphans, was the shackle of the Poor Laws.

3. In addition, guild organizations centered in urban areas also caused the problem to persist for a long time.

Conclusion

In any society, it is rare for spontaneous social change to occur so rapidly that it exceeds the bounds of society’s capacity for adjustment.

The Industrial Revolution, too, was a slow process spanning about 100 years.

What creates abrupt change beyond the range of adjustment, or makes social adjustment impossible, is intervention by government power.

The early misery of the Industrial Revolution was caused by the Poor Laws, which forcibly reduced vagrants and the unemployed and blocked the regional movement of labor, by the entrenched guild system, and by mass unemployment caused by Parliament’s legal intervention.

And what rescued people from this hellish situation was not government measures, but the spread of the Industrial Revolution.

“In 1750, England’s population was 6 million; in 1800, 9 million; and in 1820, 12 million.

The age distribution of the population changed greatly.

In particular, the proportion of children and adolescents surged.

The mortality rate for children under age 5 fell from 74.5% in 1730-49 to 31.8% in 1810-29.

Children who would have died in infancy were given a chance to survive.”

- Robert Hessen, “The Effects of the Industrial Revolution on Women and Children,” included in Ayn Rand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

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Original title: 인클로저 운동과 산업혁명 이야기 4(마지막편)

Author: Ja-yujuui Ipmun Dokseo Toron Moim

Date: 2023-06-16

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=reading01&pn=3&idx=25793