Chapter 1

Whole Number 186

THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND AN ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION

BY HARRIETT BRADLEY, Ph.D.

_Assistant Professor of Economics, Vassar College Sometime University Fellow in Economics_

New York COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS LONDON: P.S. KING & SON, LTD. 1918

"It fareth with the earth as with other creatures that through continual labour grow faint and feeble-hearted." _From speech made in the House of Commons, 1597_

To EMILIE LOUISE WELLS

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 11 The subject of inquiry--No attempt hitherto made to verify the different hypothetical explanations of the enclosures--Nature of the evidence.