Enclosures Flashcards
What was the benfit of sheep farming?
Led to large scale enterprises such as that of Sir William Femour of Norfolk who owned 17,000 sheep.
What Act tried to restrict the number of sheep kept by farmers?
The 1533 Sheep and Farms Act which tried to limit the number of sheeps per farmer to 2,400
What was the impact of increasing entry fines?
This method improved landlord profit margins but placed more economic pressure on tenants, especially the poorer ones, who were unable to pay.
What was rack-renting?
The practise of landlords of rapidly increasing rents so that the tenants who were able to pay could be evicted. It also helped landlords to icnrease their profis.
Why were attitudes to enclosure ambiguous in East of Suffolk and North Norfolk?
The soils in these regions were light and encouraged a mixture of shep farming and arable farming. The presence of large flocks of sheep in these areas provided the necessary manure to fertilise crops which might otherwise have struggles to grow in light soil.
What was Foldcourse?
A tradition that allowed landlords to use their tenants’ lands and the common land to graze sheep.
What did Foldcourse lead to?
This led to tenants enclosing their arable lands to protect tehm from their landlord’s sheep.
What groups were most likely to find themselves in poverty?
Copyhold tenants who leases were most open to challenge; landless who were reliant on common lands for survival.
How did enclosures usually take place?
By erecting walls or hedges which ‘enclosed’ an area of land for the landlord’s use.
What was the common element in both the sheep-corn and wood pasture regions?
The impact of sheep farming on local communities which led to increasing social and economic tensions.
Why were enclosures criticised by the ‘commonwealth-men’?
These men saw enclosures as a public nuisance and as the fundamental source of the poverty, unemployment and vagrancy that plagued the mid-Tudor scoiety.
Name one problem that came as a result of population growth between 1525 - 1551?
It became harder to ensure that there was an adequate supply of food. Greater demand for food led to rapid price rises which hit the poorest in scoiety the hardest. This led to more pressure on the land, which was needed to grow more crops.
What conditions led to the passing of the vicious 1547 Vagrancy Act?
A larger population meant there was an increased competition for jobs and employment. The unemployed were reliant on charity or on the limited poor relief available at this time and often turned to vagrancy which alarmed the Tudor authorities and caused to take active measures to prevent an increase in vagrancy.
What is Godly Commonwealth?
The commonwealth presented the ;coomon good’ in England and that wealthy had a responsibility for looking after the poor and needy.
The commonwealth men were incorrect about enclosures being the real cause of poverty in the Tudor period. What was the actual cause?
Poverty in the 16th century was caused by populatuon growth.
