1. The Economic Effects of the English Parliamentary Enclosures
- Author:
- Leander Heldring, James A. Robinson, and Sebastian Vollmer
- Publication Date:
- 03-2023
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In 1808, the English agriculturist Arthur Young stumbled on something interesting. He noticed that the adjacent Cambridgeshire parishes of Childersley and Hardwicke in England had startlingly different economic outcomes, even though they were divided only by a hedgerow. In Hardwicke, wheat yields were 16 bushels per acre, whereas in Childersley, on the other side of the hedgerow, they were 24 bushels per acre—50 percent higher. What could explain the difference? It wasn’t economic fundamentals, because Childersley consisted of similar soil. Rather, Young attributed the difference to the fact that the land in Hardwicke remained in “common field” while the land in Childersley was enclosed.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, History, Economy, Enclosure, and Parliament
- Political Geography:
- Europe and England