Between the middle of the 18th and 19th centuries, the English parliament passed more than 4,000 Enclosure Acts. These laws allowed the fencing of common lands where villagers had grazed livestock and planted for generations, transferring them largely into private ownership of the aristocracy or the church. Similar dramatic changes to the landscape and society occurred in Scotland and Wales around the same time.
According to the economic historian Karl Polanyi, this was a deliberate construction of a new kind of society. One where resources that had sustained communities through mutual access were converted to commodities, forcing people to depend on markets they did not control.
The commoners were not consulted in this decision process. The laws were drafted by landowners and passed by a parliament of property holders.
