tod

s. d. s. d.

1261-1400 5 11 8 7

1351-1400 6 1-3/4 8 7
1401-1460 5 9 6 2-1/2
1461-1500 5 6-1/2 5 3
1501-1540 6 10-1/4 5 9-1/2

[Illustration: Graph]

After 1400 the price of wheat held at about the average price of the
previous period, but for sixty years the price of wool fell, without a
check in its downward movement. It is in this period that the woollen
industry entered upon the period of expansion which is supposed to
have been the cause of the enclosure movement, but there was no rise
in the price of wool. Instead, there was a decided fall.[15] The
average price for the decade 1451-1460 was just about one-half of the
average price for the period 1261-1400. (The average price of wool in
the last fifty years of the fourteenth century happens to be the same
as the average for the period 1261-1400. Either the longer or the
shorter period may be used indifferently as the basis for comparison).
The average price for the period 1401-1460 was 25 per cent lower than
the average for the preceding half-century. A comparatively slight
depression in the price of wheat in the same period is shown in the
tables. The average for 1401-1461 is only three per cent lower than
that for 1265-1400 (seven per cent lower than the average for
1351-1400). Before 1460, then, there was nothing in market conditions
to favor the extension of sheep farming, but there is reason to
believe that the withdrawal of land from tillage had already begun.
Leaving aside the enclosure and conversion of common-field land by the
Berkeleys in the thirteenth century, we may yet note that "An early
complaint of illegal enclosure occurs in 1414 where the inhabitants of
Parleton and Ragenell in Notts petition against Richard Stanhope, who
had inclosed the lands there by force of arms." Miss Leonard, who is
authority for this statement, also refers to the statute of 1402 in
which "depopulatores agrorum" are mentioned.[16] In a grant of Edward
V the complaint is made that "this body falleth daily to decay by
closures and emparking, by driving away of tenants and letting down of
tenantries."[17] It is strange, if these enclosures are to be
explained by increasing demand for wool, that this heightened demand
was not already reflected in rising prices.

But, it may be urged, the true enclosure movement did not begin until
after 1460. If a ma