e:

The husbandmen be thrust owte of their owne, ... whom no man wyl
set a worke, though thei never so willyngly profre themselves
therto. For one Shephearde or Heardman is ynoughe to eate up that
grounde with cattel, to the occupiyng wherof aboute husbandrye
manye handes were requisite.[21]

In 1514 a new husbandry statute was passed, penalising the conversion
of tillage to pasture, and requiring the restoration of the land to
tillage. It was repeated and made perpetual in the following year. In
1517 a commission was ordered to enquire into the destruction of
houses since 1488 and the conversion of arable to pasture. In 1518 a
fresh commission was issued and the prosecution of offenders was
begun. These facts are cited as a further reminder of the fact that
the period for which the prices of wool and wheat are both known is
the critical period in the enclosure movement. It is the enclosures
covered by these acts and those referred to by Sir Thomas More which
historians have explained by alleging that the price of wool was
high. As a matter of record, the course of prices was such as to
encourage the extension of tillage rather than of pasture.

After an examination of these price statistics it hardly seems
necessary to advance further objections to the accepted account of the
enclosure movement, based as it is upon the assumption that price
movements in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were exactly
opposite to those which have been shown to take place. There is no
reason to doubt the accuracy of Rogers' figures within the limits
required for our purpose, and the evidence based on these figures is
in itself conclusive. Even without this evidence, however, there is
sufficient reason for rejecting the theory that changes in the prices
of grain and wool account for the facts of the enclosure movement. For
one thing, if the price of wool actually did rise (in spite of the
statistical evidence to the contrary) and if this is actually the
cause of the enclosure movement, the movement should have come to an
end when sufficient time had elapsed for an adjustment of the wool
supply to the increasing demand. If the movement did not come to an
end within a reasonable period, there would be reason for suspecting
the adequacy of the explanation advanced. As a matter of fact, it is
usually thought that the enclosure movement did end about 1600. Much
land which had not been affected by the changes of