The Enclosure Movement

The population of England lived on the land under a manorial system. They were primarily tenant farmers who were tied to a particular locality, rarely if ever leaving their places of birth. With the rise of commerce, it became increasingly profitable for the aristocracy who owned the land to enclose it. The enclosure movement displaced the tenant farmers and caused a movement into the cities. As people congregated in cities, they became a source of cheap labor for the factories and mines that developed. The concentration of population into cities, however, also created a class of poor, many of whom were willing to became 'indentured servants' and migrate to the North American colonies in search of a better life.