Enclosure

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Enclosure is the conversion of an area open to general use into one for special use.

In German , the term “ coupling ” is used for similar agricultural reforms that were carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries - namely in the Kingdom of Hanover based on the English model .

In everyday language, enclosure stands for limitation, restriction.

history

In prehistoric terms, this means the areas created by approach obstacles from trenches, palisades, walls, ramparts made of earth, wood or stone and other materials, etc., which were separated for a special, mostly cultic use. The oldest examples in Central Europe are the Kreisgrabenanlagen ( Kreisgrabenanlage von Goseck ) of the band ceramics later then Henges and earthworks like King Arthur's Hall .

Historically, this means the dissolution of the previous feudal agricultural order in Great Britain that took place up to the beginning of the industrial revolution ( enclosures ). There, the enclosures for the conversion of the were inheritance lease system taking place agriculture on the Landlord profitable sheep farming and the privatization of Allmenderechte (English: commons ) made.

England

In England these "enclosures" began in the form of restrictions on traditional land use rights as early as the 14th century. Due to their increasing interference in the feudal system based on the rights and duties of landlords and tenants (as well as the financial interests of the crown affected by it ), they required a separate parliamentary resolution for each individual property. Towards the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century, the landlords were then generally empowered by parliament to implement enclosures. This was later called a "revolution of the rich against the poor" because a few large farms emerged from many small businesses. The previous land tenants were driven out by force and then formed the mass workers of the beginning industrial revolution in the rapidly growing cities.

Thomas More criticized the enclosures as early as the 15th century . Karl Polanyi sees the resistance of the English crown against the enclosures from the late 15th century to the 1640s - during this period there were 12 laws against the enclosures - an attempt to curb social change, the social order that was brought about by the Landlords was injured to preserve and prevent the depopulation of the land and the devastation of the villages. The resistance of the "Good Duke" Lord Protector Somerset to the Enclosures was the trigger for a storm of farmers under John Dudley on the fences that were erected and cost several thousand farmers in 1549 and the Duke of Somerset himself in 1552 their lives. Despite criticism from the church and several uprisings (1607, 1630–32), the process of enclosures accelerated in the 17th century and then also affected the forests.

Scotland

In Scotland , the evacuation of the rural population from farmed land and cottages came later - in the Lowland Clearances of the second half of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. The Highland Clearances, which only took place in the first half of the 19th century, were particularly notorious because of their numerical proportions and the recklessness of the landlords . This led to a strong depopulation of the Highlands, to the destruction of the previous clan system , to the almost complete disappearance (except in peripheral areas) of the Gaelic language in Scotland and, due to a lack of suitable jobs in the local cities, to mass emigrations overseas.

Central and Northern Europe

In Central Europe, enclosures were carried out especially for the common land of the three-field economy that was previously available to the entire village community and - where not reserved for the landlord in the Middle Ages - the forest. Here, too, there were major social changes in the countryside. The only exceptions to this are the Alpine foothills. There, the common ownership of meadows, forests and non-agriculturally usable areas (e.g. rubble heaps, rock and firn) continues to exist, partly in the form of corporations, which are reserved for use by a limited group of people. In southern and eastern Europe, on the other hand, the previous landlord system of management remained in place until after 1945, with relatively minor economic changes compared to central Europe. In Sweden, enclosures are called “hägnad”.

Change in the appearance of the landscape

In the earlier feudal agrarian order, hedges served as fences for cattle and as protection against animal enemies and attacks on cultivated fields. In use were bent or hedgerows . Thorny shrubs such as hawthorn are preferred for such border hedges, while pronounced softwood species, e.g. B. elderberry , in the hedge, because they are short-lived and lead to gaps in the hedge. Originally, hedges were usually planted with a single, preferably thorny, type of wood. Over the centuries, more and more other trees were added through natural seeding.

In England, based on the ability to date hedges with the help of the Domesday Book , it was found that the age of a hedge can be inferred relatively precisely from the number of different types of wood. Over a distance of 10 meters you can find about one additional type of wood per century. Huge enclosures were also created here, which apparently did not serve any commercial purpose, but rather shielded ritual places (see Dorsey ).

The division of brands in the second half of the 18th century brought large parts of the agricultural land into private ownership. Created as parcel boundaries, hedges clarified the ownership structure. There were also better breeding opportunities now. By only adding selected male animals to the viable female animals, the useful properties could be greatly influenced. This was an essential requirement for the increase in agricultural yields that preceded the Industrial Revolution .

In stony areas such as southern Europe, Ireland, the English Cotswolds and northern England and Scotland, dry stone enclosures are common.

See also

literature

  • Marx, Karl: Capital. Volume 1 ( MEW Volume 23). Berlin: Dietz Verlag 1962, p. 746 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Polanyi: The Great Transformation. Boston 1957, p. 34 f.