ABSTRACT
As was noted in the Introduction to this volume, parliamentary enclosure has been the subject of controversy for over a hundred years. The debate continues: broadly, the difference of opinion is not so much one of ideology, between historians of the left and those of the right; rather it depends more on what weight is given, on the one hand, to the social effects – the loss and distress experienced by squatters, cottagers and small occupiers, and how extensive these effects were; and, on the other hand, to the economic benefits, in the shape of increased food production and, often, expanded rural employment at a time of an upsurge in population and rapid urbanisation.
