> we have far more crime today Are you quite sure about that? Ron S

May I place the issues of the Enclosures Acts and their social impact in a historical perspective? I take NO issue at all with the proposition that the punishment meeted out in those years was by our standards harsh and oppressive. However the following should be taken into account. I make no comment about crime then and today. Firstly: The country's population was swelling before Enclosures and there were increasingly pockets of starvation due to "bad seasons" more and more often. By great good fortune and big landowner in Norfolk, Townsend had rationally discovered that crop rotation reduced disease in crops and hugely increased yield. ( The Norfolk System) Now, (here is the point) without much bigger units of production, that is the enclosure of large parcels of land, the system could not have been introduced on a cottage scale, cottagers simply would not have grown their carrots any differently to grandad. Starvation would have increased especially in the industrial centres. The Enclosures Acts enabled the country to feed itself as its population grew. This is not to say that this was the reason for enclosures, but it is the case that it was the consequence. Secondly: The wealth and ultimate betterment of the industrial population depended on supplies of raw materials being reliable and cheap. The Black Country was especially exposed to this need. The Enclosures enables larger units of production to be assembled for coal, marl, limestone and iron ore and the history of the Black Country is essentially all about this. All was not well however. The Wards failed miserably to use their land ownership to build communal big scale pumping and draining of the deep mines, and much coal was lost due to flooding in the deeper seams. They did bring in the Cornish engineers and "gins" to help but on a scale that was inadequate. ( my forebears were ladder, hole in the ground, shovel and donkey men at Birds Meadow Pensnett... 2 chaps below and 3 above...not big time by any means, on a franchise from the Wards following the Enclosure of Pensnett Chase.) Also we should remember that the Truck Act and banning of payments by token and the abolishment of the Butty system were driven in the teeth of "London" opposition by a Wealthy Black Country Land Owner, Lord Lyttleton of Hagley, this ultimately transformed the work/ reward balance of the nation let alone the Black Country, although he had to have two bites at the parliamentary cherry to do it. Cheers Roger Thompson -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ron Snape Sent: 29 July 2009 11:38 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Black Country] The causes of crime > we have far more crime today Are you quite sure about that? Ron S ------------------------------------- The only List that specifically covers the whole of the Black Country. Run by Black Country folk who were born and still live in the area. ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message