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34

REIGN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH.

[ch. i.

tillage to pasture, the lords of the fee had authority to seize half of all profits until the farm- buildings were reconstructed. If the immediate lord did not do his duty, the lord next above him was to do it; and the evil still increasing, the Act, twenty years later, was extended further, and the King had power to seize.^[1] Nor was this all. Sheep-farming had become an integral branch of business; and falling into the hands of men who understood each other, it had been made a monopoly, affecting seriously the prices of wool and mutton.^[2] Stronger measures were therefore now taken, and the class to which the offenders belonged was especially pointed out by Parliament.

'Whereas,' says the 13th of the 25th of Henry VIII., 'divers and sundry persons of the King's sub-

↑ 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 22.
↑ There is a cause of difficulty 'peculiar to England, the increase of pasture, by which sheep may be now said to devour men and un-people not only villages but towns. For wherever it is found that the sheep yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary, there the nobility and gentry, and even those holy men the abbots, not contented with the old rents which their farms yielded, nor thinking it enough that they, living at their ease, do no good to the public, resolve to do it hurt instead of good. They stop the course of agriculture … One shepherd can look after a flock which will stock an extent of ground that would require many hands if it were ploughed and reaped. And this likewise in many places raises the price of corn. The price of wool is also risen … since, though sheep cannot be called a monopoly, because they are not engrossed by one person; yet they are in so few hands, and these are so rich, that as they are not prest to sell them sooner than they have a mind to it, so they never do it till they have raised the price as high as possible.'—Sir Thomas More's Utopia, Burnet's Translation, pp. 17–19.
See, also, a petition to the Crown, describing the extent and effects of the enclosing system, which I have printed in a subsequent volume of this work.

[1] 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 22.

[2] There is a cause of difficulty 'peculiar to England, the increase of pasture, by which sheep may be now said to devour men and un-people not only villages but towns. For wherever it is found that the sheep yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary, there the nobility and gentry, and even those holy men the abbots, not contented with the old rents which their farms yielded, nor thinking it enough that they, living at their ease, do no good to the public, resolve to do it hurt instead of good. They stop the course of agriculture … One shepherd can look after a flock which will stock an extent of ground that would require many hands if it were ploughed and reaped. And this likewise in many places raises the price of corn. The price of wool is also risen … since, though sheep cannot be called a monopoly, because they are not engrossed by one person; yet they are in so few hands, and these are so rich, that as they are not prest to sell them sooner than they have a mind to it, so they never do it till they have raised the price as high as possible.'—Sir Thomas More's Utopia, Burnet's Translation, pp. 17–19.
See, also, a petition to the Crown, describing the extent and effects of the enclosing system, which I have printed in a subsequent volume of this work.

[1]

[2]