The Fencing Of The Commons | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a. production of iHeart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm. Josh, and there's Chuck and Jerry's. here, too. And we're just uh trucking. along, doing our thing. Uh it's called. Stuff You Should Know. Oh, is this the episode on the great 70s. movie Convoy? No, this is the episode on the um coming.

down the pike in the future movie. fencing the comets. Oh, I thought it was. fencing the convoy. No. Boy, there's a. lot of mashups happening. Yeah, we're. we're we should probably let's stop. joking around. We've had a lot of fun. here, but let's get serious. Um we're. talking about fencing the commons. Yeah. And for anybody who heard our episode on. the tragedy of the commons, they're. fairly related. They're talking about. the same thing. The commons are both the.

same thing, but there's radically. different stuff going on here. Um, just. go listen to our um our tragedy of the. commons episode. I won't give a rundown. of it, but fencing the commons, some. people point to it was this this process. of separating and extracting land from. people to whom it had formerly belonged, everyday people, literally commoners. Yeah. or maybe not belonged but at least. you know made use of to survive. Okay.

Well, it depends on who you ask. Oh. yeah. But it is it is it is possible say. some historians that this is where. wealth inequality came from. Yeah. That. this is where wage labor came from that. this is where a lot of the really not. great features of the modern world were. rooted. Yeah. And when you dig into it, you're like, "Wow, this is a a decision. by a really self-interested group of. powerful people to pull off a really big. land grab in jolly old England.".

Boy, I love that self-edit there. Thanks. That's between you, me, Jerry, and the lamp post. That's right. Uh. shall we shall we get on with it then? Yes. I feel like that was a good setup, if I do say so myself. I agree. Just. like the old days. Not that your setups. now are no good, but in the old days it. would have been like, "Chuck, have you. ever eaten grass off of a Commons?" Uh, yeah. I think in that last Commons. episode actually mentioned that the. Commons was the area of our high school.

Uh, in in just the big middle open area. inside where everyone would hang out. because that was a common area. And. that's what the Commons are in this. case, too. Uh, and Libya did a bangup. job with this one, I think. Yes, she. did. Knocked it out of the park, as we. say. Yeah. out of the commons. And uh. we're going to start, as Livia suggests, with William the Conqueror because that. makes sense in this case. Uh the Normans. when they conquered England in 1066, they said, "All right, here's what we're. going to do. Uh all the um the wealthy.

um noble people of our land are going to. get all the land." And so let's just. divide it all up. Uh they're going to. live there on manners. And if you if you. have a manor house, you are the lord of. that manor. you're um you have. allegiance to the king obviously, but uh. on that land of yours, besides your. manor house, there's also going to be a. peasant village. There's going to be. some uh some great farmland that they're. going to work for you. Uh so they can. give you lots of food. And then there's.

also the commons, which all of the uh. peasant people or commoners can can. share. They can divide it up and and. share it and live off that stuff. Yeah. And this land was not the commoner's. land. This is not peasants land. This is. the medieval era. I guess it kicked off. the medieval era. And just to be clear, this was this was that lord's land like. you were saying. Um but the commoners. had what are called usiftory rights. which is basically like they don't own.

the land but they have like actual legal. right to use and to work that land and. to take the products of their work from. that land to sustain themselves. So this. is the arrangement like the and and it. worked pretty well for several centuries. it turns out. Yeah, it did. Uh you know. they divided that land into um basically. straight strips and we'll get into that. in a second uh for each household. Uh. and there was also the waste which will. come into play. Uh it sounds like a.

terrible word to name basically the. forest. Uh but you know it's where they. couldn't farm but it was uh you know. it's where the rivers were, that's where. the trees were. So that's where they. hunted and fished and gathered Pete and. wood and stuff like that. So it was. still very valuable area as far as use. goes, but they called it waste. It was. just not a good good term. Yeah, agreed. But so with the farmland themselves, like you said, they cut them up into. strips and just imagine like a series of. fields. One field is just grass. We'll.

call that like the meadow. It's where. all the sheep and the cows are grazing. Now, there's another field and that's. where a bunch of crop land is growing. There's another field. There's more crop. land. And if you look very closely. there, those the crop land is divided up. into very long thin strips. And each of. those strips belongs to a different. person who farms that common land in. both fields. And that's how things were. divided up. And you didn't have two.

strips next to each other because they. didn't want anybody to get like all the. good dirt. Yeah. And then you would have. strips in both fields because there were. different things growing in different. fields. And the whole thing rotated. every few years. And the a different. field would become the new meadow. because the sheep and the cows would pee. on it and um fertilize it for next time. around when it became crop land again. Yeah. So it was it was just basic crop. rotation. It made a lot of sense. they.

would let it rew. Uh they, you know, they were straight because they had. these very tough to use plows that did. not turn very well. So they just made. these long straight strips. Uh they. would take care and share the oxen that. uh it took to pull these plows for. everyone. Yeah, that was a big one. And. it was, you know, it was uh sort of like. a it wasn't like uh like communism or. anything or socialism. It was just like. how it was. It was like, hey, we're all. going to care for this land. We're going. to rotate the crops so the land stays.

good for all of us and we're going to. all help take care of the the ox and. we'll help each other out and we're not. going to put up fences uh because the. animals have to graze around and we all. just have to agree on how to do this and. they basically did. Well, that's the big. one. Um because you are sharing strips. with your neighbors in a single field, everybody has to do the same farming all. at the same time. It's almost like the. the group of commoners working those.

fields were collectively one single. farmer making right these decisions on. when to harvest, when to plow, when to. do all that stuff. And like I said, it. worked pretty well. It's important. because these people are the losers in. this situation and we usually root for. the underdog. So we have to be careful. not to over idealize life in a medieval. English peasant village. Like it was. tough. That's a good point. Like if the. if your crops failed and it turned out.

that your um your neighbors thought you. you worshiped Senunos, they might burn. you at the stake. Like it was it was not. necessarily the easiest life, but it. seems to be a a life that was very. satisfactory to the peasants because. when it came time for them to be forced. to give it up, they did not want to give. it up. They wanted to keep living like. that because the alternative that they. were given was not preferable to peasant. uh village life. Yeah. It's like, hey, go go go move to the city and work in a.

textile mill. Mhm. Uh so they didn't. necessarily also divide this up evenly. Um the it was you know it was divided up. according to like a lot of um like. inherited stakes that had been around. for a long long time in the families. Um. there were people that did not get any. land at all and basically were just the. hired farm hands even within the peasant. village. Yeah. Uh but they did get um. resources they could generally hunt and. fish and things like that uh in the.

waste um after the harvest if they were. like you know crops that were left over. or not uh completely utilized uh they a. lot of times could had access to those. So, you know, they were they were. getting along okay, you know, when you. look at the alternative, which is um. having no land at all to farm, I guess. Yeah. And although there was inequality, you could still work your way up. There. were people who had more land than they. necessarily needed. So, if you were. landless, you could sublet that land,

work that land, and start giving. yourself a foothold and maybe eventually. buy that strip or those strips of field. for yourself. So it seems like yes there. were some people who were wealthier than. others. Um but the the the difference in. income equality and social equality is. much closer than it it would become in. the next few centuries. Yeah, for sure. And they also, you know, thought ahead. like, hey, you within this system, you. can't just get so rich and still be.

here. So they had like an income cap. basically. So if you went above that, they're like, "Sorry, you're you're not. a commoner anymore. You can't farm this. land." Um, and they did this in a pretty. democratic way. They had a local council. that they elected that, you know, every. year they would allocate these strips. for different households and stuff like. that. They would set fees for like um, you know, grazing and pasturing and. stuff like that. Yeah. And get their. agricultural calendar in order. And. yeah, that's just how it went for a long. time. And like you said, for a couple. hundred years, it it wasn't uh, it.

worked out pretty well. It did. Um, so. apparently around 1235, so people have been farming like this. for a couple hundred years by then. Um, there was a a statute passed and I'm not. I don't know the the ins and outs of it, but it was called the statute of. Mertton. I wonder if the statute was. named for the famously long necked. defensive back for the San Francisco. 49ers, Merin Hanks. Obviously it was. But regardless of who it was named.

after, the statute of merant said that. if you were the lord of a manor and you. want to like close off your whole well, I guess manor um if you want to close. off some of it, you can do that legally. from now on, but you have to make sure. that there's plenty of common land left. for the peasants to work and live on. And I I guess whoever that was passed. for was like, "Yes." and everybody. else's didn't pay much attention to it. for about a hundred or so years. And. then something happened in England and.

Europe in general that really altered. the trajectory of history and that was. the Black Death when as much as half. half of the people in England died off. from this one plague in just a couple. years. So this uh it's interesting to. see how things like this in history can. just change the course of history, right? because had the black death not. happened um obviously a lot of people. would have still been alive. But uh. aside from that, like this may have.

never gone down that way. Uh because it. it was a just a a radical shift in the. way the country looked and how they had. to operate moving forward because. obviously when half the people go away. and leave the planet, uh is that how I'm. saying this now? They got sniffed off the case forever. Yeah. Like it was the snap or something. uh there's going to be a labor shortage. Just the the nuts and bolts of it is. there's going to be far less people to. do that kind of work. Uh which is was. kind of good for the peasants at the. time because all of a sudden they had.

some bargaining power, right? And they. said, "Hey, maybe we should get paid a. little more. Um we also don't need as. much food because there's only half the. people." And so that uh all of a sudden. paved the way for more sheep grazing. because England started realizing, hey, there's a lot more money and a lot. easier money to be made uh in textiles. and shearing these sheep and selling. wool in the wool trade than there is. this this farming. Like that's for the. birds, right? So because sheep are much.

less labor intensive, require way fewer. farmers but more land, the people who. were wealthy started going after. enclosure more and more. They started. following that statute of Merton Hanks. Yeah. And um and saying like, "Oh yeah, I want to enclose this. I'm going to. enclose this and turn it into grazing. land for sheep." Yeah. And people were. actually displaced. Some people were. some entire villages were displaced. And. it was as simple as that. It was, "You.

don't live here anymore. Get out." And. don't forget, I'm the lord of the manor, so what are you going to do about it? Sometimes there were armed um people who. would show up and tell them to leave. It. was just it was just as illegal and. indefensible as that. But that's exactly. what happened. People were moved out for. sheep because they could make more money. off of wool than they could off of crops. because there weren't that many people. who needed the crops in the first place. So this huge land grab first started. because the price of wool was pretty.

expensive and that that started the. first what you would call really the. first wave of enclosure back in the uh. 14th 15th century. Yeah. And you know. what we mean by fencing and enclosure is. uh literal fencing because they had to. keep those sheep there. If not the sheep. are going to go away. So they had to. physically construct um barricades uh to. keep these fences in. Sometimes they. were literal fences, sometimes there. were these hedges, but yeah, if you're. thinking like, you know, topiary type,

you know, finery of a of a English. garden, uh it's more like a hedge that. they they train to grow so thick and. then vines attached to that that it. essentially acts as a fence. Yeah. Like. you just can't get through it. There's. too many brambles and blackberries and. all that stuff. So yeah, these these. hedges, if you're British, you are. probably pretty fond of your hedges. They're part of British culture. Um, but. outside of Britain, they it it's worth. going to Britain just to see the hedges.

So the hedges have like two or three. Michelin stars. I can't remember. That's. right. Uh, the other thing we have to um. point out here is that sometimes um it. was a little more like how how it was. supposed to work officially is different. than how it went down in practice. Um, officially you were supposed to get. unanimous consent of all the. stakeholders of the commons in order to. sell that off and fence it up for your. sheep, but it it obviously didn't always. work out that way. Uh, like you said, sometimes they just took it. Uh, sometimes they forced them to move to a.

very much less desire. They're like, "Here, take this land. U, it's not. nearly as fertile, but uh, look, I gave. you something." Um, and sometimes, yeah, it was just completely illegal. Yeah. And so some people were like, "Hey, this. is kind of messed up." Uh, one of the um. most well-known voices uh was Thomas. Moore who wrote his book Utopia in 1516. and he was pretty clearly against the. sheep. He called them the great. devourers who who devoured entire.

communities. Um, and you know, obviously. it wasn't the sheep's fault. They were. just doing what they do, which is kind. of feel bad for the sheep in that. Yeah, I know. They really took the brunt of. it. Um but it was because of this the. raising sheep that became so profitable. that that's what was really devouring. the communities. Um and it got the the. ear of Henry VIIIth. Remember he was the. guy who uh killed Richard III and and. took over. He was the first tutor king.

He said hey I am hearing what you're. saying. So let's kind of slow down these. enclosures because we don't want to. uproot the the peasantry. We want them. to keep doing what they do because that. is England as far as anyone thinks of. England. Yeah. Uh so that's sort of the. first bucket of enclosure, the first. wave I guess. And the first trunch. The. first trunch. That's right. Uh so maybe. we should take a break and we'll come. back with uh some a little more intense. enclosure right after this. Learning things with Chuck and J.

You should know. [Music]. All right. So, as promised, we talked. about the uh the first wave of enclosure. and now the second wave a couple of. hundred years later uh comes back in a.

in a much more intense form uh because. the the government the like the whole. government of England said all right. this is how we're going to do things now. because in the last hundred couple. hundred years textile making has really. become the thing. Uh although we're. getting most of our wool and cotton and. stuff from uh our various colonies all. over the world, uh it's not like we need. all this for sheep. Um we think this is. just the way to go because we really. need to make our our whole agricultural.

operation much more efficient and it was. not efficient when people were just. doing their own thing with these little. strips of land. Like one person or one. entity needs to kind of be in charge of. all of this so it'll be more efficient. and smooth, right? I ideally and in. practice a peasant could support himself. and his family and you know maybe have a. left enough leftover to sell or. something like that but you can't really. support a a growing workforce a labor. force that you're creating basically out. of whole cloth with the industrial.

revolution started in England thanks to. these wool factories converting them. into textiles you need a bunch of people. for that so you need to figure out how. to take the people off the land and put. them in the factories and then you have. to figure out how to feed those people. from the land that you just moved the. people from and you can pay them so that. they actually have to buy the food from. the land that the you just forced them. off of. Yeah. You can start to see like. what a bad deal it was. But because.

there was so much money to be made. because there was such a huge leap. forward just waiting to be taken through. the industrial revolution. the powers. that be guided, steered, um, railroaded. England and the English into the cities. and the factories in the cities. Yeah. And, uh, one of the biggest, um, sort of. pillars of this new system, uh, was the. the Norfolk fourcourse system. And a guy. named Lord Townson, uh, nicknamed. Turnup,

uh, I believe he brought this over from. the Netherlands. Uh, his nickname was. Turnup. And wouldn't you guess turnipss. are part of this fourc course system. It. involved crop crop rotation. In this. case, wheat, uh, turnipss, barley, and. clover. Uh, you might be wondering, like, clover, what good is that? Clover. was good for the grazing. It's good for. the bees, too. So, honey, yeah, it's. good for the bees. It's good for the. soil. Uh, and it also meant that they. didn't need to let those uh fields go. down for a season and rew. They could. just kind of keep rotating things, right? Uh, and you could use those.

turnipss to feed the livestock that are. grazing on the clover. And previous to. that they might slaughter uh livestock. at the end of the season in the early. winter. Um another big change was that. the seed drill came along which is. allowed them to plant in these very long. straight rows uh just you know endless. endless straight rows and they planted. uh grain. And guess who introduced that? Josh and audience I know who it is.

Yep. Survivor. Oh man, Jethro Tol baby. Oh yeah, Jethro Tol. That's right. I knew it all along. I was. just teasing. So, um, did you know. Jethro Tol was a British band? Oh, I I. did not. I just thought he was the guy. that came up with the seed drill and was. generally feeling like a dead duck. No. Uh, they were a British band and. apparently someone in their agent's. office was a history buff and was. telling them all about Jethro Tull and.

what a great and inventive person he. was. So they're like, "We'll just name. our band Jethro Tol." Yeah. Even though. it'll make no sense because it doesn't. fit with our music at all. We're going. to name our band Jethro Tol. I think it. kind of fits. Do you think so? Yeah. When I think of sea drills, I think of. Floutists. I think of Ian Anderson. dancing around on one leg like a. flamingo. Nice. Okay. I guess it makes. sense now that you put it like that. We've talked about Aqualong quite a bit. on this show. I I don't know how you. don't talk about Aqualong like pretty.

frequently. It's It's just there. It's. worth talking about for sure. I love. Very divisive song. I think it's great. and kind of fun. Oh, yeah. Some people. hate it. Boy, a lot of people. Yeah. I. wonder why. It's a weird song. It's odd. Um, so I guess the upshot of all this is. that a an industrial revolution uh was. coincidental with an agricultural. revolution and one fueled the other, which is pretty interesting because this. is happening at the exact same time. But.

even still, the government was like, you. can't just go in and steal people's. land. If you want to enclose your land. and consolidate it so that you can. create this superefficient agricultural. land that you can make tons of money off. of, selling food again to the peasants. who were just removed from that land. that they used to farm. It just gets me, Chuck. Um, you have to do that through. act of parliament. You have to petition. Parliament and say, "I want to enclose. this land." And not only that, you have.

to have a supermajority of um the local. area to agree to it. And there were two. things that helped people with this. One, the same people who were trying to. enclose the land were in parliament or. at least friends with them. And the. people who who provided the. supermajority to say yes, you can. enclose the land were their friends and. neighbors and people in the same class. So, it's not like these were huge. obstacles that the people enclosing. Great Britain had to overcome at the. time. No. Uh, and if you're thinking.

like, "Well, guys, are you telling me. they passed like thousands and thousands. of acts of parliament?" Uh, they did. exactly that. That they passed about. 4,000 of these between 750 and 1860, so. just a little over a hundred years. And. almost 11,000 square miles of England, uh, beginning at the start of the 20th. century was now enclosed. That's about a. fifth of the entire area of the country. Um, if you're wondering about the waste, we mentioned the waste. We don't want to. let the waste go to waste. Uh, they were.

um enclosed as well. Like it wasn't like. they they fenced all of that off, but. um, a lot of it was. And they said, "Hey, I know you used to to hunt and. fish here, but now we're going to take. our our our ritzy hunting parties out. here uh, and you're not going to be. allowed to hunt." and or or we may just. raise it and have our own gardens. Uh it. might be like agricultural that um you. know we get some of our food from. But. it'll probably be just like uh like you. know the English gardens that we love to.

gaze upon with our riches show off. Yeah. Yeah. I have a real problem with. that as well. So people just didn't. necessarily take this lying down. There. were huge huge waves and spasms of. violence throughout the centuries from. the beginning of enclosure up until the. 19th century. Um, this is a really, really big deal. Um, you can trace it. all the way back to the 1381 peasants. revolt. That wasn't entirely about. enclosure, but it was a factor in it.

Um, and trace it up to the English Civil. War where the Diggers came along. The. Diggers were a radical faction of a. radical group called the Levelers. And. their whole thing was enclosure is a a. mess and it's terrible and we're not. going to put up with it. The diggers, I. think, kind of capture what the issue. was to the peasants. And that was to. them, if you were born British, you had. a birthright to British soil. Like the. country belonged to you as much as it. belonged to anybody else who was born in.

Britain. And your right was to work that. soil and make a living for yourself. however you wanted to. and coming in and. enclosing this area and forcing people. from that land was a violation of the. birthright of those British people and. um you know they engaged in violence and. they would break down enclosures and. fences and hedges but ultimately they. they lost that battle or that war. Yeah. And if you're wondering about uh I feel. like I'm a waste guy today which I kind.

of like. It keeps just popping up. whenever it's my turn. Uh and it Well, I'm looking at the script here. Or is it. my line? This it's your line. You didn't. highlight your lines. Sorry. Sorry. Uh. yeah, as far as the waist goes, um you. know, I said that a lot a lot of them. were uh kind of closed off as well, so. they couldn't use them. So obviously. there's going to be some like sabotur. action going on there. Sabotur. These. were commoners known as the blacks, and. they would poach deer on in the waste. They would destroy trees because trees.

uh all I mean they were always a bit of. a commodity but they became an. increasing commodity uh because of the. uh the ship building uh prowess uh the. growing ship building prowess of England. at the time and the British Royal Navy. fleet that was just growing and growing. British sea power great band. So they. were doing this and so the government uh. passed the black act which basically. said all right if you get caught. poaching a deer on land that you hunted. all your life we're going to kill you. Uh and it was the death penalty and so. hundreds of people were hanged for.

poaching those deer that they had always. been hunting. Yeah. So the the the the. way of life that these people lived was. outlawed. And so to engage in that way. of life, you were now a criminal and the. crimes you committed, eg killing a. rabbit on enclosed land, maybe even. chasing after a rabbit through someone's. enclosed land could get you killed by. the government. Like that's what. happened with that. This is how serious. things got. And um the back to the I'm.

going to take a waste one if you don't. mind. Well, the the subwaste which is. the fins. Okay, fine. It's not the. greatest waste, but it's important. because the fens were a um and I think. still are in some places a big vast. marshy area of England. And the people. who wanted to grow crops for that. agricultural revolution and make a bunch. of money were like, "We should drain. those because that'll immediately turn. into really great crop land." And the. people who lived on the fence, the.

peasants, said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. We're. using those." And so this this kind of. battle um for public opinion broke out. and the people who were trying to make. the money off of it told everybody else. like, "This is just waste land, like. terrible land. Not even the other. version of waste. this is just terrible. land that's not doing anybody any good. and the people who don't want to leave. are too lazy to come into the cities and. work. So forget them. The peasants said, "Hey, we can make way more money working.

the fence than we can working for you in. the cities." And it worked for a little. while. The fence, they managed to save. off the fence being drained from the. 1700s for most of the 1700s and then. ultimately lost out. That's a recurring. theme in this Chuck. The people who were. defending their right to the land. ultimately lost out over and over and. over again. Yeah, for sure. Um you'll be. glad to know like just like the first. sort of wave of enclosure when there. were some uh people speaking up and.

saying like is this really the best. idea? Uh during the official. parliamentary enclosure, some people. some officials even uh stepped forward. and said hey I don't think this is the. best thing that we're doing here. Uh. there was a guy named Arthur Young who. who actually was uh pro- enclosure uh. and was promoting that kind of stuff as. the secretary of the board of. agriculture. But then as it started to. play out, he was like, "Wait a minute. We've got these uh villages that are. just drying up. We've got these. commoners that are impoverished now.".

And so I'm going to whip up a report. here and take it to the board. And they. said, "This is an 1801." And they said, "Thanks, but no thanks. We're not even. going to take a look at that." I think I. saw somewhere that something like 350. English villages just vanished in that. hundred years of the parliamentary. enclosures. Yeah. I mean just gone like gone. Yeah. I I guess there's different ways of. looking at this. Like you can't stop. progress and it's not like if this. hadn't happened there would still be. these, you know, villages of commoners.

in this modern society. But it's the way. it went down was just pretty despicable. Yeah, for sure. Um there was another group that were. similar to the diggers, but they were. more interested in like um income. equality, um fair wages, uh kind of. industrialized stuff like workers. rights, but they were also interested in. in agrarian rights as well, the. chartists. They We talked about them. before, right? Yes. In the Pinkerton. episode, Alan Pinkerton started out as a.

chartist. That's right. And they tried. to actually kind of um get back to the. land. They bought a bunch of these. enclosed lands and turned them back into. crop land. But I saw that they were a. victim of their success because they had. like 70,000 people joining in to do this. and they just could not get enough land. fast enough. So they ended up going. bankrupt. Yeah. And you know, like you. said, their their just the way their. country looked changed so radically. Um. and it wasn't just about the way of. life. It was like that the medieval.

village was a uh was something that the. people of England like uh that's all. they knew. So all of a sudden it's just. everything is changing so fast and it's. being foed upon them so fast. There were. you know there were poets and there were. authors like writing these books and and. uh ods about you know the the. destruction of the way of life that they. had always known. Uh so it was sort of. in the in the cultural um uh ether. Yeah. Ether as well. Zeitgeist.

Yeah, I don't think they said zeitgeist. then, did they? Yeah. Okay, so cultural. ether. I didn't realize that was a term. of the peasantry, but I get it. They may. not have had ether at the time either. Um, so Chuck, I say we take our second. break and come back and talk some more. about this, like what actually happened. from this. Let's do it. [Music]. Stop. You should know. [Music].

Okay, so we're back and enclosure has. become this orgy of land grabbing and um. displacement. One other thing we we. should have said is that um Parliament. kind of enforced movement to the city. So you would have your village stolen.

out from under you and turned into sheep. grazing land or crop land or something. like that. And now you were homeless. So. legally you were considered a vagrant. Vagrancy was a crime. You were a. criminal if you didn't have a place to. live. So where are you going to go? I. need to make some money uh fast. I'm. going to move to the city and start. working in the factories. So like just. choice after choice was shut down for. everybody and the effects of this huge. sweeping change in Britain um just. rippled across the world because one. thing would feed into another thing.

would feed into another thing and then. the whole thing would cycle back again. and every time it cycled back it would. just grow and grow and grow and grow. And the British Empire uh in the 19th. century rose based on the agricultural. revolution that fed the industrial. revolution and it just exploded. It just. started to grow exponentially. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you can look at. anytime something like this happens, you. can kind of pick apart uh little um. small parts or not small changes, I.

guess. They ended up being, you know, pretty monumental, but like just, you. know, did people live longer? Were they. healthier? Mhm. Uh did wages increase. stuff like that. And uh wages for labor. did rise. Uh but it was really hard hard. work. It was pretty intense stuff. Uh. it's hard to get a lot of uh data and. nutrition sort of statistics for that. time period. Uh but uh if you look at. things like you know average heights and. weights and things like that, it seems. like malnutrition maybe increased uh.

because you know people were working in. these factories and it was pretty. dangerous wage work and uh they didn't. have like the best food available to. them at the time. Um you're going to. have a lot more people that have less. So obviously they're going to turn to uh. like the church or maybe even the. government and say, "Hey, you kicked us. out of our land. We're poor. We need. help. Uh you need to help us subside.". And at the time, you know, and that's. that's still, you know, a big debate all. over the world, like how much um should. should the rich help the poor or people. just of regular means help the poor? And.

it was a thing back then a lot, you. know, a lot of people were saying like, hey, it's not the government's place to. step in and support the poor. It's just. not we're not going to get involved in. that. No. And a big one was Thomas. Mouthys who wrote the essay on the. principle of population. We've talked. about Mouthys a lot. I think he even got. his own episode and he's unfairly. saddled with the idea of like no no no. you just let the poor die. It's just a. it's just a a natural check and balance. to prevent overpopulation.

And he was not advocating that. He was. pointing out that is a check on. overpopulation, not make sure that that. happens. But he was the one he was the. first one to really get across like um. our agricultural production will never. be able to keep up with population and. so we have to kind of be concerned about. overpopulation at some point in time. Yeah, for sure. Uh so now you have a lot. of people living in cities uh far fewer. people living in the rural farmland that. where they used to live. Um the. population is actually rising a lot. Um.

between 1750 and 1850 over a 100 years. it may have doubled. Uh, of course this. is, you know, after being hald with the. black death. Uh, it may have been, you. know, just sort of the way things went. Yeah. 20 more people. Yeah. Exactly. Uh, but, you know, there's there was a. definite increase in efficiency of. agriculture. Like no one can deny that. like what they set out to do, they did. pretty successfully uh because you had. to support this larger population and. free up those workers to work in the. city. So, that all worked well. If that.

was uh if that was your aim, if you're. on that side of the argument, you could. point to all those things and saying. like, "Hey, our Navyy's strong. We got a. great urban labor force now." And uh. everyone's, you know, everyone's happy, right? I mean, you could say quality of. life in England rose. I mean, the the. middle class, the merchant class. suddenly exploded in wealth. There were. a lot of people who got rich off of it, uh off of the industrial revolution and. all the stuff that came from it. And you. can kind of step back and look at.

England going from uh the pe making sure. the people fed themselves to making sure. that the people of England and other. places like Australia, New Zealand, um. colonial America, um were supplying. England like itself with the food it. needed to put out these goods that it. could then sell and continue to grow in. wealth. That's kind of the switch that. happened. And you mentioned the British.

Navy. I mean, like they the the enclosed. wastes. directly contributed to the rise of the. British Navy because those timbers were. used for ship building. And as the. British Navy grew more and more. powerful, they had more and more clout. to colonize more and more places. increasingly brutally so that they could. extract raw materials to feed into the. industrial machine in the cities of. England. Yeah, for sure. And this.

inspired the rest of the world to to go. out and do likewise uh as everything was. becoming more modern. Uh it certainly. inspired probably the uh what happened. in Russia in 1861 when Alexander 2 um. said you know what uh no more surfom in. Russia. Uh the landlords are going to. just basically what they did in England. The landlords are going to get the best. farming land. Uh surfs you can buy that. land back but you got to take out these. big heavy loans uh from maybe even your. landlord or maybe the state and you.

should move to the city. We got rising. growth in industry uh because it's the. industrial revolution just like in. England and we're going to exploit you. just like we did in England. Uh and that. led eventually to in part to the Russian. Revolution. It did. And I mean that's. like a legitimate response to having. your land stolen from you. A uprising of. peasants. It's just it happened to work. in Russia where it kept getting tamped. down by the government century after. century in England. And so the. government and the the interested the.

wealthy interested parties won out. Um. but enclosure was so successful that. Britain exported it to its colonies and. basically said we're doing the same. thing here so that you guys can become. more and more efficient and provide more. and more raw materials for export back. And it just didn't happen just in the. colonies. Scotland very famously had its. highlands cleared of thousands of. highlanders. like they just came in just. like they did to the peasant villages. and said, "Get out and if you don't, we've got swords and you don't want.

these swords." Actually, by that time, they probably had musketss and such. But, um, that was just that they just. kept doing it over and over and over. again and each time it seems like it was. a worse and worse thing morally. speaking. Yeah, for sure. Uh, there are, believe it or not, still some comments. today. Uh they not every single one of. them was was done away with. Uh there's. just a handful though uh in Laxton. apparently in North Noddinghamshire. Uh.

they have an open field system and they. have three uh fields that they never. enclosed and they are divided into. strips just like the old days and farm. by uh tenants of that manner. And. there's also a guild called the Oxford. Freeman who own the town meadow of that. city. And they uh they can, you know, they can pasture their their cattle. there and their horse and they can uh. fish in the part of the Tims that run. runs alongside that uh I guess jointly. owned or cared for meadow. Yeah. Uh so. yeah, there are still places that.

survive, but it enclosure itself is done. in Great Britain. It's been done since. the 1860s. And the reason it came to an. end was because those the the middle. class, the merchant class who became. wealthy in the cities said, "Hey, we. want parkland. We want places to be able. to go and like have picnics and stuff. And this enclosure is eating up that. land, so we need to stop enclosure." Um, and so they did. They created something. called the Commons Preservation Society.

They gained influence in Parliament. They gained support in Parliament. There. was an 1876 act called the Commons Act. that said you can only enclose a piece. of Great Britain if there's a public. benefit of it. And that group, the. Commons Preservation Society, eventually. um created the National Trust, which. now, Chuck, here's the great twist of. irony, protects the very same hedges. that created enclosure in the first. place and prevent farmers who want to.

tear up those hedges from tearing them. up because they're protected by old. enclosure acts. Wow. Amazing stuff, huh? Yeah. Uh, you got. anything else? I got nothing else. Well, that's it about fencing the commons or. enclosure. And I think that means we've. just teed up listener mail. That's right. Uh, this is from. Christina. Hey guys, I was very. interested in the episode on paganism.

Uh, as I'm a Christian who's always had. an interest and respect for paganism. I. wanted to clarify on some uh comments. you made about Easter and its roots in. paganism. Uh, yes, it is true. The many. things we have about Easter are based on. the pagan celebration of Oara. However, we often focus on that uh to the neglect. and misattribution of the influences of. Judaism on Easter. Uh in English and the. Germanic languages, the holiday we call. Easter was taken uh from the name Oara. However, in the Roman uh romance. languages and many other uh languages, the name for that holiday is based on.

the Jewish Passover, which is when. Jesus's death and resurrection is. supposed to have taken place. In. Spanish, it is uh Pascua. In Italian, in. Catalin, it is Pasqua, etc. Uh, the time. of the year is also based on Jewish. Passover. It's a spring holiday. So, when Christianity was moving through. Western Europe, it did coincide with. Oara, but that's not why Easter takes. place in the spring. The bunnies and. eggs and sun symbolism are all pagan. But let's not ignore Christianity's. origins out of Judaism and its. influences on the day. Man, that's a.

great email. Who is that from? That's. great. Uh, that's from Christina. She. says, "Uh, thanks a lot for what you do. I listen a lot uh to a lot of true. crime, but I am happy that I still have. you guys and stuff you missed in history. class." Nice. Our compatriots, Holly and. Tracy, uh, to listen to now that my baby. is learning to talk and I need to listen. to less murder and more familyfriendly. content. Yeah, we are pretty family friendly, aren't we? Hey, we try to be not. We We. do our best. So, thanks Christina. And.

that raised something that I realized we. didn't mention when we were talking. about evidence of pagan roots still. around today. Our days of the week are. almost all rooted in paganism. Like. Thursday, Thor's day, that's where that. came from. Saturday is Saturn's day. Like all of the days of our week come. from pagan gods essentially. Isn't that. neat? Goats head day. Yeah. Did you say. goats head day? Yeah. which became.

Monday. That's good stuff, buddy. Well, thanks again, Christina. If you want to. be like Christina, uh, and send us in. the email, especially a great one like. that, you can send it off to. stuffodcast@ iheartradio.com. Stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart Radio. For more podcasts, iHeart. Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple. Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows. [Music].