Question

What is thought to be the relationship between enclosure, the agricultural revolution and the development of capitalism?

Answer 1

The Enclosure Movement was another important feature of the Agrarian Revolution. British farmers planted their crops on small strips of land in the decades and centuries before the 1700s, while allowing their animals to graze on common, collectively shared fields. However, the British parliament passed legislation in the 1700s, referred to as the Enclosure Acts, which allowed for private ownership of the common areas. This has resulted in wealthy farmers buying up large sections of land to create larger, more complex farms. In the end, this forced smaller farmers off their land

This eventually forced smaller farmers off their land. Many of those farmers, having lost their way of life, went to local towns and cities in search of work. This was important for the Industrial Revolution as a whole, because it helped to create a system that would create a large workforce for the factories and mines.
The Enclosure Movement generally involved the British parliament passing a series of acts that allowed for increased private ownership, which was a key feature of the Industrial Revolution. It forced the poor to migrate to centralized sites such as industrial towns and cities and to seek work in factories and mines

Farming became an enterprise rather than just a means of subsistence. The farmers had to remain competitive under free market capitalism. In order to be successful, they had to become effective managers who incorporated the latest agricultural innovations to be low-cost producers.