>But why enclosure? Why travel abroad and steal people? Why did it
>occur to people to enclose common land for the first time? Why didn't
>they think of it before?
Well, if Brenner is right, enclosure arose because changed class relations in England, reflected in legal reforms like the increasing alienability of land and the decomposition of feudal ties of serfs to the land, made the use of the commins for sheep-rearing possible and profitable. New class relations created new interests, and new interests created new ideas. Presumably travel abroad to steal people was a function of the newly acquired lands in the New World, which required more labor power than Europe could easily provide. I don't know so much about that, though. --jks _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com