How did enclosure laws affect the poor?

How did enclosure laws affect the poor?

Enclosure laws favoured the landlords at the expense of the poor.

(i) Enclosed lands became exclusive property of one land owner.

(ii) Poor farmers lost grazing rights and other customary rights e.g., of collecting firewood from forests or apples and berries or hunt small animals for meat. Everything belonged to the landlords and had a price, which they could not afford.

(iii) The poor were deprived of ways to supplement their meagre income and means to tide over periods of crises.

(iv) Enclosures resulted in displacement of the poor from land. Many ended up becoming agricultural labourers or part-time workers as the poor could not find secure jobs and helped the master through the year doing a variety of odd jobs. For this they ate at the masters table.

(v) Earlier labourers lived within the compounds of the landowners and availed of certain facilities. But with enclosures, labourers were reduced to the status of wage earners and were employed during harvest time.

Work of the poor became insecure and income unstable.

(vi) With enclosures came threshing machines. These machines resulted in further displacement of labour. Wages became low and the number of poor unemployed large.