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But on the other hand, the Enclosures provoked a number riots[1], so I don't think everyone agreed with you that "free" city life was better than rural serfdom,

• Turing_Machine 5y ago
  Of course everyone didn't agree. People don't work that way. Even today, there are people who prefer living in cabins without electricity or running water somewhere out in the Brooks Range of Alaska. However, most people don't do that (though a large number claim to aspire to something like that, few actually do it, and of the ones who actually do it, even fewer stick it out once the realities set in). The point is that the migration to the cities was in progress long before the Enclosure Acts came on the scene.
  • helpfulmandrill 5y ago
    I'm not sure that is the point. I personally don't think we can treat the choice made by such large numbers of people as comparable to the choices of a few modern cabin-dwelling weirdos. I think we should take seriously what appears to have seemed preferable for large numbers of people at the time, given the information they had, and lacking the benefit of centuries of hindsight.