Until the Enclosure Act of the 18th century agricultural land was divided up into many small fields most of them not contiguous. This made farming very inefficient and labour intensive. The idea of enclosure was for surveyors to travel the countryside measuring and apportioning land on an equitable basis making possible larger fields and thus improving efficiency. The act did not provide for this to be done on a voluntary basis and the farmers whose land was to be measured had no choice but to bare the cost of the surveyors board and lodgings and pay their wages. This was the death knell for many small farmers who were simply unable to cover these costs. The resulting bankruptcies allowed the larger land owners to increase their holdings by buying up the land at knockdown prices.

At the same time the Common Land, land owned by the Crown and thus free for all to use for grazing, was also enclosed and added to the larger holdings. Many subsistence farmers and small holders were no longer able to graze their animals on this land and they were forced to either become wage earners on the larger estates or leave the land completely. This coincided with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the opening of the new factories that required little in the way of skilled labour. Large numbers of agricultural workers migrated to the growing towns and cities, their numbers added to by the rural dwellers whose livelihoods were destroyed by new technology, such as spinners and weavers.

The consequences were to change Britain from an agricultural based economy into an industrial one. Between 1700 and 1900 the population rose from 10 million to 40 million and by the 1840s Britain ceased to be self sufficient in food production.