Communal farming was common in the UK before the notorious Enclosure Acts.
A Short History of Enclosure in Britain
Over the course of a few hundred years, much of Britain's land has been privatized — that is to say taken out of some form of collective ownership and management and handed over to individuals. Currently, in our "property-owning democracy", nearly half the country is owned by 40,000 land millionaires, or 0.06 per cent of the population,1 while most of the rest of us spend half our working lives paying off the debt on a patch of land barely large enough to accommodate a dwelling and a washing line.
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Private ownership of land, and in particular absolute private ownership, is a modern idea, only a few hundred years old. "The idea that one man could possess all rights to one stretch of land to the exclusion of everybody else" was outside the comprehension of most tribespeople, or indeed of medieval peasants. The king, or the Lord of the Manor, might have owned an estate in one sense of the word, but the peasant enjoyed all sorts of so-called "usufructory" rights which enabled him, or her, to graze stock, cut wood or peat, draw water or grow crops, on various plots of land at specified times of year.
The open field system of farming, which dominated the flatter more arable central counties of England throughout the later medieval and into the modern period, is a classic common property system which can be seen in many parts of the world. The structure of the open fields system in Britain was influenced by the introduction of the caruca a large wheeled plough, developed by the Gauls, which was much more capable of dealing with heavy English clay soils than the lightweight Roman aratrum (Fr araire ). The caruca required a larger team of oxen to pull it —as many as eight on heavy soils — and was awkward to turn around, so very long strips were ideal. Most peasants could not afford a whole team of oxen, just one or two, so maintaining an ox team had to be a joint enterprise. Peasants would work strips of land, possibly proportionate to their investment in the ox team. The lands were farmed in either a two or three course rotation, with one year being fallow, so each peasant needed an equal number of strips in each section to maintain a constant crop year on year.
https://thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/short-history-enclosure-britain
The Enclosure Acts were laws passed by the British Parliament to enclose, or fence off, farm land that had been previously open. Many enclosure acts were passed from about 1600 to 1900, thereby shutting off peasants from common lands on which they could formerly graze their sheep and raise crops.
The Enclosure Acts were passed so that landowners could make higher profits from their land and increase agricultural productivity. Farmers began to use techniques that resulted in higher yields and profits.
In addition, peasants who formerly worked the land were forced to leave rural areas because their labor was not needed. As a result, they flooded into urban areas before and during the Industrial Revolution, often forming part of the new factory working class. They also often immigrated--first to Northern Ireland and then to British colonies in the New World. Therefore, the process of enclosure resulted in augmenting the processes of urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. In addition, many historians cite the process of enclosure as the beginning of capitalism and the end of feudalism, as lands that were formerly held in common (or held by lords and used by peasants) became the domains of individuals who used them to increase profits.
https://www.enotes.com/topics/european-history/questions/what-was-impact-enclosure-acts-new-farming-619053
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leaves the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose
The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine
The poor and wretched don't escape
If they conspire the law to break
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law
The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back
17th Century protest song
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