Abstract

It is of great significance to find a reasonable historical chain between the seemingly abrupt‘enclosure movement’and the relatively quiet manor system to reveal the continuity of history, demonstrating the internal logic of history.It is one of the important principles of land relations in medieval England and Western Europe that tenants had a stable possession of tenure.Its positive significance cannot be underestimated and it should realize that this principle is still confined to the manor framework, bearing the coercive factors of identity and power.With the further development of the freedom struggle of tenants and the market economy, the nature of feudal tenure transformed distinctly in the 15th and 16th centuries.This paper analyzes the changings of freeholder, copyholder and the rising leaseholder, and of the nature of their lands.The copyholder became the main body of the peasants.It is worth noting that more than half of their lands were held for a certain period and protected by the customary law and common law.In other words, the tenants obtained the freedom and the feudal tenure gradually turned into the commercial land or semi-commercial land with the clearer property right boundary and lease term.In addition, the leasehold advanced rapidly, of which the lease term and rents fluctuated almost along with the market changes.In general, it became a universal rule that most tenure can be terminated except the free holdings.The lands with customary tenure, which possessed identity and were inherited by generations, decayed inevitably and transformed into commerical land with contract, while the laws were updated accordingly.This is a long but quite profound process, providing the most crucial and direct evidence to interpret the unique historical phenomenon of enclosure which is also a significant historical node.This demonstrates that the great mutations cannot occur in isolation.

Published on World History,Issue 1,2018.