The enclosure of wild common lands in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain ended the ancient village economy. A remnant of the feudal open field system, the common existed as a source of grazing, foraging, firing, and building supplies. Use of the common was dictated by common right and filled an important niche in the village community. Parliamentary Commons Enclosure privatized these lands, increasing arable land but eradicating the common as a resource for the poor. A proponent of enclosure, the private Board of Agriculture surveyed the counties in Britain and published their results. These reports presented the commons as a source of moral corruption for society and a threat to the well being of the poor. Though a few voices condemned enclosure as an attack on the rights of the poor, the majority of surveyors for the Board of Agriculture vilified the poor in a quest privatize a public space.
