Question

What effect did the Enclosure Acts have on people’s working lives?

Answer 1

Option 2: Small farmers could no longer work on common lands and had to move to cities for work.

The Enclosure Acts, as a series of Acts between the 17th and 18th centuries, authorized the enclosure of open fields and common land in England and Wales, creating legal property rights to land that was held in common before.

As a result, thousands of smalls farmers couldn't work in the lands anymore, which force them to move to cities for work. Such people mobilization ended up contributing to the industrial revolution later on.