For thousands of years after the agricultural revolution, farmers lived according to the commons system.

But the commons system was inefficient.

What happens when you hit a pinata and it explodes on the floor? Everyone fights for the common property, people get hurt, and everyone eats too much, depleting the available resources.

It would be better if everyone got their own bag of candy.

In the 1500s and 1600s in England, an enclosure movement divided up the commons into individual parcels of land.

Enclosure was good for agriculture. People had more incentive to manage the land well, since it belonged only to them.

Also, individuals could experiment with new farming techniques on their own property. Jethro Tull invented a seed drill that planted seeds in rows. Charles “Turnip” Townshend adopted the Dutch practice of crop rotation.

The enclosure movement ultimately resulted in a second agricultural revolution. With more food came more people… Lots more people.

But if you didn’t get a bag of candy, you had to leave the party. People who didn’t own enclosed land could no longer survive out in the country, so they flocked to major cities, where they worked for terrible wages.

Ironically, a revolution in the countryside created massive new cities.

These new urbanites traded information and labor-saving inventions more quickly than was possible in the countryside, and also became the cheap labor force of the Industrial Revolution.