“Enclosures have appropriately been called a revolution of the rich is against the poor. The lords and nobles were upsetting the social order, breaking down ancient law and custom, sometimes by means of violence, often by pressure and intimidation. They were literally robbing the poor of their share in the common, tearing down the houses which, by the hitherto unbreakable force of custom, the poor had long regarded as theirs and their heirs'. The fabric of society was being disrupted; desolate villages and the ruins of human dwellings testified to the fierceness with which the revolution raged, endangering the defenses of the country, wasting its towns, decimating its population, turning its overburdened soil into dust, harassing its people and turning them from decent husbandmen into a mob of beggars and thieves.”
Quote by Karl Polanyi
Work
The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time
Browse quotes and source details for this work. more
Author
You May Also Like
Source: How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed
Source: How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed
Source: Café Europa: Life After Communism
Source: Café Europa: Life After Communism
“It was small and shabby, but very clean, with the kind of cleanliness that spoke of poverty.”
Source: Nettle & Bone
Source: Imaginary Maps
Source: The Three-Body Problem
Source: त्रिकूट: धर्म का चक्रव्यूह
Source: The Ink Black Heart
