We use a dataset of the entire population of English Parliamentary enclosure acts between 1750 and 1830 to provide the first causal evidence of their impact. Exploiting a feature of the Parliamentary process that produced such legislation as a source of exogenous variation, we show that...

"A powerful account of how the complex mercantile and military relationships between the British, Dutch, and American territories made the Industrial Revolution possible. Between 1500 and 1800, the North Sea region overtook the Mediterranean as the most dynamic part of the world. At its core the...