Abstract: The essence of the capitalistic land property system in Britain is individual's complete ownership of his land and labour force regardless of his political identity．In the pre-capitalist society, there was no complete private property right in Britain because there was no independent individual at that time．From the perspective demonstrated in this article, mixed ownership of land is a ubiquitous historical phenomenon in the pre-capitalist society．Through long-term social game and the clear of the feudal fiefdom system in legal sense, the Statute of Tenures which was passed by the English Parliament in the mid-17th century illustrates that the British have taken the lead in achieving private land ownership in the form of the national legislation．It was unprecedentedly absolute private ownership．The enclosure movement proceeded continuously before and after the legislation．After the confirmation act of land property was passed by the parliament, the enclosure movement became the confirmation practice of land property which was more normalised and legitimate than ever．The pioneered social practice was followed by the confirmation of the law, while the law normalised and promoted broader social practice in turn which led to the Parliamentary Enclosure．At the key point of the establishment of the modern private land property in Britain, this article organically combined the abolition of Knight Service and Parliamentary Enclosure over a century together．The Parliamentary Enclosure had same essence with the Tudor Enclosure in the 16th century, both of them were land reform movements with market direction. However, the Parliamentary Enclosure was almost completely promoted within the frame of law. Despite there were resistances from some small-scale peasants because of the harm of their interests, chaos and repetitions reduced in general and the consequences of the enclosure were protected by the law, laying a solid foundation for the rise of Britain in the modern world.

Published on World History, Issue4, 2021.