## Metadata - Author: [[Catherine Knight]] - Full Title: An Uncommon Land - Category: #books ## Highlights - The Down Survey of Ireland was significant, not just due to its scale but because it was the first-ever detailed land survey on a national scale anywhere in the world. The purpose of the survey was to measure all the land to be forfeited by the Catholic Irish so that it could be redistributed to all the men who had fought for the English army. Land was the basis of the economy and, as a result, the Down Survey has been described as ‘the first systematic effort to survey a country’s economy’. ([Location 152](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0F6YRBPCF&location=152)) - Enclosure was first enabled by law by the Statute of Merton 1235, which allowed the lord of the manor to enclose land provided he maintained sufficient commons for his tenants. Initially the pace of enclosure was slow, and it was subsequent socio-economic shifts that provided the impetus for the accelerated phase of enclosure. Principal among these shifts was the rise in wool prices, making sheep farming increasingly attractive (as compared to grain cultivation). However, the intensive grazing of sheep was incompatible with the commons system because, if unrestrained, animals could wander into neighbouring fields and eat another farmer’s crops. ([Location 264](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0F6YRBPCF&location=264)) - The upsurge in enclosure from the 16th century also coincided with English conquest of land and people beyond the British Isles. The first English slave-trading voyage to Africa took place in 1562. The colony of Virginia, the first enduring British colony in North America, was established in 1607 – the same year as the Midland Revolts. ([Location 291](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0F6YRBPCF&location=291)) - The second phase of enclosure was facilitated by Parliament and its scale is readily ascertained. Between 1760 and 1870, about 4000 acts of parliament enclosed seven million hectares of land – about one-sixth of England’s total land area. ([Location 294](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0F6YRBPCF&location=294)) - ‘Housing cost burden’ measures the proportion of disposable income that must go towards either repaying a mortgage or rent. New Zealand has one of the highest housing cost burdens among OECD countries.3 Our housing stock is also woefully inadequate and much of it is unhealthy: for instance, in 2018, one in three people reported problems with damp and mould in their homes. ([Location 2876](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0F6YRBPCF&location=2876)) - New Zealand has a proud history of social housing. Ours was the first central government in the Western world to build public houses for its citizens, through the Workers’ Dwellings Act 1905.6 ([Location 2886](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0F6YRBPCF&location=2886))