Why did Thomas More criticize the enclosure of English farmland?

Thomas More criticized the practice of enclosure because it prioritized the profits of a few greedy individuals over the welfare of the broader population, leading to what he described as a national disaster.1

In his work Utopia, More highlighted that the conversion of productive land into fenced sheep runs displaced peasant farmers and destroyed traditional village life. By consolidating communal fields and common lands into private pastures, landlords reduced the need for human labor—as one shepherd and a dog could replace many workers—which forced families off their land and contributed to an increase in poverty, vagrancy, and starvation.12

More viewed this process as a moral failing, famously writing that greedy individuals were preying on their native land like a malignant growth. His critique reflected the broader concerns of humanists and clergy at the time, who lamented that the expansion of the wool trade and the resulting enclosures were effectively allowing sheep to "devour" the people.12