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and-no-and-then t1_j8getyq wrote

There is a English poem or song that describes the loss of the commons and rise of state ownership and it’s effect on law and punishment as well as classism. Here is an example :

https://unionsong.com/u765.html

What is the earliest example of this song or poem and who or what is it attributed to, a political movement party, ethnicity, religion, or class? How did it survive to be used until present day? And how has its original usage changed?

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quantdave t1_j8hpyet wrote

Surprisingly (to me anyway) it's first recorded in the second enclosure wave of the 18th-19th centuries, but it's widely thought to originate in the first (16th-17th centuries). It's an objection not to state but to private ownership, specifically the conversion of common land (where all villagers shared rights, notably in letting their livestock feed) to individual property, a process dating back to the Tudor wool boom but renewed with rising agricultural returns in the 18th century.

So it's a rhyme of protest against social & economic inequality, invoking the particular plight of smallholders but adopted more generally among workers and radicals: here the state is with the landowners who dominated political life into the industrial period, but it's they (and by extension later privileged economic interests) rather than the state itself who are the real target.

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