National Income in Domesday England

Abstract

In 1086, for the first time in recorded history, it is possible to reconstruct and provide a benchmark estimate of the national income of an economy from manorial data. A record following the watershed in English history that accompanied the successful invasion of William the Conqueror, the Domesday Book provides a broad set of information relating to England in 1086. No survey on the scale of Domesday was to be conducted for many centuries following its completion. The next attempt to provide a national survey of England, the 1279 Hundred Rolls, was abandoned before completion and only a proportion of the original returns have survived (Kosminsky, 1956; Raban. 2004).