Domesday Economy : A New Approach to Anglo-Norman History

This book provides a new interpretation of the English economy between 1066 and 1086 by using methods not previously applied to Economic theory and statistical techniques to reappraise the information recorded in the Domesday book. It is the first major reinterpretation of the Domesday economy since the work of J.H. Round and F.W. Maitland almost one hundred years ago, and its publication in 1986 coincided with the 900th anniversary of Domesday. The authors apply modern theoretical and statistical methods to the unique data source of Domesday Book (1086) to analyse the system of manorial production and the nature of the national tax system known as danegeld in eleventh‐century England. Domesday Book includes detailed information on land ‘ownership’, income, resources, and fiscal responsibility for almost every manor in 1086 and, in some cases, in 1066. As no other document of any period or country can match either its detail or comprehensiveness, William the Conqueror's survey provides a rich database for modern economists. By using methods not previously applied to this period, the authors provide a new interpretation of the Anglo‐Norman economy—the first since the work of J. H. Round and F. W. Maitland a century earlier. This classic study has been responsible for stimulating the interest of, and further research by, quantitative economic historians in the medieval period

A remarkable work, the Domesday Book contains detailed and comprehensive information on ownership, income, resources, and fiscal responsibilities for almost evey manor of Norman England in 1086. The bewildering and voluminous data of the Domesday Book has baffled economists in the past, but Snooks and McDonald have compiled an unequaled new interpretation of this ancient work now in its 900th anniversary. Using modern economic theory and statistical techniques, the authors reappraise the relationship between manorial revenue and resources to attain a new perspective on the English economy between 1066 and 1086.

Frontmatter (page N/A) Preface (page vii) List of tables (page xiii) List of figures (page xiv) PART I HISTORICAL STUDIES 1 Domesday Book re-examined (page 3) 2 The economy and Survey of 1086 (page 11) 3 Old and new approaches (page 37) 4 Tax assessments for the geld (page 51) 5 Manorial income (page 77) 6 The system of manorial production (page 97) 7 Towards an economics of Domesday England (page 117) PART II ECONOMIC AND STATISTICAL METHODS 8 Statistical methods (page 127) 9 Economic production functions (page 177) 10 Estimating stochastic production functions (page 209) Bibliography (page 228) Index (page 235) For this volume, published on the 900th anniversary of the Domesday Book, the authors have used modern economic theory and statistical techniques to reappraise the information recorded in the Book, and reach some new conclusions about the economy of the period