Using William the Conqueror's accounting record to assess manorial efficiency

Abstract

Domesday Book data relating to England in the eleventh century possess many attributes of an accounting record, being used by the king for fiscal and control purposes. In the paper, the data are used to further our understanding of the eleventh century English economy. The efficiency of medieval manorial production is compared with that of more modern economies and the impacts of manorialism andfeudalism on production are assessed. Evidence is presented that manorial production was not haphazardly organised-as some historians have argued- and manorialism and feudalism, while contributing to the defence of the realm, were a major economic cost.