The Domesday Book(s): Income Before and After the Norman Conquest

The Domesday Survey provides the first comprehensive national survey of England. By providing a means to identifying the extent of arable activity in the non-seigniorial economy, the Domesday Book enables transparent estimates for production in the non-seigniorial economy to be derived for the Domesday economy and for a detailed understanding of how landholding shifted hands between Tempore Regis Edwardi (TRE), in the time of Edward the Confessor (1066), and Tempore Regis Willelmi (TRW), in the time of William the Conqueror. By examining the Little Domesday Book, which provides a more detailed account of the resources and incomes in 1066 for three counties than those contained in the Great Domesday Book, containing the other 31 counties, it is shown that growth rates were, while modest by modern standards, four times the average growth rate that occurred between 1300 and 1690. Given the relative absence of technological change, and the comparatively short time window examined, the finding implies that organisation change was a substantive driving force of that short-term growth. It is also suggested that the substantial redistribution and concentration of landholdings were aligned to a regime shift that had pervasive impact on income growth and inequality over the very long run.