ch would have added greatly to its
size. It has, indeed, been suggested that the eastern counties' volume
represents a first attempt, and that it was found impossible, or at
least inconvenient, to complete the work on the same scale.

For the object of the survey we have three sources of information: (1)
the passage in the English Chronicle, which tells us why it was ordered,
(2) the list of questions which the jurors were asked, as preserved in
the _Inquisitio Eliensis_, (3) the contents of Domesday Book and the
allied records mentioned above. Although these can by no means be
reconciled in every detail, it is now generally recognized that the
primary object of the survey was to acertain and record the fiscal
rights of the king. These were mainly (1) the national land-tax
(_geldum_), paid on a fixed assessment, (2) certain miscellaneous dues,
(3) the proceeds of the crown lands. After a great political convulsion
such as the Norman conquest, and the wholesale confiscation of landed
estates which followed it, it was William's interest to make sure that
the rights of the crown, which he claimed to have inherited, had not
suffered in the process. More especially was this the case as his Norman
followers were disposed to evade the liabilities of their English
predecessors. The Domesday survey therefore recorded the names of the
new holders of lands and the assessments on which their tax was to be
paid. But it did more than this; by the king's instructions it
endeavoured to make a national valuation list, estimating the annual
value of all the land in the country, (1) at the time of King Edward's
death, (2) when the new owners received it, (3) at the time of the
survey, and further, it reckoned, by command, the potential value as
well. It is evident that William desired to know the financial resources
of his kingdom, and probable that he wished to compare them with the
existing assessment, which was one of considerable antiquity, though
there are traces that it had been occasionally modified. The great bulk
of Domesday Book is devoted to the somewhat arid details of the
assessment and valuation of rural estates, which were as yet the only
important source of national wealth. After stating the assessment of the
manor, the record sets forth the amount of arable land, and the number
of plough-teams (each reckoned at eight oxen) available for working it,
with the additional number (if any) that might be employed; then the
river