Pipe Rolls

The Pipe Rolls, sometimes called the Great rolls are tax records of the English and British government. They range almost completely from 1156 until 1833, and due to their continuity and completeness of one of the main sources for the social history of the Middle Ages. On parchment scrolls the annual reports of the sheriffs were ordered by counties ( county ) records, which were presented orally twice a year, at Easter and at Michaelmas in connection with the payments before the Exchequer. By 1733 the records were made in Latin, from then on they were conducted in English, which had already found a short time around 1650 application.

The Pipe Rolls were created alongside the Domesday Book as part of the centralization of the English financial management under the Norman conquerors. The oldest surviving document dates from 1130 and shows an already established procedures. Receive Throughout the Pipe Rolls since 1155th They were used for control of the local tax collector by a central financial management. The Pipe Rolls for the Normandy that stood until 1205 under English rule are preserved only sporadically.

As a source in the history, they are of particular importance, as it not only recorded the revenue of the English king, but also the expenditure of tax collectors, these were allowed to deduct from the proceeds. They provide an insight into the institutions and bodies of local administration. Enter as a comprehensive picture of the everyday management of the Middle Ages, and provide detailed insights into the development and shaping of the English state in the Middle Ages.

Aircraft in the Public Record Office, now part of The National Archives in Kew, they form the series E 372 for the publication of this English financial records, the PRO founded in 1883, the Pipe Roll Society, which is planning the continuation of the editions to 1350.