As the calculations of aristocratic incomes have shown, the class disposed of a great quantity of money and goods, amounting in a year to about a half-million pounds, or more than ten times the budget of the state in peace-time. The getting and spending of the aristocracy account for a sizeable share of the total economic activity of the country, and a very high proportion of the cash transactions, given that for much of the period the value of the coinage in circulation amounted to less than one million pounds. How was their wealth spent? And on what was it spent?

Aristocrats functioned Avithin the social and administrative unit of the household, and our knowledge of their spending depends on household accounts. These documents took many different forms, including daily or weekly statements of goods bought or used, and annual summaries of expenditure. The earliest known accounts were compiled in the late twelfth century, and they became more elaborate and formalized in the succeeding two centuries. They were written by household stewards or their clerks, and were then audited, often daily. Because they had little lasting administrative utility they were kept on wax tablets that could be reused; if on paper or parchment, the records were destroyed. Relatively small numbers of these documents survive, and then often in isolated examples, so unlike manorial accounts they cannot be studied in long series.