why did the british set up record
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
I’m guessing that you’re speaking about records of legal fact rather than 20th century vinyl? (Or this could be very off topic…)
The original reason was for taxation and it wasn’t a British invention but a Norman one. In the late 11th century William of Normandy invaded England, defeated the Anglo-Saxon King Harold, and became William I of England.
In order to figure out what he’d just won he had to figure out what belonged to who (I.e. him, the church, or other individual) and who could raise money from it. To do this he ordered a complete survey of his new kingdom to be made. It recorded who owned what land, which animal, which plough etc etc. This became known as the doomsday book as it was said that even on the day of judgement (doomsday) no more would be known. It was so important to him he had it completed with 17 years of his invasion. Every single ruler of England since then has seen how useful this information is. If you don’t know how many people there are and what they own how can you tax them correctly?
The downside of this need for accurate knowledge is that it creates both bureaucracy and a huge amount of paperwork. Since the 11th century this has grown exponentially as more and more detail was required. For an incomplete example: when and where were you born, whom did you marry, when and where did you marry them, who are your children, when and where were they born, when and where did you die, what did you die of.
As you can see the list of records that the state requires is now very long and so the amount of paperwork is enormous. Because of this they created records offices (and earlier record rooms) as a place both to have events recorded e.g. marriages, births etc. and a place to hold those records. Because of the colonial nature of Britain from the 17th century onwards this system was then exported to the countries that were colonised as the best system known for understanding and managing the population.
This system can be used for the benefit of the population or the benefit of the state and it is up to the individuals of that population how much information they allow the state to hold and what they are allowed to do with it. For example without the death records of individuals and where they lived Dr. John Snow could not have identified the origin of cholera as a waterborne disease rather than the traditional (and very wrong) theory of miasma (London, 1854). Equally, without the records of who lived where and what they owned the Conservative Party could not have even attempted to install a taxation system known as the poll tax which was eventually cancelled after riots which lead to the resignation of then prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
I do hope this answers your question but I apologise if I’ve just given you the history of English bureaucratic record keeping when you were asking about something else.
Answer:
The British believed that by preserving official documents, it would be easier for them or any other persons to know about the decisions taken in the past. One can study the notes and reports that were prepared in the past.