The key to making it big in Daggerfall is money. I find the best way to make easy money is to go to a shop (General Stores work best), and loiter there until after the time when the store closes...
If you've done it right, when you click on a shelf, everything is free! From experience, I find that only taking the books is the best way to make cash fast. When you have all the books from every shelf in the store, simply go to the shop owner and sell all the books back to him! You'll be rich before you know it... ;-)