GDP through the centuries

[citizen k]

 

Watch the world go green:

[Liep]

Africa is due to go green any century now.

[Siege]

Unhistorical

[Valmy]

They have economic data on Britain in Year 1 before its historical era had even really began. What did they base that on? Caesar's commentaries?

[Ed Anger]

They have economic data on Britain in Year 1 before its historical era had even really began. What did they base that on? Caesar's commentaries?

Datacus atta Assicus.

[The Brain]

They have economic data on Britain in Year 1 before its historical era had even really began. What did they base that on? Caesar's commentaries?

You know that's just a movie, right?

[The Minsky Moment]

I have a couple of Madison's books.  For pre-modern he basically assumes a baseline level of per capita GDP consistent with a subsistence agricultural economy.  (roughly 400 US in 1990 chained dollars).  He then assigns somewhat higher numbers (around 450 or so) to areas that he estimated enjoy higher agricultural productivity.  The Roman Empire is deemed to be one of those areas based on an estimate of overall consumption levels by a scholar who wrote a paper back in the 80s.  He also assumes that the Italy and the core eastern provinces enjoyed higher levels of income then the western provinces, which in turn enjoyed higher levels than the European areas outside the empire.

There is a more recent paper by Walter Schlegel and Steven Friesen that can be found online that addresses the estimates for the Roman Empire.