A different look at GDP per capita between 1500-1870 in selected countries (Germany-England-Netherlands-Spain-CN Italy-France-Germany)
A different look at GDP per capita between 1500-1870 in selected countries (Germany-England-Netherlands-Spain-CN Italy-France-Germany)
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Source: Malanima, P. (2010), “The long decline of a leading economy: GDP in central and northern Italy, 1300–1913” European Review of Economic History 15 (2)
This does not include colonies and paints a little different picture to Maddison numbers but still shows the divergence between England-Lowlands and rest of Europe which can’t be explained with generalizations like “Atlantic trade”.
*CN Italy = Central and Northern Italy
Here’s a different version I’ve put together, but from 1800 to today, in 2011 Dollars:
[https://i.redd.it/xiyrze3va7871.png](https://i.redd.it/xiyrze3va7871.png)
[Source for the data](https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2020?lang=en) (which goes back to 1 AD for some areas).
As horribly poor and authoritarian as the olden days were, at least the countries with good food and international orientation like Spain prospered as opposed to Germany and the Nordics today.
1870 UK: “Industrial revolution go brrrrrrrrrrr”
Still not *that* huge as a difference with the Netherlands, considering that we were very late with industrialisation.
F for Spain and Italy
Does this mean that people in Italy and Spain were on average poorer in 1800 than in 1500? That feels too awful to be true – am I just misreading the data?
Interesting. You clearly see the decline of the Dutch Republic between 1750 and 1800 and the big growth of England between 1800 and 1870.