The mystery of why growth has been so fast from early 19th century up to the late 20th century is that living standards in the early 19th century were far below potential
I've been thinking about this blogpost for the last few days. Maybe the disparity is explained by TFR. My theory is that Western economy was in the 18th century growing slower than the population resulting in stagnating standards of living despite improving technology (what Malthus noted at the end of the period).
Ancient Greece was practicing infanticide, especially of girls, and infanticide could have kept the population stagnant allowing for higher standards of living despite a low technological level. I think the importance of infanticide is often ignored because it's an unpleasant and poorly documented topic.
After 1815 economic growth became faster and after 1840's technological improvements like germ theory, anesthesia and sewage improved life even if they didn't directly improved productivity so overall standards of living improved even as TFR remained high throughout 19th century Britain.
In this scenario Greece kneecapped its future by limiting population growth leading to the situation you mentioned in your comment of their overall population being smaller than that of the West making them more vulnerable to crisis while the West ended up with both a vastly higher population and vastly higher standards of living.
I've been thinking about this blogpost for the last few days. Maybe the disparity is explained by TFR. My theory is that Western economy was in the 18th century growing slower than the population resulting in stagnating standards of living despite improving technology (what Malthus noted at the end of the period).
Ancient Greece was practicing infanticide, especially of girls, and infanticide could have kept the population stagnant allowing for higher standards of living despite a low technological level. I think the importance of infanticide is often ignored because it's an unpleasant and poorly documented topic.
After 1815 economic growth became faster and after 1840's technological improvements like germ theory, anesthesia and sewage improved life even if they didn't directly improved productivity so overall standards of living improved even as TFR remained high throughout 19th century Britain.
In this scenario Greece kneecapped its future by limiting population growth leading to the situation you mentioned in your comment of their overall population being smaller than that of the West making them more vulnerable to crisis while the West ended up with both a vastly higher population and vastly higher standards of living.
Interesting as always. I'm now curious what you mean by institutions more conducive to economic activity.
The West is unique among other civilizations because it has 1000 years of growth now despite wars, plagues, climatic changes etc.
Very good, thanks. Could you share the source(s) for the food wage data?