Income Inequalities among Nations before the Industrial Revolution

Six different approaches were used to estimate the range of national income per capita before the Industrial Revolution. The most significant index was the determination of minimal cost of living in current prices for countries which had already reached levels of development exceeding those of the richest countries in the framework of traditional societies. Comparison of minimal cost of living & average level of consumption provided an excellent indicator of income spread before the Industrial Revolution. Other methods used were: calculation of real per capita income for countries at a stage of development approaching that of traditional societies; situation in European countries at the beginning of the nineteenth century in terms of real GNP per capita; long term evolution of real wages in traditional societies; per capita income of European cities in the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries; & contemporary views of national inequalities as reflected in then current accounts. These approaches all yielded convergent results which suggest that before the Industrial Revolution the income gap between the poorest & the richest country was probably on the order of 1 to 1.5. However, regional differences were probably more important. 5 Tables. Modified HA.