List of countries by GDP (PPP) in the nineteenth century

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These are lists of countries in the nineteenth century by their estimated real gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), the value of all final goods and services produced within a country/region in a given year. GDP dollar (international dollar) estimates here are derived from PPP estimates.

Methodology

Due to the absence of sufficient data for nearly all economies until the 20th century, earlier GDP is only roughly estimated. In a first step, economic historians try to reconstruct the GDP per capita of a given political or geographical entity from the meagre evidence. This value is then multiplied by the estimated population size, another determinant for which as a rule only little ancient data is available.

A key notion in the whole process is that of subsistence, the income level which is necessary for sustaining one's life. Since pre-modern societies, by modern standards, were characterized by a very low degree of urbanization and a large majority of people working in the agricultural sector, economic historians prefer to express income in cereal units. To achieve comparability over space and time, these numbers are then converted into monetary units such as International Dollars, a third step which leaves a relatively wide margin of interpretation.

The formula is: GDP (PPP) = GDP per capita (PPP) × population size

It should be stressed that, historically speaking, population size is a far more important multiplier in the equation. This is because, in contrast to industrial economies, the average income ceiling of premodern agrarian societies was quite low everywhere, possibly not higher than twice the subsistence level.[1] Therefore, the total GDP as given below primarily reflects the respective historical population size, and is much less indicative of contemporary living standards than, for example, estimations of past GDP per capita.

According to 20th-century macroeconomist Paul Bairoch, a pioneer in historical economic analysis,

it is obvious that by itself the volume of total GNP has no important significance, and that the volume of GNP is not by itself the expression of the economic strength of a nation.

Rather, Bairoch advocates a formula combining GNP per capita and total GNP to provide a better measure of the economic performance of national economies.[2]

The total GDPs of the British Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire were difficulty to calculate due to lack of information from some localities in Maddison's work. There is no information to speculate the GDP of many colonies and national subdivisions. In the case of Austria-Hungary, the data given is about the modern territory of the Austria and Hungary, while the majority of the population and economy lied out today's borders. There were data about future countries that were once part of the Empire. Using that, the Czechoslovakia's GDP was split in the rate of 2:1 to Austria and Hungary respectively because of the location of each part in the former empire and the population rate between Czech and Slovakian territories of 2:1. Data about the GDP of the territory of the future Yugoslavian kingdom in 1890s existed, so the proportion of the population among Croatia-Slavonia, Serbia and the other constituents of the future kingdom where used deduce the GDP of each place. Information about Galician GDP was deduced using the proportion of the people it had in what would become Poland. Information about other parts were missing, so the GDP of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was actually bigger than shown, as well as the British Empire.

Lists

Click on one of the small triangles in the headings to re-order the list according to that category.

List by the Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD (Partial forecasted estimates for 1889-1890) and Maddison Project[3][4][5]

RankCountryGDP
(millions of 1990 Int$)
 Worldat least 1,500,000
1 British Empire 351,527
2 United States211,678
3Qing dynasty Qing dynasty205,309
4 German Empire 126,172 (excluding colonies)
5France French Empire 108,772 (excluding territories with uncertain GDP)
6Russian Empire Russian Empire 106,299
7Austria-Hungary Austro-Hungarian Empire c. 63,000
8 Italy49,686
9Dutch Empire Netherlands 40,386 (excluding territories with uncertain GDP)
10Empire of Japan Empire of Japan37,016
11Spanish Empire Spanish Empire 35,399 (excluding territories with uncertain GDP)
12 Belgium20,443
13 Ottoman Empire18,749
14 Sweden-Norway 11,631
15 Empire of Brazil11,001
16 Mexico10,860
17  Switzerland8,766
18 Persia7,749
19 Argentina7,265
20Kingdom of Portugal Portuguese Empire c. 7,000
21Kingdom of Romania Romania6,553
22 Denmark5,462
23 Siam5,229
24 Chile4,781
25 Ethiopiac. 4,000
26Joseon Koreac. 4,000
27 Morocco3,182
28Bulgaria Bulgariac. 3,000
29 Colombia2,379
30 Venezuela2,172
31Kingdom of Greece Greece2,640
32 Nepal1,504
33Orange Free State Orange Free Statec. 2,000
34Kingdom of Serbia Serbiac. 1,708
35 Peru1,650
36 Uruguay1,594
37South African Republic Transvaalc. 1,000
38 Boliviac. 1,000
39 Guatemalac. 1,000
40 Luxembourgc. 700
41 Ecuador589
42 El Salvadorc. 500
43Principality of Montenegro Montenegroc. 500
44 Hondurasc. 500
45 Nicaraguac. 400
46 Costa Ricac. 400
47 Liberiac. 300
48 Haitic. 250
49 Monacoc. 50
50 San Marinoc. 30
51 Liechtensteinc. 25
52 Andorrac. 13
? Afghanistan???
? Paraguay???
? Emirate of Nejd???
? Dominican Republic???
? Muscat and Oman???
? Congo???
? Neutral Moresnet???
?  Bhutan???
?Hawaii Hawaii???

References

  1. ↑ Milanovic 2006, p. 460, 468:
    In conclusion, the fact that the average incomes in the most developed agricultural economies like Augustan Rome and Basil's Byzantium were about twice or less than the subsistence minimum might indicate that the pre-industrial societies were unlikely to ever exceed that ceiling. This in turn has implications for our assessment of the average standard of living in other, non-Western, pre-industrial economies like those of China, India, pre-Columbian Americas, and Africa....A further implication of these calculations is that a realistic maximum income that could be envisaged for the pre-industrial societies might be a bit more than twice the subsistence minimum, or around $PPP 1000 (at 1990 international prices).
  2. ↑ Bairoch 1976, p. 282
  3. ↑ "Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD". Angus Maddison. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  4. ↑ GGDC - Maddison Project
  5. ↑ David Rumsey
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