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) x 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 populational 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 Crotia-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. Informations 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]
Rank Country GDP
(millions of 1990 Int$)
 World at least 1,500,000
1 British Empire 351,527
2 United States211,678
3Qing dynasty Qing Empire205,309
4 German Empire 126,172
5France French Empire 108,772
6 Russian Empire 106,299
7 Austria-Hungary 63,000
8 Kingdom of Italy49,686
9 Dutch Empire 40,386
10 Empire of Japan37,016
11 Spanish Empire 35,399
12 Belgium20,443
13 Ottoman Empire18,749
14 Kingdom of Sweden-Norway 11,631
15 Empire of Brazil11,001
16 Mexico10,860
18  Switzerland8,766
19Qajar dynasty Persian Empire7,749
20 Argentina7,265
21Kingdom of Portugal Portuguese Empire c. 7,000
22 Kingdom of Romania6,553
23 Denmark5,462
24 Kingdom of Siam5,229
25 Chile4,781
26 Ethiopian Empirec. 4000
26Joseon Kingdom of Joseonc. 4,000
28 Morocco 3,182
29Bulgaria Principality of Bulgariac. 3,000
30 Colombia2,379
31 Venezuela2,172
32 Kingdom of Greece2,640
33 Nepal1,504
34 Orange Free Statec. 2,000
35 Kingdom of Serbiac. 1,708
36 Peru1,650
37 Uruguay1,594
38South African Republic Republic of Transvaalc. 1,000
39 Boliviac. 1000
40 Guatemala- 1000
41 Luxembourgc. 700
42 Ecuador589
43 El Salvador- 500
44 Principality of Montenegro- 500
45 Honduras- 500
46 Nicaragua- 400
47 Costa Rica- 400
48 Liberia- 300
49 Haiti- 250
50 Monaco- 50
51 San Marino- 30
52 Liechtenstein- 25
53 Andorra- 13
? Afghanistan???
? Paraguay???
? Emirate of Nejd ???
? Dominican Republic???
? Muscat and Oman???
? Congo Free State???
? Neutral Moresnet???
? Bhutan???
?Hawaii Kingdom of 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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