Conjectures of English and UK Economic Surplus, Investment, Tax Revenues and Deficit Amounts from the 13th to the 19th Century

Abstract

This paper attempts to estimate trends in the levels of economic surplus, public and private investment, and national government surpluses and deficits from accumulated capital income, taxation, and rents estimated by different economic historians for England and the UK. The data support historical accounts that income per capita growth begins to increase around the 1600s in Britain perhaps due to the level of capital, tax, and land income achieving an adequate threshold amount. According to some historians, this would also be about the time of capitalism’s ascent as the dominant economic system in England. Even then, dramatic increases in investment and economic growth do not appear until the late 18th Century when investment and deficits reach even higher levels. The data developed in this research note are offered as additional macroeconomic data supplements to works created by other authors and researchers.