We provide annual estimates of GDP for England between 1270 and 1700 and
for Great Britain between 1700 and 1870, constructed from the output side. The GDP
data are combined with population estimates to calculate GDP per capita. We find
English per capita income growth of 0.20 per cent per annum between 1270 and 1700,
although growth was episodic, with the strongest growth during the Black Death crisis of
the fourteenth century and in the second half of the seventeenth century. For the period
1700-1870, we find British per capita income growth of 0.48 per cent, broadly in line
with the widely accepted Crafts/Harley estimates. This modest trend growth in per capita
income since 1270 suggests that, working back from the present, living standards in the
late medieval period were well above “bare bones subsistence”. This can be reconciled
with modest levels of kilocalorie consumption per head because of the very large share of
pastoral production in agriculture