ABSTRACT
Comparing life in a village in Roman England with medieval life 1000 years later, no major changes would be noticeable. The villagers would cultivate small plots of land and keep some livestock close to their homes, have a life expectancy of less than 35 years, and live in hovels, cold in winter and dark at night. Living standards, real income and consumption were more-or-less stagnant. We often forget that economic growth as we know it is a phenomenon of the last 250 years, propelled by the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe and a continuous stream of technological advancements.1 This unprecedented and almost uninterrupted rise in real income or GDP per capita since the mid 18th century was soon perceived to be an end rather than the means to something else, and economic growth became a synonym for progress in general.
