Chapter Eight. The Emergence Of Modern Economic Growth In The North Sea Region

Abstract

This chapter reconstructs the development of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the long term, on the basis of several benchmark estimates mainly derived from work by other authors. This will be combined with a simulation procedure to estimate the annual development of GDP per capita, based on a Cobb Douglas production function. The debate about the pace of economic growth in the early modern period emerged in the 1990s. The chapter presents an update on the research carried out recently, focusing mainly on the countries bordering the North Sea: England and Holland. It discusses modern economic growth - a sustained increase in GDP per capita made possible by technological change and accompanied by structural transformation of the economy - began in the seventeenth century in the North Sea region, most clearly in England, where it continued during the eighteenth century, but came to a halt in the Netherlands.Keywords: early modern period; economic growth; gross domestic product (GDP); North Sea region