> it is obvious that GDP per-capita has been flatish throughout history by comparison to post Industrial Revolution times precisely because the vast majority of

> it is obvious that GDP per-capita has been flatish throughout history by comparison to post Industrial Revolution times precisely because the vast majority of people do not live off subsistence farming, make their own homes, clothing and footwear, etc. I mean obviously that's not true. You mean that the GDP per capita of Venice and the other trade republics stayed flat throughout their rise and fall as trading with the whole known world, becoming absurdly rich and their currency being used as the reserve currency for the whole of Europe? Or that Spain's colonisation of 2/3s of the Americas and the vast riches there such as mountains of silver, didn't impact their GDP per capita? Or that the Ottomans' stayed flat throughout their rise from a backwater band of mercenaries to an empire spanning three continents to a failed state?