Wealth and Growth of the Thirteen Colonies: Some Implications

Alice Hanson Jones

The Journal of Economic History, 1984, vol. 44, issue 2, 239-254

Abstract: Private wealth of the inhabitants of three regions and of the Thirteen American Colonies as a whole, in 1774, estimated from a statistical sample of probate inventories and supplementary data, is the focus. The author's prior interest in consumption and levels of living led to these innovative estimates which supplement national wealth estimates for the United States in later centuries. Levels of wealth compared on a per capita basis with other times and places, as well as wealth inequalities among regions and among individuals, and rates of growth in real wealth per capita are all considered. Some complexities of intertemporal and interspatial wealth comparisons are indicated, in particular the implications of the striking North-South differences in 1774 with their fateful implications for the American dilemma.

Date: 1984
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