A note on other economic statistics. I have long suspected that GDP/capita becomes an important measure at about the same time as you can get that number from the tax offices.

I read an old encyclopedia (1930ies I believe) that did not contain any concept of GDP, but instead had National Fortune, a concept which - though hard to measure - was believed to show the relative strength of countries economies. National Fortune was the value of all the stuff in country. Buildings, roads, bridges, railroads, cars, horses, gold (never forget the gold) and so on. I think those who used National Fortune and National Fortune/capita would have scoffed at GDP and GDP/capita and pointed out that this only measures the amount spent and received nationwide, not what that capital produced. In terms of National Fortune there is a wide difference between building a road and blowing up a road, while the effect in GDP might be the same.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se