Timeline of the economy of the Indian subcontinent

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This is a timeline of the economy of the Indian subcontinent. It includes the economic timeline of the region, from the ancient era to the present.

Pre-colonial period

  • 500 BC
    • Silver punch-marked coins[1] were minted as currency belonging to a period of intensive trade activity and urban development by the Mahajanapadas.[2][3]
  • 1 AD
    • India's economy had a 32.9% share of world income, the largest in the world.[3]
  • 1000
    • India's economy had a 28.9% share of world income, the largest in the world.[4]
  • 1500
    • India's economy had a 24.5% share of world income, the second largest in the world after China, which had a 25% share.[5]
  • 1600
    • India's income of £17.5 million (population approx. 150 million people) was greater than the entire treasury of Great Britain in 1800, which totaled £16 million.[6]
  • 1700
    • India's economy had a 24.4% share of world income, the largest in the world.[7]

Colonial period

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There is no doubt that our grievances against the British Empire had a sound basis. As the painstaking statistical work of the Cambridge historian Angus Maddison has shown, India's share of world income collapsed from 22.6% in 1700, almost equal to Europe's share of 23.3% at that time, to as low as 3.8% in 1952. Indeed, at the beginning of the 20th century, "the brightest jewel in the British Crown" was the poorest country in the world in terms of per capita income.

East India Company

  • 1850
    • The gross domestic product of India in 1850 dropped to 5-10% and was estimated at about 40 per cent that of China. British cotton exports reach 30 per cent of the Indian market by 1850.[10]

British Raj

Post-Independence period

Nehruvian era

  • 1952
    • India's economy had a 3.8% share of world income.[11]
  • 1973
    • India's economy was $494.8 billion, which accounted for a 3.1% share of world income.[11]

1980–1991

Economically closed.[citation needed]

1991–present

See also

References

  1. Nupam Mahajan and R. Balasubramaniam, "Scanning electron microscopy study of an ancient silver punch-marked coin with central pentagonal mark", Numismatic Digest v. 22.
  2. "Ancient Indian Coinage", RBI Monetary Museum, rbi.org
  3. 3.0 3.1 The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Angus Maddison
  4. Angus Maddison (2001). The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, OECD, Paris
  5. Angus Madison (2003). The World Economy: Historical Statistics, OECD, Paris
  6. Bowen, H. V. Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756-1833 (2006), 304pp
  7. Kumar, Dharma and Meghnad Desai, eds. The Cambridge Economic History of India: Volume 2, c.1751-c.1970 (1983).
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  10. http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/papers/broadberry-gupta.pdf
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Further reading

External links