Historical national accounts — some methodological notes

Abstract

The oldest known attempts to construct aggregates summarising the total economic activity of a nation were made by William Petty in 1665 and 1676. ¹ These estimates, relating to the national income of England, were published at the beginning of the 1690s. Six years later a new and now celebrated estimate of England's national income was compiled by Gregory King.² His calculations were more detailed than Petty's and probably more carefully executed.