Before the Industrial Revolution, the world was mired in poverty

People often ignore or forget that "the history of poverty is practically the history of humanity" (Henry Hazlitt, The conquest of poverty, Unión Editorial, 2020, p. 19).  

Poverty is manifested as "the primitive condition of the human race" (Jeremy Bentham, in: The "state of nature" is a state of poverty | Mises Institute). 

Poverty is the result of the lack of production of wealth (Antonella Marty, The liberal manual, Deusto, 2021, p. 97).

For a long time, the belief has prevailed that prosperity had grown gradually over the course of human history, in a process that was accelerating over time. However the Israeli economist Oded Galor maintains that this is not the case, that it is a distortion (The journey of humanity, Paidós, 2022, pp. 15 and 60). While the development of technology certainly reflects gradual progress over time, this advance did not have positive effects on either the economic measurement of quality of life (per capita income) or the biological one (life expectancy). life). 

Both in the era of hunter-gatherers (which lasted approximately 190 thousand years) as in the peasant era (which began 12 thousand years ago and ended at the end of the 18th century), people lived in conditions of extreme poverty and were constantly threatened by famine.

It was extremely serious the fact that individuals could not Ensure sufficient energy for the proper functioning of the body. Before the Industrial Revolution, the population tended to grow at a rate higher than food supply (Johan Norberg, Progress, Deusto, 2017, p. 35). The Economist American of Spanish origin Xavier Sala i Martín maintains: «Throughout history, human societies have been formed by a few very rich citizens and an overwhelming majority of poor ones. The 99.9% of the citizens of all societies in history, from the hunter-gatherers of the Stone Age, to the Phoenician, Greek, Etruscan, Roman, Goth or Ottoman peasants […], passing through the farmers of Medieval Europe, the America of the Incas, the Aztecs or the Mayans, the Asia of the imperial dynasties or precolonial Africa, lived in situations of extreme poverty. "All, absolutely all of these societies had the population at the limit of subsistence to the point that, when the weather was not favorable, a significant part of them died of starvation." (Capitalism reduces poverty in the world, 22-10-2013).

It is important to remember that France faced numerous famines throughout the 11th to 18th centuries. During the 18th century, in particular, it suffered sixteen famines (Norberg, Progress, p. 30). 

Infant mortality was very high. In hunter-gatherer societies, about 20% of children died before their first year of age (Angus Deaton The big escape, FCE Chile, 2015, p. 95). Because infant mortality was so high, agrarian societies required women to give birth to an average of five or six healthy babies to keep the population at a stable level. (Ian Morris, Hunters, farmers and coal, Attic of Books, 2016, p. 135). Giving birth was as risky for a woman as playing Russian roulette (Johan Norberg, Open, Deusto, 2021, p. 221).

Hunter-gatherer societies had a life expectancy that ranged between 20 and 30 years. In classical civilizations such as Ancient Greece or the Roman Empire, it is estimated that life expectancy ranged between 18 and 25 years (Norberg, Progress, p. 80). Around the year 1800, life expectancy for the world as a whole was around 30 years (Steven Pinker, In defense of the Enlightenment, Paidós, 2020, p. 82).

Humanity before the Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism lived, as the Swedish historian Johan Norberg has said, in a constant "excursion to the countryside": without enough food, without medicines, without antibiotics, without anesthesia, without electricity, without air conditioning or heating, no access to water for basic needs (such as hygiene and cleaning) and no drainage systems.

During his intervention At the World Economic Forum held in Davos (January 2024), Argentine President Javier Milei reminded us that About 95% of the world's population lived in extreme poverty.

The technological progress of the pre-industrial era was not capable of generating a lasting increase in the GDP per capita of the economy, since any improvement in the GDP per capita caused an increase in the population, which made this GDP per capita recede, taking it at the subsistence levelPhilippe Aghion et al., The power of creative destruction, Deusto, 2021, p. 60).

The Argentine political scientist Antonella Marty sarcastically states that then "the 'equality' that so many socialists talk about today was abundant: we were all equally poor" (The liberal manual, p. 97).

This harsh reality began to fade during the era of industrial capitalism. In this regard, the cognitive scientist Canadian Steven Pinker states: "When the Industrial Revolution unleashed a source of usable energy from coal, oil and the power of water, it enabled the Great Escape from poverty, disease, hunger, illiteracy and premature death, first in the West and progressively in the rest of the world" (In defense of the Enlightenment, p. 47). The Chilean economist Hernán Büchi speaks along the same lines: «In just over two centuries progress was made at a speed much greater than that of the millennia that preceded. Well-being multiplied by 30 and even 100 times if we consider the change in the quality and nature of products and services. This progress is not just about numbers; life expectancy doubled and infant mortality became insignificant in historical terms for the countries that got on the progress train" ("Progress, poverty and inequality in the world", The Mercury, 12-01-2015). Today in 2023, and after capitalism spread throughout the world, only 8% of the world's population lives under extreme poverty [Capitalism and well-being – Foundation for Progress (fppchile.org)].

If we consider the 2.5 million years since the beginning of the evolution of the genus Homo in Africa «and we transformed it into a single twenty-four-hour day, this great leap in progress of the last two centuries would represent just the last six seconds of the day. Even if we only considered the two hundred thousand years of evolution of the Homo sapiens, economic progress in form would have materialized in the equivalent of the last minute of that day that summarizes the history of our species" (Nicolás Eyzaguirre, Inequality, Debate, 2020, p. 32.). By another estimate, the two hundred years of progress represent "0.07 percent of the time humans have lived on Earth" (Marty, The liberal manual, p. 95). 

In sum, the Homo sapiens He has spent most of his existence trapped in hardship and deprivation, very close to the subsistence level. During the last two centuries «This pattern has been drastically modified. Historically, humanity has experienced an unprecedented improvement in its quality of life literally overnight” (Galor, The journey of humanity, pp. 13, 14 and 60).