Geopolitcal Ranks of the 1800s

No I don't have a trillion wrong. American billion is million million and trillion is million million million. Whilst British billion is 1000 million and trillion is million million. Will post link for source later. Your link even proves my view too. It says short scale (English version is short scale) trillion is a 1000 1000 million.
Yes you do have it wrong. The US has ALWAYS used the 'short scale'.
 

Philip

Donor
No I don't have a trillion wrong. American billion is million million and trillion is million million million.

While I can't comment on the British meaning, you definitely have the American meaning wrong. In American English, 1 billion = 1 000 000 000 = 1000 x 1 000 000 = 1000 million.

The easiest way to verify this (unless you want to argue that Giga has a meaning other than 10^9) is to look at the disclaimers on American electronics. For example :

Apple Store said:
  1. 1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less...
 
Well it seams war is about to break out over what a billion and trillion is. In Britain one billion is a thousand million and a trillion is a million million and that is what those GDP were base on. So here is the name of the source for who ever wanted it (sorry couldn't get direct link).

Statistics on World Population, GDP and Per Capita GDP, 1-2006 AD (Last update: October 2008, horizontal file, copyright Angus Maddison)
 
Well it seams war is about to break out over what a billion and trillion is. In Britain one billion is a thousand million and a trillion is a million million and that is what those GDP were base on. So here is the name of the source for who ever wanted it (sorry couldn't get direct link).

Statistics on World Population, GDP and Per Capita GDP, 1-2006 AD (Last update: October 2008, horizontal file, copyright Angus Maddison)

Ski

Actually I think you will find in the US a billion is a thousand million = 10**9. Britain used to use the millard for this value and a million million 10**12 for a billion. However with the decline of British influence the US value became predominant and is now used by Britain as well.

Steve
 
Just to reiterate that a booming economy doesn't mean world power status, here's a chart of GDP per capita in 1900:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_gdp_per_cap_in_190-economy-gdp-per-capita-1900

New Zealand FTW!

Expat

How sure are you about that table? Only there's a couple of points that come to mind.

a) A number of nations that didn't exist as independent states in 1900 are entered there. I.e. Austria, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Hungary... down to Bangladesh, Egypt and Ghana? Given their current status, if that is supposed to be the top 39 nations in the world in I don't see how the last three make it in and a number of other nations look a bit unlikely.

b) There is at least one nation missing from the list that would definitely be in the richest top ten in 1900. [Unfortunately probably not nowadays].:(

I suspect its a list of incomes for ~2000 and a list of some nations, not the top X.

Steve
 
Top