A Natural History of Intellectual Capital

Some economists believe that since 1 million years ago and up to the early 19(th) century growth in wealth was channelled nearly entirely to increasing population. This conjecture is based on that for the whole of that period the vast majority of the human population led a life of mere subsistence. This theoretical paper picks up that discussion and introduces the concept of intellectual capital and links it to population. It identifies the invention or discovery by our ancestors of several major artefacts, as well as events of a social nature, all of which had significant intellectual capital content, and establishes that they can explain increases in population during periods in history. This research also explains why the growth rates in intellectual capital and in population diverge as from the first half of the 19(th) century.