The Economic Consequences of the Invention of Writing

This paper sets out the economic consequences of the invention of writing, as best we can determine them, given the absence of information in the pre-literate phase of human history. It first sets out the distinguishing features of writing as a form of communication. Then it briefly sets out the nature of writing and writers in the three early and hugely important civilisations - Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt and China. These first writings had huge effects on record keeping, commercial law and administration in these civilisations. They also had profound system effects on the development of abstract thought and mathematics. The paper then puts forward the conjecture that the application of literacy and numeracy in literate societies to business, trading and public administration yielded a substantial increase in the total output per capita and in the standards of living in these societies. Finally, it looks at the evidence which supports this conjecture.