Abstract

We propose using a comparative history of national accounting looking at the same time, the 1920s, in two different places: India and the USSR . In both places there were attempts at defining and counting national wealth. In India, K.T. Shah and K.J. Khambata produced a national wealth estimate to measure the tax capacity of Indians. In the USSR , P. I. Popov published in 1926 with two dozen of collaborators the first “balance” of the Soviet economy for the year 1923-1924 with planning objective in mind. Comparison in the history of national accounting is particularly relevant because the fundamental aim of national accounts is to compare the performance of an economy across time and/or in relation to other economies. The Indian case study and the comparison between India and USSR are scant, if not completely absent, in the history of national accounting. Our aim is to bring India and the comparison with the USSR into the international debates on how measurement was and is done to better understand the relative progress of various populations and territories. Our case studies recover and connect intellectuals tuning into global debates on national accounting and taking part in dialogues on different ways of counting the economy.