  Economic growth and the growth of human population in the past 2,000,000
years are extensively examined. Data are found to be in a clear contradiction
of the currently accepted explanations of the mechanism of growth, which
revolve around two fundamental but incorrect doctrines: (1) the doctrine of
stagnation (inappropriately labelled also as Malthusian stagnation, because
Malthus never claimed that his positive checks would cause a long-lasting and
wide-spread stagnation) and (2) the doctrine of explosion described also as a
takeoff, sprint, spike or by other similar attributes. These doctrines and
other related postulates are contradicted even by precisely the same data,
which are used in the economic research and by the research results published
in a prestigious scientific journal as early as in 1960. The generally accepted
explanations are not based on a rigorous analysis of data but on impressions
created by the easily misleading features of hyperbolic distributions. Two
leading theories: the Demographic Transitions Theory (or Model) and the Unified
Growth Theory are fundamentally incorrect. Descriptions of the past
socio-economic conditions are not questioned. They might have been harsh,
difficult and primitive but they are not reflected in the growth trajectories.
They did not create stagnation in the economic growth and in the growth of
population. Likewise, impacts of the Industrial Revolution on many aspects of
life are not questioned. It is only demonstrated that this event had absolutely
no impact on shaping growth trajectories. A general law of growth is formulated
and used to explain the mechanism of growth of human population and of economic
growth. The growth was predominantly hyperbolic. Such a growth is described by
exceptionally simple mathematical function and the explanation of the mechanism
of growth turns out to be also simple.
