These well-being measures suggest global living standards plateaued for the majority of the past 3000 years, before rocketing over the past 300. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, income was locked at close to subsistence levels. In line with Thomas Malthus’s predictions, they were sufficient to sustain the population, but no more. 16 For that reason, some have called this the Malthusian era. 17 If you think that’s sounds grim, the picture further back in history is, if anything, even less optimistic. Rather remarkably, estimates of global GDP have been constructed back to 1 million BC, the dawn of man. 18 Statistical agencies were thinly staffed back then, so these statistics need to be treated with an even greater than usual pinch of salt. Table 1 considers growth rates in per capita GDP and population over that longer sample. For much of the history of mankind, there was effectively no rise in either living standards or  13  Clark (2009). 14  For example, Clark (2009). 15  For example, Morris (2011). 16  Malthus (1798). 17  For example, Clark (2009). 18  DeLong (1998). BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  population. It is possible the most gradual of advances in living standards began tens of thousands of years ago, around the time modern man (homo sapiens) emerged and Neanderthal man (homo Neanderthalensis) disappeared. So the short history (the Golden era) and the long history (the Malthusian era) of growth could not be more different. Secular innovation followed a lengthy period of secular stagnation.
Strengthening the role of Shariah scholars The Islamic financial landscape today has undergone various transformations and progress over the last 10 years. This transformation can be testified in the increase of global banking assets that had reached nearly USD1.5 trillion, total outstanding sukuk amounting to USD295 billion, Islamic fund assets amounting to USD76 billion as well as the takaful contributions of USD21 billion (Source: IFSB: 1H 2014). In addition, there has been a marked increase in the participation from non-Muslim jurisdictions in Islamic finance, particularly in sukuk issuances, reflecting the increasingly positive reception of Islamic finance among the global community. The sukuk instrument, in particular, is among the most innovative instruments and favoured by governments and multinational corporations. In response to these developments, the role of and the expectation on Shariah scholars will be more challenging in finding solutions to emerging new Shariah issues that require immediate responses from the Shariah fraternity. To me, changes in the Islamic financial landscape should be viewed as a golden opportunity for the Shariah experts to demonstrate the dynamism of the Islamic religion as perpetually modern and evolving through time. Therefore, it is my hope that the role of the Shariah scholars could be further enhanced and not confined solely to only ensuring and monitoring the Shariah compliance aspects. In relation to this, I am also of the opinion that researches and thorough deliberations on Shariah need to consider other fields of disciplines in order for the ijtihad (reasoning) or Shariah decisions to be comprehensive, inclusive and practical.