BBC: By 1800, Europe's wealth had caught up with China's...

[pampango]

It begins around 1600, when China was the richest nation on earth and Europeans, anxious to trade with China, were building new kinds of ships. For millennia, the Atlantic Ocean had been a barrier cutting Europe off from the rest of the world, but Europe's new ships effectively shrank the ocean, turning it into a commercial highway. By 1700, the resources of the Americas were feeding a European take-off.

By 1800, Europe's wealth had caught up with China's, but the processes of change kept working. By 1900, steamships had shrunk the Atlantic even more, while railroads and the telegraph had eaten up the vastness of America's plains. As this happened, the US began pushing Europe off the top of the economic ladder.

By 2000, container ships, jetplanes and the internet had shrunk the world even more, and the Pacific too became a trade highway. This propelled East Asia into the global economy and first Japan, then the Asian Tigers and now China scrambled up the ladder after America and Europe.

So why would China lend to Europe in 2011? Probably for the same reasons that Europe lent to China in 1911 - to keep its markets stable. The EU is China's biggest trade partner and Beijing needs Europeans to be able to buy its goods.

In 2011, we are used to reading in the newspapers that China is a crass, corrupt, economic giant, manipulating its currency and rigging the markets to catch up with the West. Back in 1911, though, British newspapers levelled exactly the same charges against the USA. And they were right. Within 50 years, the US had conquered the world's markets and the European empires were gone.

A disaster for Europe - or was it? In 2011 the average European lives 30 years longer than the average in 1911 and earns five times as much. Europe is far freer than it was in 1911 and has not had a major war in 66 years. All things considered, losing its number one spot and becoming dependent on American capital was a good deal for 20th Century Europe.

A century and a half later, the EU faces the same choices. Nothing it can do will stop the rise of the Eastern wealth and power - in 100 years, Asia will be the world's economic powerhouse - but how it reacts matters very much indeed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15619946

An interesting article looking at the ebb and flow of power and money between China, Europe and the US over the last 500 years and the prospects for the next 100 years.

[RZM]

1. There's a valuable recent book about this

Kenneth Pomeranz, 'The Great Divergence'. The author essentially asks the question: 'Why Europe and not China?'

The prose is so dense as to be almost impenetrable, but if you can wade through it the author does bring up some interesting points and arguments.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. Google on "The Needham Question"...

...named after Joseph Needham, the historian of Chinese science.

A hotly fought-over topic.

[AverageJoe90]

3. Frankly, I doubt that China will last very long........

.....no matter how hard the elites try to prop up the fascists in Beijing.

If anyone's going to be a superpower in this century over there, it's going to be India.

[RegieRocker]

4. Wealthiest in what? Gold?