<P> According to a 2014 study, "there was a' little divergence' within Europe between 1300 and 1800: real wages in the North Sea area more or less stabilized at the level attained after the Black Death, and remained relatively high (above subsistence) throughout the early modern period (and into the nineteenth century); whereas, on the other hand, real wages in the' periphery' (in Germany, Italy, and Spain) began to fall after the fifteenth century and returned to some kind of subsistence minimum during the 1500--1800 period . This' little divergence' in real wages mirrors a similar divergence in GDP per capita: in the' periphery' of Europe there was almost no per capita growth (or even a decline) between 1500 and 1800, whereas in Holland and England real income continued to rise and more or less doubled in this period ." </P> <P> In the Age of Exploration navigators discovered new routes to the Americas and Asia . Commerce expanded, together with innovations such as joint stock companies and various financial institutions . New military technologies favored larger units, leading to a concentration of power in states whose finances relied on trade . France and Spain developed absolute monarchies reliant on high taxes and state - backed monopolies, leading to economic decline . The Dutch Republic was controlled by merchants, while Parliament gained control of England after a long struggle culminating in the Glorious Revolution . These arrangements proved more hospitable to economic development . At the end of the 16th century London and Antwerp began pulling away from other European cities, as illustrated in the following graph of real wages in several European cities: </P> <P> The West had a series of unique advantages compared to Asia, such as the proximity of coal mines; the discovery of the New World, which alleviated ecological restraints on economic growth (land shortages etc .); and the profits from colonization . </P> <P> China had a larger population than Europe throughout the Common Era . Unlike Europe, it was politically united for long periods during that time . </P>

The nineteenth-century economic decline of the islamic empires can be attributed to