I don’t know much about Eastern history other than China used to be the most advanced civilization of its time at one point. What caused China to eventually become a lower income country?
Looking at this, I’d say between 1820 and 1870 it stopped growing economically.
Around the time of the Opium Wars maybe (which fall within the period Cerealbox points to).
Of course, “most advanced civilization” and “lower income country” are not exactly antonyms, or very precise concepts at all. What, exactly, do you want to know?
Lower than what?
I think you’re assuming that there’s a link between “advanced civilisation” and “high national income”. There need not be; lots of societies have had small wealth elites, who account for most of what we regard as the advanced civilisation of the society concerned, plus a large class of peasants/servants/urban mobs living in near-subsistence level conditions.
If the real question is when China ceased to be “top nation”, the date is probably some time in the later 18th century, when the industrial revolution began to take hold in the West (England particularly). The Chinese defeats in the Opium Wars were largely a result of that.
It wasn’t so much a matter of China becoming a lower income country as it was that other countries became higher income countries while China stayed where it was.
Nah, not really. Much more advanced than England, (a little barbarian island off the edge of nowhere), but compare the timelines for Italy and Greece. China was competative, but never a clear leader.
I’d be glad to compare the timelines for Italy and Greece in the period of, say, 500 to 1400 with China. They’d compare then as well as they do today.
If you want a specific breakpoint when the economic decay really began, it would be the 1820’s. Up until ~1821 China enjoyed a favorable balance of trade. Opium all by its lonesome wrecked that, despite an increasing volume of Chinese exports to European markets ( especially tea ). In 1832-1833 as much hard currency flooded out of China as had flooded in during their last two decades of positive cash flow, 1800-1821. The opium trade grew massively between 1790 and 1873, remained at a very high rate until 1893 and didn’t really cease until 1917 ( when domestic production finally met demand ).
Previous to that, China had been tremendously productive and prosperous as a whole. In 1800 Chinese per capita income was roughly comparable to France and England.