Another common fallacy in economic historians / "rise of the west" research is to compare the most developed parts of Europe (after 1700, typically the Low Coun

Another common fallacy in economic historians / "rise of the west" research is to compare the most developed parts of Europe (after 1700, typically the Low Countries and England) with 'all of China.' By doing this, they exclude the poorer parts of Europe and include the poorer parts of China to give the impression that "the great divergence" (sic) was early and foreordained