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>In the twentieth century, the Great Divergence peaked before the First World War and continued until the early 1970s; then, after two decades of indeterminate fluctuations, in the late 1980s it was replaced by the Great Convergence as the majority of developing countries reached economic growth rates significantly higher than those in most developed countries
>Some argue that the cultural factors behind the divergence can be traced to earlier periods and institutions such as the Renaissance and the Chinese imperial examination system. Broadberry asserts that in terms of silver wages even the richest areas of Asia were behind Western Europe as early as the 16th century. He cites statistics comparing England to the Yangzi Delta (the most developed part of China by a good margin) showing that by 1600 the former had three times the latter's average wages when measured in silver, 15% greater wages when measured in wheat equivalent (the latter being used to approximate buying power for basic subsistence goods and the former to approximate buying power for craft goods, especially traded ones), and higher urbanization. England's silver wages were also five times higher than those of India in the late 16th century. Grain wages started to diverge more sharply from the early 18th century, with English wages being two and a half times higher than India or China's in wheat equivalent while remaining about five times higher in silver at that time. However, this disparity only applied to Northwest Europe; Broadberry states that silver wages in Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe did not surpass advanced parts of Asia until 1800