smaller as late as the middle of the eighteenth century, but
the rankings which have been so stable since then are not
the same when we go further back in history. In the
Americas, for example, the ranking we see for the last
hundred and fifty years was completely different five
hundred years ago. Second, many nations have
experienced several decades of rapid growth, such as
much of East Asia since the Second World War and, more
recently, China. Many of these subsequently saw that
growth go into reverse. Argentina, for example, grew
rapidly for five decades up until 1920, becoming one of the
richest countries in the world, but then started a long slide.
The Soviet Union is an even more noteworthy example,
growing rapidly between 1930 and 1970, but subsequently
experiencing a rapid collapse.