 According to "The Economist", China was not only the largest economy for much of recorded history for 1800 years of the past two millennia, but it was the world's largest until the end of the 15th century boasting the worlds highest per capita income and most advanced technology at the time.Throughout this period, China outperformed its fellow East Asian and distant European counterparts in terms of technological development, economic growth, culminating in its ability to maintain a massive territorial empire throughout succeeding medieval Chinese dynasties.Despite economic stagnation after 1450 and the rise of early modern Europe, China's economy still remained the world's largest from the 1500s until 1820 as the world's most populous country and remained the world's largest economy up until 1885, a figure higher than the US economy at the height of its economic dominance after World War II.