<P> During the Song Dynasty ( 960 -- 1279 ) , the country experienced a revolution in agriculture , water transport , finance , urbanization , science and technology , which made the Chinese economy the most advanced in the world from about 1100 . Mastery of wet - field rice cultivation opened up the hitherto underdeveloped south of the country , while later northern China was devastated by Jur'chen and Mongol invasions , floods and epidemics . The result was a dramatic shift in the center of population and industry from the home of Chinese civilization around the Yellow River to the south of the country , a trend only partially reversed by the re-population of the north from the 15th century . By 1300 , China had fallen behind Italy in living standards . </P>
<P> During the Song Dynasty ( 960 -- 1279 ) , the country experienced a revolution in agriculture , water transport , finance , urbanization , science and technology , which made the Chinese economy the most advanced in the world from about 1100 . Mastery of wet - field rice cultivation opened up the hitherto underdeveloped south of the country , while later northern China was devastated by Jur'chen and Mongol invasions , floods and epidemics . The result was a dramatic shift in the center of population and industry from the home of Chinese civilization around the Yellow River to the south of the country , a trend only partially reversed by the re-population of the north from the 15th century . By 1300 , China had fallen behind Italy in living standards . </P>
who had the most advanced economy in the world before the eighteenth century
who had the most advanced economy in the world before the eighteenth century
China
China