[jolotriage]

Nope, India/China's GDP dropped upon invasion and decimation of trade routes by the Western countries with the GDP gain.

People underestimate how key the US was to the opium trade in China. The US was a bigger trader than the UK/Germany/France combined at one point.

[dahdum]

The data linked doesn’t indicate that was the primary reason, there is a small dip in GDP per capita (-10%?) for India/China but it was basically flat.

Looks like before industrialization the richest countries were only moderately better off. Once it began to take off that gap became enormous.

[jolotriage]

Yes the data linked is limited in scope.