You do realize that you are just redefining the conventional wisdom about the meaning of poverty and afluence, do you? If your definition of poor is going to hold any rock, never mind water, Austrailia and New Zealand today must be classified as poor countries because the main engine of its economy are driven by agriculture and raw material. From history point of view, first industrial revolution did not come to Europe until mid 18th century. It was driven by explosion of agricultural population that produced surplus work force. It was not a thorough industrialization in a modern sense. They were still predominantly agricultural by modern standard. United States with its abundance land and resource, it did not have much surplus of man power to propel its own industrialization process. Therefore, it lagged behind United Kingdom and France in terms of industrialization just so slightly and at about the same pace as the rest of Europe. It did have flourishing trade amongst the colonial states and between Europe. But, it was far cry from being branded "very poor" by any stretch of imagination. Its per capita income was considered amongst the highest in the world, on par with most advanced European countries save United kingdom, but considerably above the rest of world.