A Farewell to Alms - Gregory Clark

A brief economic history of the world??? Any connection to its title?
Well, the book mainly talks about how economic and social development have been evolved through out the Malthusian era and the Industrial Evolution period in England, together with the great divergence in the world afterwards. To me, the connection between the book's title and its contents is rather subtle in a way that it need more the kinda beyond-the-line interpretation. When the world started to grow in 1800, why did divergence begin since then? The answer is very obvious. Some may say that it is because of a list of differences among countries, ranging from geographical location and population to capacity in development. However, it should be noted that the divergence has always been there, just that it is invisible (or maybe neglected somehow) until the industrial revolution took place, when the industrialized nations kept growing fast leaving the traditional societies far behind. This marked a new era in which divergence is so great that development cooperation among the developed and developing countries has come into sight. In Clark's book, England's story is served as a sample to see how best a country could do upon its own prevailing conditions and characteristics for the nation to grow.
Yet, the title is still vague. Whether it is a farewell or a welcome?