East India company calls to say forget me not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_india_company
The beginnings of capitalism & colonialism. Systemic wealth transfer is not a mystery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_india_company
The beginnings of capitalism & colonialism. Systemic wealth transfer is not a mystery.
People at the time argued slavery, resource exploitation and trade were economically important and could only happen through imperial strength.
But I’d argue that 1) those things generally happened anyway post independence 2) labour / resource costs aren’t that important for long run economic growth.
William Jardine’s subjugation of China made him a lot of personal profit, but it’s dubious his enterprise ever paid enough tax to cover the cost of the opium war. Sending navies across the world is expensive.
And remember: pillage before you burn…
>The Muscovy Company was the first major chartered joint stock English trading company. It was established in 1555
and profitable ventures eg. by Sir Francis Drake
>Drake returned to England in 1580 and became a hero; his circumnavigation raised an enormous amount of money for England's coffers, and investors received a return of some 5,000 per cent.
which may be increased enthusiasm for ventures.
That maybe incentivized people to get rich starting steam engine companies, somewhat like how SV works today, but not like that in ancient Rome?
Guessing a bit here. I'm not a historian. Quotes from Wikipedia.
I did to a visit to Lincolnshire a while back to research some family history of relatives who were there in the 1800s and while the place is a backwater now, it was very SV like back in 1850 with people getting rich quick and building huge houses based on the then tech boom with was railway engines.