The Brits came, they saw, they were amazed, they plundered, rendered the local economy rootless, they left. A single statement that summarizes the British East India Company's (and later the British Raj's) stay in Indian sub-continent from 1700s to 1947.
When trade and politics are completely intermixed, there is no way a trader can remain solely one, and a politicians can afford not to trade. The brutal death of Indian economy under British rule is a proof of the above axiomatic truth. The East India Company found India very rich, and left it poor beyond imagination!
Despite the Company officers' blatant corruption, genocidal tendencies and ruthlessness, the British Monarch and Parliament allowed it to continue so for decades, as it was fuelling their Industrial Revolution. Thus, the East played the biggest role in enriching the West.
Various pointers to what actually happened -
- It is important to understand the background of Europe in the 15th century. All the newly emerging nation-states were assuming that the only way they could stay ahead of the rest was for them to hoard as much gold and silver as they could.
