Quote Originally Posted by Balanbam00 View Post
BT: The British Empire and what it took from India ??

Drawing on nearly two centuries of detailed data on tax and trade, Patnaik (New research by the renowned economist Utsa Patnaik - just published by Columbia University Press - deals a crushing blow to this narrative). He calculated that Britain drained a total of nearly $45 trillion from India during the period 1765 to 1938. It's a staggering sum.

For perspective, $45 trillion is 17 times more than the total annual gross domestic product of the United Kingdom today.
for a true perspective - Balan....need to always look at the pre-colonial situation, as in other countries - India had rival states, the sultans/kings/empires were at War...the soldiers were the people - their crops/taxes supplied and supported their military - who's officials owned much of the land and monetary control - the few ruled the many and the few held all the wealth - So I see Colonialism much as a modern management company - they organised the system into a more efficient machine - and took a cut for their trouble....the divided leaders of old would just as before....take their share of the booty - and with much less waste and more control over the people - became even wealthier.