Jason Hickel — How Britain Stole $45 Trillion From India: Together With Lied Most It.
There is a even out that is normally told inwards Great Britain that the colonisation of India - every bit horrible every bit it may receive got been - was non of whatever major economical create goodness to Great Britain itself. If anything, the direction of Republic of Republic of India was a cost to Britain. So the fact that the empire was sustained for thence long - the even out goes - was a gesture of Britain's benevolence.
New query yesteryear the renowned economist Utsa Patnaik - just published yesteryear Columbia University Press - deals a crushing blow to this narrative. Drawing on nearly ii centuries of detailed information on taxation together with trade, Patnaik calculated that Great Britain drained a total of nearly $45 trillion from Republic of Republic of India during the menses 1765 to 1938.
It's a staggering sum. For perspective, $45 trillion is 17 times more than the total annual gross domestic production of the United Kingdom today.
How did this come upward about?….Enter the East Republic of Republic of India Company.
Here's how it worked. The East Republic of Republic of India Company began collecting taxes inwards India, together with and thence cleverly used a portion of those revenues (about a third) to fund the purchase of Indian goods for British use. In other words, instead of paying for Indian goods out of their ain pocket, British traders acquired them for free, "buying" from peasants together with weavers using coin that had exactly been taken from them.Al Jazeera
It was a scam - theft on a grand scale. Yet most Indians were unaware of what was going on because the agent who collected the taxes was non the same every bit the ane who showed upward to purchase their goods. Had it been the same person, they sure would receive got smelled a rat.
Some of the stolen goods were consumed inwards Britain, together with the remainder were re-exported elsewhere. The re-export organization allowed Great Britain to finance a current of imports from Europe, including strategic materials similar iron, tar together with timber, which were essential to Britain's industrialisation. Indeed, the Industrial Revolution depended inwards large utilisation on this systematic theft from India....
How Great Britain stole $45 trillion from India: And lied well-nigh it.
Jason Hickel
See also
The English linguistic communication East Republic of Republic of India Company was the woman nurture of the modern multinational. Its trading empire encircled the globe, importing Asian luxuries such every bit spices, textiles together with teas. But it also conquered much of Republic of Republic of India amongst its individual army and broke opened upward China’s markets amongst opium. The Company’s practices shocked its contemporaries together with yet reflect today.
The Corporation That Changed the World is the outset volume to expose the Company’s enduring legacy every bit a corporation. This expanded edition explores how the 4 forces of scale, technology, finance together with rule drove its spectacular rising together with fall. For decades, the Company was only likewise large to fail, together with stock marketplace bubbles, famines, drug-running together with fifty-fifty duels betwixt challenger executives are to last found inwards this novel account.
For Robins, the Company’s even out provides vital lessons on both the utilisation of corporations inwards Blue Planet history together with the steps required to brand global job concern accountable today.
University of Chicago Press
The Corporation That Changed the World: How the East Republic of Republic of India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational yesteryear Nick Robins, distributed for Pluto Press See also
The East Republic of Republic of India Company was the outset multinational corporation - until its abuse of ability caused a populace backlash. Nick Robins examines its legacy to expose how it develop the corporate designing for today's firms to operate unchecked.…
Founded on a mutual frigidness New Year’s Eve inwards 1600, the Governor together with Company of Merchants inwards London Trading into the East Indies – its master copy total refer – was the woman nurture of the modern corporation. From its headquarters inwards the City of London, it managed a commercial empire that stretched across the Atlantic, around the Cape, yesteryear the Gulf together with on to Republic of Republic of India together with China. Starting every bit a marginal importer of Asian spices, the Company became the agent that changed the course of report of economical history, combining fiscal strength amongst armed forces musculus to conquer Republic of Republic of India together with interruption opened upward China’s shut economy. Always amongst an midpoint to the portion cost together with their ain executive perks, its executives inwards Republic of Republic of India combined economical musculus amongst a small, but effective private army to constitute a corporate province across large parts of the sub-continent.Under neoliberalism together with neoliberal globalization, corporations no longer receive got individual armies but rather are nether the fly of the military, political together with economical mightiness of the Anglo-American Empire.
Ecologist
Nick Robbins | Professor inwards Practice for Sustainable Finance at Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & the Environment
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