[Glenn.]

Originally Posted by Parmy

I don't....





Give me some links to read up on.

Pick up a history book on Britain

The British Empire extracted wealth — raw materials, forced labour and monopoly power
Slavery was only one part of how Britain profited from its colonies. Once the slave trade ended, colonial systems continued extracting economic value in other ways:
• Plantation systems in the Caribbean relied on enslaved and coerced labour to produce sugar, tobacco, cotton and more — goods that were hugely valuable in European markets. 
• Colonies like India were systematically integrated into a British economic system designed to benefit British industry: they supplied raw materials (like cotton, opium and foodstuffs) and were forced into trade patterns that favoured British manufacturers. 
• Colonial administrations collected taxes and forcibly coerced labour to serve imperial economic goals, while providing little public infrastructure or benefit to local populations. 

Research estimates that the UK extracted trillions in wealth from India and other colonies over centuries — a massive transfer of resources from colonised people to British elites and institutions. 

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3. This was systemic, not an isolated exception
This pattern wasn’t accidental, and it wasn’t just about slavery in the Atlantic:
• Britain’s economic and financial institutions — including banks and major trading houses — grew in part from profits derived from colonial trade and slavery. 
• Major British cities and buildings (like trading exchanges) were historically linked to profits from slavery and colonial commerce. 
• Colonial systems across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean used forced labour, unfair taxation and market manipulation to extract wealth and channel it back to Britain. 

So the idea that Britain was some exceptional, non-exploitative empire doesn’t hold up to historical evidence. Its economic rise and global influence were deeply tied to systems of human exploitation and resource extraction — just like other European colonial powers