The United Kingdom was the wealthiest and most powerful nation on Earth for most of the 19th century.
The Industrial Revolution powered the British rise, but after other Western nations began to catch up, Britain’s unique ability to extract wealth from India kept it ahead of its competition for decades longer than would otherwise have been possible. But British supremacy came at a terrible cost to the people of India.
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Combined with what you said in an earlier episode about India and China not wanting anything but hard currency from the west for spices, fabrics etc I’m curious if roles could have been reversed economically if countries like Britain didn’t use military muscle to enforce control over trade.
For sure. Western histories gloss over the ugly truth that European “trade” with Asia from the 16th to 20th centuries was not trade as we usually understand the word–a mutually agreed exchange for mutual benefit. Europeans had nothing Asians wanted, so they forced Asians to hand over their products at gunpoint. As I joked in episode 217, Western history books have traditionally described this process as “opening the Orient to trade,” as if Asians had some inexplicable cultural aversion to trade with Europeans, forcing Europeans to delicately coax them into opening up their markets. The reality was that Asian products were worth more than Europeans were willing to pay, so they resorted to theft. They could do this because military technology was the one area where Europe held an advantage. European leaders understood full well that the only alternative was for Asians to get rich off European demand for their products, so they were willing to go to war, conquer, and rule Asian nations to prevent that from happening.
Thank for the thorough reply!
It’s interesting to imagine a world as you hinted at, where precious metals leave the “west” to Asia in return for perishable products like tea or silk. Would there ever be a balance or would things rupture in some other way? I can’t see the people of those countries losing their taste for said products so either the governments price them out of reach with tariffs or forbid them to be sold which I don’t think works out either.
“They could do this because military technology was the one area where Europe held an advantage”
This is interesting too in the sense that you want to use the advantage you have but I suppose here the idea of responsibility is supposed to enter: “I’m stronger than you but that doesn’t give me the right to bully you because of that fact”. Could it be said that a similar responsibility exists if you hold economic power over someone as I think you hint at with “European leaders understood full well that the only alternative was for Asians to get rich off European demand for their products”? Today I think we’d certainly say so, people rightfully call it unjust when more powerful nations bully weaker ones economically.
Thank you also for a wonderful show and I hope my donation managed to reach you haha!