Re:How did Europe become the richest part of the world?
by Jensson on Sunday March 20, 2022 @10:56PM
(#30749634)
> The fleets they were able to build in large quantities due to the places they had colonized providing long pine, cotton, and other materials they did not have at home?
> "Local market value" - you mean under market value, because they were pressured or outright forced to by their colonizers?
There were centuries of peaceful trade between Bengal and Europe before the invasion and exploitation you talk about happened. During this time Bengal/India could have made their own ships and gotten the same wealth from trade, but they didn't. East Indian companies grew a lot of their value during this period, and ultimately became strong enough that they could outright conquer their trade partners and therefore get the goods for free.
> Basically everywhere that Europeans colonized that already had wealth, commercial production, etc., saw all that wealth extracted from them
I never denied that colonization was bad for the people in those areas. I just denied that the trade that happened was bad for the region or that it was unfair. When the European powers conquered the area and became rulers it was bad, but that means the conquest was bad not that the trade was bad. Before the conquest Bengal had benefited from the trade with European powers.
> "Local market value" - you mean under market value, because they were pressured or outright forced to by their colonizers?
There were centuries of peaceful trade between Bengal and Europe before the invasion and exploitation you talk about happened. During this time Bengal/India could have made their own ships and gotten the same wealth from trade, but they didn't. East Indian companies grew a lot of their value during this period, and ultimately became strong enough that they could outright conquer their trade partners and therefore get the goods for free.
> Basically everywhere that Europeans colonized that already had wealth, commercial production, etc., saw all that wealth extracted from them
I never denied that colonization was bad for the people in those areas. I just denied that the trade that happened was bad for the region or that it was unfair. When the European powers conquered the area and became rulers it was bad, but that means the conquest was bad not that the trade was bad. Before the conquest Bengal had benefited from the trade with European powers.