Quite the contrary, colonizing all of Africa, South America, India, and drugging China (at about the same time) did a lot to boost GDP... Industrial revolution

Quite the contrary, colonizing all of Africa, South America, India, and drugging China (at about the same time) did a lot to boost GDP... Industrial revolution works even better if all prevailing exporters all of a sudden fall off a cliff. "Mean reversion", word of the century. Interesting bonus fact for economic historians, in 1890, 30% of Britain's GDP was illegal opium smuggling to China. Would be interesting to see the numbers for the USA (by some accounts, the biggest exporter by that point)... Courtesy of Aaron Swartz: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3112527 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3112527