You need to check your facts. East-India company had nothing to sell and was spending its gold. It was precisely because of the concentration of wealth (from E

You need to check your facts. East-India company had nothing to sell and was spending its gold. It was precisely because of the concentration of wealth (from Europe) and the hemorrhaging of gold that it desired conquest and taxing the locals. Political weakness in India as against strong crown and church in Europe made conquest easy, but it did take a long time and it was mostly indirect (100s of princely states). Industrial revolution in Britain started 4 years after they set up their trading port in Calcutta and most definitely copying Industrial knowledge. If all they wanted was spices, they could have got that from North and West Africa, or in their new colonies in the Americas. Populations go through ups and downs as do their wealth and power, everyone copies not just China. Nobody grows in isolation. The idea that Europe suddenly started innovating from the dark ages and became industrial needs to be revisited. Call it revisionist all you want.