I definitely agree there were some individuals who made money from the imperial project, but it wasn't rational at the level of the British state/monarch. > Li

I definitely agree there were some individuals who made money from the imperial project, but it wasn't rational at the level of the British state/monarch. > Like with every colonial power... Some colonial powers may have genuinely increased the wealth of the imperial state. The Spanish and Mongol empires stand out in my mind here, although I don't have a precise source of accounting.