The racist British Empire broke ALL records of abuse to humanity in the history of mankind..
They virtually destroyed many nations which they colonized. What common wealth are they talking about?
The most wicked things they did were to destroyed 2 great nations, China and India with opium trade.
And Slaves trades in Africa.
Murders of Abo in Australia. 99% of Abo wiped out of Aus land.
http://www.amoymagic.com/OpiumWar.htm
The British Empire was Built upon Mercantilism and Addiction
"Mercantilism is the use of the state to fulfill one’s personal objectives and self-interest. The use of the state, conflating private with public, allows the individual or small group to obtain clout that would otherwise not be feasible…. Mercantilism, the realizing of private goals for individuals or small groups through public means, has a long and ancient history, doubtless as long as humankind itself." ~ The Daily Bell, Glossary
While some modern-day conspiracy theorists describe the US government as a narco-republic because of the participation of American foreign and domestic intelligence services as well as criminal and law enforcement elements in the drug trade, this is far from the truth. In actuality, American criminals and law enforcement working together with the prison lobby have helped to make America the prison capital of the world, dwarfing the per capita prison populations of all Third World countries combined, including China and Russia.
The dirty truth is the US, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, has almost 25 percent of the global prison population and much of this is a direct result of drug offenses targeting mostly the poor and minority populations.
British Empire Funded by Opium
Still, the real narco-republic in world history isn’t the United States, Mexico, Colombia or other transit points to the artificially created drug epidemic in the United States. This dubious honor actually goes to the British Empire, as their Bengal-to-China opium business during the time of Queen Victoria grew into the world’s largest commodity trade during the 19th century. Opium accounted for almost 20 percent of the Empire’s total revenue, yet opium was just the tip of the addictive trade.
In the United States and the British Empire addictive substances were the major business of British mercantilism. For example, the original British colonies like Jamestown and Virginia were economically unfeasible before the smoking of tobacco caught on in Europe and smoking and snuff created a cash crop from America.
Later, sugar from British Caribbean colonies was added to the British consumption of tea from China and the entire Empire became addicted to tea. But there was a problem. Unlike in the Americas where cotton and tobacco were traded for British manufactured goods, China simply said no to foreign imports.
Their leader, the Son of Heaven, wrote King George III in 1793: "We posses all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country’s manufactures." Great Britain had addicted their entire population to the stimulation of tea and sugar but China surprisingly demanded silver as payment for the tea. This created a permanent drain of gold and silver from the British Empire to China and a gigantic balance of payments deficit resulted that threatened the future solvency of the British Empire. This situation is very similar to China’s holdings of US Treasury debt today.
Opium Addiction
Since the Chinese wouldn’t import British manufactured goods, London needed something to export to China to reduce the deficit. First, the British Empire’s solution was to invest huge sums of money into opium farming and production and in the colony of India they created over a million registered opium farmers. Then, taking tobacco from other colonies they mixed opium with the tobacco and in due time addicted the majority of the Chinese population to opium, through intermediaries. Now Great Britain had their export to China with which to cover tea imports.
China subsequently lost more silver in the 30 years up through 1850 than Britain had paid for tea in the previous 125 years. The Chinese economy was destroyed but then the Son of Heaven finally moved to halt the opium trade by making it illegal and enforcing the prohibition. This again threatened the survival of the British Empire. Queen Victoria dispatched a British navy to force China to push their illegal drugs sales. This caused the two opium wars, one lasting from 1839 to 1842 and the other from 1856 to 1860. During these wars Britain occupied and took the port of Hong Kong to improve opium distribution to the Chinese.
"Almost every person…not connected with government is employed in the opium trade." ~ Sir John Francis Davis, governor of Hong Kong from 1844 to 1848
Thus, the Chinese addiction to opium and the opium wars were British government policy and it is doubtful many in the West understand what happened, while it is likely all Chinese are aware of this part of their history with the West.
Opium Trade was Big Business for Americans
Also, it wasn’t just England involved; many Americans in New England also made their fortunes in the opium trade after the slave trade was outlawed. For example, Franklin Roosevelt’s grandfather, Delano, made most of the family fortune in the Chinese opium trade.
He was not alone. Many of the wealthy New England families built their fortunes on slave and opium trading. In fact, most of the American Ivy League universities were funded to a great degree when dirty money from the slave and opium trade was washed and then use to build new reputations for these families.
For example, John Cleve Green donated much of his opium profits to Princeton University, Abiel Abbott Low used his opium fortune to finance the construction of Colombia University, John Murray Forbes financed the Bell Telephone Company, Joseph Coolidge’s son organized the United Fruit Company and his grandson was the founding executive officer of the Anglo-American Council on Foreign Relations. This is just the tip of the iceberg in showing how many among the power elite made their fortunes with the China opium trade.
The Roosevelt Family, Opium
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2012/09...f-conflict-anglo-american-and-chinesehistory/
