Crowning the dragon: Chinese GDP PPP will exceed America's by year's end.

[Valmy]

India?

What about it?  You are not the first person to bring them up in this thread.

[Valmy]

India wasn't actually a country when the British showed up it was a collection of states.

Well one gigantic state and a few tiny ones.

[Razgovory]

That seems to be common amongst former colonies.  It's almost like there is some sort of connection...

Is it?  Many former colonies are doing very well.  I mean it has been 50+ years for most of them, there are fewer and fewer commonalities by this point.  Or is there something about roads and power plants and the like specifically you are talking about here.

I don't think AF is right here anyway, but I am no Indian infrastructure expert.

Just a quick Wiki it appears there has been quite a bit of installation of power infrastructure...still woefully inadequate for the population of course but you cannot have India without stuff like that.

I'd say countries that were colonies in the 19th century tend to do poorer then places that weren't.

[alfred russel]

I don't think AF is right here anyway, but I am no Indian infrastructure expert.

Just a quick Wiki it appears there has been quite a bit of installation of power infrastructure...still woefully inadequate for the population of course but you cannot have India without stuff like that.

You are going to say that I'm not right, because I used the word "deplorable" to describe what you said was "woefully inadequate." 

[Razgovory]

India?

What about it?  You are not the first person to bring them up in this thread.

It was answer to question.  Who would be a good canidate for industrialization, I suggested India.  If I recall many of the reasons America rebelled against Britain were because of British mercantile practices that were designed to strengthen British industry and keep the American colonies as a captive market producing raw materials and dependent on British finished goods.  I'm suggesting that such practices were also used on India and that retarded Indian economic growth.

[Valmy]

I'd say countries that were colonies in the 19th century tend to do poorer then places that weren't.

I'd say that strikes me as not a very meaningful metric.  I mean one would have to have apples to compare to apples in that case, and in the relevant neighborhoods there are not very many apples of both varieties.  But I do not see that say...Ethiopia is not doing much better than overall than it's colonized neighbors (and that is one bad bad neighborhood).  Thailand is not doing much better than its neighborhood.  Belize is not doing much worse than its neighborhood.

[Valmy]

It was answer to question.  Who would be a good canidate for industrialization, I suggested India.  If I recall many of the reasons America rebelled against Britain were because of British mercantile practices that were designed to strengthen British industry and keep the American colonies as a captive market producing raw materials and dependent on British finished goods.  I'm suggesting that such practices were also used on India and that retarded Indian economic growth.

Yes I already brought up this question as something I was going to look into.  I am not sure I buy the thesis that Free Trade 19th century Britain was using identical practices as Mercantilist Britain.

[Razgovory]

It was answer to question.  Who would be a good canidate for industrialization, I suggested India.  If I recall many of the reasons America rebelled against Britain were because of British mercantile practices that were designed to strengthen British industry and keep the American colonies as a captive market producing raw materials and dependent on British finished goods.  I'm suggesting that such practices were also used on India and that retarded Indian economic growth.

Yes I already brought up this question as something I was going to look into.  I am not sure I buy the thesis that Free Trade 19th century Britain was using identical practices as Mercantilist Britain.

How free trade was Britain in the 19th century?  India was still pretty much a captive market wasn't it?  My impression that Britain (or at least the non-Irish parts of it), shifted to free trade in the mid century, but the empire not so much.

[Eddie Teach]

I'd say countries that were colonies in the 19th century tend to do poorer then places that weren't.

The child is the father of the man.

[Razgovory]

I'd say countries that were colonies in the 19th century tend to do poorer then places that weren't.

The child is the father of the man.

Some of these places that were colonized had cities and metal working when Britain was still in the stone age.

[Valmy]

How free trade was Britain in the 19th century?  India was still pretty much a captive market wasn't it?  My impression that Britain (or at least the non-Irish parts of it), shifted to free trade in the mid century, but the empire not so much.

This sounds just a little bit too much mustache twirling to me.  I mean the UK had special trade restrictions that only applied to its Irish part?  I am not sure the UK worked like that.

[alfred russel]

I don't think AF is right here anyway, but I am no Indian infrastructure expert.

Just a quick Wiki it appears there has been quite a bit of installation of power infrastructure...still woefully inadequate for the population of course but you cannot have India without stuff like that.

You are going to say that I'm not right, because I used the word "deplorable" to describe what you said was "woefully inadequate." 

Valmy, I'm struggling to figure this out...

[alfred russel]

Some of these places that were colonized had cities and metal working when Britain was still in the stone age.

I don't see how that is relevant.

[Valmy]

Valmy, I'm struggling to figure this out...

I would say a rebust system expanding at a massive rate and providing energy to hundreds of millions of people is far from deplorable.  I would also challenge the notion that since it has grown so dramatically in size that its key elements are actually left over from colonialism.  But it is India so both of these things can be absolutlely true while also being inadequate.   You made it sound like they had not done any substantial work on infrastructure.

[Jacob]

How free trade was Britain in the 19th century?  India was still pretty much a captive market wasn't it?  My impression that Britain (or at least the non-Irish parts of it), shifted to free trade in the mid century, but the empire not so much.

This sounds just a little bit too much mustache twirling to me.  I mean the UK had special trade restrictions that only applied to its Irish part?  I am not sure the UK worked like that.

Are you purely concerned about tariffs, or would you accept the actual negative outcomes of the the economic system as it existed as evidence of Ireland suffering from an England-centric set-up?

Because events in 1857 certainly caused some serious harm in Ireland in combination with how trade was conducted.