Mammon and the Pursuit of Empire: The Political. Davis, Huttenback<|

Cambridge University Press

Mammon and the Pursuit of EmpireThe Political Economy of British Imperialism, 18601912\nAuthor(s): Lance E. Davis, Robert A. Huttenback\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Cambridge University Press\nISBN-13: 9780521236119, 978-0521236119\nSynopsis\nHistorians have so far made few attempts to assess directly the costs and benefits of Britain's investment in empire. This book presents answers to some of the key questions about the economics of imperialism: how large was the flow of finance to the empire? How great were the profits on empire investment? What were the social costs of maintaining the empire? Who received the profits, and who bore the costs? The authors show that colonial finance did not dominate British capital markets; returns from empire investment were not high in comparison to earnings in the domestic and foreign sectors; there is no evidence of continued exploitative profits; and empire profits were earned at a substant.