A 45-trillion estimate of wealth extracted from India is questioned because the calculation behind it is unclear in the discussion. The criticism concerns studies that compound hypothetical GDP growth and assume industrialisation alongside other economies. It also challenges the assumption that India's multiple states and sovereignties would have developed as one coordinated economy. The answer acknowledges that imperial systems extracted money from colonies, while disputing the proposed scale. Alex Clarke says that colonial Indian administration and the economic calculation lie outside his specialist expertise, and refers the issue to historians who study them.
Notable Point · 3:20:20-3:22:46
The assumptions behind a 45-trillion colonial-extraction estimate
A disputed total for colonial extraction leads to questions about compound growth, industrialisation, and the assumptions behind a hypothetical unified Indian economy.