10
Bombay t
o Bogota were financed by British banks and insured by British
insurance companies. Raw materials from the most distant corners of the
globe flowed to Britain, were processed in English factories, and were sent
back to the bustling bazaars of Borneo and Beirut as finished goods. No
wonder one economist, in 1865, called Britain "the trading center of the
universe."
In the beginning, the British knew how much their prosperity
depended on the fact that they were ahead of any other country in the
commercial utilization of technology. As early as 1781, they banned the
export of high-tech fabric-making machines and "any... tool, press, paper,
utensil or implement or any part thereof, which now is or hereafter may be
used in the woolen, cotton, linen or silk manufacture of the kingdom."10
But as they grew fat with prosperity, British industrialists overlooked
three simple facts:
A. Every technological breakthrough eventually grows old.
b. New inventions arrive to replace it. And
c. the country that dominates these new technologies often rules the
world.11
The technologies that made steam look old-fashioned were developed,
ironically, in Britain. But British industrialists, blinded by self-satisfaction,
seldom tried to turn them into tempting new products. The result would be
disastrous.
One of the most important of these cutting-edge developments sprang
from a dilemma England encountered in ruling its far-flung empire. Malaria
was swatting down British troops stationed in India like flies. So serious was
the epidemic that the average British soldier on Indian soil had only half the
life expectancy of his compatriots stationed back in the home country.
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