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One Jamaica equals five Americans, the Indonesian island for New York, and these colonies were rich

author:Li Congjia's war tea room
One Jamaica equals five Americans, the Indonesian island for New York, and these colonies were rich

After the end of the Seven Years' War, the British and the French made a deal, that is, to use Martinique and Guadeloupe, two small islands of just over a thousand square kilometers, as a bargaining chip, in exchange for millions of square kilometers of French land in Canada (the British seized Canada, but the contract was confirmed). After the end of the Anglo-Dutch War, the two sides also agreed to exchange New Amsterdam (New York) for the Indonesian island of Rune, and the Dutch also felt that they had taken advantage. People today would think that the British were shrewd, but the choice of the Dutch and French was not good at the time, because the Caribbean and Indonesian islands were worth so much that one Jamaica was five times as valuable as the United States, and Indonesia and India were twenty times more than the North American colonies.

One Jamaica equals five Americans, the Indonesian island for New York, and these colonies were rich

The sugar-rich islands of the Caribbean in the 18th century were very valuable, and Western countries provided about the same benefits as today's Middle Eastern countries. In Jamaica, for example, in the second half of the 18th century, the British were able to take £1.5 million a year from Jamaica. At that time, the entire British West Indies (except Jamaica, including the Bahamas, Trinidad, Tobago, Cayman Islands and other islands that are not known today) produced 72,000 tons of cane sugar per year, each British quintal (50.8 kg) of processed cane sugar was worth 42 shillings 5 pence, the net profit per hundt of cane sugar was 20 shillings, and the entire West Indies exported 3 million pounds worth of cane sugar per year.

One Jamaica equals five Americans, the Indonesian island for New York, and these colonies were rich

This figure was huge, and in the Seven Years' War, Britain asked Prussia to single out the three great powers of Tsarist Russia, Austria, and France, and gave only 2.5 million pounds in life. In the 50s and 60s of the 18th century, the total expenditure of the British government has been hovering between 6 million pounds and 10 million pounds, and the export of sugar in the entire British West Indies accounted for 30% or even 50% of the imperial financial expenditure, which can add 100 battleships to the British Empire's navy every year.

One Jamaica equals five Americans, the Indonesian island for New York, and these colonies were rich

At that time, the United States was rich in tobacco, producing 35 million pounds of tobacco per year, and its tobacco was converted into pounds sterling (at that time, tobacco could be used directly as currency, and a dozen to 20 pounds of tobacco could be exchanged for a British imported clothing) was 100,000 to 200,000 pounds per year. The taxes of the North American colonies could only barely cover their own expenses, and after the Seven Years' War, the British Parliament, which had a careful calculation, asked the North American colonies to bear the cost of garrisons of 230,000 pounds, and North America started the War of Independence. The economic value of the 18th century was far less than that of the West Indies, North America as part of the British West Indies, Martinique and Guadeloupe are naturally also extraordinarily valuable, like the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East today, so the French readily agreed.

One Jamaica equals five Americans, the Indonesian island for New York, and these colonies were rich

Rune Island is worth far more than New York is not uncommon, Rune Island is rich in nutmeg, in the late 17th century a pound of nutmeg was worth 2 pounds 10 shillings, 30,000 pounds of nutmeg value and Buckingham Palace can be equated, so the British monarch James II called himself "King of England, Scotland, Ireland and Rune". The Dutch got Rune and completely monopolized the nutmeg business, which was also very cost-effective for the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch East India Company's occupation of Indonesia in the late 18th century resulted in annual trade of more than 18 million guilders(£2.33 million), ten times the revenue of the British colonies in North America.

One Jamaica equals five Americans, the Indonesian island for New York, and these colonies were rich

India, the heart of the British, was also worth far more than North America at the time, and the British East India Company took 1.65 million pounds in land tax directly from the Indian tax agent. The British, the French, the Dutch have amazing gains in today's humble colonies, these gains far exceed those of North America, naturally there are not so many obsessions ...

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