So empire and the slave trade contributed little to Britain’s wealth? Pull the other one, Kemi Badenoch | Will Hutton

The business and trade secretary played into the ideological tosh that the wonders of the Industrial Revolution were funded by beer brewers and sheep farmers

Britain ran an empire for centuries that at its peak 100 years ago occupied just under a quarter of the world's land area. Yet if you believe Imperial Measurement", a report released last week from the rightwing Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the net economic impact of this vast empire on Britain was negligible, even negative.

If you thought the empire profoundly shaped our industry, trade and financial institutions, with slavery an inherent part of the equation, helped turbocharge the Industrial Revolution and underwrote what was the world's greatest navy for 150 years, think again. The contribution of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people to our economy was trumped by domestic brewing and sheep farming, opines the IEA. The tax burden" of defending this barely profitable empire was not worth the candle. Instead, it was free-market economics that unleashed British economic growth - a truth that must be restated before Marxists and reparation-seeking ex-colonies start controlling thenarrative.

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