[namaria]

>In fact Europe was losing money to Asia

Thank you for the article, very interesting read! China absorbed a lot of precious metals from Europe and elsewhere (silver more then gold as was the case with India historically). The British Empire used military force first in India and later in China, motivated in part by the precious metal deficit. And as consequent as the Raj was in the process, I mentioned China to add depth and nuance to the narrative and to illustrate that the precious metal outflow was by no means stopped by the British administration of India.