0:00:10 > 0:00:15Welcome to one of the most densely populated places on earth.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18When Britain took Hong Kong in 1842,
0:00:18 > 0:00:21it was just a cluster of fishing villages.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24In a few decades they had made it one of the busiest,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28richest trading posts in the world.
0:00:31 > 0:00:35The British Empire wasn't just about conquests and government
0:00:35 > 0:00:38and chaps in shorts telling foreigners what to do -
0:00:38 > 0:00:41it was also about money and profit.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44It began with a few unscrupulous adventurers
0:00:44 > 0:00:49and it grew into a vast network that spanned the globe,
0:00:49 > 0:00:51from Britain to Australia,
0:00:51 > 0:00:56from Calcutta to Jamaica, from Australia to Hong Kong.
0:00:59 > 0:01:03Off the coast of China, British traders made fortunes
0:01:03 > 0:01:06from ships freighted with addictive drugs...
0:01:08 > 0:01:11..and they helped themselves to the riches of Ancient India.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20Money flowed to Britain from piracy in the Caribbean...
0:01:22 > 0:01:26..and from estates worked by slaves taken from Africa.
0:01:28 > 0:01:36Empire trade and Empire theft
0:01:31 > 0:01:36helped make Britain a world capital of money it still is today.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40On a hot afternoon in September 1668,
0:02:40 > 0:02:45a fleet of nine ships sailed home to harbour in the Caribbean.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53There was wild celebrating on board for these brethren of the coast,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55as they called themselves,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58were returning from a smash-and-grab raid
0:02:58 > 0:03:01on the Spanish town of Portobello in Central America.
0:03:01 > 0:03:07They had stolen a staggering 25,000 pieces of eight.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10That's the Spanish dollar, minted in pure silver.
0:03:10 > 0:03:14It was worth about £10 million at today's prices.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25Leading the so called "brethren" was Henry Morgan,
0:03:25 > 0:03:28a ferocious, hard drinking Welshman from Monmouthshire
0:03:28 > 0:03:31who made his living by theft and violence.
0:03:34 > 0:03:38Men like Morgan were the founding fathers of the British Empire,
0:03:38 > 0:03:42for it began, not in trying to rule other countries,
0:03:42 > 0:03:43but in robbing them.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53But this was piracy with a twist.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58It even had a different, more respectable name - privateering.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04It worked like this.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07The Government licensed merchant ships
0:04:07 > 0:04:10to attack and rob the country's enemies
0:04:10 > 0:04:14and in exchange, the Government got a share of the stolen goods.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16This was Empire building on the cheap.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20The freelancers took the risk, the Government took the money.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29The pirates' victims were Spanish ships.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33These were laden with gold from their colonies in the Americas.
0:04:36 > 0:04:38Morgan's base was a place
0:04:38 > 0:04:42that had recently been seized from the Spanish.
0:04:50 > 0:04:51The island of Jamaica.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09The British set up a new capital here,
0:05:09 > 0:05:11Port Royal in the south of the island.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17With its vast number of taverns, brothels and rowdiness,
0:05:17 > 0:05:21it quickly earned the name, "The Sodom of the New World".
0:05:27 > 0:05:29Then all that came to a sudden end.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37Peace was declared between Britain and Spain,
0:05:37 > 0:05:41but Jamaica stayed in British hands.
0:05:45 > 0:05:50Henry Morgan saw the way things were going and decided to diversify.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54He hung up his cutlass and bought 4,000 acres of land
0:05:54 > 0:05:57on which he built a second fortune.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00The Empire had been conceived in robbery,
0:06:00 > 0:06:04but it grew fat on the cultivation of sugar.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09Theft was the past, trade was the future.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16The British at home had developed a lust for sugar
0:06:16 > 0:06:20to sweeten the novelties arriving from the tropics.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Coffee, chocolate and tea.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30The British were already becoming a nation of sugar addicts.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44Sugar from Jamaican plantations could satisfy their sweet tooth.
0:06:47 > 0:06:51But the island's population was tiny
0:06:51 > 0:06:54and the plantations needed vast amounts of labour.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00The answer to the problem
0:07:00 > 0:07:04lay in the trafficking of human beings from Africa.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07The slave trade.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24The British didn't introduce slavery to the Caribbean,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28but they took to it with enthusiasm.
0:07:28 > 0:07:30Traders bought slaves in Africa
0:07:30 > 0:07:34and then shipped them thousands of miles across the world.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41Many died in the packed, filthy, airless cargo decks.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47Sugar was a back-breaking crop to harvest.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51The cane had to be cut down and then stripped of its foliage,
0:07:51 > 0:07:57and then transported to the mill, often in intense, blazing heat.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01The plantations devoured slaves.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05Within three years of their arriving here, a third of them would be dead.
0:08:15 > 0:08:20By 1775, 1.5 million men, women and children
0:08:20 > 0:08:25had been forcibly transported from Africa to the British West Indies.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28Their descendants now people these islands.
0:08:49 > 0:08:51Treating human beings as beasts of burden
0:08:51 > 0:08:54made the owners of sugar plantations rich.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01This is the planter's house on the Good Hope Estate, built in 1755.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11Its owner was 23 when he bought it.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16He became the wealthiest man in Jamaica,
0:09:16 > 0:09:21owning over 10,000 acres of land and 3,000 slaves.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43The sugar planters, known as the plantocracy, enjoyed enormous power.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Each estate was its own little tyranny.
0:09:51 > 0:09:54And since slaves enjoyed no rights,
0:09:54 > 0:09:56the planters were free to behave as dictators.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02One was Thomas Thistlewood.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05He had been a farm worker in England.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Slavery turned him into a man of means.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13He fancied himself a man of letters, too, and kept a diary.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19Even though we all think we're familiar with the routine of horrors
0:10:19 > 0:10:21of the slave trade,
0:10:21 > 0:10:24when you read what some of these slave trade owners did,
0:10:24 > 0:10:26it really does make your stomach heave.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30Here are three accounts of punishments meted out
0:10:30 > 0:10:32by Thistlewood in three months in 1756.
0:10:35 > 0:10:37"Darby catched eating canes.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40"Had him well flogged and pickled.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42"Then made Hector shit in his mouth."
0:10:45 > 0:10:47"Rubbed Hassack with molasses
0:10:47 > 0:10:50"and exposed him naked to the flies all day
0:10:50 > 0:10:53"and to the mosquitoes all night.
0:10:53 > 0:10:55"Flogged, punched well
0:10:55 > 0:11:00"and then washed and rubbed in salt pickle lime juice and bird pepper.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04"Made negro Joe piss in his eyes and mouth."
0:11:12 > 0:11:16Thistlewood kept a tally of what was known as "nutmegging" -
0:11:16 > 0:11:19the rape of female slaves,
0:11:19 > 0:11:24something he did, by his own reckoning, on 3,852 occasions.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28He would allow his guests to do the same.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37When these slave owners went to church on a Sunday,
0:11:37 > 0:11:42they doubtless did so believing they were good, Christian folk.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46They behaved as they did because they didn't regard their slaves
0:11:46 > 0:11:52as fellow human beings, but as their property to do with as they pleased.
0:11:59 > 0:12:04More than two centuries later, the memory of slavery hasn't faded.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10How long ago did your family originally come to this country?
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Er, in 1760.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Erm, according to my grandmother.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19And how did they come here?
0:12:19 > 0:12:22The first one in that line that they remembered in 1760,
0:12:22 > 0:12:23when they came over,
0:12:23 > 0:12:27was that actually he was taken from the Gold Coast in Africa.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31- As a slave?- As a slave, yes, and he ended up in Jamaica.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35I think on the Good Hope plantation and, um,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38at the times my grandmother would talk, she would cry, em,
0:12:38 > 0:12:41because even like we were standing here, a mill like this,
0:12:41 > 0:12:47- they would put the cane in one hand and a horse would be...- A horse?
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Yes, would, would be turning it.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52Like treading the mill, and when they turn it now,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55this part would take in the cane and squeeze it,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58- squeeze the juice out of it.- And the juice comes out of the funnel?
0:12:58 > 0:13:02The juice now would come out from out the front of it, here.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05And, so, when they were working as slaves
0:13:05 > 0:13:07and they were working for 12 hours
0:13:07 > 0:13:11and they would fall asleep, he would have to have an axe here,
0:13:11 > 0:13:16that if his hand, if he fall asleep on it and he made a mistake,
0:13:16 > 0:13:21and his hand go in here, he would have to chop it off.
0:13:21 > 0:13:26Yeah. You know, someone in my extended family,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30probably was involved in bringing your ancestors over here as slaves.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33- Yeah... - Doesn't it make you feel furious?
0:13:33 > 0:13:38No, I don't think for now, we have passed that in this generation.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41Well, let's be realistic. You were, as slaves,
0:13:41 > 0:13:44- being used as beasts of burden, essentially.- Yes, yes.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48It's hard to understand why some people would want to do that
0:13:48 > 0:13:49to other people,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53or want to say, erm, you should work for me for all of your time,
0:13:53 > 0:13:56for generations and I'm never going to pay you.
0:13:56 > 0:14:01I hope that in Britain, one day, they will look at us here in Jamaica
0:14:01 > 0:14:03and say, "Jamaica made us rich."
0:14:03 > 0:14:06"Jamaica was the sugar capital of the world."
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Eventually, the people in Britain became so outraged
0:14:21 > 0:14:23by what was happening in the Caribbean
0:14:23 > 0:14:26that the slave trade was abolished in 1807.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36But the wealth of the fledgling Empire
0:14:36 > 0:14:39didn't come from slavery alone.
0:14:39 > 0:14:41There were riches of a different kind
0:14:41 > 0:14:43to be found on the other side of the world.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09In the 18th century, this was the home of India's ruling dynasty.
0:15:17 > 0:15:22The first British visitors were awe-struck by what they found.
0:15:36 > 0:15:42Places like this must have been absolutely amazing to encounter.
0:15:42 > 0:15:47You'd arrive from somewhere cold and bleak in the northern hemisphere
0:15:47 > 0:15:51and one can only imagine what effect it must have had
0:15:51 > 0:15:54upon some young lad on the make.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02There was a throne somewhere in here.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08The Emperor's throne, the peacock throne,
0:16:08 > 0:16:11which was encrusted with jewels, including the Koh-i-Noor diamond
0:16:11 > 0:16:15and an inscription on the wall, ah, that's it up there,
0:16:15 > 0:16:22in Arabic, which says, "If there be paradise on earth, this is it".
0:16:23 > 0:16:26The effect must have been astonishing.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45The earliest Britons in India were traders,
0:16:45 > 0:16:50men who'd gone there for spices, cotton, calicos, and indigo.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54The East India Company, which soon dominated trade,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57raised its own army of local troops.
0:17:02 > 0:17:05In 1744, a young man arrived in India
0:17:05 > 0:17:09to work as a clerk for the company.
0:17:11 > 0:17:16His name was Robert Clive - ambitious, short tempered,
0:17:16 > 0:17:20and impatient, Clive could see that wielding a sword
0:17:20 > 0:17:24was a faster route to riches than pushing a pen.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30Clive taught himself to be a soldier.
0:17:30 > 0:17:31He learned, for example,
0:17:31 > 0:17:34that the best way to repel troops mounted on elephants,
0:17:34 > 0:17:36should you ever need to know,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40is to fire a volley of shots at the animals until they stampede.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44But his greatest talent of all was, in his own words,
0:17:44 > 0:17:50"...for politics, chicanery, intrigue and the Lord knows what."
0:17:55 > 0:17:57At the Battle of Plassey in 1757
0:17:57 > 0:18:01Clive outwitted the ruler of the State of Bengal,
0:18:01 > 0:18:06a man who had dared to challenge the power of the East India Company.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12Clive then walked into the Prince's Treasury
0:18:12 > 0:18:15and coolly helped himself to a fortune.
0:18:23 > 0:18:26He then shipped it in a fleet of 75 barges
0:18:26 > 0:18:30to the company's headquarters in Calcutta.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38Soon afterwards, a new word entered the English language.
0:18:38 > 0:18:40It was a Hindi word, "loot".
0:18:53 > 0:18:55When Clive returned to England,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59he was met with the characteristic British disdain
0:18:59 > 0:19:02for men who make their money in a hurry.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06But when hauled before Parliament, he simply said,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09"An opulent city lay at my mercy.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12"Its vaults were thrown open to me alone,
0:19:12 > 0:19:15"piled on either hand with gold and jewels.
0:19:15 > 0:19:21"Mr Chairman, at this moment I stand astonished at my own moderation".
0:19:30 > 0:19:33With wealth came power.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37The East India Company gradually took control
0:19:37 > 0:19:39of huge swathes of the land.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45The company men were the new Princes of India.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48They built themselves great palaces in the British style
0:19:48 > 0:19:50on Calcutta's main street.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57Many of them still stand today.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10As for Clive, he became Governor of Bengal.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21So what had begun in plunder had ended in government
0:20:21 > 0:20:23and so it was to prove right across the world.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27It was the greed of Robert Clive and men like him
0:20:27 > 0:20:29which built Britain an Empire.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45Oh, what's that?
0:20:49 > 0:20:52- What is this?- Tamarind. - Tamarind? Ah.
0:20:54 > 0:20:5918th century India provided Britain with a spectacular array of goods.
0:21:01 > 0:21:02The sheer variety.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04I mean, I have no idea what most of these things are.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08There's an awful lot of this yellow stuff. I wonder what it is.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12'It was the spice trade that had brought early travellers to India.'
0:21:14 > 0:21:17'Chillies, pepper, even turmeric are familiar tastes now,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21'but in the early days of Empire, they were an exotic luxury.'
0:21:21 > 0:21:23That's a good...
0:21:23 > 0:21:25Crikey, it is! Quite strong!
0:21:28 > 0:21:32'India offered Europe a whole new world of taste and colour.'
0:21:32 > 0:21:34It must be the pepper.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41'And it wasn't just spices, but fabrics and furniture, too.
0:21:43 > 0:21:44'A network of global commerce
0:21:44 > 0:21:49'was bringing the cultures of distant lands closer together.'
0:21:51 > 0:21:55Mind yourselves, er... There's a bit of a traffic jam here.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57Sorry.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09It's no surprise to us now that spices come from India,
0:22:09 > 0:22:14but there was one Indian product that became so familiar,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18it's hard to believe it didn't originate in England.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Chintz.
0:22:20 > 0:22:21Good morning. How do you do?
0:22:21 > 0:22:24- Very good to see you. - He's the King. The King of Chintz.
0:22:24 > 0:22:26- You're the King of Chintz? - That's Morgelena.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29- And you're the Princess of Chintz. - Yes.- OK, good. Excellent.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35Chintz is calico cloth
0:22:35 > 0:22:38that's been painted or printed with a wood block.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Here on the outskirts of Calcutta,
0:22:43 > 0:22:48they've kept the traditional way of making it alive.
0:22:48 > 0:22:53They're still using techniques pioneered centuries ago.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01I'll be honest with you - chintz has a very bad image in my mind.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04It's this sort of thing, you know,
0:23:04 > 0:23:07it's the sort of thing grannies have on their sofas.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09- Yes. That's not just what chintz is? - No, no, no.
0:23:09 > 0:23:11This is what has been in later times
0:23:11 > 0:23:14adapted to the taste of the British people
0:23:14 > 0:23:16and has been done on the screen.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19- Oh, it's our fault! - Yeah, it's screen printed.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23So therefore, if you go back to approximately the 16th/17th century,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25this is what is the original Indian chintz,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27which is sprinkled, sprayed,
0:23:27 > 0:23:30- hand painted or hand block printed fabric.- Right.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32So it's a drawing with the pen
0:23:32 > 0:23:36and using natural dye process to fill in the various colours.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47Britain first fell in love with chintz in the 17th century.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51Nothing that Britain produced then could match the rich patterns
0:23:51 > 0:23:55and colours of this Bengali textile.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01- Astonishingly labour intensive, isn't it?- Yes, it is.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04- Need more patience. - You certainly do!
0:24:04 > 0:24:07- The worst thing is, you can't make a single mistake ever.- Yes.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13So you put all the colours on like this
0:24:13 > 0:24:15and what's the finished product?
0:24:15 > 0:24:17- Yes, I have some, this is finished. - OK.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22This is the final product.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26- And this is your work, is it? - Yes, sir. This is my work.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29- This is a traditional pattern? - This is a traditional pattern.
0:24:29 > 0:24:30So is this the sort of thing
0:24:30 > 0:24:33- that would have been shipped to Britain and to Europe?- Yes.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36Well, they're brilliant colours and a brilliant design,
0:24:36 > 0:24:37so thank you very much.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40- You can see why people went crazy for it.- Thank you, sir.
0:24:47 > 0:24:53At one time, chintz made up three quarters of India's exports.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57It became so popular that British cloth makers protested.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02In 1720, it was actually banned in Britain
0:25:02 > 0:25:06and after that, the British started making their own.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16For more than three centuries, it was trade not conquests
0:25:16 > 0:25:19which brought new colonies into the Empire,
0:25:19 > 0:25:23though it was often trade at the end of a gun or a sword.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Private companies run by speculators, and the odd crook,
0:25:29 > 0:25:33took over huge chunks of foreign territory.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35They ran them as they liked, raising armies,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38doing deals with local rulers.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41The East India Company was the grandest of them.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46Canada was opened up by the Hudson's Bay Company,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49which traded in skins and furs.
0:25:50 > 0:25:52And the African Lakes Corporation
0:25:52 > 0:25:56bought and sold the bounty of swathes of Africa.
0:25:56 > 0:26:01Most were accountable to men sitting in offices thousands of miles away.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33At the heart of Empire was the City of London.
0:26:34 > 0:26:38The centre of a spider's web of global trade.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48This was where money was made, goods bought and sold.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56At the London Metal Exchange, they have been doing business in this way
0:26:56 > 0:26:57for over 200 years.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09It all looks utter chaos down there, with people shouting
0:27:09 > 0:27:10and making strange gestures,
0:27:10 > 0:27:15talking into two or three telephones at the same time, but behind it all
0:27:15 > 0:27:19there is an important clue as to why Britain became such a powerful force
0:27:19 > 0:27:21in the days of The Empire.
0:27:30 > 0:27:36On floors like this, traders speculated on tin from Malaya,
0:27:36 > 0:27:41cotton from India, wool from Australia, gold from South Africa.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56From the 17th century,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00Britain took the lead in global banking, finance and insurance.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08City bankers and merchants made London the pivot
0:28:08 > 0:28:11of the world's entire commercial system
0:28:11 > 0:28:15and London held that lead well into the 20th century.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38By the end of the 19th century,
0:28:38 > 0:28:43more than half the world's trade was financed in British pounds.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45Victorian investors grew rich
0:28:45 > 0:28:49trading in things on the other side of the world,
0:28:49 > 0:28:53things they never saw or perhaps never wanted to see.
0:28:58 > 0:29:01The Merchant Banking House of Antony Gibbs & Sons
0:29:01 > 0:29:07made their fortune trading in a very unglamorous commodity - bird poo.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13It was called guano and it was collected from some islands
0:29:13 > 0:29:15off the coast of South America. Hence it was said,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18"The House of Gibbs made their dibs
0:29:18 > 0:29:22"by selling the turds of foreign birds".
0:29:29 > 0:29:34Guano was gathered off the coast of Peru and sold as fertiliser.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38It made a fortune for British businessmen.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41The Gibbs family made so much money from guano,
0:29:41 > 0:29:45they were able to bankroll much of the Peruvian economy.
0:29:45 > 0:29:49Victorian Britain, in effect, had two Empires -
0:29:49 > 0:29:54one run by politicians, the other by money men like Gibbs.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59In South America, British banks supplied governments with credit.
0:30:00 > 0:30:03British companies built railways across Argentina.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09British settlers bought huge ranches and raised cattle.
0:30:14 > 0:30:18But the real killing to be made in Queen Victoria's Empire
0:30:18 > 0:30:22was from something far more pernicious than bird droppings
0:30:22 > 0:30:26and it made some Britons rich beyond their wildest dreams.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53The former British island colony of Hong Kong
0:30:53 > 0:30:58is so densely packed with banking and trading firms,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01it's known as the world's most vertical city.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15The place lives, eats and breathes money.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24The story of how Hong Kong came to be British
0:31:24 > 0:31:28reflects the Empire's often ruthless pursuit of profit.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30It's an extraordinary story,
0:31:30 > 0:31:34even if it is one of the most shameful in British history.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42And yet this dark episode began innocently enough.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51It was borne from the English passion for a cup of tea.
0:31:55 > 0:31:57- Hello!- Hello. Hello.
0:31:57 > 0:32:00How many types of tea do you have?
0:32:00 > 0:32:03Er, mainly it is all the Chinese tea we have.
0:32:03 > 0:32:07- All of them.- All of them?! - All of the types, yes.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11- Oh, it smells lovely, doesn't it? - Would you like to have a cup of tea?
0:32:11 > 0:32:14- I'd love to have one, yes. - This way, please.- Thank you. Yeah.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19'In the early 19th century,
0:32:19 > 0:32:25'China was virtually the only place tea was grown.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28'But there was a problem.
0:32:28 > 0:32:32'For three centuries, China had severely restricted trade
0:32:32 > 0:32:34'with the West.'
0:32:36 > 0:32:40The British were desperate and even sent a delegation to China.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43They begged the Emperor to open up his country
0:32:43 > 0:32:46and take some British products in exchange for tea.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52They presented him with all sorts of trinkets.
0:32:53 > 0:32:58Games and curiosities, scientific instruments and toys.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03But he remained resolutely unimpressed.
0:33:06 > 0:33:10"We possess all things," said the Emperor.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14"I set no value upon things strange or ingenious
0:33:14 > 0:33:17"and I have no use for your country's manufactures".
0:33:23 > 0:33:25But to get the tea they craved,
0:33:25 > 0:33:31the British had one thing to trade that many Chinese craved even more.
0:33:31 > 0:33:32opium.
0:33:38 > 0:33:43The drug was illegal in China, though the ban was widely ignored.
0:33:45 > 0:33:49There were an estimated 12 million peasants addicted to opium.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55The authorities there called it, "A deadly poison,
0:33:55 > 0:33:59"ruining the minds and morals of our people."
0:34:01 > 0:34:04The British grew opium poppies in India.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09There they processed it in factories on a colossal scale.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16Finally, it was shipped to China and sold to smugglers.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20With the profits, British traders bought Chinese tea.
0:34:29 > 0:34:34Two men in particular made a handsome profit out of opium.
0:34:48 > 0:34:54One was William Jardine, the son of a Scottish farmer.
0:34:54 > 0:34:58The other was his business partner and fellow Scot, James Matheson.
0:35:00 > 0:35:04From boats moored off the Chinese mainland
0:35:04 > 0:35:08they sold industrial quantities of opium to be trafficked into China.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14At the time, selling opium wasn't illegal in Britain,
0:35:14 > 0:35:17nor did it cause them any moral qualms.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26Jardine himself said that, "Trading in opium was the safest
0:35:26 > 0:35:29"and most gentlemanly speculation I'm aware of."
0:35:29 > 0:35:33And his partner, Matheson, thought it no more morally equivalent
0:35:33 > 0:35:36to selling brandy or champagne in Britain.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38Business was just business.
0:35:40 > 0:35:46In 1839, the Chinese Emperor decided he'd had enough.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50He ordered more than 1,000 tonnes
0:35:50 > 0:35:54of British supplied opium to be seized and destroyed.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02The British government was outraged.
0:36:05 > 0:36:09It invoked a sacred and very convenient principle.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12The principle of free trade.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15Britain had to be allowed to trade what and where she liked,
0:36:15 > 0:36:17especially in the case of opium.
0:36:24 > 0:36:26Opium was making Britain rich.
0:36:26 > 0:36:28It soon accounted for over a fifth
0:36:28 > 0:36:31of the income of the government of India.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36Two mighty Empires, each convinced of their own superiority,
0:36:36 > 0:36:38were now set on collision course.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46The opium wars were about to begin.
0:36:51 > 0:36:54Britain's first ocean going iron war ship, The Nemesis,
0:36:54 > 0:36:59built in Liverpool, was sent out to take on the Emperor's navy.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03It helped destroy much of it in a single afternoon.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12This was the modern world confronting an ancient one.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16Sailing junks against steam driven gun boats.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20The Chinese had no choice but to surrender
0:37:20 > 0:37:23and to open five ports to British trade.
0:37:23 > 0:37:29China had been forced to enter the modern global economy.
0:37:36 > 0:37:40Hong Kong was one of Britain's prizes from the opium wars.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45Close to the Chinese mainland,
0:37:45 > 0:37:50it was perfect for trading with the newly opened Chinese Empire.
0:37:52 > 0:37:57Matheson moved his headquarters to Hong Kong in January, 1841.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01Profits from the opium trade doubled.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15So this most bustling of British colonies
0:38:15 > 0:38:18was built on a drug which stupefies people.
0:38:18 > 0:38:23Even more remarkably, the British continued to ship opium into China
0:38:23 > 0:38:25until well into the 20th century.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43Hong Kong grew at an astonishing rate.
0:38:45 > 0:38:48A new bank was founded to service the China trade -
0:38:48 > 0:38:52The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.
0:38:52 > 0:38:53We know it as HSBC.
0:38:56 > 0:39:00Today, Hong Kong is a hot house for global finance.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08But what about the company that played such a large part
0:39:08 > 0:39:13in founding Hong Kong's prosperity Jardine, Matheson & Co?
0:39:14 > 0:39:18Well, they're still here and still doing very well.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26These are the modern headquarters of Jardine Matheson.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29The round windows have earned it the local nickname,
0:39:29 > 0:39:32"The building of a thousand orifices."
0:39:32 > 0:39:35At least that's the polite version.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38Doubtless, somewhere in the foundations are buried
0:39:38 > 0:39:40the consciences of its founders.
0:39:53 > 0:39:58In 1997, more than a century and a half after the opium wars,
0:39:58 > 0:40:00Hong Kong was returned to China.
0:40:12 > 0:40:14The Union flag will now be lowered.
0:40:14 > 0:40:19The National flag of the People's Republic of China will be raised.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23APPLAUSE
0:40:23 > 0:40:26All the important people in Hong Kong greet the first sight
0:40:26 > 0:40:27of their new flag.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34When the British finally quit Hong Kong in 1997,
0:40:34 > 0:40:38they did so boasting, "They were handing on a territory intimately
0:40:38 > 0:40:41"wired into the world economy."
0:40:41 > 0:40:44The shameful origins of British colonial presence here
0:40:44 > 0:40:46conveniently forgotten.
0:40:46 > 0:40:51But China has never entirely forgotten how a foreign power
0:40:51 > 0:40:56forced it at gunpoint to allow millions of its citizens
0:40:56 > 0:40:59to be turned into drug addicts.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10The spoils of Empire made Britannia rich.
0:41:12 > 0:41:19From the colonies came gold and silver and spices. Even plants.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27And so vast was her Empire, Britain could choose to grow them
0:41:27 > 0:41:30where she liked.
0:41:30 > 0:41:34Tea bushes could be planted for the first time in India and Ceylon.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38Tobacco planted in southern Africa.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45And there was a particular seed that made a very rich Empire
0:41:45 > 0:41:47even richer.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05In the summer of 1877, a large packing case arrived here
0:42:05 > 0:42:07in Singapore's Botanic Gardens.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16Inside the case were 22 seedlings of rubber trees
0:42:16 > 0:42:19collected by British plant hunters in Brazil.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25These trees are descended from those original seedlings.
0:42:25 > 0:42:28Inside them is a milky fluid called latex.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30You make rubber from it.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41The director of the Botanic Gardens, Henry Ridley,
0:42:41 > 0:42:43was a man with a vision.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47He saw the truly massive potential of rubber
0:42:47 > 0:42:52and launched a crusade to convince every planter in the region
0:42:52 > 0:42:53to grow it.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Ridley stuffed the planters' pockets with rubber seeds.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07He lectured them on how to protect their plants.
0:43:07 > 0:43:11He waved specimens of processed rubber under their noses.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13He was a man obsessed.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17They called him Rubber Ridley - that was to his face.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20Behind his back, they called him Mad Ridley.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35Most people associate his madness to his passion.
0:43:35 > 0:43:39He's a great visionary of his time, a keen scientist,
0:43:39 > 0:43:42and he's responsible for most of what we see here
0:43:42 > 0:43:44in the rubber industry today.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48Now, Ridley came up with a new way of tapping rubber trees, didn't he?
0:43:48 > 0:43:52Er, yeah. The methods used were pretty harsh before that.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54They would hack into the rubber tree,
0:43:54 > 0:43:58injuring the vascular cambium which is necessary for the tree's survival.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01And what actually happened was he experimented with various
0:44:01 > 0:44:02tree stabbing existence.
0:44:02 > 0:44:07In the Singapore Botanic Gardens, he found a way to tap the rubber
0:44:07 > 0:44:09by exposing the vessels that produced the latex
0:44:09 > 0:44:11without harming the vascular cambium.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13And the tree carried on living?
0:44:13 > 0:44:16- Yeah.- So you could tap it again and again and again and again?
0:44:16 > 0:44:18For up to five years on one side
0:44:18 > 0:44:21and once you've done on one side you can actually let it heal
0:44:21 > 0:44:23while you tap the other side for another five years.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34Basically it is cut at an angle.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37- So this white, that's latex, is it? - Yes. Latex, yes.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41- What, there's a bowl or something down here to collect it?- Yes.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46Ah, it's really prolific, isn't it?!
0:44:46 > 0:44:47It's sticky, isn't it?
0:44:48 > 0:44:51- A pair of rubber gloves there or something? Maybe?- Yeah.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02Ridley was so excited because he knew just how much
0:45:02 > 0:45:06rubber could be worth to the British Empire.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11Rubber was the plastic of the 19th century.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14It could be made into just about anything.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17Rubber boots, rubber hoods,
0:45:17 > 0:45:22coats, hats, hose pipes, rubber raincoats.
0:45:26 > 0:45:30British manufacturers wanted as much as they could get their hands on.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45Millions of rubber trees were planted
0:45:45 > 0:45:49in Singapore's neighbouring British territory, Malaya.
0:45:51 > 0:45:55And thousands of workers were brought in from another colony,
0:45:55 > 0:45:59India, to work on the vast new estates.
0:45:59 > 0:46:01It transformed the country.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09By the 1930s, three quarters of the world's rubber was coming from here.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14British companies produced most of it.
0:46:21 > 0:46:26All over the Empire, British ships sailed home with cargoes of rubber
0:46:26 > 0:46:29or cotton or bananas.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31They went back to the colonies
0:46:31 > 0:46:35loaded with things manufactured in Britain.
0:46:35 > 0:46:43Tea-pots, saucepans, knives, even cloth caps.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48But one product would put Britain and its most important colony
0:46:48 > 0:46:51on a collision course - cotton.
0:46:54 > 0:46:59British factories took raw cotton from India and spun it into cloth.
0:47:01 > 0:47:06By the 1920s, Lancashire's cotton mills dominated the world market.
0:47:15 > 0:47:20By contrast, the once flourishing Indian cloth trade
0:47:20 > 0:47:21had virtually collapsed.
0:47:23 > 0:47:28They had to rely instead on cloth woven in Britain.
0:47:28 > 0:47:30For many Indians, it was the final insult.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37The leader of the Indian Independence Movement,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40Mahatma Gandhi, burned his suit
0:47:40 > 0:47:43and adopted the dress of an Indian peasant.
0:47:43 > 0:47:47He took the spinning wheel as a symbol of Indian freedom
0:47:47 > 0:47:50and told his countrymen to stop buying British cloth.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04The effect of Gandhi's boycott was felt 4,500 miles away
0:48:04 > 0:48:09in the heartlands of Lancashire's weaving industry.
0:48:15 > 0:48:19Lancashire had done well out of the Empire.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22At one time, almost two thirds of its manufactured cotton
0:48:22 > 0:48:24had been sold back to India.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28But now times were hard.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31No fewer than 74 of the mills had closed
0:48:31 > 0:48:34and angry, unemployed mill workers
0:48:34 > 0:48:38blamed Gandhi for his boycott of British cloth.
0:48:42 > 0:48:43In towns like Darwen,
0:48:43 > 0:48:47whose mills were used to weaving cloth for the Empire and beyond,
0:48:47 > 0:48:51there was frustration and despair.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56Then came extraordinary news.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01Gandhi was coming to Britain and would visit Lancashire.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08He was entering the lion's den - coming to see for himself
0:49:08 > 0:49:11the effect the Indian boycott was having on textile workers here.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16Then came a little man, still scantily clad,
0:49:16 > 0:49:20but with an extremely wet blanket around his tiny frame.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24I'm sure he must have been frozen. We were in thick overcoats.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33The local paper praised Gandhi's celebrated sympathy for the poor.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35Surely his heart would soften
0:49:35 > 0:49:40at the sight of so many hundreds of unemployed weavers.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42The peace and simplicity of the place,
0:49:42 > 0:49:46the Lancashire air, it was hoped would sooth what it called,
0:49:46 > 0:49:48"deep differences of opinion."
0:49:53 > 0:49:58Gandhi arrived in Darwen on September 26th, 1931.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Crowds turned out to wonder at and to welcome him.
0:50:06 > 0:50:11For those with eyes to see, this was a hugely significant moment.
0:50:11 > 0:50:12The charisma, the excitement
0:50:12 > 0:50:15belonged not to a defender of Empire,
0:50:15 > 0:50:17but to a would-be dismantler of it.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22I'm thankful that I've got this opportunity of being
0:50:22 > 0:50:26surrounded by these happy children and seeing the homes of the poor.
0:50:34 > 0:50:38Mill workers took their children to see this remarkable visitor.
0:50:38 > 0:50:40Some of them still remember it.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45Hello. You must be Ruth. I'm Jeremy. Hello. How do you do?
0:50:45 > 0:50:47- Can I come in?- Certainly.- Thank you.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54What did your mother tell you, er, you were going to do
0:50:54 > 0:50:58when you set off that day to go and see Gandhi?
0:50:58 > 0:51:04Well, she just said, "We're going to see a very important man from India
0:51:04 > 0:51:07"and he's going to make things better, we think,
0:51:07 > 0:51:09"with the cotton trade."
0:51:09 > 0:51:12Which I didn't understand what he was talking about,
0:51:12 > 0:51:14what she was talking about,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16- because I was only seven at the time, you know.- Mm.
0:51:16 > 0:51:22And I remember all the people around where I stood, you know,
0:51:22 > 0:51:25and, erm, this little man came on
0:51:25 > 0:51:27and I looked at my mother and I said,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31"Which is Gandhi, mother?"
0:51:31 > 0:51:33She said, "It's that man, there,"
0:51:33 > 0:51:37and I said, "But he's, he's not an important man".
0:51:37 > 0:51:40I said, "He's a poor little man. He has no clothes on".
0:51:40 > 0:51:44He had sort of a white type cloth between his legs, hadn't he?
0:51:44 > 0:51:45Yes, it was like a big nappy.
0:51:45 > 0:51:50- Yes, to be honest, yes! - He had this thing round his neck.
0:51:50 > 0:51:52And it was hugged around him. Like that.
0:51:52 > 0:51:57- And he had nothing on his feet, only a pair of sandals.- Yes.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59And I was horrified because, I said,
0:51:59 > 0:52:03- "He's no shoes on, mother!" You know?- Yes.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05I was really disappointed.
0:52:05 > 0:52:07But he obviously had amazing charisma that you two
0:52:07 > 0:52:09remember him so vividly.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14- It's still with us. - Oh, yes.- Yes.- Yeah.- Yes, it is.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17- 80 years after the event? - Yes.- 80 years!
0:52:17 > 0:52:20LAUGHTER
0:52:25 > 0:52:30Gandhi had not come all the way from India to call off his boycott.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32He had a far bigger vision.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34To make the workers of Britain
0:52:34 > 0:52:37sympathetic to the plight of the Indian people
0:52:37 > 0:52:40and to the cause of Indian independence.
0:52:40 > 0:52:45For Gandhi, it wasn't his boycott that was to blame,
0:52:45 > 0:52:47but the system of Empire itself.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55The workers had been hoping that when Gandhi saw their plight,
0:52:55 > 0:52:57he'd call off the boycott.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00Well, Gandhi listened but he didn't budge and when someone said,
0:53:00 > 0:53:05"But we have three million unemployed", he just replied,
0:53:05 > 0:53:07"I have 300 million".
0:53:13 > 0:53:17The boycott, and others like it, helped inspire many of those
0:53:17 > 0:53:21300 million to protest against British rule.
0:53:21 > 0:53:26They would demand and eventually get independence in 1947.
0:53:26 > 0:53:32At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps,
0:53:32 > 0:53:35India will awake to life and freedom!
0:53:51 > 0:53:56Well over half a century has passed since that historic moment.
0:53:58 > 0:54:01Britain has still not escaped its imperial past
0:54:01 > 0:54:04and neither in many ways has India.
0:54:12 > 0:54:14I'm waiting to meet a group of people
0:54:14 > 0:54:16who devote much of their lives
0:54:16 > 0:54:20to celebrating one of Empire's more curious remnants.
0:54:22 > 0:54:26The Royal Enfield motorcycle.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38These classic bikes have been close to Indian hearts
0:54:38 > 0:54:41since before the Second World War.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44Once they were made in Worcestershire,
0:54:44 > 0:54:48but production stopped around the time the Empire ran out of steam.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52By then, Indians were building them for themselves.
0:55:07 > 0:55:09You're bored too, aren't you?
0:55:11 > 0:55:13The Royal Enfield motorcycle
0:55:13 > 0:55:17has become as much a feature of Indian roads
0:55:17 > 0:55:19as painted trucks and wandering cows.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29Thank you for coming.
0:55:29 > 0:55:31The cow would like to thank you, too.
0:55:31 > 0:55:34- Em, now who's the chief here?- Me. - You're the chief?
0:55:34 > 0:55:38- You're Amit, are you?- Yeah. - Excellent. Good.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41I want to ask you about what is it, your club is, they're the...
0:55:41 > 0:55:44- Royal Riders Club.- The Royal Riders Club, and hi, I'm Jeremy.
0:55:44 > 0:55:48- Hi, hello.- Amit. - And how many members have you got?
0:55:48 > 0:55:49- 70 members.- 70?
0:55:49 > 0:55:52- What have you got, half of them here?- Yeah. Half of them are here.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56- And what is it that you only ride Royal Enfields?- Yeah, only.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59How many of these are Bullets? They're all Bullets, are they?
0:55:59 > 0:56:02- Yes.- They're all Bullets.- That was the great slogan, wasn't it?
0:56:02 > 0:56:06- Yeah.- "Built like a rifle. Goes like a bullet."- Yeah.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09And why do you like, er, why do you like the Royal Enfield?
0:56:11 > 0:56:14- It's for the man.- It's for the man? - It's a masculine thing.
0:56:14 > 0:56:16- A masculine bike?- Yes, obviously.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19Don't you let girls ride it?
0:56:19 > 0:56:21On the back seat!
0:56:21 > 0:56:26- Only on the back seat. I see. - This is the symbol of freedom.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28- Symbol of freedom? - Symbol of freedom.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31When we ride this bike, we feel that we are free.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33- You say it's a symbol of freedom. - Yes.
0:56:33 > 0:56:36But isn't it a symbol of the British Empire, too?
0:56:36 > 0:56:40No, because we take the best part of the regime and not the worst part.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43That is why we say this is the symbol of freedom.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47We have taken the best part and thereafter now we are free.
0:56:59 > 0:57:01Good. You've got a big head, too.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10I feel more virile already.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20This great, old fashioned machine,
0:57:20 > 0:57:23invented in Britain and now made in India,
0:57:23 > 0:57:26seems to sum up the changing fortunes of the two countries.
0:57:26 > 0:57:31Their long, troubled marriage and their divorce.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44Next time, did Empire do any good?
0:57:50 > 0:57:53Some believe they were bringing light into the world.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59Others simply that they had a right to rule it.
0:58:00 > 0:58:04Did the visionaries of Empire help or harm the modern world?
0:58:10 > 0:58:12To order a free Open University poster,
0:58:12 > 0:58:15exploring the legacy of Britain's Empire,
0:58:15 > 0:58:18go to bbc.co.uk/empire
0:58:18 > 0:58:22or call 0845 366 8021.
0:58:44 > 0:58:48Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd