It is one of the less easily intelligible characteristics of the early missionaries that they attached more importance to the souls of others than to… - Niall Ferguson

For much (though certainly, as we shall see, not all) of its history, the British Empire acted as an agency for imposing free markets, the rule of law, investor protection and relatively incorrupt government on roughly a quarter of the world. The Empire also did a good deal to encourage those things in countries which were outside its formal imperial domain but under its economic influence through the ‘imperialism of fair trade’.

Economic history is not politically correct. Many on the left therefore struggle with its findings.

The British Empire was the nearest thing there has ever been to a world government. Yet its mode of operation was a triumph of minimalism.