1 00:00:11,607 --> 00:00:15,646 JEREMY PAXMAN: Welcome to one of the most densely populated places on Earth. 2 00:00:17,247 --> 00:00:19,681 When Britain took Hong Kong in 1842, 3 00:00:19,767 --> 00:00:22,235 it was just a cluster of fishing villages. 4 00:00:23,527 --> 00:00:25,119 In a few decades, they had made it 5 00:00:25,207 --> 00:00:28,836 one of the busiest, richest trading posts in the world. 6 00:00:32,647 --> 00:00:36,117 The British Empire wasn't just about conquest and government, 7 00:00:36,207 --> 00:00:39,085 and chaps in shorts telling foreigners what to do, 8 00:00:39,167 --> 00:00:42,398 it was also about money and profit. 9 00:00:42,487 --> 00:00:45,638 It began with a few unscrupulous adventurers 10 00:00:45,727 --> 00:00:48,400 and it grew into a vast network 11 00:00:48,487 --> 00:00:51,843 that spanned the globe from Britain to Australia, 12 00:00:51,927 --> 00:00:56,796 from Calcutta to Jamaica, from Australia to Hong Kong. 13 00:01:00,887 --> 00:01:02,366 Off the coast of China, 14 00:01:02,447 --> 00:01:07,237 British traders made fortunes from ships freighted with addictive drugs. 15 00:01:09,487 --> 00:01:12,763 And they helped themselves to the riches of ancient India. 16 00:01:17,807 --> 00:01:21,163 Money flowed to Britain from piracy in the Caribbean. 17 00:01:23,447 --> 00:01:27,122 And from estates worked by slaves taken from Africa. 18 00:01:29,407 --> 00:01:32,399 Empire trade and empire theft 19 00:01:32,487 --> 00:01:36,844 helped make Britain a world capital of money it still is today. 20 00:02:38,447 --> 00:02:42,156 On a hot afternoon in September 1 668, 21 00:02:42,247 --> 00:02:46,525 a fleet of nine ships sailed home to harbour in the Caribbean. 22 00:02:50,887 --> 00:02:53,117 There was wild celebrating on board, 23 00:02:53,207 --> 00:02:56,483 for these ''Brethren of the Coast'', as they called themselves, 24 00:02:56,567 --> 00:02:59,320 were returning from a smash-and-grab raid 25 00:02:59,407 --> 00:03:02,922 on the Spanish town of Portobello in Central America. 26 00:03:03,007 --> 00:03:08,161 They had stolen a staggering 25,000 pieces of eight, 27 00:03:08,247 --> 00:03:11,922 that's the Spanish dollar minted in pure silver. 28 00:03:12,007 --> 00:03:15,477 It was worth about £1 0 million at today's prices. 29 00:03:22,847 --> 00:03:25,998 Leading the so-called ''Brethren'' was Henry Morgan, 30 00:03:26,087 --> 00:03:29,875 a ferocious, hard-drinking Welshman from Monmouthshire, 31 00:03:29,967 --> 00:03:32,356 who made his living by theft and violence. 32 00:03:35,887 --> 00:03:40,005 Men like Morgan were the founding fathers of the British Empire, 33 00:03:40,087 --> 00:03:45,366 for it began not in trying to rule other countries, but in robbing them. 34 00:03:51,967 --> 00:03:54,561 But this was piracy with a twist. 35 00:03:54,647 --> 00:03:59,038 It even had a different, more respectable name - privateering. 36 00:04:03,967 --> 00:04:05,844 It worked like this. 37 00:04:05,927 --> 00:04:11,206 The government licensed merchant ships to attack and rob the country's enemies. 38 00:04:11,287 --> 00:04:15,360 And in exchange, the government got a share of the stolen goods. 39 00:04:15,447 --> 00:04:17,756 This was empire building on the cheap. 40 00:04:17,847 --> 00:04:21,078 The freelancers took the risk, the government took the money. 41 00:04:26,567 --> 00:04:29,240 The pirates' victims were Spanish ships. 42 00:04:30,447 --> 00:04:34,360 These were laden with gold from their colonies in the Americas. 43 00:04:38,007 --> 00:04:43,035 Morgan's base was a place that had recently been seized from the Spanish. 44 00:04:51,127 --> 00:04:52,845 The island of Jamaica. 45 00:05:06,847 --> 00:05:09,759 The British set up a new capital here - 46 00:05:09,847 --> 00:05:11,917 Port Royal in the south of the island. 47 00:05:15,047 --> 00:05:18,756 With its vast number of taverns, brothels and rowdiness, 48 00:05:18,847 --> 00:05:21,998 it quickly earned the name ''The Sodom of the New World. '' 49 00:05:28,287 --> 00:05:30,755 Then all that came to a sudden end. 50 00:05:34,727 --> 00:05:37,685 Peace was declared between Britain and Spain. 51 00:05:39,527 --> 00:05:42,280 But Jamaica stayed in British hands. 52 00:05:46,567 --> 00:05:51,402 Henry Morgan saw the way things were going and decided to diversify. 53 00:05:51,487 --> 00:05:55,639 He hung up his cutlass and bought 4,000 acres of land 54 00:05:55,727 --> 00:05:58,764 on which he built a second fortune. 55 00:05:58,847 --> 00:06:01,919 The empire had been conceived in robbery, 56 00:06:02,007 --> 00:06:05,716 but it grew fat on the cultivation of sugar. 57 00:06:06,887 --> 00:06:09,879 Theft was the past, trade was the future. 58 00:06:14,367 --> 00:06:17,723 The British at home had developed a lust for sugar, 59 00:06:17,807 --> 00:06:21,083 to sweeten the novelties arriving from the tropics - 60 00:06:21,167 --> 00:06:24,955 coffee, chocolate and tea. 61 00:06:27,247 --> 00:06:31,365 The British were already becoming a nation of sugar addicts. 62 00:06:40,407 --> 00:06:44,764 Sugar from Jamaican plantations could satisfy their sweet tooth. 63 00:06:50,047 --> 00:06:52,402 But the island's population was tiny, 64 00:06:52,487 --> 00:06:55,684 and the plantations needed vast amounts of labour. 65 00:07:00,727 --> 00:07:05,596 The answer to the problem lay in the traffic of human beings from Africa. 66 00:07:07,167 --> 00:07:08,759 The slave trade. 67 00:07:22,607 --> 00:07:26,566 The British didn't introduce slavery to the Caribbean, 68 00:07:26,647 --> 00:07:29,525 but they took to it with enthusiasm. 69 00:07:29,607 --> 00:07:32,121 Traders bought slaves in Africa, 70 00:07:32,207 --> 00:07:35,517 and then shipped them thousands of miles across the world. 71 00:07:38,047 --> 00:07:42,882 Many died in the packed, filthy, airless cargo decks. 72 00:07:46,167 --> 00:07:49,159 Sugar was a back-breaking crop to harvest. 73 00:07:49,247 --> 00:07:52,717 The cane had to be cut down and then stripped of its foliage, 74 00:07:52,807 --> 00:07:57,881 and then transported to the mill often in intense, blazing heat. 75 00:07:58,927 --> 00:08:01,282 The plantations devoured slaves. 76 00:08:02,527 --> 00:08:04,961 Within three years of their arriving here, 77 00:08:05,047 --> 00:08:07,277 a third of them would be dead. 78 00:08:16,727 --> 00:08:21,755 By 1 775, a million and a half men, women and children 79 00:08:21,847 --> 00:08:26,875 had been forcibly transported from Africa to the British West Indies. 80 00:08:26,967 --> 00:08:29,800 Their descendants now people these islands. 81 00:08:50,367 --> 00:08:53,279 Treating human beings as beasts of burden 82 00:08:53,367 --> 00:08:56,165 made the owners of sugar plantations rich. 83 00:08:57,767 --> 00:09:02,921 This is the planter's house on the Good Hope Estate, built in 1 755. 84 00:09:10,287 --> 00:09:13,404 Its owner was 23 when he bought it. 85 00:09:14,847 --> 00:09:17,441 He became the wealthiest man in Jamaica, 86 00:09:17,527 --> 00:09:22,317 owning over 1 0,000 acres of land and 3,000 slaves. 87 00:09:39,567 --> 00:09:44,721 The sugar planters, known as the plantocracy, enjoyed enormous power. 88 00:09:45,527 --> 00:09:48,837 Each estate was its own little tyranny. 89 00:09:52,647 --> 00:09:55,320 And since slaves enjoyed no rights, 90 00:09:55,407 --> 00:09:58,160 the planters were free to behave as dictators. 91 00:10:02,007 --> 00:10:04,157 One was Thomas Thistlewood. 92 00:10:04,407 --> 00:10:06,875 He'd been a farm-worker in England. 93 00:10:07,007 --> 00:10:09,840 Slavery turned him into a man of means. 94 00:10:11,127 --> 00:10:15,040 He fancied himself a man of letters too and kept a diary. 95 00:10:17,447 --> 00:10:19,324 Even though we all think we are familiar 96 00:10:19,407 --> 00:10:22,558 with the routine horrors of the slave trade, 97 00:10:22,647 --> 00:10:25,081 when you read what some of these slave owners did, 98 00:10:25,167 --> 00:10:27,840 it really does make your stomach heave. 99 00:10:27,927 --> 00:10:29,679 Here are three accounts of punishments 100 00:10:29,767 --> 00:10:33,999 meted out by Thistlewood in three months in 1 756. 101 00:10:36,367 --> 00:10:38,927 ''Derby catched eating canes. 102 00:10:39,007 --> 00:10:43,956 ''Had him well flogged and pickled, then made Hector shit in his mouth. 103 00:10:47,087 --> 00:10:51,365 ''Rubbed Hazat with molasses and exposed him naked to the flies all day, 104 00:10:51,847 --> 00:10:53,724 ''and to the mosquitoes all night. 105 00:10:54,967 --> 00:10:56,764 ''Flogged Punch well, 106 00:10:56,847 --> 00:11:00,999 ''and then washed and rubbed in salt pickle, lime juice and bird pepper, 107 00:11:01,967 --> 00:11:05,277 ''made Negro Joe piss in his eyes and mouth.'' 108 00:11:14,207 --> 00:11:18,086 Thistlewood kept a tally of what was known as ''nutmegging, '' 109 00:11:18,167 --> 00:11:20,123 the rape of female slaves. 110 00:11:20,207 --> 00:11:25,281 Something he did, by his own reckoning, on 3,852 occasions. 111 00:11:27,567 --> 00:11:29,956 He would allow his guests to do the same. 112 00:11:36,247 --> 00:11:39,045 When these slave owners went to church on a Sunday, 113 00:11:39,127 --> 00:11:43,040 they doubtless did so believing they were good Christian folk. 114 00:11:43,887 --> 00:11:45,718 They behaved as they did because 115 00:11:45,807 --> 00:11:49,436 they didn't regard their slaves as fellow human beings, 116 00:11:49,527 --> 00:11:52,837 but as their property to do with as they pleased. 117 00:12:00,527 --> 00:12:05,555 More than two centuries later, the memory of slavery hasn't faded. 118 00:12:07,447 --> 00:12:11,360 How long ago did your family originally come to this country? 119 00:12:13,327 --> 00:12:15,204 In 1 760. 120 00:12:16,727 --> 00:12:18,285 According to my grandmother. 121 00:12:18,367 --> 00:12:19,880 And how did they come here? 122 00:12:19,967 --> 00:12:21,320 The first one in that lineage, 123 00:12:21,407 --> 00:12:24,444 they remembered, in 1 760, when they came over, 124 00:12:24,527 --> 00:12:28,122 was that actually he was taken from the Gold Coast, in Africa. 125 00:12:28,207 --> 00:12:30,357 -As a slave. -As a slave, yes. 126 00:12:30,447 --> 00:12:33,325 And he ended up in Jamaica. 127 00:12:33,407 --> 00:12:35,637 I think on a good old plantation. 128 00:12:35,727 --> 00:12:39,800 And a lot of times, when my grandmother talked, she would actually cry. 129 00:12:39,887 --> 00:12:43,562 Because even, like... We would stand here in a mill like this, 130 00:12:43,647 --> 00:12:45,763 they would put the cane in one hand, 131 00:12:45,847 --> 00:12:48,361 -and a horse would be... -A horse. 132 00:12:48,447 --> 00:12:52,042 Yes, would be turning it, turning the mill. 133 00:12:52,127 --> 00:12:56,405 And when they turned it, this part would take in the cane, 134 00:12:56,487 --> 00:12:58,364 and squeeze it, squeeze the juice out. 135 00:12:58,447 --> 00:12:59,675 The juice comes out of the funnel? 136 00:12:59,767 --> 00:13:03,077 The juice now would come out from... At the front of it here. 137 00:13:03,167 --> 00:13:06,318 And so when they were working as slaves, 138 00:13:06,447 --> 00:13:10,122 and they were working for 1 2 hours, and he would fall asleep. 139 00:13:10,207 --> 00:13:12,767 He would have to have an axe here. 140 00:13:12,847 --> 00:13:17,477 That if his hand, if he falls asleep on it, and he made a mistake, 141 00:13:17,567 --> 00:13:21,003 and his hand go in here, he would have to chop it off. 142 00:13:21,447 --> 00:13:22,766 PAXMAN: Yeah. 143 00:13:22,847 --> 00:13:27,079 You know, when... Someone in my extended family, 144 00:13:27,167 --> 00:13:31,399 probably was involved in bringing your ancestors over here as slaves. 145 00:13:31,487 --> 00:13:34,206 -Yeah, um... -Doesn't it make you feel furious? 146 00:13:34,287 --> 00:13:39,486 No, I think, for now, we are past that in this generation. 147 00:13:39,567 --> 00:13:43,526 But let's be realistic. You were, as slaves, being used as beasts of burden, 148 00:13:43,607 --> 00:13:47,316 -essentially. -Yes, yes, it's hard to understand 149 00:13:47,407 --> 00:13:50,717 why some people would want to do that to other people, 150 00:13:50,807 --> 00:13:55,676 or want to say, ''You should work for me for all of your time, for generations, 151 00:13:55,767 --> 00:13:57,564 ''and I'm never going to pay you.'' 152 00:13:57,647 --> 00:14:02,801 I hope that Britain one day, will look at us here in Jamaica and say, 153 00:14:02,887 --> 00:14:07,199 ''Jamaica made us rich, Jamaica was the sugar capital of the world.'' 154 00:14:19,487 --> 00:14:22,718 PAXMAN: Eventually, the people in Britain became so outraged 155 00:14:22,807 --> 00:14:24,877 by what was happening in the Caribbean, 156 00:14:24,967 --> 00:14:28,084 that the slave trade was abolished in 1 807. 157 00:14:35,687 --> 00:14:39,999 But the wealth of the fledgling empire didn't come from slavery alone. 158 00:14:40,767 --> 00:14:44,919 There were riches of a different kind to be found on the other side of the world. 159 00:15:06,087 --> 00:15:10,877 In the 1 8th century, this was the home of India's ruling dynasty. 160 00:15:19,087 --> 00:15:22,875 The first British visitors were awestruck by what they found. 161 00:15:38,087 --> 00:15:42,399 Places like this must have been absolutely amazing to encounter. 162 00:15:43,207 --> 00:15:47,485 You'd arrive from somewhere cold and bleak in the northern hemisphere, 163 00:15:48,967 --> 00:15:52,596 and one can only imagine what effect it must have had upon 164 00:15:53,207 --> 00:15:56,279 some young lad on the make. 165 00:16:01,527 --> 00:16:03,916 There was a throne somewhere in here. 166 00:16:06,487 --> 00:16:09,160 The Emperor's throne, the Peacock Throne. 167 00:16:09,727 --> 00:16:13,197 Which was encrusted with jewels, including the Kohinoor diamond. 168 00:16:13,287 --> 00:16:15,278 An inscription on the wall... 169 00:16:15,367 --> 00:16:18,803 Oh, that's it up there. In Arabic, which says, 170 00:16:19,607 --> 00:16:23,486 ''If there be paradise on Earth, this is it.'' 171 00:16:24,727 --> 00:16:27,366 The effect must have been astonishing. 172 00:16:43,287 --> 00:16:46,199 The earliest Britons in India were traders, 173 00:16:46,287 --> 00:16:50,963 men who had gone there for spices, cotton, calicos and indigo. 174 00:16:51,887 --> 00:16:55,402 The East India Company, which soon dominated trade, 175 00:16:55,487 --> 00:16:58,160 raised its own army of local troops. 176 00:17:04,207 --> 00:17:10,282 In 1 744, a young man arrived in India to work as a clerk for the company. 177 00:17:12,687 --> 00:17:15,645 His name was Robert Clive. 178 00:17:15,727 --> 00:17:19,003 Ambitious, short-tempered and impatient, 179 00:17:19,087 --> 00:17:21,760 Clive could see that wielding a sword 180 00:17:21,847 --> 00:17:25,476 was a faster route to riches than pushing a pen. 181 00:17:28,887 --> 00:17:31,355 Clive taught himself to be a soldier. 182 00:17:31,447 --> 00:17:32,721 He learned, for example, 183 00:17:32,807 --> 00:17:35,924 that the best way to repel troops mounted on elephants, 184 00:17:36,007 --> 00:17:37,406 should you ever need to know, 185 00:17:37,487 --> 00:17:41,924 is to fire a volley of shots at the animals until they stampede. 186 00:17:42,007 --> 00:17:45,886 But his greatest talent of all was, in his own words, 187 00:17:45,967 --> 00:17:51,121 for politics, chicanery, intrigue and the Lord knows what. 188 00:17:56,647 --> 00:17:59,605 At the Battle of Plassey in 1 757, 189 00:17:59,687 --> 00:18:03,043 Clive outwitted the ruler of the state of Bengal, 190 00:18:03,127 --> 00:18:07,484 a man who had dared to challenge the power of the East India Company. 191 00:18:10,407 --> 00:18:13,683 Clive then walked into the prince's treasury, 192 00:18:13,767 --> 00:18:16,804 and coolly helped himself to a fortune. 193 00:18:24,727 --> 00:18:28,845 He then shipped it in a fleet of 75 barges 194 00:18:28,927 --> 00:18:31,725 to the company's headquarters in Calcutta. 195 00:18:35,807 --> 00:18:39,561 Soon afterwards, a new word entered the English language. 196 00:18:39,647 --> 00:18:42,002 It was a Hindi word - ''Loot''. 197 00:18:55,767 --> 00:18:57,246 When Clive returned to England, 198 00:18:57,327 --> 00:19:00,763 he was met with the characteristic British disdain 199 00:19:00,847 --> 00:19:03,486 for men who make their money in a hurry. 200 00:19:03,567 --> 00:19:07,196 But when hauled before Parliament, he simply said, 201 00:19:07,287 --> 00:19:10,199 ''An opulent city lay at my mercy. 202 00:19:10,287 --> 00:19:13,484 ''Its vaults were thrown open to me alone, 203 00:19:13,567 --> 00:19:16,923 ''piled on either hand with gold and jewels. 204 00:19:17,007 --> 00:19:22,081 ''Mr Chairman, at this moment, I stand astonished at my own moderation.'' 205 00:19:32,127 --> 00:19:34,482 With wealth came power. 206 00:19:35,527 --> 00:19:40,555 The East India Company gradually took control of huge swathes of the land. 207 00:19:43,407 --> 00:19:46,638 The Company men were the new princes of India. 208 00:19:46,727 --> 00:19:49,958 They built themselves great palaces in the British style 209 00:19:50,047 --> 00:19:52,083 on Calcutta's main street. 210 00:19:56,727 --> 00:19:59,002 Many of them still stand today. 211 00:20:08,047 --> 00:20:12,006 As for Clive, he became Governor of Bengal. 212 00:20:17,607 --> 00:20:22,203 So what had begun in plunder, had ended in government. 213 00:20:22,287 --> 00:20:24,847 And so it was to prove right across the world. 214 00:20:24,927 --> 00:20:28,397 It was the greed of Robert Clive and men like him 215 00:20:28,487 --> 00:20:30,717 which built Britain an empire. 216 00:20:31,967 --> 00:20:34,162 (CROWD CLAMOURING) 217 00:20:45,047 --> 00:20:46,321 Oh, what's that? 218 00:20:50,287 --> 00:20:52,243 -What is this? -Tamarind. 219 00:20:52,327 --> 00:20:54,045 -Tamarind. -Ah, tamarind. 220 00:20:56,127 --> 00:21:00,882 1 8th-century India provided Britain with a spectacular array of goods. 221 00:21:02,767 --> 00:21:06,362 Sheer variety. I mean, of course, I have no idea what most of these things are. 222 00:21:06,447 --> 00:21:09,757 There's an awful lot of this yellow stuff. I wonder what it is. 223 00:21:09,847 --> 00:21:13,920 It was the spice trade that had brought early travellers to India. 224 00:21:14,807 --> 00:21:17,321 Chillies, pepper, even turmeric, 225 00:21:17,447 --> 00:21:20,598 are familiar tastes now, but in the early days of empire, 226 00:21:20,687 --> 00:21:22,757 they were an exotic luxury. 227 00:21:22,887 --> 00:21:24,286 Pretty good. 228 00:21:25,087 --> 00:21:27,157 Crikey! It is quite strong. 229 00:21:29,047 --> 00:21:33,643 India offered Europe a whole new world of taste and colour. 230 00:21:34,527 --> 00:21:36,119 Must be the pepper. 231 00:21:38,207 --> 00:21:42,758 And it wasn't just spices, but fabrics and furniture too. 232 00:21:44,087 --> 00:21:46,442 A network of global commerce 233 00:21:46,527 --> 00:21:50,236 was bringing the cultures of distant lands closer together. 234 00:21:53,607 --> 00:21:56,201 Mind you, uh... A bit of a traffic jam here. 235 00:21:57,687 --> 00:21:58,836 Sorry. 236 00:22:06,287 --> 00:22:10,326 It's no surprise to us now that spices come from India, 237 00:22:11,367 --> 00:22:15,360 but there was one Indian product that became so familiar, 238 00:22:15,447 --> 00:22:18,484 it's hard to believe it didn't originate in England. 239 00:22:19,327 --> 00:22:20,521 Chintz. 240 00:22:21,287 --> 00:22:23,164 Good morning. How do you do? 241 00:22:23,247 --> 00:22:26,603 -Niranjan. He's the king of chintz. -Niranjan, very good to see you. 242 00:22:26,687 --> 00:22:29,201 -And that's Morolina. -And you're a princess of chintz. 243 00:22:29,287 --> 00:22:30,879 Okay, good. Excellent. 244 00:22:34,767 --> 00:22:39,602 Chintz is calico cloth that's been painted or printed with a wood block. 245 00:22:41,967 --> 00:22:43,923 Here on the outskirts of Calcutta, 246 00:22:44,007 --> 00:22:47,204 they've kept the traditional way of making it alive. 247 00:22:49,927 --> 00:22:53,761 They're still using techniques pioneered centuries ago. 248 00:22:59,567 --> 00:23:03,037 I'll be honest with you, chintz has a very bad image in my mind. 249 00:23:03,127 --> 00:23:08,076 It's this sort of thing... It's the sort of thing grannies have on their sofas. 250 00:23:08,167 --> 00:23:10,556 -Yes. -I mean, that's not just what chintz is. 251 00:23:10,647 --> 00:23:14,276 No, no, no. This is what has been, in later times, adapted 252 00:23:14,367 --> 00:23:16,483 to the taste of the British people, 253 00:23:16,567 --> 00:23:18,603 -and has been done on the screen... -Oh, it's our fault! 254 00:23:18,687 --> 00:23:20,723 Yeah, it's screen-printed. 255 00:23:20,807 --> 00:23:24,766 So, therefore, if you go back to approximately the 1 6th, 1 7th century, 256 00:23:24,847 --> 00:23:29,125 this is what is the original Indian chintz, which is sprinkled, sprayed, 257 00:23:29,207 --> 00:23:31,641 hand-painted, and hand-block-printed fabric. 258 00:23:31,727 --> 00:23:33,797 So, it's a drawing with the pen, 259 00:23:33,887 --> 00:23:38,244 and using natural dye process to fill in the various colours. 260 00:23:44,247 --> 00:23:48,399 Britain first fell in love with chintz in the 1 7th century. 261 00:23:49,927 --> 00:23:51,804 Nothing that Britain produced then 262 00:23:51,887 --> 00:23:56,483 could match the rich patterns and colours of this Bengali textile. 263 00:23:58,847 --> 00:24:00,644 Astonishingly labour-intensive, isn't it? 264 00:24:00,727 --> 00:24:02,046 Yes, it is. 265 00:24:02,127 --> 00:24:05,483 -You need more patience. -You certainly do. 266 00:24:05,567 --> 00:24:08,240 The worst thing is you can't make a single mistake ever. 267 00:24:12,327 --> 00:24:16,400 So, you put all the colours on like this and what's the finished product? 268 00:24:16,487 --> 00:24:19,399 -I have pieces, I will show you. -Okay. 269 00:24:22,047 --> 00:24:24,561 These are the final products. 270 00:24:24,647 --> 00:24:27,480 -PAXMAN: This is your work, is it? -Yes, sir, this is my work. 271 00:24:28,247 --> 00:24:30,477 -This is a traditional pattern. -It's a traditional pattern. 272 00:24:30,567 --> 00:24:31,920 So is this the sort of thing 273 00:24:32,007 --> 00:24:34,123 that would have been shipped to Britain and to Europe? 274 00:24:34,207 --> 00:24:35,196 Yes. 275 00:24:35,287 --> 00:24:37,482 They're brilliant colours and a brilliant design. 276 00:24:37,567 --> 00:24:39,876 Thank you very much. You can see why people went crazy for it. 277 00:24:39,967 --> 00:24:41,036 Thank you, sir. 278 00:24:49,247 --> 00:24:53,604 At one time, chintz made up three quarters of India's exports. 279 00:24:54,967 --> 00:24:58,846 It became so popular that British cloth-makers protested. 280 00:25:00,447 --> 00:25:03,723 In 1 720, it was actually banned in Britain. 281 00:25:05,207 --> 00:25:07,926 And after that, the British started making their own. 282 00:25:14,367 --> 00:25:18,076 For more than three centuries, it was trade, not conquests, 283 00:25:18,167 --> 00:25:20,886 which brought new colonies into the empire, 284 00:25:20,967 --> 00:25:24,755 though it was often trade at the end of a gun or a sword. 285 00:25:26,887 --> 00:25:30,323 Private companies run by speculators and the odd crook, 286 00:25:30,407 --> 00:25:34,195 took over huge chunks of foreign territory. 287 00:25:34,287 --> 00:25:36,005 They ran them as they liked, 288 00:25:36,087 --> 00:25:39,875 raising armies, doing deals with local rulers. 289 00:25:39,967 --> 00:25:43,084 The East India Company was the grandest of them. 290 00:25:44,967 --> 00:25:47,800 Canada was opened up by the Hudson's Bay Company, 291 00:25:47,887 --> 00:25:50,117 which traded in skins and furs. 292 00:25:51,767 --> 00:25:53,803 And the African Lakes Corporation 293 00:25:53,887 --> 00:25:57,004 bought and sold the bounty of swathes of Africa. 294 00:25:58,367 --> 00:26:02,758 Most were accountable to men sitting in offices thousands of miles away. 295 00:26:31,447 --> 00:26:34,359 At the heart of empire was the City of London, 296 00:26:35,967 --> 00:26:40,006 the centre of a spider's web of global trade. 297 00:26:45,767 --> 00:26:50,124 This was where money was made, goods bought and sold. 298 00:26:53,887 --> 00:26:55,286 At the London Metal Exchange, 299 00:26:55,367 --> 00:26:59,076 they've been doing business in this way for over 200 years. 300 00:27:07,127 --> 00:27:09,322 It all looks utter chaos down there, 301 00:27:09,407 --> 00:27:12,126 with people shouting and making strange gestures, 302 00:27:12,207 --> 00:27:14,846 and talking into two or three telephones at the same time. 303 00:27:14,927 --> 00:27:17,600 But behind it all is an important clue 304 00:27:17,687 --> 00:27:20,884 about why Britain became such a powerful force 305 00:27:20,967 --> 00:27:22,525 in the days of the empire. 306 00:27:32,007 --> 00:27:37,365 On floors like this, traders speculated on tin from Malaya, 307 00:27:37,447 --> 00:27:42,237 cotton from India, wool from Australia, gold from South Africa. 308 00:27:56,087 --> 00:27:58,840 From the 1 7th century, Britain took the lead 309 00:27:58,927 --> 00:28:01,919 in global banking, finance and insurance. 310 00:28:05,767 --> 00:28:08,361 City bankers and merchants made London 311 00:28:08,447 --> 00:28:11,644 the pivot of the world's entire commercial system. 312 00:28:13,007 --> 00:28:16,158 And London held that lead well into the 20th century. 313 00:28:37,647 --> 00:28:41,765 By the end of the 1 9th century, more than half the world's trade 314 00:28:41,847 --> 00:28:44,759 was financed in British pounds. 315 00:28:45,927 --> 00:28:48,077 Victorian investors grew rich 316 00:28:48,167 --> 00:28:50,556 trading in things on the other side of the world, 317 00:28:50,647 --> 00:28:54,242 things they never saw, or perhaps never wanted to see. 318 00:29:00,247 --> 00:29:03,398 The Merchant Banking House of Anthony Gibbs and Sons 319 00:29:03,487 --> 00:29:09,005 made their fortune trading in a very unglamorous commodity - bird poo. 320 00:29:11,487 --> 00:29:13,637 It was called guano, and it was collected 321 00:29:13,727 --> 00:29:16,195 from some islands off the coast of South America. 322 00:29:16,287 --> 00:29:17,606 Hence it was said, 323 00:29:17,687 --> 00:29:20,440 ''The House of Gibbs made their dibs, 324 00:29:20,527 --> 00:29:23,564 ''by selling the turds of foreign birds.'' 325 00:29:30,967 --> 00:29:35,757 Guano was gathered off the coast of Peru and sold as fertiliser. 326 00:29:36,767 --> 00:29:39,759 It made a fortune for British businessmen. 327 00:29:39,847 --> 00:29:42,725 The Gibbs family made so much money from guano 328 00:29:42,807 --> 00:29:45,924 they were able to bankroll much of the Peruvian economy. 329 00:29:47,087 --> 00:29:50,602 Victorian Britain, in effect, had two empires. 330 00:29:50,687 --> 00:29:55,124 One run by politicians, the other by money men like Gibbs. 331 00:29:56,567 --> 00:30:00,560 In South America, British banks supplied governments with credit. 332 00:30:02,167 --> 00:30:05,682 British companies built railways across Argentina. 333 00:30:06,727 --> 00:30:10,640 British settlers bought huge ranches and raised cattle. 334 00:30:15,607 --> 00:30:19,441 But the real killing to be made in Queen Victoria's empire 335 00:30:19,527 --> 00:30:23,406 was from something far more pernicious than bird droppings. 336 00:30:24,247 --> 00:30:28,035 And it made some Britons rich beyond their wildest dreams. 337 00:30:52,287 --> 00:30:55,040 The former British island colony of Hong Kong 338 00:30:55,127 --> 00:30:59,200 is so densely packed with banking and trading firms, 339 00:30:59,287 --> 00:31:02,359 it's known as the world's most vertical city. 340 00:31:13,407 --> 00:31:16,683 The place lives, eats, and breathes money. 341 00:31:22,567 --> 00:31:25,684 The story of how Hong Kong came to be British 342 00:31:25,767 --> 00:31:29,999 reflects the empire's often ruthless pursuit of profit. 343 00:31:30,087 --> 00:31:32,203 It's an extraordinary story, 344 00:31:32,287 --> 00:31:35,518 even if it is one of the most shameful in British history. 345 00:31:40,367 --> 00:31:43,916 And yet this dark episode began innocently enough. 346 00:31:49,167 --> 00:31:53,080 It was born from the English passion for a cup of tea. 347 00:31:56,567 --> 00:31:58,717 PAXMAN: Hello! MAN: Hello. Hello. 348 00:31:59,407 --> 00:32:01,443 PAXMAN: How many types of tea do you have? 349 00:32:01,527 --> 00:32:04,325 Mainly it's all the Chinese tea we have. 350 00:32:05,487 --> 00:32:07,955 -PAXMAN: All of them? -Yes. 351 00:32:08,567 --> 00:32:10,398 PAXMAN: Oh, that smells lovely, doesn't it? 352 00:32:11,247 --> 00:32:14,045 -Would you like to have a cup of tea? -Oh, I'd love to have one, yes. 353 00:32:14,127 --> 00:32:15,765 -This way, please. -Thank you. 354 00:32:19,367 --> 00:32:21,198 PAXMAN: In the early 1 9th century, 355 00:32:21,287 --> 00:32:25,326 China was virtually the only place tea was grown. 356 00:32:27,047 --> 00:32:29,003 But there was a problem. 357 00:32:29,087 --> 00:32:33,877 For three centuries, China had severely restricted trade with the West. 358 00:32:37,647 --> 00:32:41,401 The British were desperate, and even sent a delegation to China. 359 00:32:41,487 --> 00:32:44,445 They begged the emperor to open up his country 360 00:32:44,527 --> 00:32:48,202 and take some British products in exchange for tea. 361 00:32:50,447 --> 00:32:53,484 They presented him with all sorts of trinkets - 362 00:32:54,767 --> 00:32:57,281 games and curiosities, 363 00:32:57,367 --> 00:32:59,517 scientific instruments and toys. 364 00:33:01,767 --> 00:33:04,804 But he remained resolutely unimpressed. 365 00:33:08,207 --> 00:33:11,165 ''We possess all things,'' said the emperor. 366 00:33:11,247 --> 00:33:15,559 ''I set no value upon things strange or ingenious. 367 00:33:15,647 --> 00:33:18,525 ''And I have no use for your country's manufactures.'' 368 00:33:24,527 --> 00:33:26,722 But to get the tea they craved, 369 00:33:26,807 --> 00:33:31,562 the British had one thing to trade that many Chinese craved even more. 370 00:33:32,447 --> 00:33:34,278 Opium. 371 00:33:40,207 --> 00:33:44,883 The drug was illegal in China, though the ban was widely ignored. 372 00:33:46,687 --> 00:33:50,760 There were an estimated 1 2 million peasants addicted to opium. 373 00:33:53,367 --> 00:33:55,358 The authorities there called it 374 00:33:55,447 --> 00:33:59,599 ''A deadly poison ruining the minds and morals of our people. '' 375 00:34:02,167 --> 00:34:05,398 The British grew opium poppies in India. 376 00:34:07,167 --> 00:34:11,285 There they processed it in factories on a colossal scale. 377 00:34:13,767 --> 00:34:18,238 Finally, it was shipped to China and sold to smugglers. 378 00:34:18,327 --> 00:34:22,320 With the profits, British traders bought Chinese tea. 379 00:34:30,927 --> 00:34:34,602 Two men in particular made a handsome profit out of opium. 380 00:34:50,487 --> 00:34:54,605 One was William Jardine, the son of a Scottish farmer. 381 00:34:56,207 --> 00:34:59,961 The other was his business partner and fellow Scot,James Matheson. 382 00:35:02,207 --> 00:35:04,801 From boats moored off the Chinese mainland, 383 00:35:04,887 --> 00:35:09,881 they sold industrial quantities of opium to be trafficked into China. 384 00:35:12,727 --> 00:35:16,436 At the time, selling opium wasn't illegal in Britain, 385 00:35:16,527 --> 00:35:18,882 nor did it cause them any moral qualms. 386 00:35:23,927 --> 00:35:26,919 Jardine himself said that ''Trading in opium 387 00:35:27,007 --> 00:35:30,795 ''was the safest and most gentlemanly speculation I'm aware of.'' 388 00:35:30,887 --> 00:35:34,766 And his partner Matheson thought it no more than morally equivalent 389 00:35:34,847 --> 00:35:37,520 to selling brandy or champagne in Britain. 390 00:35:37,607 --> 00:35:39,518 Business was just business. 391 00:35:42,327 --> 00:35:46,684 In 1 839, the Chinese emperor decided he'd had enough. 392 00:35:49,807 --> 00:35:53,402 He ordered more than 1,000 tons of British-supplied opium 393 00:35:53,487 --> 00:35:55,842 to be seized and destroyed. 394 00:36:00,927 --> 00:36:03,487 The British government was outraged. 395 00:36:06,247 --> 00:36:09,956 It invoked a sacred and very convenient principle - 396 00:36:10,047 --> 00:36:12,277 the principle of free trade. 397 00:36:12,847 --> 00:36:16,601 Britain had to be allowed to trade what and where she liked, 398 00:36:16,687 --> 00:36:18,598 especially in the case of opium. 399 00:36:25,327 --> 00:36:27,841 Opium was making Britain rich. 400 00:36:27,927 --> 00:36:32,762 It soon accounted for over a fifth of the income of the government of India. 401 00:36:32,847 --> 00:36:37,363 Two mighty empires, each convinced of their own superiority, 402 00:36:37,447 --> 00:36:39,836 were now set on collision course. 403 00:36:43,447 --> 00:36:47,326 The Opium Wars were about to begin. 404 00:36:51,887 --> 00:36:54,560 Britain's first ocean-going iron warship, 405 00:36:54,647 --> 00:36:56,877 the Nemesis, built in Liverpool, 406 00:36:56,967 --> 00:37:00,118 was sent out to take on the emperor's navy. 407 00:37:01,087 --> 00:37:04,716 It helped destroy much of it in a single afternoon. 408 00:37:10,247 --> 00:37:13,876 This was the modern world confronting an ancient one, 409 00:37:13,967 --> 00:37:17,437 sailing junks against steam-driven gunboats. 410 00:37:17,967 --> 00:37:21,243 The Chinese had no choice but to surrender 411 00:37:21,327 --> 00:37:24,399 and to open five ports to British trade. 412 00:37:24,487 --> 00:37:29,277 China had been forced to enter the modern global economy. 413 00:37:37,167 --> 00:37:41,046 Hong Kong was one of Britain's prizes from the Opium Wars. 414 00:37:45,327 --> 00:37:49,115 Close to the Chinese mainland, it was perfect for trading 415 00:37:49,207 --> 00:37:51,596 with the newly opened Chinese Empire. 416 00:37:53,847 --> 00:37:58,477 Matheson moved his headquarters to Hong Kong in January 1 84 1. 417 00:38:00,287 --> 00:38:02,881 Profits from the opium trade doubled. 418 00:38:13,807 --> 00:38:17,004 So, this most bustling of British colonies was built 419 00:38:17,087 --> 00:38:19,920 on a drug which stupefies people. 420 00:38:20,007 --> 00:38:24,398 Even more remarkably, the British continued to ship opium into China 421 00:38:24,487 --> 00:38:26,796 until well into the 20th century. 422 00:38:42,567 --> 00:38:44,717 Hong Kong grew at an astonishing rate. 423 00:38:46,727 --> 00:38:50,436 A new bank was founded to service the China trade, 424 00:38:50,527 --> 00:38:52,836 the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. 425 00:38:52,927 --> 00:38:54,804 We know it as HSBC. 426 00:38:58,127 --> 00:39:01,642 Today, Hong Kong is a hothouse for global finance. 427 00:39:07,007 --> 00:39:09,999 But what about the company that played such a large part 428 00:39:10,087 --> 00:39:12,840 in founding Hong Kong's prosperity, 429 00:39:12,927 --> 00:39:15,157 Jardine, Matheson & Co.? 430 00:39:16,167 --> 00:39:19,637 Well, they're still here, and still doing very well. 431 00:39:24,487 --> 00:39:27,559 These are the modern headquarters of Jardine Matheson. 432 00:39:27,647 --> 00:39:30,445 The round windows have earned it the local nickname, 433 00:39:30,527 --> 00:39:33,519 ''The building of a thousand orifices.'' 434 00:39:33,607 --> 00:39:36,326 At least, that's the polite version. 435 00:39:36,407 --> 00:39:37,965 Doubtless, somewhere in the foundations 436 00:39:38,047 --> 00:39:40,925 are buried the consciences of its founders. 437 00:39:54,487 --> 00:39:59,607 In 1 99 7, more than a century and a half after the Opium Wars, 438 00:39:59,687 --> 00:40:02,042 Hong Kong was returned to China. 439 00:40:05,607 --> 00:40:07,484 (PLAYING FANFARE) 440 00:40:13,127 --> 00:40:16,278 ANNOUNCER: The Union flag will now be lowered. 441 00:40:16,367 --> 00:40:19,723 And the national flag of the People's Republic of China 442 00:40:19,807 --> 00:40:21,638 will be raised. 443 00:40:22,367 --> 00:40:24,278 (APPLAUSE) 444 00:40:24,967 --> 00:40:26,844 MAN: All the important people in Hong Kong 445 00:40:26,927 --> 00:40:28,963 greet the first sight of their new flag. 446 00:40:31,127 --> 00:40:34,403 PAXMAN: When the British finally quit Hong Kong in 1 99 7, 447 00:40:34,487 --> 00:40:38,275 they did so boasting they were handing on a territory 448 00:40:38,367 --> 00:40:41,723 intimately wired into the world economy, 449 00:40:41,807 --> 00:40:45,243 the shameful origins of British colonial presence here 450 00:40:45,327 --> 00:40:47,204 conveniently forgotten. 451 00:40:47,807 --> 00:40:51,163 But China has never entirely forgotten 452 00:40:51,247 --> 00:40:55,240 how a foreign power forced it, at gunpoint, 453 00:40:55,327 --> 00:40:59,878 to allow millions of its citizens to be turned into drug addicts. 454 00:41:08,727 --> 00:41:11,844 The spoils of empire made Britannia rich. 455 00:41:13,447 --> 00:41:17,235 From the colonies came gold and silver and spices. 456 00:41:18,287 --> 00:41:20,118 Even plants. 457 00:41:24,727 --> 00:41:26,683 And so vast was her empire, 458 00:41:26,767 --> 00:41:30,237 Britain could choose to grow them where she liked. 459 00:41:31,727 --> 00:41:35,197 Tea bushes could be planted for the first time in India and Ceylon, 460 00:41:36,567 --> 00:41:39,035 tobacco planted in southern Africa. 461 00:41:42,487 --> 00:41:47,641 And there was a particular seed that made a very rich empire even richer. 462 00:42:01,887 --> 00:42:04,321 In the summer of 1 877, 463 00:42:04,407 --> 00:42:08,878 a large packing case arrived here in Singapore's Botanic Gardens. 464 00:42:13,567 --> 00:42:17,242 Inside the case were 22 seedlings of rubber trees, 465 00:42:17,327 --> 00:42:20,478 collected by British plant hunters in Brazil. 466 00:42:22,407 --> 00:42:26,320 These trees are descended from those original seedlings. 467 00:42:26,407 --> 00:42:30,002 Inside them is a milky fluid called latex. 468 00:42:30,087 --> 00:42:31,964 You make rubber from it. 469 00:42:38,567 --> 00:42:42,242 The director of the Botanic Gardens, Henry Ridley, 470 00:42:42,327 --> 00:42:44,204 was a man with a vision. 471 00:42:46,247 --> 00:42:51,116 He saw the truly massive potential of rubber, and launched a crusade 472 00:42:51,207 --> 00:42:54,802 to convince every planter in the region to grow it. 473 00:43:02,127 --> 00:43:06,439 Ridley stuffed the planters' pockets with rubber seeds, 474 00:43:06,527 --> 00:43:09,200 he lectured them on how to protect their plants, 475 00:43:09,287 --> 00:43:12,916 he waved specimens of processed rubber under their noses. 476 00:43:13,127 --> 00:43:16,881 He was a man obsessed. They called him ''Rubber Ridley''. 477 00:43:16,967 --> 00:43:21,324 That was to his face. Behind his back they called him ''Mad Ridley''. 478 00:43:33,847 --> 00:43:36,884 ELANGO VELAUTHAM: Most people associate his madness to his passion. 479 00:43:37,367 --> 00:43:40,359 He was a great visionary of his time. A keen scientist. 480 00:43:40,447 --> 00:43:42,358 And he's responsible for most 481 00:43:42,447 --> 00:43:44,881 of what we see here in the rubber industry today. 482 00:43:44,967 --> 00:43:48,721 Now, Ridley came up with a new way of tapping rubber trees, didn't he? 483 00:43:48,807 --> 00:43:52,516 Yeah, the methods used were pretty harsh before that. 484 00:43:52,607 --> 00:43:55,201 They would hack into the rubber tree, 485 00:43:55,287 --> 00:43:59,439 injuring the vascular cambium, which is necessary for the tree's survival. 486 00:43:59,527 --> 00:44:02,758 And what actually happened was he experimented with various trees 487 00:44:02,847 --> 00:44:05,441 that were in existence in the Singapore Botanical Gardens. 488 00:44:05,527 --> 00:44:08,200 He found a way to tap the rubber 489 00:44:08,287 --> 00:44:11,245 by exposing the vessels that produce the latex 490 00:44:11,327 --> 00:44:13,283 without harming the vascular cambium. 491 00:44:13,367 --> 00:44:15,323 -And the tree carried on living. -Yup. 492 00:44:15,407 --> 00:44:17,398 So you could tap it again and again and again. 493 00:44:17,487 --> 00:44:19,364 Yeah, for up to five years on one side. 494 00:44:19,447 --> 00:44:22,200 And once you're done on one side, you can actually let it heal 495 00:44:22,287 --> 00:44:24,801 while you tap the other side for another five years. 496 00:44:32,767 --> 00:44:35,201 Basically, it is cut in an angle. 497 00:44:35,287 --> 00:44:37,243 PAXMAN: So, this white... That's latex, is it? 498 00:44:37,327 --> 00:44:38,646 VELAUTHAM: That's latex, yes. 499 00:44:38,727 --> 00:44:40,877 There's a bowl or something down here to collect it. 500 00:44:40,967 --> 00:44:42,764 Yes. 501 00:44:43,087 --> 00:44:45,885 PAXMAN: God, it's really prolific, isn't it? 502 00:44:47,607 --> 00:44:49,563 It's sticky, isn't it? 503 00:44:49,647 --> 00:44:51,797 Pair of rubber gloves there, or something, maybe. 504 00:44:51,887 --> 00:44:53,764 Yeah. (CHUCKLING) 505 00:45:00,887 --> 00:45:02,366 PAXMAN: Ridley was so excited 506 00:45:02,447 --> 00:45:07,157 because he knew just how much rubber could be worth to the British Empire. 507 00:45:09,207 --> 00:45:12,119 Rubber was the plastic of the 1 9th century. 508 00:45:12,207 --> 00:45:15,244 It could be made into just about anything. 509 00:45:15,967 --> 00:45:21,041 Rubber boots, rubber hoods, coats, hats, 510 00:45:21,327 --> 00:45:24,160 hose pipes, rubber raincoats. 511 00:45:27,887 --> 00:45:31,766 British manufacturers wanted as much as they could get their hands on. 512 00:45:43,927 --> 00:45:45,918 Millions of rubber trees were planted 513 00:45:46,007 --> 00:45:49,556 in Singapore's neighbouring British territory, Malaya. 514 00:45:52,647 --> 00:45:56,879 And thousands of workers were brought in from another colony, India, 515 00:45:56,967 --> 00:45:59,606 to work on the vast new estates. 516 00:46:00,607 --> 00:46:02,677 It transformed the country. 517 00:46:06,567 --> 00:46:11,687 By the 1 930s, three-quarters of the world's rubber was coming from here. 518 00:46:13,367 --> 00:46:16,006 British companies produced most of it. 519 00:46:22,327 --> 00:46:26,240 All over the empire, British ships sailed home 520 00:46:26,327 --> 00:46:29,876 with cargoes of rubber, or cotton, or bananas. 521 00:46:30,847 --> 00:46:35,477 They went back to the colonies loaded with things manufactured in Britain. 522 00:46:36,447 --> 00:46:39,723 Teapots, saucepans, 523 00:46:39,807 --> 00:46:43,277 knives, even cloth caps. 524 00:46:45,927 --> 00:46:49,761 But one product would put Britain and its most important colony 525 00:46:49,927 --> 00:46:52,805 on a collision course - cotton. 526 00:46:55,927 --> 00:47:00,364 British factories took raw cotton from India, and spun it into cloth. 527 00:47:02,207 --> 00:47:07,122 By the 1 920s, Lancashire's cotton mills dominated the world market. 528 00:47:17,007 --> 00:47:23,196 By contrast, the once flourishing Indian cloth trade had virtually collapsed. 529 00:47:24,607 --> 00:47:28,520 They had to rely instead on cloth woven in Britain. 530 00:47:28,607 --> 00:47:32,077 For many Indians, it was the final insult. 531 00:47:35,647 --> 00:47:39,686 The leader of the Indian independence movement, Mahatma Gandhi, 532 00:47:39,767 --> 00:47:43,601 burned his suit and adopted the dress of an Indian peasant. 533 00:47:44,887 --> 00:47:48,243 He took the spinning wheel as a symbol of Indian freedom 534 00:47:48,327 --> 00:47:52,081 and told his countrymen to stop buying British cloth. 535 00:47:54,887 --> 00:47:58,596 (INDISTINCT) 536 00:48:01,247 --> 00:48:06,116 The effect of Gandhi's boycott was felt 4,500 miles away 537 00:48:06,207 --> 00:48:09,563 in the heartlands of Lancashire's weaving industry. 538 00:48:17,327 --> 00:48:20,080 Lancashire had done well out of the empire. 539 00:48:20,167 --> 00:48:24,001 At one time, almost two-thirds of its manufactured cotton 540 00:48:24,087 --> 00:48:26,043 had been sold back to India. 541 00:48:27,487 --> 00:48:29,762 But now, times were hard. 542 00:48:29,847 --> 00:48:33,476 No fewer than 74 of the mills had closed 543 00:48:33,567 --> 00:48:36,161 and angry unemployed mill workers 544 00:48:36,247 --> 00:48:39,478 blamed Gandhi for his boycott of British cloth. 545 00:48:43,447 --> 00:48:45,199 In towns like Darwen, 546 00:48:45,287 --> 00:48:49,280 whose mills were used to weaving cloth for the empire and beyond, 547 00:48:49,367 --> 00:48:51,403 there was frustration and despair. 548 00:48:52,247 --> 00:48:54,283 (HORN BLOWING) 549 00:48:55,007 --> 00:48:57,567 Then came extraordinary news. 550 00:48:58,167 --> 00:49:01,876 Gandhi was coming to Britain and would visit Lancashire. 551 00:49:05,007 --> 00:49:08,443 He was entering the lions' den, coming to see for himself 552 00:49:08,527 --> 00:49:12,839 the effect the Indian boycott was having on textile workers here. 553 00:49:14,007 --> 00:49:18,046 MAN: Then came a little man, still scantily clad, 554 00:49:18,127 --> 00:49:21,756 but with an extremely wet blanket around his tiny frame. 555 00:49:22,087 --> 00:49:25,602 I'm sure he must have been frozen - we were in thick overcoats. 556 00:49:30,087 --> 00:49:34,638 The local paper praised Gandhi's celebrated sympathy for the poor. 557 00:49:34,727 --> 00:49:36,763 Surely his heart would soften 558 00:49:36,847 --> 00:49:41,125 at the sight of so many hundreds of unemployed weavers. 559 00:49:41,207 --> 00:49:43,675 The peace and simplicity of the place, 560 00:49:43,767 --> 00:49:47,760 the Lancashire air, it was hoped, would soothe what it called 561 00:49:47,847 --> 00:49:50,042 ''deep differences of opinion.'' 562 00:49:54,447 --> 00:49:58,918 Gandhi arrived in Darwen on September the 26th, 1 93 1. 563 00:49:59,567 --> 00:50:02,764 Crowds turned out to wonder at, and to welcome him. 564 00:50:03,167 --> 00:50:04,998 (CHEERING) 565 00:50:06,567 --> 00:50:10,560 For those with eyes to see, this was a hugely significant moment. 566 00:50:11,527 --> 00:50:16,078 The charisma, the excitement, belonged not to a defender of empire, 567 00:50:16,167 --> 00:50:18,635 but to a would-be dismantler of it. 568 00:50:19,487 --> 00:50:22,684 GANDHI: I am thankful that I got this opportunity 569 00:50:22,767 --> 00:50:25,406 of being surrounded by these happy children, 570 00:50:25,487 --> 00:50:27,717 and seeing the homes of the poor. 571 00:50:35,567 --> 00:50:39,879 Mill workers took their children to see this remarkable visitor. 572 00:50:39,967 --> 00:50:42,037 Some of them still remember it. 573 00:50:43,407 --> 00:50:45,921 Hello, you must be Ruth. I'm Jeremy. Hello, how do you do? 574 00:50:46,007 --> 00:50:48,123 -Can I come in? Thank you. -Certainly. 575 00:50:52,607 --> 00:50:56,077 What did your mother tell you you were going to do 576 00:50:56,167 --> 00:50:59,000 when you set off that day to go and see Gandhi? 577 00:50:59,567 --> 00:51:05,085 Well, she just said, ''We're going to see a very important man from India. 578 00:51:05,167 --> 00:51:08,637 ''And he's going to make things better, we think, 579 00:51:08,727 --> 00:51:10,763 ''with the cotton trade.'' 580 00:51:10,847 --> 00:51:13,486 Which I didn't understand what he was talking about... 581 00:51:13,567 --> 00:51:17,799 what she was talking about because I was only seven at the time, you know. 582 00:51:18,367 --> 00:51:21,803 And I remember all the people there 583 00:51:21,887 --> 00:51:25,243 and where I stood, you know. 584 00:51:25,327 --> 00:51:29,445 And this little man came on and I looked at me mother and I said, 585 00:51:30,327 --> 00:51:34,286 ''Which is Gandhi, Mother?'' She said, ''It's that little man there.'' 586 00:51:34,367 --> 00:51:37,643 And I said, ''But he's not an important man,'' 587 00:51:37,727 --> 00:51:41,686 I said, ''He's a poor little man. He has no clothes on.'' 588 00:51:41,767 --> 00:51:44,964 He had sort of a white-type cloth between his legs. 589 00:51:45,047 --> 00:51:46,924 Well, it looked like a big nappy. 590 00:51:47,007 --> 00:51:50,124 -Yes, it did, to be honest. -It looked like that. 591 00:51:50,207 --> 00:51:54,280 And this thing round his... And it was hugged around him like that. 592 00:51:54,367 --> 00:51:57,882 And he had nothing on his feet. Only a pair of sandals. 593 00:51:57,967 --> 00:52:02,563 And I was horrified because I said, ''He's no shoes on, Mother.'' 594 00:52:03,127 --> 00:52:05,925 You know, I was really disappointed. 595 00:52:06,007 --> 00:52:09,920 But he obviously had amazing charisma that you two remember him so vividly. 596 00:52:10,007 --> 00:52:13,079 -It's still with us. Yes. -Oh, yes. 597 00:52:14,767 --> 00:52:16,962 -Yes, it is. -PAXMAN: Eighty years after the event. 598 00:52:17,047 --> 00:52:19,038 -Yes. -Eighty years. 599 00:52:19,127 --> 00:52:21,083 (CHUCKLING) 600 00:52:27,087 --> 00:52:31,478 PAXMAN: Gandhi had not come all the way from India to call off his boycott. 601 00:52:31,567 --> 00:52:34,320 He had a far bigger vision - 602 00:52:34,407 --> 00:52:36,284 to make the workers of Britain 603 00:52:36,367 --> 00:52:39,086 sympathetic to the plight of the Indian people 604 00:52:39,167 --> 00:52:42,557 and to the cause of Indian independence. 605 00:52:42,647 --> 00:52:45,286 For Gandhi it wasn't his boycott that was to blame, 606 00:52:45,367 --> 00:52:47,642 but the system of empire itself. 607 00:52:52,767 --> 00:52:56,203 The workers had been hoping that when Gandhi saw their plight, 608 00:52:56,287 --> 00:52:58,278 he'd call off the boycott. 609 00:52:58,367 --> 00:53:00,403 Well, Gandhi listened but he didn't budge. 610 00:53:00,487 --> 00:53:05,356 And when someone said, ''But we have three million unemployed,'' 611 00:53:05,447 --> 00:53:08,359 he just replied, ''I have 300 million.'' 612 00:53:14,567 --> 00:53:16,683 The boycott and others like it 613 00:53:16,767 --> 00:53:21,477 helped inspire many of those 300 million to protest against British rule. 614 00:53:22,647 --> 00:53:27,277 They would demand and eventually get independence in 1 94 7. 615 00:53:27,887 --> 00:53:30,560 JAWAHARLAL NEHRU: At the stroke of the midnight hour, 616 00:53:30,647 --> 00:53:33,320 when the world sleeps, 617 00:53:33,407 --> 00:53:36,285 India will awake to life and freedom. 618 00:53:52,927 --> 00:53:57,284 PAXMAN: Well over half a century has passed since that historic moment. 619 00:53:59,207 --> 00:54:02,836 Britain has still not escaped its imperial past 620 00:54:02,927 --> 00:54:05,282 and neither, in many ways, has India. 621 00:54:07,927 --> 00:54:09,679 (COW MOOING) 622 00:54:14,687 --> 00:54:17,997 I'm waiting to meet a group of people who devote much of their lives 623 00:54:18,087 --> 00:54:21,397 to celebrating one of empire's more curious remnants. 624 00:54:24,247 --> 00:54:26,522 The Royal Enfield motorcycle. 625 00:54:29,647 --> 00:54:31,842 (PUNJABI MUSIC PLAYING) 626 00:54:36,447 --> 00:54:39,678 These classic bikes have been close to Indian hearts 627 00:54:39,767 --> 00:54:42,327 since before the Second World War. 628 00:54:43,127 --> 00:54:45,402 Once they were made in Worcestershire, 629 00:54:45,567 --> 00:54:49,606 but production stopped around the time the empire ran out of steam. 630 00:54:51,087 --> 00:54:54,204 By then, Indians were building them for themselves. 631 00:54:54,407 --> 00:54:56,363 (MAN SINGING) 632 00:55:02,167 --> 00:55:03,998 MAN: Enfield Bullet... 633 00:55:08,727 --> 00:55:10,922 -You're bored too, aren't you? -(HORN HONKING) 634 00:55:12,807 --> 00:55:17,642 The Royal Enfield motorcycle has become as much a feature of Indian roads 635 00:55:17,727 --> 00:55:20,764 as painted trucks and wandering cows. 636 00:55:29,127 --> 00:55:32,756 Thank you for coming. The cow would like to thank you, too. 637 00:55:32,847 --> 00:55:34,917 Now, who's the chief here? 638 00:55:35,007 --> 00:55:36,838 You're the chief. You're Amit, are you? 639 00:55:36,967 --> 00:55:38,798 -Yeah. -Excellent. Good. 640 00:55:39,327 --> 00:55:42,319 I want to ask you about what is it your club... They're the... 641 00:55:42,407 --> 00:55:44,921 -Royal Riders Club. -The Royal Riders Club. 642 00:55:45,007 --> 00:55:46,838 -Hi, I'm Jeremy. Hello. -Hi, Amit. 643 00:55:47,407 --> 00:55:50,558 -And how many members have you got? -70 members. 644 00:55:51,087 --> 00:55:54,238 -70? What you got half of them here? -DHAR: Yeah, half of them are here. 645 00:55:54,327 --> 00:55:56,716 PAXMAN: And what is it, that you only ride Royal Enfields? 646 00:55:56,807 --> 00:55:58,206 DHAR: Yeah, only. 647 00:55:58,287 --> 00:56:00,755 PAXMAN: How many of these are Bullets? They're all Bullets, are they? 648 00:56:00,847 --> 00:56:02,997 DHAR: They're all Bullets. PAXMAN: That was the great slogan, 649 00:56:03,087 --> 00:56:05,237 wasn't it? ''Built like a rifle, goes like a bullet.'' 650 00:56:05,327 --> 00:56:07,204 DHAR: Yeah. 651 00:56:07,287 --> 00:56:11,599 And why do you like... Why do you like the Royal Enfield? 652 00:56:12,407 --> 00:56:14,398 -It's for the man. -It's for the man! 653 00:56:14,487 --> 00:56:16,842 -It's a masculine thing. -A masculine bike. 654 00:56:16,927 --> 00:56:19,282 -Yes, obviously. -Don't you let girls ride it? 655 00:56:19,367 --> 00:56:21,198 (BOTH CHUCKLING) 656 00:56:21,287 --> 00:56:24,120 -On the back seat. -Only on the back seat. I see. 657 00:56:25,047 --> 00:56:26,878 MAN: This is the symbol of freedom. 658 00:56:26,967 --> 00:56:28,764 -PAXMAN: Symbol of freedom? -Symbol of freedom. 659 00:56:28,847 --> 00:56:31,441 When we ride this bike, we feel that we are free. 660 00:56:31,527 --> 00:56:33,358 -You say it's a symbol of freedom. -Yes. 661 00:56:33,447 --> 00:56:36,200 But isn't it a symbol of the British Empire, too? 662 00:56:36,287 --> 00:56:39,723 No, because we take the best part of the regime 663 00:56:39,807 --> 00:56:41,604 and not the worst part. 664 00:56:41,687 --> 00:56:43,803 That is why we say this is the symbol of freedom. 665 00:56:43,887 --> 00:56:47,675 We have taken the best part and thereafter now we are free. 666 00:57:00,207 --> 00:57:03,005 Good. You've got a big head too. 667 00:57:09,527 --> 00:57:11,324 I feel more virile already. 668 00:57:19,207 --> 00:57:21,801 This great, old-fashioned machine, 669 00:57:21,927 --> 00:57:24,361 invented in Britain, now made in India, 670 00:57:24,447 --> 00:57:28,326 seems to sum up the changing fortunes of the two countries, 671 00:57:28,807 --> 00:57:32,436 their long, troubled marriage and their divorce.