The Million Adventure

At the end of the 17th century, England was in trouble.

The English Civil War dominated the middle of the century, and it left the country financially devastated. Bridges and buildings needed to be repaired or rebuilt from scratch, and debts needed to be repaid.

This war had seen England go from a constitutional monarchy to a republic, and then back again as Oliver Cromwell showed once and for all that you don’t have to be a king to become a tyrant. Just try to imagine the devastation that two revolutions might wreak on a country.

Meanwhile, England’s navy had continued to expand, and in order to maintain power, gunboat diplomacy was common. France, England’s main geopolitical rival as the new century approached, understood this quite well, and they were eager to make life harder by escalating their own spending. Centuries later, the US would take a similar tactic as the close of the Cold War drew near.

England could become wealthier over time by projecting power outward, but there was …