The market for plunder in the East Indies was over; and the profligacy of government required that a new mine should be opened, and that mine could be no other than America, conquered and forfeited.
Thomas Paine: “The market for plunder in the East Indies was over; and the profligacy of government required that a new mine should be…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine critiques the British government's imperial ambitions, suggesting that America was targeted as a new source of wealth after other colonial ventures had diminished.
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