Who has "earned" Britan the most money?

[VHG]

I was watching the program on BBC4 about maps and the history of them. It mentioned Captain Cook and how he went round the world finding new land and "claiming" it for Great Britain.

It got me thinking how much his exploits must have "earned" for Great Britain over the centuries (money made from the countries he claimed).

And that got me thinking which individual in history had done the most to make Britain the rich country she is - be it an explorer, inventor, politician, businessman, member of the royal family etc. So who has "earned" the most money for the UK?

And for that matter which person had COST Britain the most money (British or foreign).

[MarkRae]

> to make Britain the rich country she is

Apart from all the debt, obviously...

[chokkie]

gordon brown? or maybe Tony Blair?

[sandyRoe]

The slave traders who carried trashy trinkets to West Africa, from there slaves to the Americas, and from there, sugar and rum back to the UK.

[VHG]

>Apart from all the debt, obviously...

Well we do have the debt, but we also have to accept we are one of the richest countries in the world. The USA has trillions of dollars of debt but is still one of the richest countires in the world.

I heard someone a few weeks ago say we were the 5th richest country in the world.

This list has us at number 6 based on GDP

http://www.aneki.com/richest.html

This list has us lower, but still in the top 20

http://en.wikipedia.o..._GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

[Mosaic]

I think Richard Arkwright has to be up there on this list. By inventing a spinning machine that did not require humans to 'turn' it, simply to mind it, he invented the factory system. This enabled huge amounts of productivity, and also marks a turning point in the societies it touched - the leaving of traditional agricultural work-patterns, governed by the seasons. It also made a substantial number of factory owners incredibly rich and even in the laissez-faire regime of the 19th century, fed income back into government coffers. No real coincidence that the grandson of one of these early factory owners became prime minister - Robert Peel.

[jno]

Individuals is hard to say but perhaps whoever was the prime mover behind the East India Company.

[fredpuli47]

Watt, aided by Boulton (who saw a good business opportunity). Without Watt's improvements to the steam engine the Industrial revolution would have been a much slower affair.

[123everton]

JNO's said pretty much what I'd have said, so to answer your question who has earned Britain the most money, it has to be the Indians.
Who has cost Britain the most money, I'd say the Germans and it's allies of the central and axis powers.

[Parsfan]

Difficult to put a figure on it, but Disraeli must be in there somewhere as he secured for Britain a controlling interest in the Suez canal. The benefits to British trade must have been huge.