Plunderage.

This is coolbert:

Herewith an extract of an extract the Internet web site www.isegoria.net.

"Within a few minutes, the flower of Mughal chivalry lay dead on the ground"

Speaking of the Battle of Karnal, 1739. Invading Persian army commanded by Nader Shah triumphant over the defending forces of the Mughal Empire.

Nader Shah his goal not conquest and subjugation but plundering the wealth of the Mughals. Riches for the taking which can only be described almost as being beyond description!

Originally from: "The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Kindle Edition" by William Dalrymple.

Persian camel-borne swivel gun of the period of Nader Shah. Persian musketeers also more highly trained and proficient than their European counterparts of the era and wielding a superior musket. Credit the image the wiki: By Alexander Orlovsky. 

That extract:

"Nader never wished to rule India, just to plunder it for resources to fight his real enemies, the Russians and the Ottomans. Fifty-seven days later, he returned to Persia carrying the pick of the treasures the Mughal Empire had amassed over its 200 years of sovereignty and conquest: a caravan of riches that included Jahangir’s magnificent Peacock Throne, embedded in which was both the Koh-i-Noor diamond and the great Timur ruby. Nader Shah also took with him the Great Mughal Diamond, reputedly the largest in the world, along with the Koh-i-Noor’s slightly larger, pinker ‘sister’, the Daria-i-Noor, and ‘700 elephants, 4,000 camels and 12,000 horses carrying wagons all laden with gold, silver and precious stones’, worth in total an estimated £ 87.5 million [pounds sterling] in the currency of the time."

Considering only the value of plunder and loot taken from the Mughals by Nader Shah:

* In 1970, the relative value of £88,000,000 from 1740 ranges from £824,200,000 to £53,630,000,000.

* In 2021, the relative value of £824,000,000 from 1970 ranges from £12,080,000,000 to £34,080,000,000.

Whatever way you slice it a tidy sum!! Courtesy all calculation from the www.measuringworth.com Internet website.

At least until the time of the European Industrial Revolution the societies of the Indian sub-continent and China considered to be the richest, wealthiest, most advanced and technologically superior in the world!

coolbert.