Quite, and you can't do any of that at such a long remove from your home country without silver ~ investing silver into building their position in the Asian carry trade. The Dutch East India company and the British East India company could afford to hire more troops in pursuit of their commercial ends than local traders, because they were originally trading mercenary's pay for goods, rather than trading goods for goods.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.