Free trade destroyed the British Empire? Hello, they were mercantilist.
And yes, I’ve read The Wealth of Nations cover to cover.
It seems oh so convenient to blame everything on Free Trade these days.
Offshoring ? Recession ? Blame free trade!
Whelching the Jewish People on the Balfour Declareation in the mid-40s was the start of the British Empire’s RAPID decline. G*D will ALWAYS take care of his chosen.
Mercantilism built up the empire. Once it was already established Britain adopted free trade.
This was at the time when the US and Germany were strongly protectionist. Having largely captive or unpenetrable markets at home the Americans and Germans were able to undercut British producers in world markets.
Free trade probably didn't destroy the empire, but too dogmatic an adherence to free trade doctrines at a time when other countries practiced protectionism didn't help Britain.
More important than either free trade or protection was the unwillingness to invest in new industries and the inability to get around old ways of thinking and working.
Was it big government? Maybe it went the other way around: when Britain dropped the empire it adopted the welfare state in a big way. Just what the causation was is hard to say.
Empire became more morally untenable at the same time when socialist doctrines were rising, but you didn't see the massive expansion of government until empire was already a dying idea.