cam . # .

I am probably stretching the historical analogies a bit, but Carthage practiced mercantilism as well. I think once England transitioned from agrarian and mercantilist (where land and size of empire is an asset not a financial burden) to a trading industrial nation; then it started shedding its colonies through responsible government. Which lessened the financial burden, while still keeping them under one coherent foreign policy through the commonwealth. I think it is the only way a post-agrarian empire can maintain the homogenous foreign policy that empire seems to require.