Would Britain have had an Empire without slavery?

These programs show how the slave trade over 200 years generated wealth for many Britons, (you can check your own family here). Some of which was invested in other industry some of which went into country houses or expensive townhouses and personal wealth that would never have been attained through their own hard work or ingenuity.

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I'd be curious to see where the proceeds of the opium trade went. A far more profitable, and arguably far deeper moral stain, on the nation.

Curious enough to do some research and let us know?

It's entirely possible Not entirely sure where to start on it though aha

just google "proceeds of the British opium trade"

I was thinking that of the commodities that slaves produced ,obviously sugar was a luxury good people might actually have been healthier without, less black teeth , and they could have farmed beehives in colonies. Tobacco obviously better off without, lastly cotton which was obviously a huge cash crop ship to cross to Lancashire for manufacturer and sale in the eighteenth-century equivalent of Primark again not a huge cat drop except for a few industrialists maybe they could have developed flags and wall in the Lights of New Zealand and instead

Wow. I just had a mad existential thought. If the British Empire didn't use slaves to pick cotton then I wouldn't have been born.
I'm from a town in Manchester that only sprung up to build cotton mills, my ancestors wouldn't have come exactly here over from Ireland and so my grandma wouldn't meet my grandad. ****ing hell.

I was more talking about academic books on the matter, not so much wiki and co.

Wow. I just had a mad existential thought. If the British Empire didn't use slaves to pick cotton then I wouldn't have been born.
I'm from a town in Manchester that only sprung up to build cotton mills, my ancestors wouldn't have come exactly here over from Ireland and so my grandma wouldn't meet my grandad. ****ing hell.

The Empire persisted and indeed continued to grow for over a century after slavery was abolished, so in short, yes. Military prowess, strategy and technology is what really builds empires. Most nations at the time had slavery in one form or another, but only a handful were capable of building and maintaining vast global empires.

yes, I'd say the British was the last great empire, the Age of Empires is over
Though there are what you might call corporate empires

I think China will be the next empire.

They will certainly increase their influence over Hong Kong and Taiwan but I can't see how they can advance be on that that they've already tried it on with India they probably won't poke Russia.

I think China will seek for a wider reach than their nearest neighbours. They have a good move into the UK infrastructure and are buying up influence in the Americas and Africa.

I would include the horrible lives of many factory workers in the UK, working for long hours in poor conditions for a pittance...

Almost certainly. Slaves were but one commodity among many. We only really came into trading them through our search for spices and minerals after all.
Might have had a mildly detrimental effect on our plantations without them but given the empire could find vast quantities of workers willing to work for a song, well.

we would have consumed far less sugar as a result and our current epidemic of tooth decay and obesity might never have happened.

I think you give up too easy you might find articles like this which have references to other works