>high value goods at home and provided high value services that couldn't be provided elsewhere.

Eh, they were swiftly outcompeted in almost all fields, but protected that system of mercantilism, by disallowing their colonies to unload anything that was not flagged british. Monopolies work that way, they ruin things and are memorized in the empire center as "good times"..

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/041615/how-did-merc...

PS: This is one of the reasons why the spinwheel is on indias flag- as a sign of clothing production autonomy.

The wheel on the Indian flag is not a spinwheel[1], though it was proposed at some point in time before they got independence.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashoka_Chakra