False. Read Oxfam's report on the topic: https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/takers-not-makers-unjust-p...

I don’t see how that refutes my claim?

Yes a bunch of individuals got rich, but my position is that their tax payments (and wider economic contributions) never justified the cost of maintaining the colonies.

It would have probably been better if the government just gave the upper class money directly, rather than indirectly by paying for navies to acquire land for them.