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After the establishment of the Roman Empire, the trade in luxury goods between the Egypt and the western coast of India exploded. It became such a big deal that scholars like Pliny the Elder bemoaned the fact that at the very least a million sesterces were being spent every year so that the Roman upper classes could indulge themselves. The reason why the Romans had to pay for everything with gold directly was because much like the British with the Chinese before the Opium war, they had very little that the Indians wanted.

What if to rectify this problem a band of Roman merchants (with imperial backing off course) had began to establish 'factories' in India to produce goods that the Roman market required ?
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