Was mass genocide commonplace? Local campaigns that might be considered tantamount to wars of extermination certainly took place in some areas earmarked for settlement, though even here disease tended to be more lethal than guns. But although its subjugation too was accompanied by episodes of violent conquest, India like other Asian and later African lands was sought for its resources and trade, including its people. India was considered unsuitable for European settlement because of the high mortality from tropical diseases: nor was depopulation feasible even had it been desirable, with eight million Britons at home and upwards of 180m Indians at the time of Plassey, 22m to 240m a century later. Respect for India's civilisation - or at the least culture of its elite - was also widespread, some administrators and returning officials themselves being accused of having or adopted local styles. India was to be a land of Indians, ruled and taxed by the new colonial rulers and encouraged to buy their goods while providing primary products to feed British factories or ease the mother country's balance of payments. It was a model that would be followed elsewhere, sometimes more brutally and often less profitably.