Comments: The major Island (and afterwards Kowloon and the New Territories, of the mnliaand) was a British colony for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. During this time it grew from a fishing village and opium investing hub, into a city-state of seven million people. It grew to become recognized as a free-wheeling, free of charge marketplace paradise for capitalists, with an economy characterised by very low taxation, totally free trade and no authorities interference in business.