The topic was the exportation of value from Westphalia. That was Digby's assertion. It appears not to have happened.

I have no idea of the handful of "absentee" landlords were any more prone to export value form their domaines than the previous incumbents. I doubt it very much, however.

In any case, on the scale of a country's economy, the amount of such behavior by a mere handful pf people would really not matter at all.

Actually looking at the numbers involved will get us out of the "N is bad" form of historical commentary and allow us to actually discuss what really happened.