If you were to hurt someone's feelings, you would owe them an apology. If you were to punch them, you may owe them compensationMoney paid in exchange for something that is damaged or lost, or in recognition of suffering. . And if you stole from them, you might be facing a jail sentence.

These are the basic hallmarks of our justice system. If you do wrong to others, you will face retributionA punishment given to somebody who is perceived to have done something wrong. .

Some find it ironic. After all, they say, from imperialismThe practice of growing a country's power through colonisation or force. to slavery, partitionIn 1947, the British Raj was split into India and Pakistan. , repression and famine, Britain has historically been built on violence.

Take slavery as an example. Britain was responsible for the forced servitudeState of being a slave. of more than three million people in its four centuries of slave labour. There were 46,000 British slave owners. Slaves were often brutally repressed when they tried to escape captivity; slave children were ascribed a value in sterlingBritish money. ; mortality rates were high, and violence ubiquitousEverywhere..

The human impact was unspeakable. But dehumanisation was profitable for slave-owners and government alike. Some think that now is the time for Britain and other major European economies to pay reparationsProviding payment to make amends for a wrongdoing. for their ills.

For the Caribbean nations writing letters to European nations demanding reparations, Britain's ills amount to £18 trillion - and King Charles, whose family links to the slave trade have been heavily scrutinisedExamined closely. , is in the spotlight.

Reparations are far from a modern solution to the problem of injustice. Demands for reparations for people who were not compensated for their labour date back to the 15th Century. 

In fact, in the 19th Century, Britain voted in favour of reparations - for slave owners. Following the abolitionWhen something is banned, or finally stopped. of slavery, the British government paid £20m to compensate the 3,000 families that lost their "property" when they were no longer allowed to keep slaves.¹

This led to a great deal of hereditary wealth. John Gladstone, father of 19th Century prime minister William Gladstone, received £106,769 as compensation for the loss of his 2,500 slaves.²

Some organisations and institutions with links to slavery have pledged funds towards reparations, such as the University of Harvard and Glasgow University. Over 100 British families with slave-owning ancestors have pledged to make reparations. But this presents a certain disconnect with the British government, which has never apologised for its own role.

The problem cuts deep into British national identity. Leading figures in the Church of England and the Bank of England owned and exploited enslaved people. Direct ancestors of King Charles exploited slave labour on tobacco plantationsEnslaved Africans were transported to the New World to take part in a new intensive system of agriculture, growing crops such as tobacco and sugarcane. in Virginia.

Some say that Britain and other European countries already pay reparations in the form of development aid. But others argue that this aid often comes with conditions attached. And as many have highlighted, arguably reparations should go to the descendants of slaves themselves.

Can you really charge an invoice to a whole country? Slave-owners, who benefited arguably the most from slavery, were an elite socioeconomic class. But if we budget for reparations, low income Brits will disproportionately foot the bill.

It is a symbolic act, some assert. The atrocitiesTerrible things. that took place during slavery cannot be calculated as a sum of money. Compensating for the economic damage is the closest we can get.

Yes: There is no point in trying to compensate for the past in the present. Nobody who is alive now is responsible for the acts of their ancestors. And charging such a huge sum of money would only mean more suffering for low-income Brits.

No: Our economy, one of the strongest in the world, is built on the British Empire and on the slave trade. We have never offered reparations for our many atrocities or even formally apologised. It is time to pay up.

Or... Reparations are not the right way to go about what needs to be done. Britain should focus on collaboration and aid with Caribbean countries, which points both regions in the direction of a bright future, not a dark past.