Lee took a sip of his drink and decided to start his story before Gerald or John could jump in:

In the early centuries of the Far East, India was the most populous country in the world. India’s population exploded to levels not seen before the modern era. They attributed their success to the amount of beef they ate, and every person from rajah to peasant ate as much beef as he or she could afford. The rajah worked to expand the borders of India in order to get more pasture land for the cattle, but no matter how much land he was able to take, the population grew faster than the growth of the herds could handle.