Granting Investment Rights. A good idea?
I know a lot of people here are fans of granting other nations investment rights. So, in my recent Ottomans playthrough, I gave the British these rights to secure an alliance. Some years later I have tons of plantations by EIC, no peasants left and a booming economy. At a very early stage, after getting Railroads, I am now the top dog amongst great powers, ar least economy wise. My GDP is bigger than Britain's (this update, lol).
However, I regret it somehow. I now do have a labour shortage and I could not yet get rid of slavery, which means that a lot of workers on these plantations are slaves. So I bailed and kicked Britain out. In hindsight, I would have rather built these plantations myself and only in dedicated states. Landowners are still super powerful.
So my question: Is investment rights not worth it if you are a great power that might be ably to industrialize quickly itself (my take). Or should I have given it to France or Prussia to get better buildings instead of backwards plantations?