ASP 2 
 
 ie : or, Inquiry 
 
 Into the Pretensions of the Di 
 rectors of the i<]*st India Com- 
 pany, to the Exclusive Trade of 
 the Indian and China Seas :
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES
 
 FREE TRADE; 
 
 AN INQUIRY 
 
 INTO THE PRETENSIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DIRECTORS OF THE EAST 
 INDIA COMPANY, 
 
 TO THE 
 
 EXCLUSIVE TRADE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 INDIAN AND CHINA SEAS: 
 
 ADDRESSED 
 
 TO THE GREAT BODY OF THE 
 
 MERCHANTS AND MANUFACTURERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNITED KINGDOM. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PBINTEO AND PUBLISHED BY J. GOLD, SHOE-LANE. 
 FLEET-STREET. 
 
 1812, 
 
 **
 
 fe V 
 
 t *
 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE design of the following pages was sug- 
 2 gested by the necessity of directing the deter- 
 mination, and of methodizing the efforts of the 
 general merchants and manufacturers of the 
 country, to obtain a just and reasonable parti* 
 cipation in the trade with the countries beyond 
 the Cape of Good Hope, on the approaching 
 o expiration of the charter, in virtue of which it 
 - is now monopolized, but by no means ade- 
 quately cultivated, by the East India Company. 
 The merchants and manufacturers are already 
 sufficiently alive to the importance of an oppor* 
 tunity, which, if suffered to pass by unim- 
 proved, may never recur, for relieving the 
 commerce of the country from the lamentable 
 state oflanguishmentand depression into which 
 it has been brought, by the concurrence of a 
 number of causes; the generality of which, 
 re either wholly, or, in a great degree, beyond 
 British controul. 
 
 A2 
 
 354828
 
 fry PREFACE. 
 
 The continental system of Buonaparte hav* 
 ing, for its object, the total exclusion of British 
 goods from the nations under the influence of 
 France, may, perhaps for ever, deprive us of 
 the vents for our commodities, which we here- 
 tofore found in those countries ; and the un 
 certain state of our relations with America, 
 although there is reason to hope that it will not 
 terminate in war, may, if much longer pro- 
 tracted, lead to the establishment of native 
 manufactures beyond the Atlantic, which would 
 go far towards our permanent exclusion from 
 the American market. 
 
 These being, in a great measure, matters of 
 internal regulation, both as far as America is 
 concerned, and as far as relates to the countries 
 under the controul of France, it may not be 
 possible to counteract the influence of the pre- 
 sent system, even if a good understanding with 
 those countries should be immediately restored ; 
 \vhile the terms upon which that restoration 
 should be purchased, may be such as to deter, . 
 on the first demand of them,, even those who 
 now most anxiously wish for the blessings likely 
 to result from it if coupled with those mutual 
 benefits which British equity always contem-
 
 PREFACE. T 
 
 plates in such cases. But the trade now mono- 
 polized by the East India Company, is the 
 actual property of the British empire; the 
 legislature of the United Kingdom will be free 
 to dispose of it at their pleasure, and as it 
 shall seem fit to their wisdom, and their regard 
 to the interest of the nation, as concerned in 
 it, as soon as the period of the. present charter 
 shall have expired. This opportunity, this 
 resource alone, is within our own power; we 
 shall exercise an undisputed right in giving 
 ourselves the benefit of it and shall the 
 nation, when such a benefit lapses into its dis- 
 posal, at such a time, throw it again out of its 
 hands, and bid the public sit idle, and prepare 
 to perish with folded arms ; while a select 
 body, privileged to the ruin of the country, is 
 allowed to carry it on with limited means, to a 
 limited extent, and to be enriched amidst the 
 general poverty, of which it will form at once 
 the principal cause and the most painful 
 contrast ? 
 
 The madness of such a sacrifice is too ob- 
 vious, to admit any determination in the public 
 at large; other than that of which we have 
 such ample, striking, and satisfactory evidence, 
 
 A3
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 in the resolutions and petitions agreed upon, 
 in all the principal ports, and all the manufac- 
 turing towns and districts of the empire. But 
 that determination is resisted; and attempts 
 are made to answer it, by declaring that it is 
 founded in total ignorance of the subject in 
 false and delusive Views of imaginary interests. 
 
 The exclusive trade of the East India Com- 
 pany is presumed to afford to that body, and to 
 its leaders, an exclusive knowledge of every 
 thing beyond the Cape of Good Hope, and all 
 others are conceived to know nothing ; and, by 
 an extreme perverseness of ignorance, to em- 
 brace falsehood for truth, and mischief for 
 advantage! 
 
 This is a mode of argument, which, if once 
 allowed to avail the Company, may be kept in 
 force to eternity : for, if an exclusive charter 
 gives the Company the means of exclusive 
 knowledge, they will, of course, keep that 
 knowledge to themselves, and keep the public 
 for ever in that ignorance, which is to be, ever 
 and anon an unanswerable argument for the 
 renewal of the Company's monopoly. 
 
 The Company, in coming to moot the ques- 
 tion with the country, has certainly the advan-
 
 PREFACE. Vll 
 
 
 
 tage of local information, and of an established 
 routine of business, not easy to be grappled 
 with by men, who, with whatever understand- 
 ing of the universal and invariable principles 
 and rules of commerce with whatever com- 
 prehension and force of mind, in applying 
 those principles to a vast tract of land, and a 
 multitude of nations, all presenting large open- 
 ings for trade, may not yet be prepared to 
 answer the cross-examinations of partisans, 
 schooled in the details of the Company's fac- 
 tories in Hindostan or China, and prepared to 
 puzzle with practice, when they find them- 
 selves incapable of replying to reason. 
 
 To supply this deficiency to the general 
 merchant and trader, has been the principal 
 object of the Author of the following little 
 work ; and that he has not bestowed his 
 attention on this object, without cause; if not 
 already sufficiently manifest, from the course of 
 argument adopted by the Company's repre- 
 sentatives, in the late negociation with the 
 Board of Controul, as it appears in the printed 
 papers, containing the correspondence on that 
 subject; and from the tone and language of 
 the debates upon the subject at the East India
 
 Till PREFACE. 
 
 House; has been since most fully and clearly 
 displayed, in the paragraphs inserted in the 
 newspapers, obviously, by the authority, and 
 at the expense of the Court of Directors, and 
 by some of their collateral, and equally inte- 
 rested classes of subaltern monopolists. We 
 allude to the appeal lately made in some of the 
 newspapers, on behalf of the warehouses and 
 warehousemen, the clerks, and labourers and 
 porters, and the multitudes of other denomi- 
 nations of buildings, and of per?on, employed 
 by and under the Company. 
 
 To discharge those persons from their em- 
 ployment, is represented as a hardship, not 
 lightly to be resolved on; and to render thoFC 
 warehouses useless, is spoken of as an act of 
 wantonness, almost impossible to be committed 
 by any one, conscious of its nature and amount. 
 But those who argue in this way, can have no 
 object in view, except to excite a local sen- 
 sation, and to conjure up a local opposition 
 among interested persons in London, for the 
 purpose of counteracting the general sense and 
 will of the country: for what substance is their 
 IH the argument, except as an appeal to inte- 
 rests and passions of this kind ? And which is
 
 PREFACE. lx 
 
 mare likely to find employment for warehouses, 
 and for clerks and labourers a limited mo- 
 nopoly, or an extended and expanded com- 
 merce, carried on with all the liberality and 
 animation that belong to the character of a 
 British merchant, when not sophisticated and 
 restrained by the combination of characters and 
 relations wholly foreign to the spirit and genius 
 of trade. 
 
 The same answer may be given to a sort of 
 selfish remonstrance sent forth on the occasion, 
 by the ship-builders and owners, who are in 
 the habit of supplying tonnage for the Com- 
 pany's trade : for, let us ask these men for a 
 moment, whether the shipping interest, even 
 of the Thames, and that too, even if the trade 
 should in the import, as well as the export line, 
 be thrown open to the other ports as well 
 as to London, would not be likely to be mate- 
 
 s 
 
 rially benefitted, instead of being injured in the 
 smallest degree, by such a change. Let them 
 ans%ver, if they can, or if they will, whether 
 the trade with the countries beyond the Cape of 
 Good Hope would not, if so thrown open, em- 
 ploy ten, aye, twenty, tons of shipping, for every 
 one ton that it employs at present?
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 These arguments, weak as they are, put forth 
 so studiously by the Directors, and their depen- 
 dants and co-operators, evince their alarm, and 
 shew by what arts they will endeavour to oppose 
 the claims of the country, and to excite the 
 opposition of other bodies to them. They shew 
 also the necessity that was foreseen by the 
 Author of this publication, for confirming the 
 purpose, justifying the resolution, and invigo- 
 rating the efforts of the general merchants, so 
 as to enable them to meet, with effect, the 
 opposition they will have to encounter, by 
 particularizing their objects, and elucidating 
 them with those views, which the information 
 gained, and the observation afforded, and the 
 reflections suggested to an unprejudiced mind, 
 by a local residence, can alone furnish. The 
 author is not an enemy to the Company; on 
 the contrary, he wishes the Company well, 
 but he wishes the Country better ; and if an 
 alternative be put, as it is in the present in- 
 stance, by a narrow and mistaken spirit of self 
 interest on the part of the Company, whether 
 the Company's monopoly shall be preserved 
 un infringed, to the ruin of the nation ; or the 
 national interests shall be duly attended to, and 
 incalculably benefitted and promoted, by re-
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 stricting the Company to their proper occu- 
 pations, and to their real and natural character, 
 he cannot hesitate, in that alternative, to em- 
 brace the side of the nation. If his humble 
 efforts shall afford any instruction to those 
 charged with the management of the public 
 interests, and to the public at large, who are 
 to be the main support of the opening of the 
 trade, he will feel pride in the consciousness 
 of having contributed to one of the greatest 
 advantages ever conferred upon the country, or 
 upon mankind.
 
 FREE TRADE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 importantaera has arrived, when the lease, which 
 restricted the commerce with an enormous portion, 
 of the globe to a particular an<J very limited class of 
 men, to the entire exclusion of the general body of 
 the merchants and traders of the British empire, 
 is near its termination ; and the rights, compre- 
 hended under that lease, are about to pass from the 
 hands of the East India Company back into the 
 possession of the nation at large either to be de- 
 livered over again to those who have hitherto had 
 the sole use and management of them ; or, to be re- 
 tained, as public property, for the general benefit 
 of the country, and those of its citizens, who may 
 be disposed and qualified to profit by so great an 
 expansion of commercial opportunities. To what 
 a crowd of important considerations does this inci- 
 dent give birth ! and how grand and weighty is 
 alternative into which these considerations re-
 
 solve themselves ! and, we think we might ven- 
 ture to add, even at the outset, how little doubtful 
 the determination upon that alternative to any 
 wise and unprejudiced mind! The property which 
 the country has leased out, being now, upon the 
 expiration of the term for which it was let, about 
 to revert to the public, who are the proprie- 
 tors, it is to be considered what part, if any, shall 
 again be impounded in the hands of the lessees ; 
 and what part, if not the whole, shall be retained 
 by the proprietors, to be farmed by themselves and 
 their general agents, for their own benefit. To 
 this inquiry the present work will forthwith pro- 
 ceed. 
 
 Abandoning, at present, all discussion as to the 
 propriety of the Company's further full enjoyment 
 of the empire of their Indian territories, and wav- 
 ing, at the same time, any idea of examination into 
 the views of the government, or of the country, in 
 respect to the regulations to be introduced into the 
 statutes for further continuing their territorial do- 
 minion, and the circumstances connecting them- 
 selves with it, as they regard the natives of India 
 or the national character of Britain, or the interests 
 of the Company it is intended to confine the 
 present investigation to the simple object of 
 the trade. 
 
 To pursue the investigation of this subject com- 
 prehensively, it will be proper, first, to take a very
 
 summary view of the circumstances out of which 
 the Company's trade originated. 
 
 It will not be necessary to follow it from its mi- 
 nuter sources to its more improved state, when it 
 was expedient to secure it by charter ; suffice it to 
 say, it began and arrived at this stage in the usual 
 course, and the ordinary commencement and pro- 
 gress of commerce. Nor will it be requisite to talk 
 of the rivalry it experienced in a second chartered 
 company which found it convenient, afterwards, 
 for mutual benefit, to mix its stock with the first, 
 and to become a joint stock company ; on which 
 joint capital the trade has been ever since car- 
 ried on. * As the importance of the trade increased, 
 
 * At the period here adverted to, the mercantile glory and 
 prosperity of Britain had not, in any branch or department, 
 reached that meridian splendor which they have now, long 
 since, in every point, attained. They had, in fact, only just 
 shewn themselves upon the surface of the waters. Private in- 
 dividuals did not dare to undertake distant voyages, or to risk 
 expensive adventures. All enterprises of this kind were in- 
 rested in companies, now almost wholly extinct. Besides the 
 adventures carried on by the Indian, and Levant or Turkey 
 companies, and a few others similar, in corporations, there were 
 scarcely any that could dignify the adventurers with the name 
 of merchants. That the East India Company should be, under 
 such circumstances, allowed to establish its exclusive trade, is 
 not surprising ; that it should be allowed to continue that trade 
 thus far, is. perhaps, reconcileable, though not easily so ; but 
 that it should pretend to a further continuance, without any 
 participation on the part of the public, is unreasonable and as* 
 tonishing. 
 
 * 2
 
 the Company found it necessary to increase their 
 local establishments : thence arose large factories ; 
 and, as new rivals appeared in foreign companies, 
 these factories were surrounded by fortresses, and 
 the British Company were allowed, by the indul- 
 gence of Parliament, to raise slender forces, to sus- 
 tain their commercial establishments. But the 
 factories, and forts, and forces, were granted with 
 a view to trade, not with the view to enable the 
 trade to introduce, as it has since happened, an ap- 
 proach and an inlet to territorial acquisitions. 
 But the incidents, in process of time, became more 
 material than the direct and principal object The 
 increase of territory, as it opened a field for patron- 
 age, was, at first, regarded as a valuable gain ; but, 
 in process of time, as foretold by the great Lord 
 Clive, turned out to be the Company's bane, and 
 produced evils, particularly in the Indian territo- 
 rial debt, now nearly thirty millions, together with 
 a debt of several millions in this country also ; 
 which more than countervail a large nominal 
 revenue. But, according as this debt has accumu- 
 lated, the beneficial trade, which was the grand 
 object of the institution of the company, and of 
 the continuance of its exclusive privileges, has de- 
 clined. And here it may not be amiss to recom- 
 mend, as a point and principle to be always recol- 
 lected, that the Company was instituted, not to 
 give its subscribers and stock-holders the power or 
 the right to acquire empire, nor the oppprtunity
 
 of sharing large dividends, but in order to open a 
 vent for the national manufactures, and to supply 
 our home consumption with useful articles, and 
 the comforts and elegancies of life, in ahundance, 
 and at reasonable rates. At every step and at 
 every point of this enquiry, therefore, the reader 
 should pause, to ask how far these objects have 
 been fulfilled? 
 
 But, to avoid all discussions not immediately 
 connected with the subject under contemplation, 
 we proceed summarily to observe, that the con- 
 sequence of conquests has thrown into the Com- 
 pany's hands an immense expanse of country ; 
 running many hundred miles into the interior of 
 India, from the coasts in the Indian ocean; extend- 
 ing, on one side, from Cape Commorin, beyond 
 the Persian Gulph ; and on the other, from the 
 same point beyond the Ganges, as may be seen by 
 a reference to the maps; comprising an extent of 
 coast of many degrees, in no one point of which 
 is it possible for a ship to land a cargo, except on 
 the Company's territory ; for it is impossible to 
 regard the petty Marhatta states on the Malabar 
 coast, and the kingdom of Travancore, lately sub- 
 dued by the Company, and reduced to a state of 
 perfect vassalage, in any other light than as pro- 
 vinces and parts of the Company's empire. 
 
 There are, also, surrounded by the Company's 
 possessions, other territories of native powers, which 
 it is not necessary to describe particularly, little
 
 6 
 
 inferior, in respect of extent, to the Company's. 
 These countries may be said to be relatively in the 
 Company's possession, for the purposes of trade, 
 there being no mode of access to them but through 
 the Company's territories no " common way" 
 
 The subjects of the Company, inhabiting the 
 provinces comprehended in their actual empire, 
 amount, including the new conquests, to four times 
 the population of the United Kingdom ; and the 
 population of the countries to which the Com- 
 pany's territories command, or from which they 
 preclude, access, is not less numerous. 
 
 These vast tracts of land, comprising nearly the 
 whole Indian Peninsula, and the inhabitants of 
 these tracts, may be viewed, under the circum- 
 stances of the existing charter, as the first objects 
 of the Company's commerce. 
 
 The Company have not only been permitted to 
 acquire these territories with their revenues, and to 
 prosecute a trade within them but they have been 
 allowed to pursue their commercial speculations to 
 every part and place eastward of the Cape, and to 
 consider them as much their own as the territories 
 just referred to ; excluding from them the rest of 
 the mercantile community, of which they are only 
 a. part. 
 
 When the exclusive right of trade with India 
 was first granted, the whole of the Indian, and the 
 principal part of the Pacific Ocean, were given up to 
 the Company, as a field for speculation ; the value
 
 of which was not fully comprehended, and re- 
 mained to be ascertained. The public, not pro- 
 secuting it, had no means of knowing its worth, 
 and could only learn it from the wealth, or appear- 
 ance of it in the Company's representatives. The 
 Company were cultivators, bound to foster, to 
 improve, and to mature the trade ; and favoured 
 with advantages, sufficiently productive, to reward 
 them for the honest and faithful discharge of these 
 obligations. The advantages conferred upon the 
 public by the Company's exertions are not so easily 
 discernible ; those gained by the Company itself 
 are obvious. 
 
 As, from time to time, the public became ac- 
 quainted with the advantages enjoyed by the Com* 
 pany in the monopoly of the trade, proportionate 
 sums were demanded for the renewal of the charter ; 
 and it was not, in any instance, renewed without 
 some immediate contribution towards the exigen- 
 cies of the state, or some promise to that effect. 
 
 Such has been the course of things hitherto ; and, 
 from the conditions which we have just noticed, as 
 forming the consideration insisted upon by the 
 country, in every successive arrangement, a consi- 
 deration uniformly increased till the present occa- 
 sion, it is obvious that the country, at the expira- 
 tion of every period, felt itself entitled to dispose 
 of the trade according to its pleasure and its sense 
 of its own interest ; and if the option of making a 
 fresh grant to the Company has been always hi- 
 therto preferred;, the variation of the benefits re-.
 
 served manifested always the intention and th 
 right to make a bargain, upon terms of advantage 
 satisfactory to the grantors ; which, of course, 
 conveys a sense, or a persuasion of a right to give 
 or withhold altogether, according to, circumstances, 
 as well as a right to grant, upon satisfactory terras 
 of remuneration* 
 
 These considerations bring us of necessity to 
 the sense and persuasion of a right to exercise a 
 perfect freedom to grant or to retain a new lease of 
 the trade to grant or retain it in any limited ex- 
 tent, and subject to any conditions and reservations 
 that it may be thought reasonable in the grantors 
 to prescribe, and prudent and profitable in the 
 grantors to submit to. 
 
 For the Company, the charter may now be sup- 
 posed to expire at an inconvenient time. Mercan- 
 tile views, in general, have become more enlarged ; 
 and, in proportion as they have enlarged, the field 
 for trade, from political circumstances, has, unfor- 
 tunately become, in the same degree, narrowed. 
 
 Both these causes operating together, have ex- 
 cited an opposition, a very natural one, to the 
 Company's monopoly ; under the idea that, if it 
 were abolished, a large expanse would be opened to 
 mercantile adventure; not only as it respects our 
 own immediate interests, but our indirect good, 
 through intermediate trade with other countries ; 
 the effects of which, it is thought, would be re- 
 flected back on the country. 
 
 The public are, therefore, clamorous for par fid"
 
 pdtlon in the Company's trade ; for, as yet, there 
 is no alleged pretence to annul the joint-stock 
 course followed by the Company, intermixed, as it 
 is, with their corporate rights ; which, in all pro- 
 bability, will not be infringed upon. 
 
 But the Company, not content with this pro- 
 bable indulgence; insist that certain branches of 
 the monopoly should be continued to them, and 
 more particularly the Cffina trade; and they insist 
 further, that the licensed trade to be extended to 
 the public, should be put under certain restric- 
 tions, which would, if imposed, involve private 
 traders in much needless expense and vexation, in 
 order to reduce their commerce in certain parti- 
 culars, not only to a level with, but to place it 
 under the Company, and to load it with incum- 
 brances, which would render the prosecution of it 
 almost impracticable. 
 
 To these suggestions, the Board of Controul 
 appears to have lent rather a willing ear; and 
 there is reason to apprehend, from the connection 
 of the Company with that Board, and of that 
 Board with the Ministers, and of both with Par- 
 liament, in which they and their respective 
 adherents are so frequently bound and actuated 
 by common and responsive interests, that, combined 
 and formidable efforts will be made, to deprive the 
 general mercantile interest of the nation, of the 
 whole, or the most important parts, of the rights 
 devolving to it, on the expiration of the charter;
 
 10 
 
 or, if any part be conceded, to shackle it with 
 such conditions and arrangements, as to render it 
 wholly useless and unproductive. To prevent a 
 combination of this kind, from defeating the grand 
 efforts now made by the merchants and manufac- 
 turers of every port, every town, and every district, 
 should be the object of every friend to the freedom 
 and prosperity of trade, and to the welfare of the 
 country; and to give facility and effect to these 
 efforts, is the chief motive for putting together the 
 suggestions contained in the following part of this 
 work. 
 
 If the country shall be properly roused to a sense 
 of its interests and its duty, and shall speak its 
 mind, with becoming energy, and maintain its 
 resolutions with proper firmness, no combination 
 can resist it. The voice of the nation must pre- 
 vent the council of the nation from alienating the 
 nation's rights from the nation itself, to a small 
 part of the nation, and to a narrow and insulated 
 class of its people. 
 
 From what has been previously observed, it ap- 
 pears, that the Company's monopoly, as at present 
 existing, consists of two kinds of trade : 
 
 1st. As to the Company's own exclusive ter- 
 ritories. 
 
 2dly. As to neutral or friendly countries, within 
 the precincts laid down in the charter, and con- 
 firmed by statutes. 
 
 To the first, if they be permitted to keep their
 
 territory, as it now stands, they suppose that they 
 have peculiar claims, which remain to be con- 
 sidered. 
 
 To the second, we have not yet heard of any 
 pretension, which does not equally belong to any 
 subjects of Great Britain, as well as the Company, 
 on the expiry of the charter. 
 
 But to take a hasty view of the first description 
 of commerce 
 
 It is to be carried on, as it will be observed, 
 with the subjects of the Company principally, 
 over whom they exercise sovereign power. The 
 Company, or their agents, for it is the same thing, 
 instead of being satisfied with trading solely with 
 this immense population, to which their factories 
 gave them access, have thought proper to subject 
 them to their rule; which rule in the East is 
 completely arbitrary. They have taken the terri- 
 tory and the revenue they have monopolized the 
 sale of the most valuable articles of internal con- 
 sumption, such as salt and opium and have 
 hitherto retained, and wish stijl to retain, if not 
 all, at least the chief articles of external commerce 
 precluding others from purchasing or exporting 
 such articles. So that the Company, as sovereigns, 
 can place what duties and imposts they choose, in 
 the first instance, on the trade of their subjects, 
 
 and would afterwards forbid them from trading; 
 . .. t> 
 
 with any other than themselves, or such purchasers 
 as they would prescribe j and yet they tell one of
 
 12 
 
 t 
 
 their tender love and affection for their native 
 subjects! What must be the condition of such 
 happy subjects, either for the consumption of 
 exports from other countries, or furnishing manu- 
 factures for foreign markets ? 
 
 It is not within the view of an inquiry of this 
 kiijd, intended merely to sift the grounds of the 
 Company's pretensions to a renewal of their mono- 
 poly, and to assert the general rights of the 
 national merchants, and, in pursuing these objects, 
 to -be as little polemic as possible it is not within 
 the view of such a work, to question the sincerity 
 of the tender aifection professed by the Company 
 towards its,native subjects; further than this, that 
 as such a profession has been brought forward, cou- 
 pled with a severe and groundless general charge, 
 in argument for the exclusion of the general mer- 
 chants from the commerce of India, it is rendered 
 almost indispensable not to notice, and to reply to 
 it. We must therefore ask, in such a state of 
 things as we have described, and which are the 
 most striking features of the condition of the 
 Indian subjects under the sovereign company 
 will any one stand up, who affects the least regard 
 for the natives of India, the present subjects of 
 the Company, and raise his voice in favour of the 
 Company's proposition? In their character of 
 sovereigns, Eastern sovereigns, they are wholly 
 incapacitated from acting as merchants the two 
 characters cannot co-exist, without the ruin of
 
 13 
 
 the people; and, consequently, without rendering 
 them unprofitable subjects for trade of any kind. 
 
 Surely, the Company might content themselves 
 withdrawing revenue from its subjects; and, as the 
 condition of the people should be ameliorated their 
 finances would keep pace and bright commercial 
 prospects to the one, and a full exchequer to the 
 other, would break forth like meridian sunshine 
 from a cloud of darkness. 
 
 We cannot help viewing this proposition, made 
 on the part of the Company, mixed as it is with 
 territorial sway, most unjust and preposterous. 
 Instead of struggling for this branch of trade, in 
 exclusive enjoyment, they ought to lose no time 
 in renouncing it*; and to vaunt forth this for- 
 
 * The impossibility of extending the export trade to India, 
 alleged on the part of the Company, is certainly not devoid of 
 plausible grounds, considering the settled habits, the established 
 frugality, and extreme poverty, of the greater part of the 
 natives. But it is, at the same time, to be remembered, and 
 remembered particularly by commercial men, that the expansive 
 influence of commerce has wrought changes still more extra- 
 ordinary upon nations, than the general introduction and con- 
 sumption of British commodities among the nations of India. 
 Who could have expected, two hundred years since, that the 
 beef-eating and beer-drinking people of England would relin- 
 quish the food and the beverage in which they had a particular 
 pride, conceiving them to be the chief sources of their strength 
 and Tigour, and that they would have turned over, almost imi- 
 yersally, to the use of tea, the millions of pounds weight and 
 pounds worth of which annually imported, form the chief 
 source of the East India Company's gain. It is, besides, to be
 
 14 
 
 bearance, as a reason for claiming indulgence m 
 another branch of trade, to which, as at present 
 informed, we cannot perceive that the Company 
 have the shadow of pretence. But, under the 
 
 considered, that these same natives of India, so poor, and so 
 unalterable in their habits, are made to contribute most mainly 
 to the Company's revenue; first, in the article of salt, which 
 f is the only thing they can use, to give a flavour to the insipidity 
 of their rice and, secondly, in the opium, the intoxication 
 of which, serves to furnish them with a temporary oblivion of 
 their wretchedness. The Mahomedans, moreover, who form 
 a great portion of the population of India, are a people of 
 splendid taste and sumptuous habits, having at their head most 
 of the native princes ; and being, in general, very opulent : 
 and they, at all events, are likely to be, and are, in fact, at 
 present, large consumers of British manufactures. 
 
 The article of tea, now grown into vast and unexpected, at first 
 highly improbable, and even at this day, scarcely reconcileable. 
 consumption, has enriched the Chinese farmer and merchant, 
 and afforded large supplies to the Chinese government. 
 
 To the East India Company, it affords profits sufficient to 
 counterbalance their losses on the other branches of their trade, 
 and to distribute large dividends to the holders of East India 
 stock. To the British Government, it yields a vast revenue; 
 and to the British people a refreshing beverage, so cheap, as to 
 be easily accessible, even to the poorest amongst us. It is not 
 to be expected, that an article of the same universal attraction 
 to the natives of India, should be immediately discovered, and 
 *ent out from this country. But it is in the nature and spirit 
 of unfettered commerce, to excite new wants, and to provide 
 the means of supplying those wants ; and with so large a field as 
 India to act upon, there is no doubt that a general trade wilt 
 find means of creating a general consumption of articles ; the 
 supplying of which, will be highly profitable. This subject .will 
 be more particularly touched upon hereafter.
 
 pretext of securing this foreign object, so widely 
 distant from any of their actual possessions, they 
 would find a reason for shutting out the general 
 British merchant from scenes, the natural and open 
 sources of adventure to him. 
 
 This brings us to the inquiry as to the second 
 branch of commerce, which the Company would 
 reserve --namely, the China trade. 
 
 This trade originated in the ordinary way above 
 shortly noticed being accidentally within the pre- 
 cincts from which the people are excluded. This, con- 
 tradistinguished from the trade with India, cost the 
 Company nothing in acquiring. It is not a wrought 
 article, where the materials are cheap,' and the 
 workmanship gives it value, but is a common, 
 simple, natural object of commerce ready to the 
 Company's hands, and to the hands of every people, 
 almost, in the civilized world. All the European 
 nations of eminence, and some Transatlantic, have 
 factories in China, which they have been permitted 
 to erect; and, through the means of which, to 
 carry on a permissive trade with the wary Chinese. 
 
 The Company conduct it in the same manner 
 with others ; and we do not know of their having 
 any very striking advantages over other nations. 
 Of this we are certain, that in a late case of emer- 
 gency, in checking a piratical and insurrectional 
 expedition of its subjects in the China seas, 
 the government of China called in, not the English, 
 the presumed favourites, but the miserably weak
 
 16 
 
 Portuguese, who, to render the assistance required, 
 were obliged to borrow the naval means, at second 
 hand, from the English ships then in the Chinese 
 ports and seas; and this jealousy of the Chinese 
 towards the Company, has been proved to be not 
 without reason, by the conduct of the Company's 
 government and officers, in endeavouring to hold 
 military possession of the port of Macao. 
 
 The trade with China having been established, 
 without any sacrifice on the part of the Company, 
 and having been so conducted by them, as not to 
 claim any favourable consideration for them, on 
 the part of the Chinese, no possible ground can be 
 imagined, for the Company's inordinate pretensions 
 to a further monopoly of it, except, perhaps, the 
 establishments they have thought proper to form, 
 for the purpose of carrying on the intercourse. 
 The factory erected by the Company at Canton is, 
 no doubt, very costly and splendid; and it has 
 been made the means of provision for the sons, and 
 other immediate relatives of the Directors : for the 
 appointments on that establishment are retained 
 specially for those persons, and handed clown as a 
 sort of heir-loom from one set of Directors to 
 another. With this view, a palace, rather than a 
 warehouse, has been built; and a princely insti- 
 tution founded, for the maintenance of which, a 
 suitable revenue has been assigned. And for what, 
 we will ask, is this expensive and luxurious insti- 
 tution created? Why, to enable the Company's
 
 ir 
 
 supracargoes to pass, in easy and convenient state, 
 the progress of the trading season the permitted 
 period of the Fair whence we are to see them 
 banished the moment their stalls are taken down; 
 when they are glad to find a shelter for their heads 
 in the hospitality of the Portuguese, on their island 
 of Macao. 
 
 But these splendid appendages, however conve- 
 nient it may be for the Company, or rather their 
 Directors, to retain them, are not necessary to the 
 well-being of the trade ; and, therefore, not neces- 
 sary for the public to concern themselves about, 
 unless they shall be set up, as we suspect, as rea- 
 sons for continuing this traffic in its present 
 channel. 
 
 The only ground yet assigned by the Directors, 
 for none has been offered by the Board of Con- 
 troul, is, that it is a very dainty or delicate sort of 
 trade, and ought not to be thrown open to the 
 vulgar. But every other nation of the earth pro- 
 secutes it, and have address enough to carry it on 
 successfully and who shall argue, that the English 
 have no capacity to the same end? They who 
 venture to insinuate this, are the last people from 
 whose mouth such an objection ought to issue ; 
 since they, alone of all others, have so conducted 
 this traffic, as to risk the fun her permission of it 
 to the country, by involving themselves in serious 
 misunderstanding with the Chinese government. 
 
 The Company have been more than once in 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 danger of losing the trade altogether, from the 
 haughty carriage of their officers, who assume a 
 port and bearing quite ahove all other merchants; 
 and, if they had lost it, or if being, which is 
 scarcely possible, allowed to retain it now, they 
 should be excluded from it, in consequence of any 
 future abuse or misconduct, would it not be an 
 extraordinary circumstance, if the country should 
 still be restrained from taking up the commerce? Yet 
 that consequence, strange and unreasonable as it is, 
 must follow, if the monopoly be now again conceded, 
 and the Company should, in the event of any dis- 
 pute, be excluded from the Chinese ports : yet 
 
 ' under these circumstances, and without any well 
 founded right, the Company, it seems, would keep 
 this branch of trade to themselves, and would 
 endeavour to persuade the Board of Controul, 
 but seemingly without success at present, to con- 
 vert it into a means of precluding British mer- 
 
 . | chants in general from trading with the coasts to 
 the eastward of the Bay of Bengal, and the clus- 
 ter of islands in the Eastern Archipelago. With 
 what pretensions tlie Company would reserve such 
 parts of their present exclusive privilege, as we 
 have now shortly adverted to, has been sufficiently 
 shewn. 
 
 It is true, that in compliance with an intimation 
 from the Board of Controul, the Directors have, 
 reluctantly, consented to admit the public to a 
 participation of the first description of commerce,
 
 at present enjoyed by the Company; yet the par- 
 ticipation is to be partial, and under restrictions, 
 and for supposed causes, which we may hereafter 
 advert to. 
 
 It has already been shewn, that the company 
 being sovereigns, ought not themselves, even on 
 ordinary principles, to trade at all with their own 
 subjects. This maxim i* established beyond all 
 question, by writers of the highest authority; among 
 whom, we suppose, it will be sufficient to mention 
 Dr. Adam Smith. Without dilating, therefore, on 
 a point already fully proved, let us consider what 
 part of the Indian trade the Company would ex- 
 clude the public from, viz. 
 
 the trade in piece goods, 
 
 . raw silk, 
 
 ' salt-petre. 
 
 The first is the principal export from India; 
 and there would seem no good reason, when the 
 trade is thrown open generally, why this should be 
 reserved, or indeed either of the other articles, 
 unless it can be shewn, which is not now ap- 
 parent, that there is some good reason for the 
 exception. As to the latter article, indeed, it is 
 said to be of apolitical nature; obvious enough, if 
 it be founded on any solid ground. But we own, 
 we feel some surprise, (being willing, however, to 
 give the Company credit for liberality) that they 
 should lay a claim to such privilege; since we see 
 no less a sum than 400, OOO/. stated as a loss on the 
 supply of this article to the public service, within
 
 20 
 
 the period of a few short years. .It Would seem a 
 little curious, if we did not know the extent of the 
 patriotism of the Company, that they should 
 contend for retaining to themselves this annual 
 loss! 
 
 Having shortly examined tf hat they would rfe- 
 tai, ndw let us see what it is that they would cede, 
 and under what conditions. If we are astonished 
 at the extraordinary pretensions of the Company, 
 we are doubly moved at the colour arid extent of 
 the restraints, to which they would subject that 
 portion of the trade, which they are inclined to 
 grant; which, if accepted, and pursued in the 
 course prescribed, would be a left-handed present. 
 
 To take a view of the positions of the Company, 
 in respect to this species of trade. 
 
 They lay it down as a principle, and whfch they 
 claim some liberality in broaching, that they are 
 not governed by commercial jealousy, in what they 
 are about to cede; for, in fact, there is no reason 
 for it, since " the Indfan trade, as an object of 
 gain, has gradually ceased to be of importance to 
 the Company or individuals." If this Were true, 
 the retention of it, surely, is not worth a con- 
 test; and more especially, since it cannot be 
 retained with advantage to their subjects. This 
 should induce the Company, instead of inventing 
 restrictions, to hold out encouragement to the 
 country. Why, like the testy and invidious ani- 
 mal in the manger, withhold from others what 
 they cannot benefit by themselves?
 
 31 
 
 But though the Indian trade may not be worth 
 having, yet it is politic, it is said, to keep India 
 untrodden by a British foot. And hence a hun- 
 dred evils are conjured up, to deter us from the 
 admission of Europeans into the country. But 
 how are they to earry on trade at all, and with 
 what prospect, if they be not to accompany, and 
 await the disposal of, their goods? How are they to 
 sell their exports, or to purchase or provide a 
 returning cargo? 
 
 All these oojections ; giving them what colour 
 the Directors please, found themselves most de 
 clareclly in the jealousy of that body. They may 
 say, (but who will believe them ? ) that they 
 are only intent on advising the merchants of 
 England against their own silly plans, arising out 
 of the supposed profit of the trade to India ; it will 
 be found, it is to be lamented, on examining their 
 arguments, their statements, and exceptions, that 
 they are founded in no better passion than 
 described, or in motives intimately connected with 
 it. And hence spring, not only the restraints 
 which they would devise for the traders to India, 
 but they would follow them with similar incum- 
 brances, through the whole course of the adventure 
 from England to India, and from India back again 
 to England. But to investigate the foremost string 
 of restrictions, as they respect the part of the ad? 
 venture to be conducted in India. 
 
 They would, in the first flace a not aUow any
 
 22 
 
 merchant to domiciiiate and wherefore? Because, 
 in the apprehension of the Directors, these men 
 might be expected to colonise. Is there a greater 
 fondness for emigration in Englishmen than in men 
 of other countries? Contrary to the known passion 
 of all islanders for their home, would these men un- 
 naturally abandon their native country, and their 
 laws, and for what? 
 
 For the privilege of breathing, if they have so 
 
 bad a taste, the tainted and feverish air of India 
 
 For the purpose of putting themselves under the 
 
 government of the Company, in preference to that 
 
 of England 
 
 To renounce the blessings of nature and to 
 icom the best security of human happiness toge- 
 ther with the comforts of society for the sole pur- 
 pose of travelling to, and sojourning in India, for 
 India's sake : for the Court of Directors say, that 
 there is nothing to be got by commerce in India* 
 As the inducement, therefore, to go thither, will 
 goon be found deceptive, there is no doubt that 
 the dreaded eifect from going thither will cease 
 with the cause. The evil apprehended, would, in 
 this way, soon cure itself. 
 
 But the climate, without any other circumstance, 
 may be supposed to be a sufficient check on colo- 
 nization. To learn that this is n6t mere theory, 
 we need only look to other countries, who have 
 had authorised establishments in India. Have the 
 French or Dutch colpnized there ? And as to the
 
 23 
 
 few who' actually domiciliated, what has become 
 of them? and what the effect produced to the 
 mother country, while they sojourned there? What 
 even of the Portuguese, the earliest settlers in 
 India, and whose governments were more colonial 
 than any other of later years ? 
 
 This would seem to afford a sufficient quietus to 
 the fears of the Company, on this ground. Phan- 
 toms to terrify themselves ! What has been now 
 said, may also tranquilize the Company, as to the 
 apprehended operation of persons flocking to India 
 upon the native subjects of the Company. For 
 who are the persons, and what their description, 
 who may be expected to emigrate, with a view to 
 colonization ? Will they not be persons of high 
 mercantile ranjt, fortune, and character, rather 
 than artizans land workmen? What temptation 
 would the latter description have to undertake 
 such a voyage, where labour, of every kind, may 
 be, and is, performed by the natives, under the 
 direction of European masters, with as much skill 
 and success as in this country ; and when those 
 masters will, assuredly, cause their work to be exe- 
 cuted in the cheapest manner possible? The influx 
 therefore, of Englishmen, or other Europeans, or 
 Americans, into India, cannot be supposed to be 
 considerable; and the class of persons who are 
 alone likely to settle, are of a description, from 
 whom nothing is to be apprehended. 
 
 It is admitted that there is a certain degree of
 
 , 
 
 24 
 
 delicacy to be observed towards the natives, who 
 have many religious prejudices and peculiar habits, 
 that forbid the clo-^e contact of Europeans. 
 Still, however, they maintain an intercourse, 
 though not a very intimate one, with Europeans 
 of every denomination. 
 
 The French, and Dutch, and Portuguese, have 
 been able to support such intercourse with toler- 
 able success. Some of these people, of late years, 
 have sought to extend their natural intercourse, 
 and have travelled far and wide in the interior, 
 and have sojourned with powers, such as the Mar- 
 hattas, the Mysoreans, and with the people of 
 the Deccan. 
 
 Have not those adventurers been able to amal- 
 gamate with the natives, and live in peace and 
 amity with them ? There is nothing, then, impos- 
 sible^ such an union; on the contrary, experience 
 shews it is very practicable. 
 
 But it is supposed, by the Directors, that Euro- 
 peans, let loose on the Indian continent, would 
 stir the chiefs into constant warfare. Does ex- 
 perience warrant this conclusion? Have the French 
 less intrigue than the English? Or has this been 
 the distinguishing characteristic of them in their 
 connection with the native powers, whom they 
 have occasionally served? It may be confidently 
 asserted, that no native prince would have suffered 
 them to exist, for a moment, in his country; if 
 they had favoured insurrectionary practices among
 
 25 
 
 the chiefs of his own territory, or would have lent 
 an ear to their advice; if it accorded not with his 
 owu views and interests. A contrary conduct would 
 have been, as far as regards the policy of the native 
 prince, or, indeed, the French, Jdo de se. Each 
 adventurer might promote his own particular in- 
 terests ; hut this would not be done without an 
 appearance of serving, instead of overt irning, the 
 state in which he domiciliated. 
 
 If it be meant to infer that the English would 
 take service with native state*, and spur them trai- 
 torously on to hostilities with British India, we 
 must have better evidence than an unmanly and 
 illiberal insinuation, contrary to all experience, to 
 found our policy upon. 
 
 But with whom is it intended that the British 
 adventurers should domiciliate, or where do they 
 lay claim to it? with the Company's subjects ge- 
 nerally, and in the Company's territories. They 
 would, too, during such domicile, be under the 
 particular regulations of the Company, and, what 
 is still more effectual, under the British law ; visit- 
 ing, not only all possible offence committed by 
 them witnin thq Company's peculiar territories, 
 hut in those even of their allies. These laws also 
 have given a local tribunal, having cognizance of 
 such offences. If, too, the legal ordinances, actual- 
 ly in force, were not sufficient to embrace every de- 
 scription of crime, it would not be very difficult to 
 adapt thepi to the new state of things, on the ex- 
 tension of the intercourse of England with India.
 
 26 
 
 Tims the penalties of the law would have the 
 same effect, if not a greater, than the relation now 
 subsisting between the -Company and their ser- 
 vants, and would check any insult likely to be 
 offered to the natives. But, if this insolence is so 
 much to be dreaded, how does it happen that the 
 natives are exempt from it under the visits and the 
 authority of the Company's troops and civil ser- 
 vants of every class (including the youngest writers 
 and cadets, and even private soldiers) ? These 
 persons go, not as humhle and industrious traders, 
 having to recommend themselves by their orderly 
 and attractive conduct, but present .themselves 
 in all the imposing pomp of power and office ; 
 and, if they do not exceed their authority, is 
 it to be apprehended that an excess will be 
 committed by men, bound as the new adventurers 
 will be, by every obligation of interest, to conduct 
 themselves peaceably and inoffensively ? If the 
 common servants of the Company can be relied 
 upon for such conduct, cannot the same reliance 
 be placed on independent and respectable British 
 merchants ! We should almost blush to ask the 
 question. 
 
 Before quitting this subject it would seem fit to 
 answer a possible objection that may be started, 
 as to the probability of British subjects^ passing 
 the boundary of the Company's territories, and 
 taking up a residence in neighbouring states. That 
 this is not very likely to happen in, any great de- 
 gree, one might undertake to state gratuitously ;
 
 and on a parity of reason, as explained in the case 
 of supposed general colonization. The different 
 armies which the Company possess all along the 
 frontier, in the shape of suhsidiary forces, in the 
 territories of friendly powers, and of residents and 
 spies at foreign courts, would render any trans- 
 gressions over the Company's limits, if it be desir- 
 able to guard against them, a matter almost of im- 
 possibility. It would be a work of labour and of 
 art, travel which way they would, for British ad- 
 venturers to pass, without the notice and, as at pre- 
 sent, without the permission of the Company. 
 
 There is, however, this particular restraint upon 
 it the jealousy of the native princes who could 
 never, it is imagined, be inclined to give privileges 
 to such settlers, beyond those enjoyed by their own 
 subjects, or to put them in possession of offices 
 that should tempt them from the British protection. 
 Besides, it may be asked, who would voluntarily 
 place himself permanently under the capricious 
 tyranny of eastern domination, which, however 
 varied in its mode, is, in substance, always arbi- 
 trary ?* 
 
 * There have been adventurers, English as well as French, 
 who have escaped over to native princes ; and \vhaf have been 
 their reception and fortunes ? Some of the latter, indeed, such 
 as Deboigne and Perron, who have had high military com- 
 mand, may be supposed to have had an envy of the British 
 pre-eminence, and to have been stimulated to means, under 
 the advice and commands of their government, to diminish it,
 
 28 
 
 These short observations would appear to be 
 enough, at present, for an answer to the fears of the 
 Honourable Court of Directors the apprehension 
 of colonization, as affecting their own interests or 
 the interference of Europeans, if allowed to follow 
 their merchandize, personally, with the Company's 
 subjects. 
 
 A word or two is now intended to be offered, as 
 to the tender concern of the Directors for the Bri- 
 tish merchants, who, it is feared, might be seduced 
 by false appearances, to enter into Indian specula- 
 tion. 
 
 if practicable. But have these most fortunate adventurers ever 
 ventured on insulting or provoking the English power? or have 
 they dared to recommend it to the princes whom they served? 
 On the contrary, on the first breaking out, or shew, of hosti- 
 lities, they have sought to send their private property to the 
 treasuries of the East India Company, and have, themselves, 
 followid on the first available opportunity. If such men, with 
 their antipathies to the English, cannot be trusted by the na- 
 tive princes ; it would hardly seem very probable, that they will 
 confide more implic.tly in Englishmen, who may be imagined 
 to have a contrary bias But, allowing that they may be con. 
 ceived as traitors to their own country, which the objection 
 presumes will this be a ground of confidence to the ne\r 
 prince whom they would serve? How do the Directors judge 
 of the intellects of the native Princes ! 
 
 But v\hen antf by whom has the fugitive English adventurer, 
 accompanied by no character or national protection, been ad. 
 mitted to the service ot the native princes ? or, if admitted, to 
 what rank has he attained beyond the lowest grade of com- 
 mand, except with the permission of the Indian governments ? 
 No one instance to the contrary can be quoted : hence the 
 apprehension of the Directors would appear to be chimerical.
 
 It is stated, that the natives of India, in general, 
 have but few natural wants ; which are easily sa- 
 tisfied ; or, if they had artificial ones, that, com* 
 inonly speaking, they have not the means of grati* 
 fying them ; that they are, in the hulk, a poor race ; 
 and, though there may be some wealthy individuals, 
 that their religious usages and civil customs will 
 not let them purchase many European articles ; 
 and those that they want, or are inclined to use, 
 are very scanty, such as woollens for the cold sea* 
 sons, and a small quantity of unwrought metals. 
 This is said of all the Indian people, without re- 
 spect to their different religions and casts, or their 
 local situation. These, in point of fact, are almost 
 as various as the territory they inhabit ; and it 
 would be difficult to lay down a rule which would 
 include all. But the Hindoo, or Gentoo, the most 
 scrupulous of all, does not refrain from availing 
 himself, so far as his means extend, of our manu- 
 factures of luxury, as well as necessity. He is a 
 constant purchaser of European carriages, of arti- 
 cles of jewellery, of glass, and of ornaments of every 
 description ; nor is he, in any way, forbidden from, 
 the general use of them ; though, in particular 
 Household utensils he would prefer, perhaps, Indian 
 manufacture. It is no uncommon thing for him to 
 purchase even English cloths ; and when they are 
 procurable, the stuff shawls of this country, as be- 
 ing cheaper in price, though inferior in quality, to 
 those tnade in India.
 
 30 
 
 If, in the interior of India, the natives of opu- 
 lence had more frequent opportunities of seeing our 
 luxuries and conveniences, and which they would 
 have if Europeans were more extensively, than at 
 present, permitted to sojourn among them, there is 
 no reason to doubt but that a desire for them would 
 be excited in the natives, which would lead to an 
 extension of trade. 
 
 But the principal cause of the defect of exports 
 from this country is, first, that it would cost the 
 Company too much trouble to seek to extend them, 
 by exploring new sources, when their attention is 
 required by matters producing immediate advan- 
 tage ; next, that the instruments employed by 
 the Company are not mercantile, none of their 
 servants having a merchant's education, and not 
 many of their Directors having been schooled in 
 trade. 
 
 But what is the export trade of India, and who 
 conducts it? 
 
 Putting the exports, consisting chiefly of cloths 
 and stores, for the use of the Company's own esta- 
 blishments, out of the question, the rest consists in 
 articles exported by individuals principally by 
 the Company's officers. 
 
 And how is this managed ? Wh}*, it is put into 
 godowns, or warehouses, at the presidencies ; and 
 the captains of ships, and officers, splendidly 
 dressed, and bearing a high rank, unacquainted 
 with, and superior to, traffic, will not condescend
 
 to go behind the counter to dispose of their invest- 
 ments, but leave their commodities to be sold by 
 Dubashes, or Banyans, native traders, who may be 
 found on the spot; who retail them out in the setr 
 tlement, and answer for the debts, taking a per 
 centage for their trouble. The officers get, in re- 
 turn for their articles, what the rapacity of these 
 men chuse to leave them ; who also exercise the 
 same power over the cargo to be purchased for im- 
 portation. Nor can the captains and officers suf- 
 fer their eye to be taken off these honest agents for a 
 moment ; so that all is terminated on the spot. 
 
 In the walk of trade the native stands not in 
 need of any protection ; being generally found to 
 be a full match for all the cunning of Europeans. 
 
 It happens not much otherwise in private con- 
 signments ; only here the European resident at the 
 presidencies, and the free merchant, knows his na- 
 tive agent better, and exercises his own judgment 
 as to the credit to be given, and has a greater ad- 
 vantage in buying the returning cargo. But he 
 cannot go ten miles from the presidency, without 
 especial permission from the local government ; 
 and such permission is rarely given, if requested. 
 
 Is it to be wondered that no new sources of com- 
 merce are discovered ? or, is it to be expected that 
 any could be found in such a system of trade? 
 
 But it is advanced that others, such as the French 
 and Dutch, who allowed of a freer intercourse with 
 their own and foreign native subjects, were not
 
 32 
 
 able to find or force markets for their exports. 
 Now what were their local means? The Dutch 
 never had but a mere footing on the sea-coasts, 
 and had no means of intimate communication with 
 the interior. They had not the manners, nor 
 show, nor spirit, commanding the notice of the na- 
 tives; nor had they the consequent influence. 
 Their views, too, were abstracted from the conti- 
 nent of India at an early period, and fixed, more 
 properly, as a mercantile body's should, on the 
 islands in the Indian seas ; where they have since 
 kept up a lucrative trade. The case is dissimilar 
 from the English. 
 
 As to the Americans, they have never had a fac- 
 tory, nor a foot of land ; how, then, could they 
 create new branches of commerce, or extend the 
 old? 
 
 The French are not to be regarded as a mercan- 
 tile people ; and their aspect to India has been 
 principally political; nor have they, besides Pon- 
 dicherry, surrounded by a narrow screed of terri- 
 tory, any important passage to othe rlndian states ; 
 nor have the English, until years somewhat 
 recent, had so general a communication. It has 
 been noticed that, though they have had com- 
 mercial means, they have not employed them to 
 any large extent, nor sought to increase them. 
 When, however, they have acted on these 
 means, it has been at such cost, and on such prin- 
 ciples, that it has been impossible to expect any
 
 33 
 
 great benefit to result from them. Look at their 
 commercial residents, factors, and their boards of 
 trade, with their dependencies out of number, and 
 then consider what the Proprietors are likely to 
 gain from commerce, passing through such mul- 
 tiplied hands ! 
 
 Are we to take the success of the Company 
 in their speculations as a criterion of what the 
 trade might be in the hands of those accustomed 
 to its management ? 
 
 The argument built on the trade from port to 
 port in India proves little, if any thing : for this 
 would, naturally, be accommodated to the wants 
 of India, insuring a quick and constant return 
 rather than to England; whither the trade must be 
 carried on in English ships, chartered by the Com- 
 pany, and by prescribed persons and ways ; which 
 would make the British branch of it not only ha- 
 zardous, at all times, but at no time worth the 
 prosecution. If the Indian trade were to be thrown 
 open, the beneficial effect of the coasting trade 
 would be, at the same time, discovered. The one 
 would necessarily serve the other. 
 
 What has been just observed will answer any 
 argument arising out of the circumstance of the 
 public not having availed itself of the tonnage of 
 the Company's ships. Who would send their 
 goods to such a market as has been described ? 
 none, certainly, it may be averred, with the least 
 notion of mercantile principles.* 
 
 * What encouragement the Company's tonnage has given 
 
 D
 
 34 
 
 ' -i^. t_c *-v/vI *^ A _-* 
 
 But the East India Company prefer a claim for 
 providing such a medium of commerce, which has 
 been taken up, it seems, beyond the aera of their 
 ' charter. But, if they have made a wrong specula- 
 tion, as to the continuance of it, this, like all other 
 losses in trade, should be borne by themselves; 
 at any rate, it cannot be stated ds art obstacle to 
 admitting the public to their o\vn indisputable 
 right the benefit of the Indian trade. 
 
 The grounds have now been slightly examined, 
 oh which the Directors have mainly rested, in op- 
 posing the opening of the trade with India ; fot 
 it lias been shewn, it is hoped, that they are not 
 tenable On the principles avowed : that it may be 
 carried on without offending against the policy, 
 on which the Company have acted, or without 
 improperly affecting the Indian community ; and 
 that there is no need of those restrictions, in India, 
 to which the Directors would subject it. 
 
 To view the articles of trade a little more closely, 
 in order to discover, which is sometimes doubted 
 and sometimes half admitted by the Directors, 
 whether the trade promises to be productive, i. e. 
 whether the game be worth the candle. 
 
 It has already been noticed, that it may be ex- 
 pected that the skill and industry of private mer- 
 chants may increase the export trade, by disco- 
 vering new inlets. Whoever takes even a negli- 
 
 to Indian speculation may be easily conceived, on taking any- 
 given shipment, and observing charges of freight, &c. to which 
 the Company subject it.
 
 35 
 
 gent survey of the vast tract of land open to the 
 English adventurer, and the different climates 
 which it embraces, may readily imagine what new 
 marts it holds out to mercantile enterprise. His 
 eye will be directed to the Latitudes, to the 
 north-east of Bengal, to Nepaul and Arracan, and 
 the country spreading towards China ; and almost 
 an equal space in a directly opposite course, to- 
 wards Cabul and Persia. It will turn, naturallv, 
 
 / * 
 
 also all along the Persian Gulph, and, 'crossing the 
 Indian Ocean, to the eastern coasts of Pedier and 
 the west coast of Sumatra the intermediate islands, 
 and to the closer seas, washing the Chinese terri- 
 tories.* In none of these vast territories have the 
 Company yet, seriously, attempted any commercial 
 communication. Not to enter minutely into the 
 exports which they would severally take, is it not 
 known that, in a great part of these countries, the 
 natives, being of climates similar, in certain respects, 
 to our own, must have wants of a similar kind, 
 and, as they are not so advanced in mechanical 
 knowledge as we are, that they cannot supply 
 them, in general, so cheaply as we are accustomed 
 to do, and more especially in articles made of the 
 staples of our own country? May we not fairly ex- 
 pect to supply them with these ? Would not the 
 people of Pegue, of Ava, and the Malayans, spread 
 all along these coasts, and on the circumjacent 
 
 * From the effect of the late captures it might also embrace 
 one side of Africa and the countries bordering on the Red Sea, 
 
 D 2
 
 36 
 
 islands, consume articles of our workmanship and 
 manufacture, that are now scantily supplied from 
 India? Would not they take coarse coloured cot- 
 tons and chintzes of every kind, and a vast quan- 
 tity of articles of iron and steel, differently modi- 
 fied ? which are not enumerated in the list of arti- 
 cles of consumption noticed by the Directors. 
 
 Would they not give, in return, the woods, ve- 
 getable substances for dyes, spices, and other 
 growth of their lands, and the produce of their 
 mines? which the coasting-trade has imperfectly 
 conveyed, hitherto, to Indian ports. 
 
 But, beyond this, the ordinary trade of India, 
 the British government has recently captured the 
 French islands, opening a new province, though a 
 somewhat bounded one, for exports, but giving 
 most valuable imports in exchange ; among others, 
 the finest sort of cotton ; an article particularly 
 spoken of, as a desideratum, by the Directors, and 
 described as being deficient, and not of the best 
 quality in India. This thrown into tbe general 
 scale, will render this branch of commerce a fair 
 and promising object of cultivation. 
 
 To this new field of trade are to be added Java 
 and the spice islands in the Eastern Seas, which 
 will furnish abundant fresh imports for the supply 
 of Europe. 
 
 The list of the commodities enumerated by the 
 Company, with these, "would seem to present a 
 fair lure to the merchants of this country, so as to
 
 Justify their undertaking the trade with its natural 
 risks. 
 
 India is said, by the Directors, to produce spices, 
 pepper, drugs, sugar, coffee, raw-silk, saltpetre, in- 
 digo, raw-cotton, and manufactures of the latter 
 staple. To these we will add gold dust, precious 
 stones, woods of singular beauty and variety, such 
 as sandal, rose, ebony, and sattin-woods, as also 
 ivory, tortoise-shell, horn, gums, vegetable oils, 
 wax, hemp, flax, rice, and, whenever required, 
 wheat and pulse, in any quantity ; all known pro- 
 ducts of India ; besides numberless others, which 
 the industry of our merchants might be expected 
 to draw from hitherto unexplored regions. 
 
 Are not these encouragements more than suffi- 
 cient to counterbalance the apprehensions of the 
 Court of Directors, as to the unproductiveness of 
 the trade ? Their care to convince the mercantile 
 world of this may be well suspected, looking to 
 another part of their conduct. This would seem to 
 be insidious, while that is, at least, candid and 
 open. 
 
 If they had said " we will not admit the British 
 merchant to share the trade," we should not then 
 have expressed any surprise at the restrictions with 
 which they would burthen it. But they profess 
 that, such as the Indian trade is (they are sorry it 
 is no better), they have every liberal wish to let 
 the community partake of it. But what is the 
 participation they hold out? a crippled and re- 
 
 354828
 
 38 
 
 strained intercourse. They would let you move, 
 but with a log tied to the leg like a man dancing 
 a hornpipe in fetters. 
 
 But participation, if it means any thing, im- 
 plies a fair and honest participation a division of 
 the whole with the Company, in such parts, or 
 proportion, as shall be marked out not like the 
 division between a man and his cross-grained Rib, 
 wru j re one takes the in, and gives the other the 
 outside of the house. 
 
 What! shall the Company have " all appurte- 
 nances and means to boot,'* their merchants, their 
 factors, their writers, their boards, their military 
 forces, their navy, and their numberless associa- 
 tions rinding all, all of these necessary to the main- 
 tenance of their commerce What ! cannot they 
 do without one of these fixed and constant esta- 
 blishments ? and yet, wishing their countrymen to 
 partake of the advantage which they have not the 
 capital to carry on to its natural extent, grudge, 
 at the same time, to their fellow merchants a foot- 
 ing for one poor agent to accompany, and to abide 
 the issue of, his mercantile speculation ? 
 
 But they are fearful, it should seeni, that the 
 mother country might be detrimented by any 
 change in the commercial regulations, as they re- 
 spect India ; and also that their native subjects 
 might suffer by it. 
 
 Can it he doubted, the Company even do not 
 affect to doubt it, but that more exports would he
 
 39 
 
 carried to India, on such a change, and more arti- 
 cles of import taken thence, in the direct proportion 
 of the increased number of the traders? The latter 
 circumstance, though they preach, sometimes, 
 about the dangers to result to their subjects, 
 is admitted to become the probable means of 
 enriching their people, if it be carried to the ex- 
 tent of which it is capable, so that their products 
 may be carried to other countries, as well as Eng- 
 land. Of those riches that may thus flow in 
 upon their subjects, it is to be concluded that the 
 Company may insure some considerable share to 
 themselves and thus promote their interests more 
 honourably and more effectually than by pursuing, 
 as at present, an unnatural commerce with those 
 over whom they reign. 
 
 But it is conceived by the Court of Directors, 
 that the natives may be induced, by this freedom 
 of trade, and the benefits resulting from it, to 
 assert their own independence, and to throw off 
 the government of the Company, and perhaps of 
 Britain altogether. When, however, it is recol- 
 lected, that these men have borne so long and 
 so peaceably the government of the Company, the 
 apprehension of revolt in a condition so much to be 
 ameliorated, cannot be entitled to much consi- 
 deration. It may also be supposed, that the mo- 
 ther country will not be so negligent of its own 
 interests as to sow the seeds of such a revolution, 
 and to suffer them to take root, and to come to
 
 40 
 
 maturity, without taking any sufficient precaution ; 
 unless the principles of the Company shall be 
 adopted in the outset, and the advice of the Com- 
 pany's counsellors, interested, not for the nation, 
 but against it, be assumed, for the regulation and 
 guidance of the nation's policy and conduct. It is 
 possible we should conceive, that the nation may, 
 of itself, comprehend, whether the same merchan- 
 dize may, on an increased investment of it, promise 
 the same benefits to the state, if brought into its 
 ports by one description of its subjects, as if brought 
 in by another. Not to dwell further on the restric- 
 tions which the Directors would put on the private 
 merchants, but to proceed to answer the general 
 objections which have been thrown out by those 
 gentlemen, in their speeches, and in their wiitings. 
 It has been inadvertently thrown out by the 
 Directors, that, on commercial disappointment, 
 merchants, and adventurers to India, would endea- 
 vour to reimburse themselves on shore, for the 
 losses of their speculations afloat. Is this the 
 general course of English adventure, or is it a 
 practice imagined to be applicable to particular 
 latitudes ? If it be founded erroneously on the for- 
 mer, the reputation of integrity and honour, 
 established in three quarters of the globe, as distant 
 nearly as India, will give a direct refutation to the 
 slander ; and if it rest pn the particular ground 
 noticed in the second place, as the experiment has 
 not yet been tried, is it not uncharitable to sup-
 
 pose, that an English merchant here, would act 
 inconsistently with his character, as maintained in 
 the rest of the world ? Is the climate absolutely so 
 infectious ? And who is it that acquaints us with 
 its influence? 
 
 Not wishing to indulge in the same freedom 
 of reproach which the advocates of the Com* 
 pany's monopoly have made use of, against the 
 friends of a free trade, we shall only claim for 
 the merchants of England in the East, the 
 possession of the same principles and sentiments 
 there, (we hope we are not asking too much) that 
 they entertain in every other quarter of the globe. 
 We hope that they will no where be governed, 
 whosoever venture to impute it to them, by the 
 motives of robbers, and the spirit of pirates. That 
 they will bear their losses, if they should occur, 
 with the same philosophy that they have hitherto 
 borne their good fortune. But if, unfortunately, 
 the climate, or position, should affect them, and 
 work the changes dreaded, we hope without any 
 just ground, by the Directors, what may we not 
 fear of a like influence of the same baneful sky 
 on the minds of the Company's servants, and 
 their masters? unless, indeed, they shall be able to 
 resist such influence, from a proper seasoning ; 
 at which fortunate point, it is to be hoped, that 
 the private merchants may also? one day come. 
 As, however, the apprehension of the Directors is 
 Bottomed on the fancied failure of the adventure ;
 
 42 
 
 and it has been shewn that such is not very proba- 
 ble to be the case, it is thought, that the Directors 
 may sleep in peace, and not be troubled with any 
 further waking dreams. 
 
 The other apprehensions of the Directors maybe 
 lulled to rest like these ; which latter have given 
 cause to the restraints which they are desirous of 
 imposing on the private trade at home. Thus it 
 is wished to fix the tonnage of ships to be employed 
 in this trade ; the course of the adventure ; tiie 
 ports of clearance and delivery, with a long train 
 of &cs. 
 
 The lamentations, poured out over their own 
 large and warlike vessels, which probably may 
 become useless, are neither unnatural nor unbe- 
 coming. But, though we approve this, we can- 
 not coincide in the idea, that because these vessels 
 may want employment, they should act as a heavy 
 incumbrance on others. Do the Directors wish to 
 break the back of private commerce, by every 
 weight they can heap upon it, or in a more mer- 
 cantile spirit, are they willing to put up the broom, 
 to sell their now needless shipping ? 
 
 Disdaining to enter into any minute history of 
 the shipping employed by the Company, we shall 
 only state, what is too common to require any 
 other than a passing notice, that pure commerce 
 lias but very little to do with the size or magnifi- 
 cence of the Company's vessels. The Court of 
 Directors ask not so much the build or bulk of the
 
 ship; as who is the owner ? and how many 
 votes lie can command at the India House, or 
 in Parliament ? and so of all those who have 
 any relation in the ship, in the intermediate gra- 
 dations, from the commander to the ship's hus- 
 band. The same interest determines whither the 
 ship shall be destined, and the season of its despatch. * 
 These are no unimportant considerations, and are 
 not overlooked nor unregarded, among the many 
 other objects of patronage within the Company's 
 hands. While hastily touching on this ground, it 
 may be remarked, for such is the natural tendency 
 of things, that in all dealings, however great or 
 little they may be, this principle may be expected 
 to govern ; and as they are more or less used as a 
 means of influence or protection, in the same 
 degree they must have a baneful influence on the 
 Company's trade. It may be left to the meanest 
 capacity to pronounce on the effect of such a sys- 
 tem, though it would perplex the keenest head and 
 eye to trace it in all its windings.* 
 
 It is farther to be feared, that, with a like spirit 
 as that noticed in the case just now particularized, 
 the Directors may suggest the restrictions to be 
 laid upon the intermediate trade between other 
 
 * ID considering this part of the subject, it will be proper 
 to bear in mind, that the practice of building such large ships 
 for the Company's service, has for several years been recog- 
 nized and deprecated as very injurious to the navy, for the 
 service of which the scanty supplies of large timber now pro- 
 gurable, ought certainly to be reserved.
 
 44 
 
 countries, standing in need of Indian or Cninese 
 articles, ulterior or collateral to the direct outward 
 and homeward voyages between England and 
 India. They cannot, consistently perhaps with 
 other objects, themselves pursue this branch of 
 commerce. Why would they, it may be asked, 
 preclude private traders from the enjoyment of it, 
 since it would serve to dispose of superfluous arti- 
 cles and commodities, the produce of their own 
 countries, and the manufacture of their subjects ? 
 It seems at present doubtful, on what fancied 
 principle they are proceeding. Why may not the 
 British, as the Americans, carry Indian goods to 
 the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South Ame- 
 rica ? unless it may be deemed a means of making 
 an adventure profitable, which the Directors have 
 prognosticated to be injurious, and that, like 
 quacks 
 
 Would rather that their patients die, 
 Than their prescriptions proTe a lie. 
 
 If such a commerce might serve India, and the 
 Spanish and Portuguese settlers, it would not, in 
 a less degree, benefit our own country ; inasmuch 
 as it would lend a facility to the disposal of arti- 
 cles it does not now possess in South America ; 
 and would besides receive, ultimately, into its 
 accumulate wealth the profit of the British mer- 
 chant, with the articles of export in the original 
 voyage outward, and the seed of a future adven- 
 ture, which would turn in season to fruit, by a
 
 45 
 
 like subsequent process and encouragement. If 
 this course did not allow so much immediate profit 
 to the mother country, in point of duties, it would 
 receive benefit in another shape, and possibly not 
 only in an increase of capital, but in articles of 
 necessity for internal consumption, bringing, possi- 
 bly, one way or other, a proportionate increase to the 
 revenue. And as the Company say, that more Indian 
 manufactures and produce are brought to England, 
 than she can consume or export ; the markets in 
 South America may help to take off the superabun- 
 dance of India, without throwing it as a dead 
 stock, at certain seasons, into the Company's ware- 
 houses, or the stores of the country. 
 
 But if this species of trade could be supposed by 
 statesmen, or political economists, to trench upon 
 the spirit of the navigation laws, as at present in 
 existence ; these, like all others, must yield to the 
 times, and not the times to them. Nor would the 
 legislature be at a loss to frame regulations, if any 
 were requisite, for a trade to be so conducted. 
 Our possessions in India, and the bordering seas, 
 afford abundant checks to any trade that might 
 be governed by principles illusory of the regula- 
 tive law. 
 
 If the Company wish to share in future in this 
 circuitous course of commerce ; there can be no 
 just reason for excluding them from that which is 
 given to his Majesty's subjects at large. No one 
 would wish to deal with them as they would deal
 
 n 
 
 with others. Their whole conduct at this juncture, 
 and more especially that which remains to he con- 
 sidered, is directed on the apparently selfish prin- 
 ciple, of seeking to involve others in the same 
 situation, into which their own thoughtlessness, 
 or want of circumspection, has plunged them. 
 Not knowing how they can refuse a participation 
 of the trade to the private merchants ; they have 
 recourse to devices, which, if countenanced by 
 those, who have a natural leaning to the Company, 
 will either cheat the public of the benefit of the 
 trade altogether, or place it under all the serious 
 incumhrances under which the Company's com- 
 mercial establishment labours, to reduce both to 
 a par. Respecting the Company and the public, it 
 may be demanded, are these two distinct bodies 
 prosecuting their different adventures on the same 
 principle ? The one regards trade as the only 
 means of their existence and livelihood; the other as 
 a means of patronage principally, if not altogether. 
 Making a comparison of all the commerce con- 
 ducted by the Company, and taking all the charges 
 incident to it, not only in shipping, freight, and 
 direct disbursement, and in stipends to the body 
 of servants, at home and abroad, engaged in it, 
 there is not the least doubt, but that the Com- 
 pany will be found, if not losers, at least gainers to 
 an amount not worth calculating. In this expen- 
 sive and mischievous course, the Directors would 
 embark the private traders.
 
 47 
 
 We will not remark on the hints given by the 
 Court of Directors, that seek to put the public 
 under the dominion and controul of the Company, 
 in the mistaken notion, that they are the natural 
 masters, whereas they are servants, and as far as 
 respects India, the creatures of the public. It is 
 a hard lesson, but it is one that they must soon 
 learn as of course- and their pride will be dissi- 
 pated in the due progress of things. 
 
 Nor will it be required that any notice be taken 
 of other hints, thrown out to secure undue gains 
 by the Company, either as a charge on the mer- 
 chandize of private traders in this country, or 
 imposts on the same commodities abroad ; nor on 
 those especially, where they endeavour to retain 
 certain manufactures to themselves. All these pro- 
 ceed on the basis of private interest, so palpable, 
 so undisguised, and so unsupported, by any inhe- 
 rent visible property within themselves, or argu- 
 ment from without, that it would be an abuse of 
 common understanding to waste an observation, 
 upon them. They must and will be indignantly 
 repelled by an enlightened legislature as too un- 
 reasonable to be listened to for a moment 
 
 To those suggestions, that are presented under 
 a plea of securing to the state its regular, duties, 
 but in reality are aimed to harrass the natural op- 
 portunities for trade, outward and homeward, with 
 regulations, not only calculated to retard the pro- 
 gress of adventure, but to load it with intolerable
 
 48 
 
 expense, and unnecessary hazard ; it might be right 
 to offer one or two remarks. 
 
 It appears, that the Company feel, that the 
 situation which they have chosen for trade, sub- 
 jects them to certain inconveniences, contradis* 
 tinguished from other places that might be selected ; 
 and from and to which other vessels may take their 
 departure, or make their return. I nail voyages out 
 and home, their ships and cargoes are exposed to 
 the hazard of the Thames and Channel navigation, 
 to which the ports of Ireland, Liverpool, Bristol, 
 Plymouth, &c. would not be liable. Instead, 
 therefore, of choosing to avail themselves of the 
 facilities of these ports, as means of carrying on 
 their commercial views ; instead of accommodating 
 themselves, who are the few, to the wishes of the 
 many they unreasonably desire, that the whole 
 mercantile community should give way to them. 
 This desire is the more monstrous, when it is con* 
 siclered, that the expected complacency in the 
 community, would expose them, not only to a 
 lengthened voyage, and an increased expense of sail- 
 ing; but submit their commerce to the chance of the 
 elements and war, more than equal to all the risks 
 of the voyage besides. It is not, therefore, a matter 
 of etiquette, but of essence. But the loss would not 
 only be to the merchants, but eventually to the po- 
 pulation of the countries on the sea coasts ; who 
 would have Indian articles unnecessarily increased in 
 price, by the same circumstances, that would almost
 
 49 
 
 (double the mercantile costs. It is not the mercan- 
 tile interest alone, but the country, that ought to 
 resist these encroachments. 
 
 To talk of the effect on the Customs, from the 
 changes of the place of sale of Indian commodir 
 ties, would seem absurd, unless it shall be evident, 
 that the ports, to which the produce of Jndia would 
 be conducted, were exempt from the visitation of the 
 Custom-house officer. This is a blessing, so far as 
 we have been able to understand, for which the 
 country is not yet wholly prepared ; and till that 
 time arrives, it is believed, that the trade, as far as 
 regards the customs, may be carried qn in all ports 
 with the like advantage to the country, as now. 
 
 If the Company shall plead their warehouses, 
 and their dear-bought conveniences in London- 
 it must be replied to them, that they had not any 
 right, that\v e know of, to calculate beyond their 
 term in the charter. What would they, or any 
 other set of merchants say to him who, should 
 build his offices of trade on another man's ground, 
 and on so grand a scale, that it would occasion the 
 bankruptcies of half a hundred ordinary firms, to, 
 sustain the loss, if he should be removed from the 
 premises in a given time ; and yet neglect to se- 
 cure the renewal of his lease ? Would they not 
 brand such conduct with the appellation pf extra- 
 vagance or fplly ? But it wquld be absolute 
 madness jto expect, that vapouring op this extrava? 
 gant conduct, the landlord should tye bullied into, 
 jiiis conditions.
 
 50 
 
 In all adventures, there are certain matters, let 
 them be as prosperous as they may, that must be 
 written off to profit and loss. This is- one of them. 
 Jt is a false speculation, if not in the trade itself, 
 in the duration, and profit of it, and must be placed 
 on the wrong side of the account. 
 
 There are but one or two additional remarks, 
 that we would make on the Company's hints the 
 one is, on the requisition^ that the public, in return 
 for the trade which the Company would obli- 
 gingly give up, on the approaching termination of 
 their charter, to the hands of those who gave it, 
 should furnish, at different times, as there may be 
 need, to the Directors of the East India Company, 
 a sum amounting to six millions of money not 
 as a payment for any fixtures in trade, left behind 
 them; not for any warehouses, or ships, or stores 
 but to enable them the Company to pay their own 
 debts. What ! after the Company have been 
 driving a profitable trade, as they have told us 
 from year to year, do they come at last to borrow 
 of that very public whom they have deluded, and 
 wish to exclude from the repossession of their 
 own. Six ? yes, six millions of pounds sterling ! 
 On the plea, too, that they have had a very losing 
 concern of it and if the public will lend them, 
 for so it is in point of fact, so much capital to 
 renew their trade, they have no doubt but that 
 things will come round again. 
 
 We have heard of boys furnishing an instrument
 
 at 
 
 to scourge themselves but none but a child could 
 
 o 
 
 be guilty of so egregious a weakness. 
 
 Until this moment, the Minister for India, and 
 the Court of Directors, would have had people 
 believe, that all things were going on most pros- 
 perously ; nor would they now have come to a dis- 
 closure of affairs, if things could any longer be 
 dissembled. Into this unhappy condition, they have 
 not fallen all at once> by one fell swoop but by 
 a systematic course of decay and ruin by a yearly 
 excess, in their territorial management, of charges 
 above their revenue* and by a continued loss in 
 their commercial dealings. 
 
 The Directors may endeavour to blind and mis- 
 lead the public, by talking wildly of the value of 
 their territorial acquisitions, and the revenues to be 
 expected from them ; but, whilst we have this 
 known and indisputable fact before our eyes that 
 from the experience of a long series of years, 
 nearly equal to the extent of the charter, the 
 charges have exceeded the revenue, in the amount 
 of many millions ; it would seem absurd, to 
 look for any beneficial change, for any given time 
 to come, without the public had some assurance, 
 (which is not likely to occur, from the very con- 
 stitution of the Company) that they would depart 
 from the system on which they had hitherto acted ; 
 and which is the only one, as they aver, suited to 
 ' the administration of the affairs of the Indian 
 empire. From an adherence to this system, is any 
 
 ' 2
 
 52 
 
 thing to be augured, but a recurrence of the same 
 ruinous effects? 
 
 Within the period alluded to, the Company's 
 debts have increased to no less an amount than 
 twenty millions Stirling.* 
 
 Some flatteries may be indulged by the Direc- 
 tors, that their assets have been enlarged within 
 the like term ; and that these will serve, in a great 
 measure, as a balance against their debts. But the 
 Directors, like all other persons of desperate cir- 
 cumstances, over-rate, not only their present, but 
 prospective property. They reckon on the effect 
 of their expenditure in forts and warehouses, as if 
 their value were increased, in the proportion of 
 the expense added to them as if a ship could be 
 estimated, by the money expended in its repairs 
 or a garment, by the number of sums exhausted in 
 keeping the tattered remnants together. 
 
 On the same sort of reasoning, they build airy cas- 
 tles as to the realization of longout-standingdebts, 
 from the native powers fallen into decay or what 
 is tantamount to it, into the arms of the Company. 
 
 As another species of this delusion they look 
 to alleged charges on the public, which have 
 been long repelled by their representatives in 
 Parliament; and, what is equally as deceptive, to 
 the sale of the perishable and perishing articles in 
 their warehouses in Leadenhall street. They would 
 seem to be proceeding exactly in the same track 
 
 * For the effect of their territorial and trading system, vidt 
 Appendix,
 
 53 
 
 with unsuccessful speculators, who terminate their 
 career in bankruptcy ; but which is staved off from 
 day to day, by representations that have now 
 become so common, that they can only impose on 
 the ignorant, and make tools of the designing. 
 
 The remaining point that we would simply glance 
 at is, the ungracious, and, we will say, ungrateful, 
 manner in which the Company express themselves, 
 of the cost attendant on the employment of King's 
 troops. One should think that their services had 
 been, in the highest decree, trifling and unim- 
 
 * O O ' CJ 
 
 portant; whereas, they have been a great mean, we 
 will not say a primary one, of the recent acquisi- 
 tions of the Company. 
 
 It would appear, as if these troops had heen 
 sent to India in unjust proportions, rather to load 
 the Company with an unnatural expense, than 
 to afford to them protection, in an extraordinary 
 emergency the apprehended invasion of their ter- 
 ritories in the East, by the strongest enemy that 
 could threaten them. 
 
 But these troops have been employed, as it would 
 appear, among others, in making some conquests 
 for the crown ; and Ceylon is particularised 
 But f or whom have they actually conquered it? 
 Why, for the Company, who have engrossed this, 
 as every other species of trade within the Com- 
 pany's limits. Does the cinnamon of Ceylon go to 
 the King's, or the Company's warehouses? Is the 
 island otherwise profitable? If so, let them shew 
 it, and die ground of their complaint.
 
 54 
 
 They rail at the expenditure occasioned by the 
 Egyptian expedition. But what was the object of 
 that expedition ? To prevent the French p ass j n g 
 into the vicinity of the Company's territories. 
 Did they wish such harmless neighbours? Or, if 
 they had been allowed to go thither, who would, 
 in all probability, have been the principal losers? 
 Shall we then hear of this as a subject of remon- 
 strance? This kind of representation is the more 
 unseemly, when we consider that the Company 
 have charged the principal part of this expense, as 
 also the capture of Ceylop, to the public, and have 
 had credit for it in their accounts,* 
 
 Before this part of the subject is dismissed, it will 
 be well to pall their attention to a species of 
 defence, which the Directors have derived, a.t the 
 entire cost of the public the naval defence of In- 
 dia; in, which have been employed, for a long series 
 of years, from twenty to twenty-five sail of men 
 of war : and these have been used, not ip defending 
 the general interests of the country, but the narrow 
 and partial trade of the Company. 
 
 If the Company had actually suffered from 
 giving employment o a part of our military force, 
 one should have thought that a reflection on the 
 
 * For the first, they have been allowed, on account, 
 J,761,b07/, for charges, and for interest pn the advance, 
 J,006,550/. making together 2,768,357/. 
 
 And for Ceylon, they have obtained a like credit, though no* 
 |p so large an amount,
 
 55 
 
 gratuitous support of the navy, would have scaled 
 their mouths against complaint, and for ever. 
 
 But, instead of the country shifting the military 
 force on them, it has suffered for the want of it 
 in other quarters, where military aid has been 
 required, for the most important national pur- 
 poses. 
 
 The Court of Directors appear, not only to have 
 entertained erroneous notions of the Company's 
 importance, but to have lost sight also of every 
 thing owing to the public. They have forgotten, 
 that it is to them, and their sacrifices, that they are 
 indebted for their territory, with their exclusive 
 trade. That without their representatives in Par- 
 liament, they could not have had any means for 
 acquiring a foot of land; nor could they, without 
 its permission, retain it for a moment now jt is 
 acquired. That they are sovereigns only by suf- 
 ferance. 
 
 'That it is not by virtue of any fanciful inherent 
 right in themselves, that they have been able to 
 raise and maintain armies, but from the toleration, 
 pf the country; and that their exclusive trade 
 depends on no other authority. 
 
 If they had a proper impression of this truth., 
 it is to be supposed, that they would not have set up 
 the vain pretences preferred. They would nst have 
 raved about their privileges, as if they had been 
 self-originating, or self-derived. They v/ould not 
 have talked about the propriety of admitting the
 
 56 
 
 country to their original rights, or have pretended 
 to have a claim, to impose restrictions upon them. 
 They would have petitioned, where they have fool- 
 ishly undertaken to command. 
 
 The Court of Directors appear throughout, to 
 have indulged sentiments respecting the use and 
 importance of the Company and its monopoly, 
 which are not owned or felt hy any other body of 
 the community besides. They would seem to 
 suppose, that the trade to India has been created 
 by their own means, and their own irisrit; ex- 
 cluding wholly from their consideration, that their 
 exclusive commerce is permissive and temporary, 
 by a sacrifice for a term agreed upon, of the public 
 fight to their private advantage and, by the pe* 
 culiar indulgence of the British Parliament, acting, 
 or supposed to act, for the public benefit and con- 
 veniencei in allowing to the Company the means, 
 which were found necessary to or for the further- 1 
 ance of their alleged commercial purposes. With- 
 out these aids, what would have become of the 
 Company's trade, or of their territory? 
 
 But with all the permission and sacrifice of the 
 publiCj immediately and collaterally would they 
 have reared either the territory or their trade, to 
 the height at which they have actually or fancifully 
 arrived No : certainly not. For the most care- 
 less observer, who is at all conversant with the 
 Company's history, must see, that, from the first 
 footing the Company obtained in India, to the
 
 : . 57 .^^ 
 
 present dazzling splendour of territorial possession", 
 both the one and the other have been owing, not 
 so much to the commercial or political enterprise 
 of the Company, as to our naVal superiority above 
 any other nation, or all the nations put together^ 
 that have adventured to the Indian Seast, This has 
 always given a protection and stability to the Com- 
 pany's trade; which the folly and misconduct of 
 those, who have conducted it, have not been able 
 to countervail. This has sustained it, against the 
 weakness of individuals, or the ruinous tendency 
 of the whole system of the* Company. 
 
 Simple commerce, although it was the principle 
 with which the Company first set out, has been 
 long left in the rear in their journey, and has ceased 
 to be the governing principle. It has been aban- 
 doned for years, as a minor and inferior considera- 
 tion ; and, instead of this, another has been adopt- 
 ed, of a quite different character, as the constant 
 rule of action we mean the desire of territorial 
 acquisition. This has influenced, as strongly as 
 the gainful influence of trade pointing to the same 
 end, the enriching of the Company^ though not by 
 the same means. In the one case, immediate in- 
 terest lias been the propelling cause; in the second* 
 a more indirect influence-*- patronage and protec- 
 tion. What has so much tended to increase this 
 as the possession of wide ctbminioD ; calling for the 
 employment of a numberless host of public func- "* 
 tionaries ? From the use of this patronage the"
 
 58 
 
 Directors have been able to provide, by the way 
 of patrimony for their relatives, and protection for 
 their de-pendants ; and have thrown the super- 
 abundance, the crumbs from their table, among the 
 Proprietors at large; who have been content with 
 their proportion. 
 
 This has been a contrivance that has grown out 
 of the cunning of traffic, to find a circuitous course 
 for the enjoyment of advantages, which they could 
 not obtain in a straight and even way. It was not 
 to be hoped that the public could have endured to 
 see the Company going on from one permitted pe- 
 riod to another, in money-getting arts, by their 
 own sacrifice, without wishing to participate with 
 them. 
 
 The reasonableness of this was well known and 
 acknowledged hy the Company, and by those hav- 
 ing controul over their affairs; but, though known 
 to themselves, was curiously concealed from the 
 world To blind the public more completely, pro- 
 visions were held out for their participation in the 
 Indian trade, in an indirect way; by giving them 
 an interest in the surplus income of the Company, 
 after the payment of their ordinary charges. But 
 these provisions, if they were ever intended to pro- 
 duce any advantage to the country, do not appear 
 to l;ave done much credit to the capacity of those 
 politicians who favoured them they have miser- 
 ably failed. The public, instead of drawing any 
 benefit from them in alleviation of their burthens,
 
 have been absolutely called upon to relieve the East 
 India Company, overwhelmed, as might have been 
 imagined from their flourishing statements, by the 
 very weight of their riches. 
 
 The public have been deceived by the ope- 
 ration of provisions, whatever honesty there might 
 have been in the design of them, in expecting an 
 .unreal good, and in helping to encumber themselves 
 with a positive and absolute evil. 
 
 It is not our disposition to say any thing harsh 
 or uncharitable, even upon failures so difficult to be 
 reconciled with the hopes and promises originally 
 held out with the utmost confidence, from the 
 -highest authority. But it is not to be wondered 
 that there were those who, in the heat of political 
 controversy, did not hesitate to assert that the 
 assurances held out to the public were intended to 
 delude, for that, otherwise, the delusion could not 
 have been so complete. 
 
 The statute of 1793, and the charter founded 
 upon it, so far as respects the commerce of India, 
 contains principles destructive of the main end it 
 seems to have had in view, namely, the benefit of 
 the country, through .the instrumentality of the 
 East India Company. Profit must always be the 
 grand stimulus to commercial enterprise now 
 what sort of incentive must the Company have, 
 from the operation of this charter, to prosecute 
 . their trade with spirit, when others are to reap, 
 with them, the benefit resulting from their enter-
 
 60 
 
 
 fnise? The principle is a most erroneous one, in 
 
 point of commercial oeconomy, and was soon suc- 
 cessfully detected by the sharp-sighted policy of the 
 East India Company ; and instantly departed from 
 lor more exclusive and direct advantage descried, 
 as has been explained, in the more lucrative system 
 of patronage. 
 
 Nor was this followed by any material incon-* 
 veuience, or loss, in other respects ; which might 
 be supposed to militate against the newly adopted 
 policy. 
 
 What amount, it may be asked, have the Direc- 
 tors themselves embarked in the trade, or capital, 
 of the Company ? Look to their stock in the Com- 
 pany's funds! and, it will be seeri that not one half 
 of them have more than 1000/. Indian stock a 
 bare qualification to the chair of the direction. 
 
 But what is it to them, so they can have the 
 long list of appointments, from the Governor-ge- 
 neral of India to the humble cadet, whether they 
 make 100 or 150/, by the proceeds of trade. Trade 
 must be not merely a secondary, but, rather, a 
 wholly neglected, consideration, when opposed, on 
 the other side of the account, to the vast amountof 
 their patronage. It would be superfluous to pursue 
 a topic any farther, so self-evident and so striking. 
 
 But, though the country has not derived all the 
 good which it had been taught to expect from the 
 Company's charter, it has, nevertheless, reaped, 
 for which the Directors say it ought to be thank-
 
 61 
 
 ful, a very perceptible and singular profit and 
 which the Directors assume much credit to them- 
 selves and their constituents for producing. Lis- 
 tening to their assertions, one would imagine that 
 they imported vast annual wealth into the coun* 
 try, to the amount of several millions, by their 
 commerce, far exceeding the prime cost of their 
 importations, and the profits attached to them. 
 But what reason have the Directors to plume them- 
 selves on this ? Is the amount of duties of their 
 providing ? Or are they the mere hand, of which 
 the public make use, in making their necessary 
 contributions to the state ? If paid by any other, 
 it would come, in the same solid lump, into the 
 coffers of the public treasury. Let us not hear any 
 more of these imaginary notions, or illusive sug* 
 gestions, calculated to deceive themselves ; or, 
 what is worse, to cheat and insult the common 
 sense of the country. It is not less clear that the 
 present system for the government of India will 
 be as ruinous and mischievous for the Company, 
 in the event, as it is unproductive and burthensome 
 to the parent state. 
 
 In this latter part of our labour it has been our 
 object (certainly an object for which we do not 
 expect to derive much gratitude from those whom 
 we would benefit, but still an object sincerely sought 
 b}^ us) to open the eyes of the Company, as well 
 as those of the country, to their true condition. 
 Their present state is, from obvious facts, as \veli
 
 62 
 
 fcs from every serious consideration, so entirely uri-j 
 fitted for managing and monopolizing the trade of 
 India, that it is not, in reality, consistent with com- 
 merce at all, more particularly from the assumption 
 of the character of sovereigns, which would seem 
 to be utterly at variance with commercial pursuits* 
 As all human power has its boundaries, beyond 
 which it cannot pass, it may, rationally, be con- 
 ceived that the sphere of sovereignty, into which 
 the Company have diverged from the confined cir- 
 cle of trade, is large enough to engage all their 
 attention, all their capacity, and all their resources; 
 that it is sufficiently extensive to occupy ail their 
 thoughts and all their means. Let them devote 
 themselves, night and day, to the well-being of 
 their territories; to the agriculture and manufac* 
 tures of India ; and think of trade only, so far as 
 to devise the best means of encouraging and im- 
 proving, by every facility, which, as sovereigns, 
 they can give the intercourse, which will be best 
 and most properly carried on by those who are 
 merchants and traders by profession. Let them, 
 above all, study and labour for the happiness of 
 their innumerable, and most virtuous, and amia- 
 ble subjects. Let them improve the condition of 
 those subjects, by securing their property, and by 
 enlarging their means of acquiring it ; among 
 which means a free and properly encouraged 
 trade, carried on by merchants properly so 
 called, deserves the first rank. Let them secure
 
 63 
 
 the due administration of justice by wholesome and 
 steady laws, and by suitable institutions, for the 
 administration of those laws. Let them abolish 
 their vast and numerous boards invented only 
 for the purpose of increasing the objects of patron- 
 age and lighten themselves of all the gaudy trap- 
 pings, which are calculated to destroy the substance 
 for a paltry and tinsel show- Let them amend and 
 reform the judicial system; which, alone, demands 
 an expenditure of near a million yearly. Let them 
 narrow their frontier, and reduce it to a defensible 
 circle, and confine their future wishes within it, 
 and thereby diminish their enormous military esta- 
 blishments, and their vast diplomatic expenses. 
 These are grand and immense objects, not foreign, 
 but, on the contrary, most appropriate and essen- 
 tial U> the welfare of the Company, and to the cha- 
 racter and glory of the country ; and with which 
 is connected, more intimately than they choose to 
 allow, the Company's very existence. 
 
 Do not these abundant objects require the Com- 
 pany's attention? and are they not numerous and' 
 weighty enough to demand and exercise the'whole 
 time, wisdom, and talents, were they even ten- 
 fold what they are^ of the Court of Directors ? 
 These complicated concerns, if rightly attended to 
 and arranged, may employ the Company, for years 
 yet to come ; and may find also employment for 
 the co-operation and assistance of the Board of 
 Controul.
 
 04 
 
 Indeed it would not be a superfluous work if they 
 both immediately set about the arrangement of a 
 plan for the administration of their territorial af- 
 fairsconvinced, as they must be, with the public, 
 that the plan acted upon, so far from its having 
 answered all those great ends anticipated of it, has 
 served to involve the Company in an overwhelming 
 debt for which they have the slight and unsatis- 
 factory, but, ii} ill success, the common consolation, 
 of abusing one another, 
 
 Let them take prudence, though late, and attend 
 to these things ; tjiey will then find their best in- 
 terest in aiding and assisting the general merchants 
 of the British empire in the establishment of a free 
 and beneficial trade with their dominions ; instead 
 of attempting weakly, vainly, and most unwisely, 
 to oppose their admission tp that trade.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 AT would not only be difficult, but for the pre- 
 sent purpose, unnecessary, to go minutely into the 
 East India Company's territorial or commercial 
 affairs. It will suffice to state a few general re^ 
 suits, as flowing from an investigation of all their 
 accounts, made by an official organ ; which 
 appears to have looked diligently into the subject 
 matter, though from causes, which are explained, 
 it has not come to such precise conclusions as 
 might have been expected in an ordinary case, 
 
 On taking an account of the revenues and 
 charges of the territorial possessions of the East 
 India Company, for 17 successive yea^s, namely, 
 from 1792-3, to 1808-9, the latest period to which 
 any accurate account extends, it is stated, " that 
 the gross excess of the charges, beyond the amount 
 of the territorial revenues, will be found to have 
 been 5,078,0 15/." To which is to be added, not 
 included under the ordinary head of commercial 
 
 I
 
 65 
 
 charges, or the invoice price of goods, the sum 
 of 2,9l6,279/. These charges comprise the sala- 
 ries of the Board of Trade, subordinate commer- 
 cial offices, factories, and import warehouses 
 abroad. The entire disbursement of India will, 
 therefore, in this view, be found to have exceeded 
 the ordinary revenues, within the period of 17 
 years, taking good and bad together, as must be 
 done in all calculations, in the aggregate sum of 
 7,994, 2947. 
 
 In the same inclusive space, there is an increase of 
 India debt, of no less an amount than 20,905, 194/. ; 
 to which is to be added the debt existing in 1792, 
 amounting to 7, 129j934/. : making, together, 
 8,035, 128/. The excess of the debt, within the 
 period of 1 7923 and 1808 9, was, in a great 
 measure, occasioned by disbursements for the pur- 
 poses of trade ; for as these were to be drawn ac- 
 cording to the provisions of the statute of 1793, 
 from the surplus revenue and, as in the stead of 
 surplus, there was almost a constant deficit there 
 was no other resource left to the Company than 
 the borrowing of money in India, for their com- 
 mercial speculations : no alternative presenting 
 itself, but the utter abandonment of the trade. 
 
 Combining the excess of charges over the na- 
 tural revenues of the Company, with their accu- 
 mulating territorial debt (making a fearful total 
 of 36, 629,422/.) the public may form a tolerable
 
 67 
 
 estimate of the prosperity of the Company's ma- 
 nagement of their vast territories, as well as the 
 probability held out of the future success of their 
 government. 
 
 To this brief account of the effect of the territo- 
 rial management of the East India Company, are 
 added a few facts and circumstances respecting 
 their Commercial transactions. 
 
 It appears, from official papers, that the whole 
 of the exports * of the East India Company from 
 this country, for the period of 17 years, from 
 1792 3, to 1808 9, and these including stores 
 of every description, which maybe presumed to 
 constitute the greater part of the exports, amounted 
 only to 11,554,21s/. From which sum, also, is 
 to be deducted 10 per cent, being the amount 
 added by the Company to the invoice price of 
 their goods and stores. 
 
 The sum credited to the Company, for the sale 
 of such goods and stores, by the different Indian 
 Presidencies for the like period, is 8,K)4,Ofi8./. 
 
 The advances made by the Indian Presidencies, 
 
 * It has been shewn, in the preceding sheets, that the spirit 
 of trade, if not depressed by the continuation of the mono, 
 poly of the East India Company, may be expected to increase 
 in an incalculable degree the extent of the exports, which are 
 limited principally at present to the supply of stores for the 
 purposes of government.
 
 for the same period, for the purchase of invest- 
 ments for importation into England, were 
 
 6,038,226 
 Charges to be addedj not included 
 
 in the invoices 2,9I6,27J 
 
 j.29,254,505 
 
 The sale of the articles, forming these invest- 
 ments, has of late years diminished in an almost 
 incredible degree* 
 
 The sole amount of Indian goods,* which stood 
 
 in 1798 9, at 4,667,295 
 
 was reduced in 1805 6 to 2,254,899 
 
 in 18067 to 1,472,074 
 
 in 18078 to 1,309,080 
 
 in 18089 to 1,191,213 
 
 * The confined vent for the sale of the imports into this 
 country from India, which must be supposed, from the state 
 of the continent and commerce at this juncture, to be imma- 
 terial, will be extended, as the general restrictions of trade, 
 from the operation of the continental system, shall be miti- 
 gated, or removed, and a fresh mart may be opened for the 
 sale of Indian articles of produce and manufacture, in South 
 America, and elsewhere j which may enable the general ad. 
 venturer to India to dispose of the returning cargo, pur- 
 chased by his exports- and so prevent it, even during the 
 existence of the restricted course of trade (which cannot 
 b.c imagined to exist for ever), from becoming an accumulation 
 to the stagnate and perishing stock in the Company's ware* 
 houses.
 
 In the transactions of trade between 
 March, 1 803, and March, 1 808, the 
 excess of payments above the re- 
 ceipts is estimated by the Court of 
 Directors at $7,433,855 
 
 But in a subsequent account, after an 
 adjustment of some disputable ar- 
 ticles, it is stated, in another offi- 
 cial paper, that within the last 
 17 years, the total supply by India 
 to England has been a42,178,640 
 
 Total return by England to India, 
 
 within the like period -43,808,341 
 
 Balance in favour of the latter only 1,629,701 
 
 But this balance, it is said, will be transferred 
 to the other side of the account, when a more par- 
 ticular investigation of the Company's affairs shall 
 be concluded. 
 
 It would exceed the purpose of this note, to 
 pursue the subject more minutely. 
 
 From the results noticed, it would seem clear, 
 that the exclusive trade of the Indian Empire is 
 too large for the hands of the East India Com- 
 pany ; 
 
 That for a long series of years, their commercial 
 speculations, generally speaking, have not been 
 worth the pursuit :
 
 ro 
 
 Jhat even on their own allowance, the profit of 
 trade can never be regarded as a resource for the 
 payment of the territorial debt or, in their own 
 words, " It has always been perfectly understood, 
 " that, in the most flourishing times of the Com- 
 " pany, their commercial resources could not be 
 " adequate to the discharge of the Indian territo- 
 " rial debt." 
 
 That the discharge of the latter must depend 
 on the reduction of the expense of management of 
 the territory and what a task that must be, may 
 be gathered also from the Directors' own ad- 
 missions ; as follows : 
 
 " What is most obvious and striking, is the 
 " increase, not of the charges only, but also of 
 " the debt, as the revenues increased, and not 
 u merely in proportion to the increase of the re- 
 "venues; for whilst, from the year 1793 4, to 
 " the year 1805 6, the amount of the revenues 
 " has not been quite doubled, that of the charges 
 " has been increased as 5 to 2, and that of 
 " the debt nearly quadrupled, besides a very large 
 *' sum of debt transferred in the course of that 
 " period to England." 
 
 Whatever disputes may arise about the cause of 
 the Directors' complaint, the effect will not admit 
 of question.
 
 n 
 
 Should not these things convince the Company 
 of their own unfitness to carry on the trade of the 
 Indian Empire, and the propriety of resigning it 
 to abler hands ; and of directing their whole 
 thoughts to the revenue and charges incident to 
 their territorial possessions ? 
 
 Printed by Joyce Gold, Shoe-lane, Lout in.
 
 35
 
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