It is discouraging to attempt any sort of observation on plans thus
shifting
their principle whilst their merits are under examination.
Edmund Burke
ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA.
57
their mutual animosities, they sold to them reciprocally their common servitude and ruin.
The Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, and the
Council, tell the Directors, " that the supply for the
investment has arisen from casual and extraordinary
resources, which they could not expect always to
command. " In an earlier minute he expresses himself still more distinctly: he says, "If the internal resources of a state fail it, or are not equal to its occasional wants, whence can it obtain immediate relief but from external means? " Indeed, the investment
has not been for any long time the natural product
of the revenue of Bengal. When, by the vast charge
and by the ill return of an evil political and military
traffic, and by a prodigal increase of establishments,
and a profuse conduct in distributing agencies and
contracts, they found themselves under difficulties,
instead of being cured of their immoral and impolitic delusion, they plunged deeper into it, and were drawn from expedient to expedient for the supply of
the investment into that endless chain of wars which
this House by its resolutions has so justly condemned.
At home these measures were sometimes countenanced, sometimes winked at, sometimes censured, but always with an acceptance of whatever profit
they afforded.
At length the funds for the investment and for
these wars together could no longer be supplied. In
the year 1778 the provision for the investment from
the revenues and from the monopolies stood very
high. It was estimated at a million four hundred
thousand pounds; and of this it appears that a great
deal was realized. But this was the high flood-tide
of the investment; for in that year they announce
? ? ? ? 58 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
its probable decline, and that such extensive supplies
could not be continued. The advances to the Board
of Trade became less punctual, and many disputes
arose about the time of making them. However,
knowing that all their credit at home depended on
the investment, or upon an opinion of its magnitude,
whilst they repeat their warning of a probable deficiency, and that their " finances bore an unfavorable
aspect," in the year 1779 they rate their investment
still higher. But their payments becoming less and
less regular, and the war carrying away all the supplies, at length Mr. Hastings, in December, 1780, denounced sentence of approaching dissolution to this system, and tells the Directors that "he bore too
high a respect for their characters to treat them with
the management of a preparatory and gradual introduction to an unpleasing report: that it is the only
substantial information he shall have to convey in
that letter. " In confidence, therefore, of their fortitude, he tells them without ceremony, " that there
will be a necessity of making a large reduction, or
possibly a total suspension, of their investment;that they had already been reduced to borrow near
700,0001. This resource," says he, " cannot last; it
must cease at a certain period, and that perhaps not
far distant. "
He was not mistaken in his prognostic. Loans now
becoming the regular resource for retrieving the
investment, whose ruin was inevitable, the Council
enable the Board of Trade, in April, 1781, to grant
certificates for government bonds at eight per cent
interest for about 650,0001. The investment was
fixed at 900,0001.
But now another alarming system appeared. These
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 59
new bonds overloaded the market. Those which had
been formerly issued were at a discount; the Board
of Trade was obliged to advance, therefore, a fourth
more than usual to the contractors. This seemed to
satisfy that description of dealers. But as those who
bought on agency were limited to no terms of mutual
advantage, and the bonds on the new issue falling
from three to eight, nine, and ten per cent discount,
the agents were unable to furnish at the usual prices.
Accordingly a discount was settled on such terms as
could be made: the lowest discount, and that at two
places only, was at four per cent; which, with the
interest on the bonds, made (besides the earlier advance) at the least twelve per cent additional charge upon all goods. It was evident, that, as the investment, instead of being supported by the revenues,
was sunk by the fall of their credit, so the net revenues were diminished by the daily accumulation of
an interest accruing on account of the investment.
What was done to alleviate one complaint thus aggravating the other, and at length proving pernicious to both, this trade on bonds likewise came to its period.
Your Committee has reason to think that the bonds
have since that time sunk to a discount much greater
even than what is now stated. The Board of Trade
justly denominates their resource for that year " the
sinking credit of a paper currency, laboring, from the
uncommon scarcity of specie, under disadvantages
scarcely surmountable. " From this they value themselves " on having effected an ostensible provision, at least for that investment. " For 1783 nothing appears
even ostensible.
By this failure a total revolution ensued, of the most
? ? ? ? 60 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
extraordinary nature, and to which your Committee
wish to call the particular attention of the House.
For the Council-General, in their letter of the 8th of
April, 1782, after stating that they were disappointed in their expectations, (how grounded it does not appear,) " thought that they should be able to spare
a sum to the Board of Trade," -- tell the Court of
Directors, " that they had adopted a new method of
keeping up. the investment, by private subscribers
for eighty lacs of rupees, which will find cargoes for
their ships on the usual terms of privilege, at the risk
of the individuals, and is to be repaid to them according to the produce of the sales in England," - and they tell the Directors, that " a copy of the plan makes a
number in their separate dispatches over land. "
It is impossible, in reporting this revolution to the
House, to avoid remarking with what fidelity Mr.
Hastings and his Council have adhered to the mode
of transmitting their accounts which your Committee
found it necessary to mark and censure in their First
Report. Its pernicious tendency is there fully set
forth. They were peculiarly called on for a most
accurate state of their affairs, in order to explain the
necessity of having recourse to such a scheme, as well
as for a full and correct account of the scheme itself.
But they send only the above short minute by one
dispatch over land, whilst the copy of the plan itself,
on which the Directors must form their judgment, is
sent separately in another dispatch over land, which
has never arrived. A third dispatch, which also contained the plan, was sent by a sea conveyance, and arrived late. The Directors have, for very obvious
reasons, ordered, by a strict injunction, that they
should send duplicates of all their dispatches by
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 61
every ship. The spirit of this rule, perhaps, ought
to extend to every mode of conveyance. In this
case, so far from sending a duplicate, they do not
send even one perfect account. They announce a
plan by one conveyance, and they send it by another
conveyance, with other delays and other risks.
At length, at nearly four months' distance, the
plan has been received, and appears to be substantially that which had been announced, but developing in the particulars many new circumstances of the greatest importance. By this plan it appears that
the subscription, even in idea or pretence, is not for
the use of the Company, but that the subscribers are
united into a sort of society for the remitting their
private fortunes: the goods, indeed, are said to be
shipped on the Company's account, and they are directed to be sold on the same account, and at the usual
periods of sales; but, after the payment of duties, and
such other allowances as they choose to make, in the
eleventh article they provide " that the remainder of
the sales shall revert to the subscribers, and be declared
to be their property, and divided in proportion to their
respective shares. " The compensation which they
allow in this plan to their masters for their brokerage
is, that, if, after deducting all the charges which they
impose, " the amount of the sales should be found to
exceed two shillings and twopence for the current
rupee of the invoice account, it shall be taken by the
Company. " For the management of this concern in
Bengal they choose commissioners by their own authority. By the same authority they form them into
a body, they put them under rules and regulations,
and they empower them also to make regulations of
their own. They remit, by the like authority, the
? ? ? ? 62 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
duties to which all private trade is subject; and they
charge the whole concern with seven per cent, to be
paid from the net produce of the sales in England, as
a recompense to the commissioners: for this the commissioners contract to bear all the charges on the
goods to the time of shipping.
The servants having formed this plan of trade, and
a new commission for the conduct of it, on their private account, it is a matter of consideration to know
who the commissioners are. They turn out to be
the three senior servants of the Company's Board of
Trade, who choose to take upon them to be the factors of others for large emoluments, whilst they receive salaries of two thousand pounds and fifteen hundred pounds a year from the Company. As the Company have no other fund than the new investment from whence they are to be paid for the care of their
servants' property, this commission and those salaries
being to take place of their brokerage, they in effect
render it very difficult, if not impossible, for them to
derive advantage from their new occupation.
As to the benefit of this plan: besides preventing
the loss which must happen from the Company's ships
returning empty to Europe, and the stopping of all
trade between India and England, the authors of it
state, that it will " open a new channel of remittance,
and abolish the practice, by precluding the necessity,
of remitting private fortunes by foreign bottoms, and
that it may lead to some permanent mode for remittaiice of private fortunes, and of combining it with
the regular provision of the Company's investment,
- that it will yield some profit to the Company without risk, and the national gain will be the same as
upon the regular trade. "
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 63
As to the combination of this mode of remittance
with the Company's investment, nothing can be affirmed concerning it until some satisfactory assurance
call be held out that such an investment can ever be
realized. Mr. Hastings and the gentlemen of the
Council have not afforded any ground for such an
expectation. That the Indian trade may become a
permanent vehicle of the private fortunes of the Comparly's servants is very probable, -that is, as permanent as the means of acquiring fortunes in India; but that some profit will accrue to the Company is absolutely impossible. The Company are to bear all the
charge outwards, and a very great part of that homewards; and their only compensation is the surplus
commission on the sale of other people's goods. The
nation will undoubtedly avoid great loss and detriment, which would be the inevitable consequence of
the total cessation of the trade with Bengal and the
ships returning without cargoes. But if this temporary expedient should be improved into a system, no
occasional advantages to be derived from it would be
sufficient to balance the mischiefs of finding a great
Parliamentary corporation turned into a vehicle for
remitting to England the private fortunes of those for
whose benefit the territorial possessions in India. are
in effect and substance under this project to be solely
lield.
By this extraordinary scheme the Company is totally overturned, and all its relations inverted. From
bleitig a body collcerned in trade on their own account, and employing their servants as factors, the
servants have at one stroke taken the whole trade
into their own hands, on their own capital of
800,0001. , at their own risk, and the Company are
? ? ? ? 64 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
become agents and factors to them, to sell by com
mission their goods for their profit.
To enable your Committee to form some judgment
upon the profit which may accrue to the Company
from its new relation and employment, they directed
that an estimate should be made of the probable proceeds of an investment conducted on the principles
of that intended to be realized for 1783. By this estimate, which is subjoined,* it appears to your Com* Estimate of the Sale Amount and Net Proceeds in England of the Cargoes to be sent from Bengal, agreeable to the Plan received by Letter dated the 8th April, 1782.
This calculation supposes the eighty lac investments will be equal to
the tonnage of five ships.
b 2. To custom. . ~320,000
o 3. " freight. . 200,000
d' 4. " 5 per cent duty on
~ 1,300,000. . 65,000
e 5. " 2 do. warehouse
room do. . . 26,000
7 do. commission
on ~ 604,500. 42,315
~ 653,315. 6. " Balance. . 562,185
~ 1,215,500 ~ 1,215,500
1. The sale amount is computed on an average of the sales of the two
last years' imports.
b 2. The custom is computed on an average of what was paid on piecegoods and raw silk of said imports, adding additional imposts.
3. The ships going out of this season, (1782,) by which the above investment is expected to be sent home, are taken up at 471. 5s. per ton, for
the homeward cargo; this charge amounts to 35,8151. each ship; the additional wages to the men, which the Company pay, and a very small
charge for demurrage, will increase the freight, &c. , to 40,0001. per ship,
agreeable to above estimate.
d 4. The duty of five per cent is charged by the Company on the gross
sale amount of all private trade licensed to be brought from India: the
amount of this duty is the only benefit the Company are likely to receive
from the subscription investment.
e 5. This charge is likewise made on private trade goods, and is little,
if anything, more than the real expense the Company are at on account
of the same; therefore no benefit will probably arise to the Company
from it on the sale of the said investment.
r 6. This is the sum which will probably be realized in England, and
is only equal to is. 5d. per rupee, on the eighty lacs subscribed.
1. By sale amount of piece-goods and
raw silk. . ~1,300,000 Discount 61 per
cent allowed the buyers. . . 84,500
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 65
mittee, that, so far from any surplus profit from this
transaction, the Bengal adventurers themselves, instead of realizing 2s. 2d. the rupee, (the standard
they fix for their payment,) will not receive the is.
9d. which is its utmost value in silver at the Mint,
nor probably above is. 5d. With this certain loss
before their eyes, it is impossible that they can ever
complete their subscription, unless, by management
among themselves, they should be able to procure the
goods for their own account upon other terms than
those on which they purchased them for their masters, or unless they have for the supply of the Company on their hands a quantity of goods which they cannot otherwise dispose of. This latter case is not,
very improbable, from their proposing to send ten
sixteenths of the whole investment in silk, -- which,
as will be seen hereafter, the Company has prohibited
to be sent on their account, as a disadvantageous article. Nothing but the servants being overloaded can
rationally account for their choice of so great a proportion of so dubious a commodity.
On the state made by two reports of a committee
of the General Court in 1782, their affairs were even
then reduced to a low ebb. But under the arrangement announced by Mr. Hastings and his colleagues,
it does not appear, after this period of the servants'
investment, from what fund the proprietors are to
make any dividend at all. The objects of the sale
from whence the dividend is to arise are not their
goods: they stand accountable to others for the
whole probable produce. The state of the Company's commerce will therefore become an object of
serious consideration: an affair, as your Committee
apprehends, of as much difficulty as ever tried the facVOL. VIII. 5
? ? ? ? 66 NINTH REPORT' OF SELECT COMMITTEE
ulties of this House. For, on the one hand, it is plain
that the system of providing the Company's import
into Europe, resting almost wholly by an investment
from its territorial revenues, has failed: during its
continuance it was supported on principles fatal to
the prosperity of that country. Oin the other hand,
if the nominal commerce of the Company is suffered
to be carried on for the account of the servants
abroad, by investing the emoluments made in their
stations, these emoluments are therefore inclusively
authorized, and with them the practices from which
they accrue. All Parliamentary attempts to reform
this system will be contradictory to its institution.
If, for instance, five hundred thousand pounds sterling annually be necessary for this kind of investment, any regulation which may prevent the acquisition of that sum operates against the investment which is the end proposed by the plan.
On this new scheme, (which is neither calculated
for a future security nor for a present relief to the
Company,) it is not visible in what manner the settlements in India canl be at all upheld. The gentlemen in employments abroad call for the whole produce of the year's investment from Bengal; but for the payment of the counter-investment from Europe,
which is for the far greater part sent out for the support of their power, no provision at all is made: they
have not, it seems, agreed that it should be charged
to their account, or that any deduction should be
made for it from the produce of their sales in Leadenhall Street. How far such a scheme is preferable
to the total suspension of trade your Committee cannot positively determine. In all likelihood, extraordinary expedients were necessary; but the causes
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 67
which induced this necessity ought to be more fully
inquired into; for the last step in a series of conduct
may be justifiable upon principles that suppose great
blame in those which preceded it.
After your Committee had made the foregoing observations upon the plan of Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, transmitted to the Court of Directors, an extract of the Madras Consultations was a few days
ago laid before us. This extract contains a letter
from the Governor-General and Council of Bengal to
the Presidency of Fort St. George, which affords a
very striking, though to your Committee by no means
an unexpected, picture of the instability of their opinions and conduct. Oil the 8th of April the servants
had regularly formed and digested the above-mentioned plan, which was to form the basis for the investment of their own fortunes, and to furnish the sole means of the commercial existence of their masters.
Before the 10th of the following May, which is the
date of their letter to Madras, they inform Lord
Macartney that they had fundamentally altered the
whole scheme. "Instead," say they, "of allowing
the subscribers to retain an interest in the goods, they
are to be provided entirely on account of the Company, and transported at their risk; and the subscribers,
instead of receiving certificates payable out of the
produce of the sales in Europe, are to be granted receipts, on the payment of their advances, bearing an
interest of eight per cent per annum, until exchanged
for drafts on the Court of Directors, payable 365 days
after sight, at the rate of two shillings per current
rupee, - which drafts shall be granted in the proper
time, of three eighths of the amount subscribed, on
the 31st of December next, and the remaining five
eighths on the 31st of December, 1783. "
? ? ? ? 68 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
The plan of April divests the Company of all property in Bengal goods transported to Europe: but in recompense they are freed from all the risk and expense, they are not loaded with interest, and they are not embarrassed with bills. The plan of May reinstates them in their old relation: but in return, their revenues in Bengal are charged with an interest of
eight per cent on the sum subscribed, until bills shall
be drawn; they are made proprietors of cargoes purchased, under the disadvantage of that interest, at their own hazard; they are subjected to all losses;
and they are involved in Europe for payments of bills
to the amount of eighty lacs of rupees, at two shillings
the rupee, - that is, in bills for eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. It is probably on account of
the previous interest of eight per cent that the value
of the rupee on this scheme is reduced. Mr. Hastings
and his colleagues announce to Lord Macartney no
other than the foregoing alteration in their plan.
It is discouraging to attempt any sort of observation on plans thus shifting their principle whilst their merits are under examination. The judgment formed
on the scheme of April has nothing to do with the
project of May. Your Committee has not suppressed
any part of the reflections which occurred to them on
the former of these plans: first, because the Company knows of no other by any regular transmissions; secondly, because it is by no means certain that before the expiration of June the Governor-General and Council may not revert to the plan of April. They
speak of that plan as likely to be, or make a part of
one that shall be, permanent. Many reasons are alleged by its authors in its favor, grounded on the
state of their affairs; none whatever are assigned for
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 69
the alteration. It is, indeed, morally certain that persons who had money to remit must have made the
same calculation which has been made by the directions of your Committee, and the result must have
been equally clear to them,- which is, that, instead
of realizing two shillings and twopence the rupee on
their subscription, as they proposed, they could never
hope to see more than one shilling and ninepence.
This calculation probably shook the main pillar of
the project of April. But, on the other hand, as the
subscribers to the second scheme can have no certain
assurance that the Company will accept bills so far
exceeding their allowance in this particular, the necessity of remitting their fortunes may beat them
back to their old ground. The Danish Company was
the only means of remitting which remained. Attempts have been made with success to revive a Portuguese trade for that purpose. It is by no means clear whether Mr. Hastings and his colleagues will
adhere to either of the foregoing plans, or, indeed,
whether any investment at all to that amount can be
realized; because nothing but the convenience of remitting the gains of British subjects to London can
support any of these projects.
The situation of the Company, under this perpetual
variation in the system of their investment, is truly
perplexing. The manner in which they arrive at
any knowledge of it is no less so. The letter to Lord
Macartney, by which the variation is discovered, was
not intended for transmission to the Directors. It
was merely for the information of those who were
admitted to a share of the subscription at Madras.
When Mr. Hastings sent this information to those
subscribers, he might well enough have presumed an
? ? ? ? 70 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
event to happen which did happen, -that is, that a
vessel might be dispatched from Madras to Europe:
and indeed, by that, and by every devisable means, he
ought not only to have apprised the Directors of this
most material change in the plan of the investment,
but to have entered fully into the grounds and reasons of his making it.
It appears to your Committee that the ships which
brought to England the plan of the 8th of April did
not sail from Bengal until the 1st of May. If the
change had been in contemplation for any time before
the 30th of April, two days would have sufficed to
send an account of it, and it might have arrived
along with the plan which it affected. If, therefore,
such a change was in agitation before the sailing of
the ships, and yet was concealed when it might have
been communicated, the concealment is censurable.
It is not improbable that some change of the kind
was made or meditated before the sailing of the ships
for Europe: for it is hardly to be imagined that reasons wholly unlooked-for should appear for setting aside a plan concerning the success of which the
Council-General seemed so very confident, that a new
one should be proposed, that its merits should be
discussed among the moneyed men, that it should
be adopted in Council, and officially ready for transmission to Madras, in twelve or thirteen days. In this perplexity of plan and of transmission, the Court
of Directors may have made an arrangement of their
affairs on the groundwork of the first scheme, which
was officially and authentically conveyed to them.
The fundamental alteration of that plan in India
might require another of a very different kind in
England, which the arrangements taken in conse
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 71
quence of the first might make it difficult, if not
impossible, to execute. What must add to the confusion is, that the alteration has not the regular and official authority of the original plan, and may be
presumed to indicate with certainty nothing more
than that the business is again afloat, and that no
scheme is finally determined on. Thus the Company
is left without any fixed data upon which they can
make a rational disposition of their affairs.
The fact is, that the principles and economy of
the Company's trade have been so completely corrupted by turning it into a vehicle for tribute, that, whenever circumstances require it to be replaced
again upon a bottom truly commercial, hardly anything but confusion and disasters can be expected as the first results. Even before the acquisition of
the territorial revenues, the system of the Company's commerce was not formed upon principles the most favorable to its prosperity; for, whilst, on the
one hand, that body received encouragement by royal
and Parliamentary charters, was invested with several ample privileges, and even with a delegation of the most essential prerogatives of the crown,on the other, its commerce was watched with an invidious jealousy, as a species of dealing dangerous
to the national interests. In that light, with regard
to the Company's imports, there was a total prohibition from domestic use of the most considerable articles of their trade, --that is, of all silk stuffs,
and stained and painted cottons. The British market was in a great measure interdicted to the British trader. Whatever advantages might arise to the
general trading interests of the kingdom by this
restraint, its East India interest was undoubtedly
? ? ? ? 72 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
injured by it. The Company is also, and has been
from a very early period, obliged to furnish the Orddance with a quantity of saltpetre at a certain price,
without any reference to the standard of the markets either of purchase or of sale. With regard to
their export, they were put also under difficulties
upon very mistaken notions; for they were obliged
to export annually a certain proportion of British
manufactures, even though they should find for them
in India none or but an unprofitable want. This
compulsory export might operate, and in some instances has operated, in a manner more grievous
than a tax to the amount of the loss in trade: for
the payment of a tax is in general divided in unequal portions between the vender and consumer,
the largest part falling upon the latter; in the case
before us the tax may be as a dead charge on the
trading capital of the Company.
The spirit of all these regulations naturally tended
to weaken, in the very original constitution of the
Company, the main-spring of the commercial machine, the principles of profit and loss. And the mischief arising from an inattention to those principles has constantly increased with the increase of its power. For when the Company had acquired the rights
of sovereignty in India, it was not to be expected
that the attention to profit and loss would have increased. The idea of remitting tribute in goods
naturally produced an indifference to their price
and quality, --the goods themselves appearing little
else than a sort of package to the tribute. Merchandise taken as tribute, or bought in lieu of it, can
never long be of a kind or of a price fitted to a market which stands solely on its commercial reputation.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 73
The indifference of the mercantile sovereign to his
trading advantages naturally relaxed the diligence of
his subordinate factor-magistrates through all their
gradations and in all their functions; it gave rise, at
least so far as the principal was concerned, to much
neglect of price and of goodness in their purchases.
If ever they showed any extraordinary degrees of accuracy and selection, it would naturally be in favor
of that interest to which they could not be indifferent. The Company might suffer above, the natives
might suffer below; the intermediate party must
profit to the prejudice of both.
Your Committee are of opinion that the Company
is now arrived at that point, when, the investment
from surplus revenue or from the spoil of war ceasing, it is become much more necessary to fix its commerce upon a commercial basis. And this opinion led your Committee to a detailed review of all the
articles of the Indian traffic upon which the profit
and loss was steady; and we have chosen a period
of four years, during the continluance of the revenue
investment, and prior to any borrowing or any extraordinary drawing of bills, in order to find out how
far the trade, under circumstances when it will be
necessary to carry it on by borrowing, or by bills,
or by exportation of bullion, can be sustained in
the former course, so as to secure the capital and
to afford a reasonable dividend. And your Corn.
mittee find that in the first four years the investment from Bengal amounted to 4,176,5251. ; upon
2,260,2771. there was a gain of 186,3371. , and upon
1,916,2481. a loss of 705,5661. : so that the excess
of loss above gain, upon the whole of the foregoing
capital, was in the four years no less than 519,2291.
? ? ? ? 74 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
If the trade were confined to Bengal, and the Company were to trade on those terms upon a capital
borrowed at eight per cent Indian interest, their revenues in that province would be soon so overpowered with debt, that those revenues, instead of supporting the trade, would be totally destroyed by it. If, on the other hand, the Company traded upon bills
with every advantage, far from being in a condition
to divide the smallest percentage, their bankruptcy
here would be inevitable.
Your Committee then turned to the trade of the
other factories and Presidencies, and they constantly
found, that, as the power and dominion of the Company was less, their profit on the goods was greater.
The investments of Madras, Bombay, and Bencoolen
have, in the foregoing four years, upon a capital of
1,151,1761. , had a gain upon the whole of 329,6221.
The greatest of all is that of Bencoolen, which, on
a, capital of 76,5711. , produced a profit of 107,7601.
This, however, is but a small branch of the Company's trade. The trade to China, on a capital of
1,717,4631. , produced an excess of gain amounting to
874,0961. , which is about fifty per cent. But such
was the evil influence of the Bengal investment, that
not only the profits of the Chinese trade, but of all
the lucrative branches taken together, were so sunk
and ingulfed in it, that the whole profit on a capital
of 7,045,1641. reached to no more than 684,4891. ,
that is, to 189,6071. less than the profit on the Chinese trade alone, --less than the total profits on the
gainful trades taken together, 520,7271.
It is very remarkable, that in the year 1778, when
the Bengal investment stood at the highest, that is,
so high as 1,223,3161. , though the Chiiiese trade pro
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 75
duced an excess of gain in that year of 209,2431. ,
and that no loss of moment could be added to that
of Bengal, (except about 45,0001. on the Bombay
trade,) the whole profit of a capital of 2,040,7871.
amounted only to the sum of 9,4801.
The detail of the articles in which loss was incurred
or gain made will be found in the Appendix, No. 24.
Tile circumstances of the time have rendered it necessary to call up a vigorous attention to this state of the trade of the Company between Europe and India.
INTERNAL TRADE OF BENGAL.
THE internal trade of Bengal has next attracted
the inquiries of your Committee.
The great and valuable articles of the Company's
investment, drawn from the articles of internal trade,
are raw silk, and various descriptions of piece-goods
made of silk and cotton. These articles are not under any formal monopoly; nor does the Company at present exercise a declared right of preemption with
regard to them. But it does not appear that the trade
in these particulars is or can be perfectly free, - not
so much on account of any direct measures taken to
prevent it as from the circumstances of the country,
and the manner of carrying on business there: for
the present trade, even in these articles, is built from
the ruins of old monopolies and preimptions, and
necessarily partakes of the nature of its materials.
In order to show in what manner manufactures and
trade so constituted contribute to the prosperity of the
natives, your Committee conceives it proper to take,
in this place, a short general view of the progress of
the English policy with relation to the commerce of
? ? ? ? 76 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
Bengal, and the several stages and gradations by which
it has been brought into its actual state. The modes
of abuse, and the means by which commerce has suffered, will be considered in greater detail under the distinct heads of those objects which have chiefly suffered by them.
During the time of the Mogul government, the
princes of that race, who omitted nothing for the
encouragement of commerce in their dominions, bestowed very large privileges and immunities on the English East India Company, exempting them from
several duties to which their natural-born subjects
were liable. The Company's dustuck, or passport,
secured to them this exemption at all the customhouses and toll-bars of the country. The Company,
not being able or not choosing to make use of their
privilege to the full extent to which it might be carried, indulged their servants with a qualified use of their passport, under which, and in the name of the
Company, they carried on a private trade, either by
themselves or in society with natives, and thus found
a compensation for the scanty allowances made to
them by their masters in England. As the country
government was at that time in the fulness of its
strength, and that this immunity existed by a double
connivance, it was naturally kept within tolerable
limits.
But by the revolution in 1757 the Company's servants obtained a mighty ascendant over the native princes of Bengal, who owed their elevation to the
British arms. The Company, which'Was new to that
kind of power, and not yet thoroughly apprised of its
real character and situation, considered itself still as
a trader in the territories of a foreign potentate, in
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 77
the prosperity of whose country it had neither interest nor duty. The servants, with the same ideas, followed their fortune in the channels in which it had hitherto ran, only enlarging them with the enlargement of their power. For their first ideas of profit
were not official; nor were their oppressions those of
ordinary despotism. The first instruments of their
power were formed out of evasions of their ancient
subjection. The passport of the Company in the
hands of its servants was no longer under any restraint; and in a very short time their immunity
began to cover all the merchandise of the country.
Cossim Ali Khan, the second of the Nabobs whom
they had set up, was but ill disposed to the instruments of his greatness. He bore the yoke of this imperious commerce with the utmost impatience: he
saw his subjects excluded as aliens from their own
trade, and the revenues of the prince overwhelmed in
the ruin of the commerce of his dominions. Finding
his reiterated remonstrances on the extent and abuse
of the passport ineffectual, he had recourse to an unexpected expedient, which was, to declare his resolution at once to annul all the duties on trade, setting it equally free to subjects and to foreigners.
Never was a method of defeating the oppressions of
monopoly more forcible, more simple, or more equitable: no sort of plausible objection could be made;
and it was in vain to think of evading it. It was
therefore met with the confidence of avowed and
determined injustice. The Presidency of Calcutta
openly denied to the prince the power of protecting
the trade of his subjects by the remission of his own
duties. It was evident that his authority drew to its
period: many reasons and motives concurred, and
? ? ? ? 78 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
his fall was hastened by the odium of the oppressions
which he exercised voluntarily, as well as of those to
which he was obliged to submit.
When this example was made, Jaffier Ali Khln,
who had been deposed to make room for the last actor, was brought from penury and exile to a station
the terms of which he could not misunderstand.
During his life, and in the time of his children who
succeeded to him, parts of the territorial revenue
were assigned to the Company; and the whole, under
the name of residency at the Nabob's court, was
brought, directly or indirectly, under the control of
British subjects. The Company's servants, armed
with authorities delegated from the nominal govern
ment, or attended with what was a stronger guard,
the fame of their own power, appeared as magistrates
in the markets in which they dealt as traders. It was
impossible for the natives in general to distinguish,
in the proceedings of the same persons, what was
transacted on the Company's account from what was
done on their own; and it will ever be so difficult to
draw this line of distinction, that as long as the Company does, directly or indirectly, aim at any advantage to itself in the purchase of any commodity whatever, so long will it be impracticable to prevent the servants availing themselves of the same privilege.
The servants, therefore, for themselves or for their
employers, monopolized every article of trade, foreign and domestic: not only the raw merchantable
commodities, but the manufactures; and not only
these, but the necessaries of life, or what in these
countries habit has confounded with them, - not ohily silk, cotton, piece-goods, opium, saltpetre, but not
unfrequently salt, tobacco, betel-nut, and the grain
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 79
of most ordinary consumption. In the name of the
country government they laid on or took off, and at
their pleasure heightened or lowered, all duties upon
goods: the whole trade of the country was either
destroyed or in shackles. The acquisition of the
Duanne, in 1765, bringing the Enlglish into the immnediate government of the country in its most essential branches, extended and confirmed all the former means of monopoly.
In the progress of these ruinous measures through
all their details, innumerable grievances were suffered
by the native inhabitants, which were represented in
the strongest, that is, their true colors, in England.
Whilst the far greater part of the British in India
were in eager pursuit of the forced and exorbitant
gains of a trade carried on by power, contests naturally arose among the competitors: those who were
overpowered by their rivals became loud in their complaints to the Court of Directors, and were very capable, from experience, of pointing out every mode of abuse.
The Court of Directors, on their part, began,
though very slowly, to perceive that the country which
was ravaged by this sort of commerce was their own.
These complaints obliged tile Directors to a strict
examination into the real sources of the mismanagement of their concerns in India, and to lay the folundations of a system of restraint on the exorbitancies of their servants. Accordingly, so early as the year
1765, they confine them to a trade only in articles
of export and import, and strictly prohibit them
from all dealing in objects of internal consumption.
About the same time the Presidency of Calcutta
found it necessary to put a restraint upon themselves,
? ? ? ? 80 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
or at least to make show of a disposition (with which
the Directors appear much satisfied) to keep their
own enormous power within bounds.
But whatever might have been the intentions either of the Directors or the Presidency, both found themselves unequal to the execution of a plan which
went to defeat the projects of almost all the English
in India, -possibly comprehending some who were
makers of the regulations. For, as the complaint
of the country or as their own interest predominated
with the Presidency, they were always shifting from
one course to the other; so that it became as impossible for the natives to know upon what principle to ground any commercial speculation, from the uncertainty of the law under which they acted, as it was when they were oppressed by power without any color
of law at all: for the Directors, in a few months after
they had given these tokens of approbation to the
above regulations in favor of the country trade, tell
the Presidency, " It is with concern we see in every
page of your Consultations restrictions, limitations,
prohibitions, affecting various articles of trade. " On
their side, the Presidency freely confess that these
monopolies of inland trade " were the foundation of
all the bloodsheds, massacres, and confusions which
have happened of late in Bengal. "
Pressed in this urgent manner, the Directors came
more specifically to the grievance, and at once annul
all the passports with which their servants traded
without duties, holding out means of compensation,
of which it does not appear that any advantage was
taken. In order that the duties which existed should
no longer continue to burden the trade either of the
servants or natives, they ordered that a number of
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 81
oppressive toll-bars should be taken away, and the
whole number reduced to nine of the most considerable.
When Lord Clive was sent to Bengal to effect a reformation of the many abuses which prevailed there,
he considered monopoly to be so inveterate and deeply rooted, and the just rewards of the Company's servants to be so complicated with that injustice to the country, that the latter could not easily be removed
without taking away the former. He adopted, therefore, a plan for dealing in certain articles, which, as
he conceived, rather ought to be called " a regulated
and restricted trade " than a formal monopoly. ByJ
this plan he intended that the profits should be distributed in an orderly and proportioned manner for
the reward of services, and not seized by each individual according to the measure of his boldness, dexterity, or influence.
But this scheme of monopoly did not subsist long,
at least in that mode and for those purposes. Three
of the grand monopolies, those of opium, salt, and
saltpetre, were successively by the Company taken
into their own hands, The produce of the sale of the
two former articles was applied to the purchase of
goods for their investment; the latter was exported
in kind for their sales in Europe. Tile senior servants had a certain share of emolument allotted to
them from a commission on the revenues. The junior servants were rigorously confined to salaries, on
which they were unable to subsist according to their
rank. -They were strictly ordered to abstain from all
dealing in objects of internal commerce. Those of
export and import were left open to young men without mercantile experience, and wholly unprovided
VOL. VIII. 6
? ? ? ? 82) NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
with mercantile capitals, but abundantly furnished
witll large trusts of the public money, and with all
the powers of an absolute government. In this situation, a religious abstinence from all illicit game
was prescribed to men at nine thousand miles' distance from the seat of the supreme authority.
Your Committee is far from meaning to justify, or
eveni to excuse, the oppressions and cruelties used by
many ill supplying the deficiencies of their regular
allowances by all manner of extortion; but many
smaller irregularities may admit some alleviation
from thence. Nor does your Committee mean to
express any desire of reverting to the mode (contrived in India, but condemned by the Directors) of
rewarding the servants of an higher class by a regulated monopoly. Their object is to point out the
deficiencies in the system, by which restrictions were
laid that could have little or no effect whilst want
and power were suffered to be united.
But the proceedings of the Directors at that time,
though not altogether judicious, were in many respects honorable to them, and favorable, in the intention at least, to the, country they governed. For, finding their trading capital employed against themselves and against the natives, and struggling in vain
against abuses which were inseparably connected with
the system of their own preference in trade, in the
year 1773 they came to the manly resolution of setting an example to their servants, and gave up all
use of power and influence in the two grand articles
of their investment, silk and piece-goods. They directed that the articles should be bought at an equal
and public market from the native merchants; and
this order they directed to be published in all the
principal marts of Benigal.
? ? ? ?
their mutual animosities, they sold to them reciprocally their common servitude and ruin.
The Governor-General, Mr. Hastings, and the
Council, tell the Directors, " that the supply for the
investment has arisen from casual and extraordinary
resources, which they could not expect always to
command. " In an earlier minute he expresses himself still more distinctly: he says, "If the internal resources of a state fail it, or are not equal to its occasional wants, whence can it obtain immediate relief but from external means? " Indeed, the investment
has not been for any long time the natural product
of the revenue of Bengal. When, by the vast charge
and by the ill return of an evil political and military
traffic, and by a prodigal increase of establishments,
and a profuse conduct in distributing agencies and
contracts, they found themselves under difficulties,
instead of being cured of their immoral and impolitic delusion, they plunged deeper into it, and were drawn from expedient to expedient for the supply of
the investment into that endless chain of wars which
this House by its resolutions has so justly condemned.
At home these measures were sometimes countenanced, sometimes winked at, sometimes censured, but always with an acceptance of whatever profit
they afforded.
At length the funds for the investment and for
these wars together could no longer be supplied. In
the year 1778 the provision for the investment from
the revenues and from the monopolies stood very
high. It was estimated at a million four hundred
thousand pounds; and of this it appears that a great
deal was realized. But this was the high flood-tide
of the investment; for in that year they announce
? ? ? ? 58 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
its probable decline, and that such extensive supplies
could not be continued. The advances to the Board
of Trade became less punctual, and many disputes
arose about the time of making them. However,
knowing that all their credit at home depended on
the investment, or upon an opinion of its magnitude,
whilst they repeat their warning of a probable deficiency, and that their " finances bore an unfavorable
aspect," in the year 1779 they rate their investment
still higher. But their payments becoming less and
less regular, and the war carrying away all the supplies, at length Mr. Hastings, in December, 1780, denounced sentence of approaching dissolution to this system, and tells the Directors that "he bore too
high a respect for their characters to treat them with
the management of a preparatory and gradual introduction to an unpleasing report: that it is the only
substantial information he shall have to convey in
that letter. " In confidence, therefore, of their fortitude, he tells them without ceremony, " that there
will be a necessity of making a large reduction, or
possibly a total suspension, of their investment;that they had already been reduced to borrow near
700,0001. This resource," says he, " cannot last; it
must cease at a certain period, and that perhaps not
far distant. "
He was not mistaken in his prognostic. Loans now
becoming the regular resource for retrieving the
investment, whose ruin was inevitable, the Council
enable the Board of Trade, in April, 1781, to grant
certificates for government bonds at eight per cent
interest for about 650,0001. The investment was
fixed at 900,0001.
But now another alarming system appeared. These
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 59
new bonds overloaded the market. Those which had
been formerly issued were at a discount; the Board
of Trade was obliged to advance, therefore, a fourth
more than usual to the contractors. This seemed to
satisfy that description of dealers. But as those who
bought on agency were limited to no terms of mutual
advantage, and the bonds on the new issue falling
from three to eight, nine, and ten per cent discount,
the agents were unable to furnish at the usual prices.
Accordingly a discount was settled on such terms as
could be made: the lowest discount, and that at two
places only, was at four per cent; which, with the
interest on the bonds, made (besides the earlier advance) at the least twelve per cent additional charge upon all goods. It was evident, that, as the investment, instead of being supported by the revenues,
was sunk by the fall of their credit, so the net revenues were diminished by the daily accumulation of
an interest accruing on account of the investment.
What was done to alleviate one complaint thus aggravating the other, and at length proving pernicious to both, this trade on bonds likewise came to its period.
Your Committee has reason to think that the bonds
have since that time sunk to a discount much greater
even than what is now stated. The Board of Trade
justly denominates their resource for that year " the
sinking credit of a paper currency, laboring, from the
uncommon scarcity of specie, under disadvantages
scarcely surmountable. " From this they value themselves " on having effected an ostensible provision, at least for that investment. " For 1783 nothing appears
even ostensible.
By this failure a total revolution ensued, of the most
? ? ? ? 60 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
extraordinary nature, and to which your Committee
wish to call the particular attention of the House.
For the Council-General, in their letter of the 8th of
April, 1782, after stating that they were disappointed in their expectations, (how grounded it does not appear,) " thought that they should be able to spare
a sum to the Board of Trade," -- tell the Court of
Directors, " that they had adopted a new method of
keeping up. the investment, by private subscribers
for eighty lacs of rupees, which will find cargoes for
their ships on the usual terms of privilege, at the risk
of the individuals, and is to be repaid to them according to the produce of the sales in England," - and they tell the Directors, that " a copy of the plan makes a
number in their separate dispatches over land. "
It is impossible, in reporting this revolution to the
House, to avoid remarking with what fidelity Mr.
Hastings and his Council have adhered to the mode
of transmitting their accounts which your Committee
found it necessary to mark and censure in their First
Report. Its pernicious tendency is there fully set
forth. They were peculiarly called on for a most
accurate state of their affairs, in order to explain the
necessity of having recourse to such a scheme, as well
as for a full and correct account of the scheme itself.
But they send only the above short minute by one
dispatch over land, whilst the copy of the plan itself,
on which the Directors must form their judgment, is
sent separately in another dispatch over land, which
has never arrived. A third dispatch, which also contained the plan, was sent by a sea conveyance, and arrived late. The Directors have, for very obvious
reasons, ordered, by a strict injunction, that they
should send duplicates of all their dispatches by
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 61
every ship. The spirit of this rule, perhaps, ought
to extend to every mode of conveyance. In this
case, so far from sending a duplicate, they do not
send even one perfect account. They announce a
plan by one conveyance, and they send it by another
conveyance, with other delays and other risks.
At length, at nearly four months' distance, the
plan has been received, and appears to be substantially that which had been announced, but developing in the particulars many new circumstances of the greatest importance. By this plan it appears that
the subscription, even in idea or pretence, is not for
the use of the Company, but that the subscribers are
united into a sort of society for the remitting their
private fortunes: the goods, indeed, are said to be
shipped on the Company's account, and they are directed to be sold on the same account, and at the usual
periods of sales; but, after the payment of duties, and
such other allowances as they choose to make, in the
eleventh article they provide " that the remainder of
the sales shall revert to the subscribers, and be declared
to be their property, and divided in proportion to their
respective shares. " The compensation which they
allow in this plan to their masters for their brokerage
is, that, if, after deducting all the charges which they
impose, " the amount of the sales should be found to
exceed two shillings and twopence for the current
rupee of the invoice account, it shall be taken by the
Company. " For the management of this concern in
Bengal they choose commissioners by their own authority. By the same authority they form them into
a body, they put them under rules and regulations,
and they empower them also to make regulations of
their own. They remit, by the like authority, the
? ? ? ? 62 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
duties to which all private trade is subject; and they
charge the whole concern with seven per cent, to be
paid from the net produce of the sales in England, as
a recompense to the commissioners: for this the commissioners contract to bear all the charges on the
goods to the time of shipping.
The servants having formed this plan of trade, and
a new commission for the conduct of it, on their private account, it is a matter of consideration to know
who the commissioners are. They turn out to be
the three senior servants of the Company's Board of
Trade, who choose to take upon them to be the factors of others for large emoluments, whilst they receive salaries of two thousand pounds and fifteen hundred pounds a year from the Company. As the Company have no other fund than the new investment from whence they are to be paid for the care of their
servants' property, this commission and those salaries
being to take place of their brokerage, they in effect
render it very difficult, if not impossible, for them to
derive advantage from their new occupation.
As to the benefit of this plan: besides preventing
the loss which must happen from the Company's ships
returning empty to Europe, and the stopping of all
trade between India and England, the authors of it
state, that it will " open a new channel of remittance,
and abolish the practice, by precluding the necessity,
of remitting private fortunes by foreign bottoms, and
that it may lead to some permanent mode for remittaiice of private fortunes, and of combining it with
the regular provision of the Company's investment,
- that it will yield some profit to the Company without risk, and the national gain will be the same as
upon the regular trade. "
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 63
As to the combination of this mode of remittance
with the Company's investment, nothing can be affirmed concerning it until some satisfactory assurance
call be held out that such an investment can ever be
realized. Mr. Hastings and the gentlemen of the
Council have not afforded any ground for such an
expectation. That the Indian trade may become a
permanent vehicle of the private fortunes of the Comparly's servants is very probable, -that is, as permanent as the means of acquiring fortunes in India; but that some profit will accrue to the Company is absolutely impossible. The Company are to bear all the
charge outwards, and a very great part of that homewards; and their only compensation is the surplus
commission on the sale of other people's goods. The
nation will undoubtedly avoid great loss and detriment, which would be the inevitable consequence of
the total cessation of the trade with Bengal and the
ships returning without cargoes. But if this temporary expedient should be improved into a system, no
occasional advantages to be derived from it would be
sufficient to balance the mischiefs of finding a great
Parliamentary corporation turned into a vehicle for
remitting to England the private fortunes of those for
whose benefit the territorial possessions in India. are
in effect and substance under this project to be solely
lield.
By this extraordinary scheme the Company is totally overturned, and all its relations inverted. From
bleitig a body collcerned in trade on their own account, and employing their servants as factors, the
servants have at one stroke taken the whole trade
into their own hands, on their own capital of
800,0001. , at their own risk, and the Company are
? ? ? ? 64 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
become agents and factors to them, to sell by com
mission their goods for their profit.
To enable your Committee to form some judgment
upon the profit which may accrue to the Company
from its new relation and employment, they directed
that an estimate should be made of the probable proceeds of an investment conducted on the principles
of that intended to be realized for 1783. By this estimate, which is subjoined,* it appears to your Com* Estimate of the Sale Amount and Net Proceeds in England of the Cargoes to be sent from Bengal, agreeable to the Plan received by Letter dated the 8th April, 1782.
This calculation supposes the eighty lac investments will be equal to
the tonnage of five ships.
b 2. To custom. . ~320,000
o 3. " freight. . 200,000
d' 4. " 5 per cent duty on
~ 1,300,000. . 65,000
e 5. " 2 do. warehouse
room do. . . 26,000
7 do. commission
on ~ 604,500. 42,315
~ 653,315. 6. " Balance. . 562,185
~ 1,215,500 ~ 1,215,500
1. The sale amount is computed on an average of the sales of the two
last years' imports.
b 2. The custom is computed on an average of what was paid on piecegoods and raw silk of said imports, adding additional imposts.
3. The ships going out of this season, (1782,) by which the above investment is expected to be sent home, are taken up at 471. 5s. per ton, for
the homeward cargo; this charge amounts to 35,8151. each ship; the additional wages to the men, which the Company pay, and a very small
charge for demurrage, will increase the freight, &c. , to 40,0001. per ship,
agreeable to above estimate.
d 4. The duty of five per cent is charged by the Company on the gross
sale amount of all private trade licensed to be brought from India: the
amount of this duty is the only benefit the Company are likely to receive
from the subscription investment.
e 5. This charge is likewise made on private trade goods, and is little,
if anything, more than the real expense the Company are at on account
of the same; therefore no benefit will probably arise to the Company
from it on the sale of the said investment.
r 6. This is the sum which will probably be realized in England, and
is only equal to is. 5d. per rupee, on the eighty lacs subscribed.
1. By sale amount of piece-goods and
raw silk. . ~1,300,000 Discount 61 per
cent allowed the buyers. . . 84,500
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 65
mittee, that, so far from any surplus profit from this
transaction, the Bengal adventurers themselves, instead of realizing 2s. 2d. the rupee, (the standard
they fix for their payment,) will not receive the is.
9d. which is its utmost value in silver at the Mint,
nor probably above is. 5d. With this certain loss
before their eyes, it is impossible that they can ever
complete their subscription, unless, by management
among themselves, they should be able to procure the
goods for their own account upon other terms than
those on which they purchased them for their masters, or unless they have for the supply of the Company on their hands a quantity of goods which they cannot otherwise dispose of. This latter case is not,
very improbable, from their proposing to send ten
sixteenths of the whole investment in silk, -- which,
as will be seen hereafter, the Company has prohibited
to be sent on their account, as a disadvantageous article. Nothing but the servants being overloaded can
rationally account for their choice of so great a proportion of so dubious a commodity.
On the state made by two reports of a committee
of the General Court in 1782, their affairs were even
then reduced to a low ebb. But under the arrangement announced by Mr. Hastings and his colleagues,
it does not appear, after this period of the servants'
investment, from what fund the proprietors are to
make any dividend at all. The objects of the sale
from whence the dividend is to arise are not their
goods: they stand accountable to others for the
whole probable produce. The state of the Company's commerce will therefore become an object of
serious consideration: an affair, as your Committee
apprehends, of as much difficulty as ever tried the facVOL. VIII. 5
? ? ? ? 66 NINTH REPORT' OF SELECT COMMITTEE
ulties of this House. For, on the one hand, it is plain
that the system of providing the Company's import
into Europe, resting almost wholly by an investment
from its territorial revenues, has failed: during its
continuance it was supported on principles fatal to
the prosperity of that country. Oin the other hand,
if the nominal commerce of the Company is suffered
to be carried on for the account of the servants
abroad, by investing the emoluments made in their
stations, these emoluments are therefore inclusively
authorized, and with them the practices from which
they accrue. All Parliamentary attempts to reform
this system will be contradictory to its institution.
If, for instance, five hundred thousand pounds sterling annually be necessary for this kind of investment, any regulation which may prevent the acquisition of that sum operates against the investment which is the end proposed by the plan.
On this new scheme, (which is neither calculated
for a future security nor for a present relief to the
Company,) it is not visible in what manner the settlements in India canl be at all upheld. The gentlemen in employments abroad call for the whole produce of the year's investment from Bengal; but for the payment of the counter-investment from Europe,
which is for the far greater part sent out for the support of their power, no provision at all is made: they
have not, it seems, agreed that it should be charged
to their account, or that any deduction should be
made for it from the produce of their sales in Leadenhall Street. How far such a scheme is preferable
to the total suspension of trade your Committee cannot positively determine. In all likelihood, extraordinary expedients were necessary; but the causes
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 67
which induced this necessity ought to be more fully
inquired into; for the last step in a series of conduct
may be justifiable upon principles that suppose great
blame in those which preceded it.
After your Committee had made the foregoing observations upon the plan of Mr. Hastings and his colleagues, transmitted to the Court of Directors, an extract of the Madras Consultations was a few days
ago laid before us. This extract contains a letter
from the Governor-General and Council of Bengal to
the Presidency of Fort St. George, which affords a
very striking, though to your Committee by no means
an unexpected, picture of the instability of their opinions and conduct. Oil the 8th of April the servants
had regularly formed and digested the above-mentioned plan, which was to form the basis for the investment of their own fortunes, and to furnish the sole means of the commercial existence of their masters.
Before the 10th of the following May, which is the
date of their letter to Madras, they inform Lord
Macartney that they had fundamentally altered the
whole scheme. "Instead," say they, "of allowing
the subscribers to retain an interest in the goods, they
are to be provided entirely on account of the Company, and transported at their risk; and the subscribers,
instead of receiving certificates payable out of the
produce of the sales in Europe, are to be granted receipts, on the payment of their advances, bearing an
interest of eight per cent per annum, until exchanged
for drafts on the Court of Directors, payable 365 days
after sight, at the rate of two shillings per current
rupee, - which drafts shall be granted in the proper
time, of three eighths of the amount subscribed, on
the 31st of December next, and the remaining five
eighths on the 31st of December, 1783. "
? ? ? ? 68 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
The plan of April divests the Company of all property in Bengal goods transported to Europe: but in recompense they are freed from all the risk and expense, they are not loaded with interest, and they are not embarrassed with bills. The plan of May reinstates them in their old relation: but in return, their revenues in Bengal are charged with an interest of
eight per cent on the sum subscribed, until bills shall
be drawn; they are made proprietors of cargoes purchased, under the disadvantage of that interest, at their own hazard; they are subjected to all losses;
and they are involved in Europe for payments of bills
to the amount of eighty lacs of rupees, at two shillings
the rupee, - that is, in bills for eight hundred thousand pounds sterling. It is probably on account of
the previous interest of eight per cent that the value
of the rupee on this scheme is reduced. Mr. Hastings
and his colleagues announce to Lord Macartney no
other than the foregoing alteration in their plan.
It is discouraging to attempt any sort of observation on plans thus shifting their principle whilst their merits are under examination. The judgment formed
on the scheme of April has nothing to do with the
project of May. Your Committee has not suppressed
any part of the reflections which occurred to them on
the former of these plans: first, because the Company knows of no other by any regular transmissions; secondly, because it is by no means certain that before the expiration of June the Governor-General and Council may not revert to the plan of April. They
speak of that plan as likely to be, or make a part of
one that shall be, permanent. Many reasons are alleged by its authors in its favor, grounded on the
state of their affairs; none whatever are assigned for
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 69
the alteration. It is, indeed, morally certain that persons who had money to remit must have made the
same calculation which has been made by the directions of your Committee, and the result must have
been equally clear to them,- which is, that, instead
of realizing two shillings and twopence the rupee on
their subscription, as they proposed, they could never
hope to see more than one shilling and ninepence.
This calculation probably shook the main pillar of
the project of April. But, on the other hand, as the
subscribers to the second scheme can have no certain
assurance that the Company will accept bills so far
exceeding their allowance in this particular, the necessity of remitting their fortunes may beat them
back to their old ground. The Danish Company was
the only means of remitting which remained. Attempts have been made with success to revive a Portuguese trade for that purpose. It is by no means clear whether Mr. Hastings and his colleagues will
adhere to either of the foregoing plans, or, indeed,
whether any investment at all to that amount can be
realized; because nothing but the convenience of remitting the gains of British subjects to London can
support any of these projects.
The situation of the Company, under this perpetual
variation in the system of their investment, is truly
perplexing. The manner in which they arrive at
any knowledge of it is no less so. The letter to Lord
Macartney, by which the variation is discovered, was
not intended for transmission to the Directors. It
was merely for the information of those who were
admitted to a share of the subscription at Madras.
When Mr. Hastings sent this information to those
subscribers, he might well enough have presumed an
? ? ? ? 70 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
event to happen which did happen, -that is, that a
vessel might be dispatched from Madras to Europe:
and indeed, by that, and by every devisable means, he
ought not only to have apprised the Directors of this
most material change in the plan of the investment,
but to have entered fully into the grounds and reasons of his making it.
It appears to your Committee that the ships which
brought to England the plan of the 8th of April did
not sail from Bengal until the 1st of May. If the
change had been in contemplation for any time before
the 30th of April, two days would have sufficed to
send an account of it, and it might have arrived
along with the plan which it affected. If, therefore,
such a change was in agitation before the sailing of
the ships, and yet was concealed when it might have
been communicated, the concealment is censurable.
It is not improbable that some change of the kind
was made or meditated before the sailing of the ships
for Europe: for it is hardly to be imagined that reasons wholly unlooked-for should appear for setting aside a plan concerning the success of which the
Council-General seemed so very confident, that a new
one should be proposed, that its merits should be
discussed among the moneyed men, that it should
be adopted in Council, and officially ready for transmission to Madras, in twelve or thirteen days. In this perplexity of plan and of transmission, the Court
of Directors may have made an arrangement of their
affairs on the groundwork of the first scheme, which
was officially and authentically conveyed to them.
The fundamental alteration of that plan in India
might require another of a very different kind in
England, which the arrangements taken in conse
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 71
quence of the first might make it difficult, if not
impossible, to execute. What must add to the confusion is, that the alteration has not the regular and official authority of the original plan, and may be
presumed to indicate with certainty nothing more
than that the business is again afloat, and that no
scheme is finally determined on. Thus the Company
is left without any fixed data upon which they can
make a rational disposition of their affairs.
The fact is, that the principles and economy of
the Company's trade have been so completely corrupted by turning it into a vehicle for tribute, that, whenever circumstances require it to be replaced
again upon a bottom truly commercial, hardly anything but confusion and disasters can be expected as the first results. Even before the acquisition of
the territorial revenues, the system of the Company's commerce was not formed upon principles the most favorable to its prosperity; for, whilst, on the
one hand, that body received encouragement by royal
and Parliamentary charters, was invested with several ample privileges, and even with a delegation of the most essential prerogatives of the crown,on the other, its commerce was watched with an invidious jealousy, as a species of dealing dangerous
to the national interests. In that light, with regard
to the Company's imports, there was a total prohibition from domestic use of the most considerable articles of their trade, --that is, of all silk stuffs,
and stained and painted cottons. The British market was in a great measure interdicted to the British trader. Whatever advantages might arise to the
general trading interests of the kingdom by this
restraint, its East India interest was undoubtedly
? ? ? ? 72 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
injured by it. The Company is also, and has been
from a very early period, obliged to furnish the Orddance with a quantity of saltpetre at a certain price,
without any reference to the standard of the markets either of purchase or of sale. With regard to
their export, they were put also under difficulties
upon very mistaken notions; for they were obliged
to export annually a certain proportion of British
manufactures, even though they should find for them
in India none or but an unprofitable want. This
compulsory export might operate, and in some instances has operated, in a manner more grievous
than a tax to the amount of the loss in trade: for
the payment of a tax is in general divided in unequal portions between the vender and consumer,
the largest part falling upon the latter; in the case
before us the tax may be as a dead charge on the
trading capital of the Company.
The spirit of all these regulations naturally tended
to weaken, in the very original constitution of the
Company, the main-spring of the commercial machine, the principles of profit and loss. And the mischief arising from an inattention to those principles has constantly increased with the increase of its power. For when the Company had acquired the rights
of sovereignty in India, it was not to be expected
that the attention to profit and loss would have increased. The idea of remitting tribute in goods
naturally produced an indifference to their price
and quality, --the goods themselves appearing little
else than a sort of package to the tribute. Merchandise taken as tribute, or bought in lieu of it, can
never long be of a kind or of a price fitted to a market which stands solely on its commercial reputation.
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 73
The indifference of the mercantile sovereign to his
trading advantages naturally relaxed the diligence of
his subordinate factor-magistrates through all their
gradations and in all their functions; it gave rise, at
least so far as the principal was concerned, to much
neglect of price and of goodness in their purchases.
If ever they showed any extraordinary degrees of accuracy and selection, it would naturally be in favor
of that interest to which they could not be indifferent. The Company might suffer above, the natives
might suffer below; the intermediate party must
profit to the prejudice of both.
Your Committee are of opinion that the Company
is now arrived at that point, when, the investment
from surplus revenue or from the spoil of war ceasing, it is become much more necessary to fix its commerce upon a commercial basis. And this opinion led your Committee to a detailed review of all the
articles of the Indian traffic upon which the profit
and loss was steady; and we have chosen a period
of four years, during the continluance of the revenue
investment, and prior to any borrowing or any extraordinary drawing of bills, in order to find out how
far the trade, under circumstances when it will be
necessary to carry it on by borrowing, or by bills,
or by exportation of bullion, can be sustained in
the former course, so as to secure the capital and
to afford a reasonable dividend. And your Corn.
mittee find that in the first four years the investment from Bengal amounted to 4,176,5251. ; upon
2,260,2771. there was a gain of 186,3371. , and upon
1,916,2481. a loss of 705,5661. : so that the excess
of loss above gain, upon the whole of the foregoing
capital, was in the four years no less than 519,2291.
? ? ? ? 74 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
If the trade were confined to Bengal, and the Company were to trade on those terms upon a capital
borrowed at eight per cent Indian interest, their revenues in that province would be soon so overpowered with debt, that those revenues, instead of supporting the trade, would be totally destroyed by it. If, on the other hand, the Company traded upon bills
with every advantage, far from being in a condition
to divide the smallest percentage, their bankruptcy
here would be inevitable.
Your Committee then turned to the trade of the
other factories and Presidencies, and they constantly
found, that, as the power and dominion of the Company was less, their profit on the goods was greater.
The investments of Madras, Bombay, and Bencoolen
have, in the foregoing four years, upon a capital of
1,151,1761. , had a gain upon the whole of 329,6221.
The greatest of all is that of Bencoolen, which, on
a, capital of 76,5711. , produced a profit of 107,7601.
This, however, is but a small branch of the Company's trade. The trade to China, on a capital of
1,717,4631. , produced an excess of gain amounting to
874,0961. , which is about fifty per cent. But such
was the evil influence of the Bengal investment, that
not only the profits of the Chinese trade, but of all
the lucrative branches taken together, were so sunk
and ingulfed in it, that the whole profit on a capital
of 7,045,1641. reached to no more than 684,4891. ,
that is, to 189,6071. less than the profit on the Chinese trade alone, --less than the total profits on the
gainful trades taken together, 520,7271.
It is very remarkable, that in the year 1778, when
the Bengal investment stood at the highest, that is,
so high as 1,223,3161. , though the Chiiiese trade pro
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 75
duced an excess of gain in that year of 209,2431. ,
and that no loss of moment could be added to that
of Bengal, (except about 45,0001. on the Bombay
trade,) the whole profit of a capital of 2,040,7871.
amounted only to the sum of 9,4801.
The detail of the articles in which loss was incurred
or gain made will be found in the Appendix, No. 24.
Tile circumstances of the time have rendered it necessary to call up a vigorous attention to this state of the trade of the Company between Europe and India.
INTERNAL TRADE OF BENGAL.
THE internal trade of Bengal has next attracted
the inquiries of your Committee.
The great and valuable articles of the Company's
investment, drawn from the articles of internal trade,
are raw silk, and various descriptions of piece-goods
made of silk and cotton. These articles are not under any formal monopoly; nor does the Company at present exercise a declared right of preemption with
regard to them. But it does not appear that the trade
in these particulars is or can be perfectly free, - not
so much on account of any direct measures taken to
prevent it as from the circumstances of the country,
and the manner of carrying on business there: for
the present trade, even in these articles, is built from
the ruins of old monopolies and preimptions, and
necessarily partakes of the nature of its materials.
In order to show in what manner manufactures and
trade so constituted contribute to the prosperity of the
natives, your Committee conceives it proper to take,
in this place, a short general view of the progress of
the English policy with relation to the commerce of
? ? ? ? 76 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
Bengal, and the several stages and gradations by which
it has been brought into its actual state. The modes
of abuse, and the means by which commerce has suffered, will be considered in greater detail under the distinct heads of those objects which have chiefly suffered by them.
During the time of the Mogul government, the
princes of that race, who omitted nothing for the
encouragement of commerce in their dominions, bestowed very large privileges and immunities on the English East India Company, exempting them from
several duties to which their natural-born subjects
were liable. The Company's dustuck, or passport,
secured to them this exemption at all the customhouses and toll-bars of the country. The Company,
not being able or not choosing to make use of their
privilege to the full extent to which it might be carried, indulged their servants with a qualified use of their passport, under which, and in the name of the
Company, they carried on a private trade, either by
themselves or in society with natives, and thus found
a compensation for the scanty allowances made to
them by their masters in England. As the country
government was at that time in the fulness of its
strength, and that this immunity existed by a double
connivance, it was naturally kept within tolerable
limits.
But by the revolution in 1757 the Company's servants obtained a mighty ascendant over the native princes of Bengal, who owed their elevation to the
British arms. The Company, which'Was new to that
kind of power, and not yet thoroughly apprised of its
real character and situation, considered itself still as
a trader in the territories of a foreign potentate, in
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 77
the prosperity of whose country it had neither interest nor duty. The servants, with the same ideas, followed their fortune in the channels in which it had hitherto ran, only enlarging them with the enlargement of their power. For their first ideas of profit
were not official; nor were their oppressions those of
ordinary despotism. The first instruments of their
power were formed out of evasions of their ancient
subjection. The passport of the Company in the
hands of its servants was no longer under any restraint; and in a very short time their immunity
began to cover all the merchandise of the country.
Cossim Ali Khan, the second of the Nabobs whom
they had set up, was but ill disposed to the instruments of his greatness. He bore the yoke of this imperious commerce with the utmost impatience: he
saw his subjects excluded as aliens from their own
trade, and the revenues of the prince overwhelmed in
the ruin of the commerce of his dominions. Finding
his reiterated remonstrances on the extent and abuse
of the passport ineffectual, he had recourse to an unexpected expedient, which was, to declare his resolution at once to annul all the duties on trade, setting it equally free to subjects and to foreigners.
Never was a method of defeating the oppressions of
monopoly more forcible, more simple, or more equitable: no sort of plausible objection could be made;
and it was in vain to think of evading it. It was
therefore met with the confidence of avowed and
determined injustice. The Presidency of Calcutta
openly denied to the prince the power of protecting
the trade of his subjects by the remission of his own
duties. It was evident that his authority drew to its
period: many reasons and motives concurred, and
? ? ? ? 78 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
his fall was hastened by the odium of the oppressions
which he exercised voluntarily, as well as of those to
which he was obliged to submit.
When this example was made, Jaffier Ali Khln,
who had been deposed to make room for the last actor, was brought from penury and exile to a station
the terms of which he could not misunderstand.
During his life, and in the time of his children who
succeeded to him, parts of the territorial revenue
were assigned to the Company; and the whole, under
the name of residency at the Nabob's court, was
brought, directly or indirectly, under the control of
British subjects. The Company's servants, armed
with authorities delegated from the nominal govern
ment, or attended with what was a stronger guard,
the fame of their own power, appeared as magistrates
in the markets in which they dealt as traders. It was
impossible for the natives in general to distinguish,
in the proceedings of the same persons, what was
transacted on the Company's account from what was
done on their own; and it will ever be so difficult to
draw this line of distinction, that as long as the Company does, directly or indirectly, aim at any advantage to itself in the purchase of any commodity whatever, so long will it be impracticable to prevent the servants availing themselves of the same privilege.
The servants, therefore, for themselves or for their
employers, monopolized every article of trade, foreign and domestic: not only the raw merchantable
commodities, but the manufactures; and not only
these, but the necessaries of life, or what in these
countries habit has confounded with them, - not ohily silk, cotton, piece-goods, opium, saltpetre, but not
unfrequently salt, tobacco, betel-nut, and the grain
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 79
of most ordinary consumption. In the name of the
country government they laid on or took off, and at
their pleasure heightened or lowered, all duties upon
goods: the whole trade of the country was either
destroyed or in shackles. The acquisition of the
Duanne, in 1765, bringing the Enlglish into the immnediate government of the country in its most essential branches, extended and confirmed all the former means of monopoly.
In the progress of these ruinous measures through
all their details, innumerable grievances were suffered
by the native inhabitants, which were represented in
the strongest, that is, their true colors, in England.
Whilst the far greater part of the British in India
were in eager pursuit of the forced and exorbitant
gains of a trade carried on by power, contests naturally arose among the competitors: those who were
overpowered by their rivals became loud in their complaints to the Court of Directors, and were very capable, from experience, of pointing out every mode of abuse.
The Court of Directors, on their part, began,
though very slowly, to perceive that the country which
was ravaged by this sort of commerce was their own.
These complaints obliged tile Directors to a strict
examination into the real sources of the mismanagement of their concerns in India, and to lay the folundations of a system of restraint on the exorbitancies of their servants. Accordingly, so early as the year
1765, they confine them to a trade only in articles
of export and import, and strictly prohibit them
from all dealing in objects of internal consumption.
About the same time the Presidency of Calcutta
found it necessary to put a restraint upon themselves,
? ? ? ? 80 NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
or at least to make show of a disposition (with which
the Directors appear much satisfied) to keep their
own enormous power within bounds.
But whatever might have been the intentions either of the Directors or the Presidency, both found themselves unequal to the execution of a plan which
went to defeat the projects of almost all the English
in India, -possibly comprehending some who were
makers of the regulations. For, as the complaint
of the country or as their own interest predominated
with the Presidency, they were always shifting from
one course to the other; so that it became as impossible for the natives to know upon what principle to ground any commercial speculation, from the uncertainty of the law under which they acted, as it was when they were oppressed by power without any color
of law at all: for the Directors, in a few months after
they had given these tokens of approbation to the
above regulations in favor of the country trade, tell
the Presidency, " It is with concern we see in every
page of your Consultations restrictions, limitations,
prohibitions, affecting various articles of trade. " On
their side, the Presidency freely confess that these
monopolies of inland trade " were the foundation of
all the bloodsheds, massacres, and confusions which
have happened of late in Bengal. "
Pressed in this urgent manner, the Directors came
more specifically to the grievance, and at once annul
all the passports with which their servants traded
without duties, holding out means of compensation,
of which it does not appear that any advantage was
taken. In order that the duties which existed should
no longer continue to burden the trade either of the
servants or natives, they ordered that a number of
? ? ? ? ON THE AFFAIRS OF INDIA. 81
oppressive toll-bars should be taken away, and the
whole number reduced to nine of the most considerable.
When Lord Clive was sent to Bengal to effect a reformation of the many abuses which prevailed there,
he considered monopoly to be so inveterate and deeply rooted, and the just rewards of the Company's servants to be so complicated with that injustice to the country, that the latter could not easily be removed
without taking away the former. He adopted, therefore, a plan for dealing in certain articles, which, as
he conceived, rather ought to be called " a regulated
and restricted trade " than a formal monopoly. ByJ
this plan he intended that the profits should be distributed in an orderly and proportioned manner for
the reward of services, and not seized by each individual according to the measure of his boldness, dexterity, or influence.
But this scheme of monopoly did not subsist long,
at least in that mode and for those purposes. Three
of the grand monopolies, those of opium, salt, and
saltpetre, were successively by the Company taken
into their own hands, The produce of the sale of the
two former articles was applied to the purchase of
goods for their investment; the latter was exported
in kind for their sales in Europe. Tile senior servants had a certain share of emolument allotted to
them from a commission on the revenues. The junior servants were rigorously confined to salaries, on
which they were unable to subsist according to their
rank. -They were strictly ordered to abstain from all
dealing in objects of internal commerce. Those of
export and import were left open to young men without mercantile experience, and wholly unprovided
VOL. VIII. 6
? ? ? ? 82) NINTH REPORT OF SELECT COMMITTEE
with mercantile capitals, but abundantly furnished
witll large trusts of the public money, and with all
the powers of an absolute government. In this situation, a religious abstinence from all illicit game
was prescribed to men at nine thousand miles' distance from the seat of the supreme authority.
Your Committee is far from meaning to justify, or
eveni to excuse, the oppressions and cruelties used by
many ill supplying the deficiencies of their regular
allowances by all manner of extortion; but many
smaller irregularities may admit some alleviation
from thence. Nor does your Committee mean to
express any desire of reverting to the mode (contrived in India, but condemned by the Directors) of
rewarding the servants of an higher class by a regulated monopoly. Their object is to point out the
deficiencies in the system, by which restrictions were
laid that could have little or no effect whilst want
and power were suffered to be united.
But the proceedings of the Directors at that time,
though not altogether judicious, were in many respects honorable to them, and favorable, in the intention at least, to the, country they governed. For, finding their trading capital employed against themselves and against the natives, and struggling in vain
against abuses which were inseparably connected with
the system of their own preference in trade, in the
year 1773 they came to the manly resolution of setting an example to their servants, and gave up all
use of power and influence in the two grand articles
of their investment, silk and piece-goods. They directed that the articles should be bought at an equal
and public market from the native merchants; and
this order they directed to be published in all the
principal marts of Benigal.
? ? ? ?
