the Protector. The progress and the fate of these speculations were uniform. They injured the East India Company, by raising the price, and creating a scarcity of goods in India, as well as by importing a superabundance, and lowering the value of them at hoine. The competition also occasioned a glut of European goods, and consequently a loss upon them in the Indian market. And accordingly these adventurers were all either ruined by their speculations, or, in order to avoid ruin, forced to seek an union with the East India Company.

2

In the same manner was terminated the career of other bodies of men, who subsequently entered into competition with the East India Company. From the time of Queen Elizabeth to the end of the seventeenth century, the commercial rights of this body were, at various other periods, as well as in the time of Cromwell, violated in the most scandalous and illegal manner. They were opposed by licenses from the Crown to private traders, contrary to the charters and privileges, which the Crown itself had granted; and those private traders, in sharing all the benefits of the commerce, were exempt from every charge or expenditure for establishments at home and abroad. By a still more outrageous violation of their rights, several years before the expiration of their Charter, a new Company was established, towards the end of the seventeenth century, under the denomination of "the English East India Company;" when the original Company, for the sake of distinction, assumed the title of "The London East India Company." After a struggle of several years, which materially injured the original Company, and almost wholly ruined the new one, this, like all former rivals, was obliged to seek its safety in an union. And hence arose, in 1707-8, that splendid body which now exists, under the appellation of "The United East India Company."

The history of the rivalship of these two Companies, before their union, and of the fate of some private speculators, who, under the constitution of the new Company, had claimed a right of trading on their individual stock, both illustrates and confirms the fact, that competition in the East India Trade ever has been, and,

1 Vide Bruce's Annals of the Honorable East India Company, Vol. 1. pp. 435 und 508.

2 Ibid. Vol. I. p. 572.

tion while the character of the natives of India remains unaltered, must aising continue to be productive of loss to the adventurers, without being as be attended with a single essential benefit to the public.'

An experiment with similar, but more decisive results, was made in 1788-9, from Ostend, by persons, among others, who had been An in the habits of dealing, as tradesmen, with the Commanders and Officers of the Company's Ships, and who might be supposed to have acquired a knowledge of the nature of the business in which they were embarking, at least considerably greater than can be possessed by the merchants and manufacturers, who have recently East been petitioning the Legislature for permission to send ships to India; or, in other words, for permission to ruin themselves, and to wer injure the East India Company. This trade was carried on under late Imperial colors. And it must be in the recollection of every one, dwho was then in the Company's Sea Service, of every person who arter was resident at any of the Presidencies of India, and in general of all men of observation at that time connected with the East, in common with the suffering adventurers, what an extensive scene of ruin ensued. Many kinds of European commodities were sold at from 50 to 75 per cent. discount; and even at that price but a very small quantity of what was imported could obtain a sale. The Commanders and Officers of the Company's Ships, and all others who were regularly engaged in the trade, were deeply injured by the competition of these interlopers; and most of themselves were irremediably ruined. I recollect hearing of one case, in which the product of the cargo was said not to be sufficient to pay the freight from Ostend; and the payment of it was successfully resisted in the Supreme Court of Judicature in Calcutta, on the ground of the transaction being illegal.

We have at this moment before our eyes an example of something similar in the fate of the commercial adventurers to Buenos Ayres, and other parts of South America. Although the impediments to the extension of sale for European commodities, are not, in that country, either so complete or of so permanent a nature as in India, it is but too well known that most of the adventurers, who recently embarked in that trade, have been impoverished or ruined

For the history of this rivalship, see Bruce's Annals of the Honorable East India Company, passim.

by the speculation; and that the manufactures of this country are now daily sold at auction at very reduced prices. Yet the expectations that were generally entertained of the immense benefits that would immediately be derived from the opening of so vast a field to commercial intercourse, as the Continent of South America, have ever been greater than those which were formed from an Open Trade to India. There is, however, this wide difference between the two cases, that, with respect to South America, there were no public interests to balance, no privileges to infringe, no rights to invade, no property to violate, before the private trader could have permission to ruin himself, if he pleased. Nay, there being no law to that effect, he could not be prevented from trading with South America, except by the constituted authorities of that country.

There are also other instances in point. At various periods, it has been deemed expedient to allow ships built in India to export cargoes of Rice, and other Commodities, to Britain. And the Commanders and Owners of these Ships being persons of expe rience, not choosing to invest cargoes here, upon which they would suffer an undoubted loss in India, have generally preferred returning in ballast.

In 1798, when Government, owing to the scarcity of grain which then prevailed, gave encouragement to private Merchants to send Ships to India for Rice, those who availed themselves of that liberty, were considerable losers by the adventure. And it afterwards cost Government a large sum of money to indemnify them.

Thus, by the uniform results of all the experiments which have been made, the impossibility of giving any considerable extension to the trade to India, appears to be placed beyond a doubt. What then would be the consequences to the adventurers themselves, naturally to be expected from permitting an unlimited intercourse with that country, by private ships? One of the most immediate consequences would be, that goods to the amount of perhaps twenty times more than there is a demand for, would be exported from Great Britain to India. Of this amount, nineteen-twentieths would remain on hand, to be returned to Europe at a double expence of freight and insurance, or to rot in the warehouses of India; while even the one-twentieth for which there might be a demand, would, from the glut in the market, necessarily be sold greatly below prime cost. It must be,

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therefore, by singular caution and singular intelligence, or extreme good fortune, that any of the private adventurers, who might rashly embark in such a traffic, should escape being ruined. The Commanders and Officers of the Company's Ships, and consequently the tradesmen with whom they deal, would largely participate in the general calamity. Even the Company could not fail to suffer essential injury from so disastrous a competition. With respect to the Manufacturers, they would remain unpaid, to the extent of more than nineteen-twentieths of the goods sold, unless the adventurers could pay them out of their private fortunes. And all these evils would be unaccompanied, and uncompensated for, by any ultimate increase in the quantity of British Manufactures consumed in, or exported to, India. On the contrary, in some instances, the exports might be expected to diminish. The article of Tin, for instance, which the Company have usually exported at a loss from Cornwall, might be procured at Malacca, Banca, and other parts of India, at a cheaper rate, for the supply of the China market. And with respect to Woollens, what individual Merchants could, or would, like the Company, sacrifice £.50,000 annually, on this article alone, in order to encourage to the utmost the manufactures of the country? These are sacrifices, which, if the trade were laid open to private Ships, the Company could not be expected, even if they were able, to continue.

Supposing the intercourse with China, notwithstanding this measure, to remain uninterrupted, and the usual quantities of these articles to continue in demand, could the gentlemen of Cornwall and the manufacturers of Woollens, rationally expect from private adventurers equal liberality in prices, or punctuality in payments, as they have always experienced from the East India Company? Most certainly not: but, on the contrary, confusion, disappointment, and loss to all parties would inevitably ensue. Many years must elapse, and an extensive scene of ruin take place, before the trade, thus circumstanced, could find its level; i. e. before it could return to its original state. It is, therefore, obvious that the distresses of the mercantile and manufacturing bodies, which it seemed in part to be the professed intention of this measure to relieve, would be thereby highly aggravated.

I shall here cite a few historical facts, which will aptly illustrate the pernicious consequences, on the markets both in India and Britain, which must flow from the unlimited intercourse of private Ships between the two countries. They will also incidentally show the incapability, arising from the allotment of certain casts of the natives of India to particular occupations, of increasing the products of industry in that country, to correspond with any great or sudden increase of demand.

The Merchant Adventurers, who, in 1656-7, traded to India, under licenses or commissions, from Cromwell, in writing to their Commanders and Factors, on the low state of the markets for Indian produce in England, inform them "that the number of disconnected interlopers, or private Merchants, had much increased; and that they had brought home great quantities of Indian Commodities, of inferior quality, particularly Cottons, Drugs, and Spices, which had overstocked the market.” '

They are also complained of in their turn by the Servants of the Company. For we are told, that "the interferences of the supercargoes and shipping of the Merchant Adventurers had rendered the purchase of investments almost impracticable: these private, but now authorized traders, had brought out large quantities of English Goods, and sold them below prime cost, and with the money, with which they had been intrusted, had given high prices for such Indian articles as they had collected." These are the complaints of the Company's Servants at Surat.

From Fort St. George, they complain that the Merchant Adventurers had "sold their European imports at low rates, and bought Indian Articles at advanced prices, which had rendered it impracticable to conform to the orders of the Court, to purchase an investment of the finest goods, that would yield a profit to the proprietors. The Ships of the Adventurers had touched, and made purchases at the ports of Negapatnam, Porto Novo, and Tranquebar, and by exorbitant prices, had drained the country of goods; which had reduced the Presidency to the necessity of

Vide Bruce's Annals of the East India Company.-Vol. I. p. 521.

2 Ibid. p. 523.