vices may be understood, the allowance to the Nabob appears still to stand at the reduced sum of £160,000.

Native officers.

The other resource of the Mahomedans, and of the Gentoos of certain of the higher casts, was the army. In this army, nine-tenths of which consist of natives, no native, of whatever description, holds any rank higher than that of a subadar commandant, that is, of an officer below the rank of an English subaltern, who is appointed to each company of the native soldiery.

All lucrative employments

in the hands of the English.

Your committee here would be understood to state the ordinary establishment, for the war may have made some alteration: all the honourable, all the lucrative, situations of the army, all the supplies and contracts, of whatever species, that belong to it, are solely in the hands of the English; so that whatever is beyond the mere subsistence of a common soldier, and some officers of a lower rank, together with the immediate expenses of the English officers at their table, is sooner or later, in one shape or another, sent out of the country.

Such was the state of Bengal even in time of profound peace, and before the whole weight of the public charge fell upon that unhappy country for the support of other parts of India, which had been desolated in such a manner as to contribute little or nothing to their own protection.

of trade;

Your committee have given this short compaFormer state rative account of the effects of the maritime traffic of Bengal when in its natural state, and as it has stood since the prevalence of the system of an investment from the revenues. But before the formation of that system, Bengal did by no means depend for its resources on its maritime commerce. The inland trade, from whence it derived a very great supply of silver and gold, and many kinds of merchantable goods, was very considerable.-The higher provinces of the Mogul empire were then populous and opulent, and intercourse to an immense amount was carried on between them and Bengal. A great trade also passed through these provinces from all the countries on the frontier of Persia, and the frontier provinces of Tartary, as well as from Surat and Baroach on the western side of India. These parts opened to Bengal a communication with the Persian Gulf, and with the Red Sea, and through them with the

whole Turkish and the maritime parts of the Persian empire, besides the commercial intercourse which it maintained with those and many other countries through its own seaports.

and the trade

to Turkey.

During that period the remittances to the Mogul's treasury from Bengal were never very large, at least for any considerable time; nor very regularly sent; and the impositions of the state were soon repaid with interest through the medium of a lucrative commerce. But the disorders of Persia, since the death of Kouli Khân, have wholly destroyed the trade of that country; and the trade to Turkey, by Judda and Bussorah, which was the greatest, and perhaps the best branch of the Indian trade, is very much diminished. The fall of the throne of the Mogul emperors has drawn with it that of the great marts of Agra and Delhi. The utmost confusion of the north-western provinces followed this revolution, which was not absolutely complete until it received the last hand from Great Britain. Still greater calamities have fallen upon the fine provinces of Rohilcund and Oude, and on the countries of Corah and Allahabad. By the operations of the British arms and influence, they are in many places turned to mere deserts, or so reduced and decayed as to afford very few materials or means of commerce.

State of trade in the Carnatic.

Such is the actual condition of the trade of Bengal since the establishment of the British power there. The commerce of the Carnatic, as far as the inquiries of your committee have extended, did not appear with a better aspect, even before the invasion of Hyder Ali Khân, and the consequent desolation, which for many years to come must exclude it from any considerable part of the trading system.

It appears on the examination of an intelligent person concerned in trade, and who resided at Madras for several years, that on his arrival there, which was in the year 1767, that city was in a flourishing condition, and one of the first marts in India; but when he left it in 1779 there was little or no trade remaining, and but one ship belonging to the whole place. The evidence of this gentleman purports, that at his first acquaintance with the Carnatic, it was a well-cultivated and populous country, and as such consumed many articles of merchandise; that at his departure he left it much

circumscribed in trade, greatly in the decline as to population and culture, and with a correspondent decay of the territorial revenue.

Your committee find, that there has also been from Madras an investment on the Company's account, taking one year with another, very nearly on the same principles, and with the same effects, as that from Bengal; and they think it is highly probable, that, besides the large sums remitted directly from Madras to China, there has likewise been a great deal on a private account, for that_and other countries, invested in the cash of foreign and European powers trading on the coast of Coromandel. But your committee have not extended their inquiries relative to the commerce of the countries dependent on Madras so far as they have done with regard to Bengal. They have reason to apprehend, that the condition is rather worse; but if the House requires a more minute examination of this important subject, your committee is willing to enter into it without delay.

III.-EFFECT OF THE REVENUE INVESTMENT ON THE

COMPANY.

HITHERTO, your committee has considered this system of revenue investment, substituted in the place of a commercial link between India and Europe, so far as it affects India only they are now to consider it as it affects the Company. So long as that corporation continued to receive a vast quantity of merchantable goods without any disbursement for the purchase, so long it possessed wherewithal to continue a dividend to pay debts, and to contribute to the state. But it must have been always evident to considerate persons, that this vast extraction of wealth from a country, lessening in its resources in proportion to the increase of its burthens, was not calculated for a very long duration. For a while the Company's servants kept up this investment, not by improving commerce, manufactures, or agriculture, but by forcibly raising the land-rents on the principles and in the manner hereafter to be described. When these extortions disappointed, or threatened to disappoint, expectation, in order to purvey for the avarice which raged in England, they sought for expedients in breaches of all the

agreements, by which they were bound by any payment to the country powers, and in exciting disturbances among all the neighbouring princes. Stimulating their ambition, and fomenting 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 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 unfavourable aspect," in the year 1779 they rate the 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 £700,000. 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 enabled the board of trade, in April, 1781, to grant certificates for government bonds at 8 per cent. interest for about £650,000. The investment was fixed at £900,000.

But now another alarming system appeared. These 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 3 to 8, 9, and 10 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 4 per cent.; which, with the interest on the bonds, made (besides the earlier advance) at the least 12 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.