checking the general prosperity of the country: if they, set it free, means were taken to raise the price and debase the quality, of the goods; and this again fell upon the Revenues, out of which the payment for the goods was to arise. The observations of the Company on that occasion, are just and sagacious; and they will not permit the least doubt concerning the policy of these unnatural trades. "The amount of our Bengal cargoes, from. “ 1769 to 1773, is 2,901,194 pounds Sterling, and "if the average increase of price be estimated at "twenty-five per cent. only, the amount of such ❝ increase is 725,298 pounds Sterling." "The. "above circumstances are exceedingly, alarming "to us; but what, must be our concern to find by "the advices of our President and Council of 1773, that a further advance of forty per cent. on Ben"gal goods was expected, and allowed to be, the, consequence of advertisements, then published, authorizing a free trade in the service?" find the Duanné Revenues are in general farmed: for five years, and the aggregate increase estir mated at only 183,170 pounds. Sterling (on a. "supposition that such increase will be realized); yet if the annual Investment be sixty lacks, and "the advance of price thirty per cent. only, such "advance will exceed the increase of the Revenue " by no less than 829,330 pounds Sterling.

"We

The indignation, which the Directors felt at being

reduced

reduced to this distressing situation, was expressed to their servants in very strong terms. They attri buted the whole to their practices, and say,

1

We

are far from being convinced that the competi tion, which tends to raise the price of goods in "Bengal, is wholly between publick European "Companies, or between Merchants in general, "who export to foreign markets: we are rather of "opinion, that the sources of this grand evil have "been the extraordinary privileges granted to ins "dividuals in our service, or under our license, to "trade without restriction throughout the pro"vinces of Bengal; and the encouragement they "have had to extend their trade to the uttermost, ❝even in such goods as were proper for our Investment, by observing the success of those persons, "who have from time to time found means to dis 66 pose of their merchandise to our Governour and "Council, though of so bad a quality as to be sold "here with great difficulty; after having been fre"quently refused; and put up at the next sale "without price, to the very great discredit and "disadvantage of the Company" In all proba bility the Directors were not mistaken; for, upon an inquiry instituted soon after, it was found that Cantu Babu, the Banian, or Native steward and manager to Mn Hastings (late President) held two' of these contracts in his own name and that of his son for considerably more than £. 150,000. This discovery

H4

discovery brought on a prohibition from the Court of Directors of that suspicious and dangerous dealing in the stewards of persons in high office. The same man held likewise farms to the amount of £. 140,000 a year of the Landed Revenue, with the same suspicious appearance, contrary to the regulations made under Mr. Hastings's own administration.

In the mortifying dilemma, to which the Direc tors found themselves reduced, whereby the ruin of the Revenues either by the freedom or the restraint of trade was evident, they considered the first as most rapid and urgent; and therefore once more revert to the system of their ancient pre-emption, and destroy that freedom, which they had so lately and with so much solemnity proclaimed, and that before it could be abused or even enjoyed. They declare, that "unwilling as we are to return "to the former coercive system of providing an "Investment, or to abridge that freedom of com

merce, which has been so lately established int "Bengal, yet at the same time finding it our indis"pensable duty to strike at the root of an evil, "which has been so severely felt by the Company, "and which can no longer be supported, we hereby "direct that all persons whatever in the Com"pany's service, or under our protection, be abso lutely prohibited, by publick advertisement, from "trading in any of those articles, which compose

" our

our Investment, directly or indirectly, except on "account of and for the East-India Company, "until their Investment is completed."

J

As soon as this order was received in Bengal, it was construed, as indeed the words seemed directly to warrant, to exclude all natives, as well as servants, from the trade, until the Company was supplied. The Company's pre-emption was now authoritatively re-established, and some feeble and ostensible regulations were made to relieve the weavers, who might suffer by it. The Directors imagined that the re-establishment of their coercive system would remove the evil, which fraud and artifice had grafted upon one more rational and liberal. But they were mistaken; for it only varied, if it did so much as vary, the abuse. The servants might as essentially injure their interest by a direct exercise of their power, as by pretexts drawn from the freedom of the natives; but with this fatal difference, that the frauds upon the Company must be of shorter duration under a scheme of freedom. That state admitted, and indeed led to means of discovery and correction, whereas the system of coercion was likely to be permanent. It carried force further than served the purposes of those, who authorized it; it tended to cover all frauds with obscurity, and to bury all complaint in despair. The next year therefore, that is in the year 1776, the Company, who complained that their orders

had

had been extended beyond their intentions, made a third revolution in the trade of Bengal. It was set free again; so far at least as regarded the native merchants; but, in so imperfect a manner, as evidently to leave the roots of old abuses in the ground. The Supreme Court of Judicature about, this time (1776) also fulminated a charge against monopolies, without any exception of those authorized by the Company. But it does not appear that any thing very material was done in consequence of it.

The trade became nominally free; but the course of business, established in consequence of coercive monopoly, was not, easily altered. In order to render more distinct the principles, which led to the establishment of a course and habit of business, so very difficult to change, as long asi those principles exist, Your Committee, think it will not be useless here to enter into the history of the regulations made in the first and favourite matter of the Company's Investment, the trade in raw Silke, from the commencement of these regu lations to the Company's, perhaps, finally abandoning all share in, the trade, which was their object.