The Sun. — London, England, 1812-04-02 00:00:00

PAPEItS RESPECTING the NEGO,CIATIOAI FOR A RENEWIIL OF THE EAST.INDIA COMPANY's .EXCLUSIVE .PRIVILEGES. yo. SECRET-COURT OF DIRECTORS. LETTER FROM THE,CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY CHAIR- MAN TO THE RIGHT HON. R. DUNDAS; NOTICED IN TJIE PRECEDIdG SINUTE; [Continued from yeiterday.] ' • East India House, fan. 'l3, 1809. tat,—The letter which you did us the honour to address to us on the 28th of last month, 'on the inn plirtant subject of a -renewal of the Company's . Charter, has received the most serious consideration of the Court of Directors; and we are, by their una . nilnons resolution instructed, to submit to you the folloWing answer to,it. The Court having, in the letter which we had. the honour to address, to you on the 16th of last Month, thought it sufficient, to sketch the outlines of those principles and propositions Which should, in their opinion, form the basis of 'a new Charter, and the reply you have been pleased to make to it, declaring - the same intention of stating observations 'merely preliminary, and '" not the result of any plan or projected system, matured in concert with his Ma "- • jesty's confidential servants," our present letter will abstain from any disctissio'n of minor points-, those especially relating to the proceedings of the Court of Dire: tors with servants of the Company returned from India, to which article your letter is under stood to ,allude; and likewise from 'some other points, connect Ad with the exercise of their autho thy at borne, s‘Uich may be found to require re-, Vi6i4JD and modification. Neit!.er can it be neces sary now to go into the. •übject of Indian Ex penditure, although it is impossible, after the no tice'taken of it in your letter, to omit saying, that the Court will feel with the liveliest solicitude, bow indispensable it is to reduce thlit article far below the income, and are deter tnined to act accordingly. The attention of the Coult will, therefore, be confined, at presext,. to two propositions of 'the highest importance contained in your letter ;• . the one suggesting such an enlargement of the trade, of indiViduals with British India, as shall admit into it indiscriminately the merchants and the ships of thiS couotry ; and the other, thetransfer of the Company's Indian army, to his Majesty. If these Propositions had not been accompauied by the de claration with which your letter concludes, they would have filled the Court . with the deepest con ' cern ; but you'are -pleased to close the whole of your obsepations with an assurance, " that it will be the earnest desire of his Majesty's Government to suggest to Parliament such a system only, as shall be conformable to the principles on which the regulations of 1784 and 1793 were founded, .as will secure to,this kingdoin alfthe benefit that can prac tically be derived from its trade with our rossessions in India, and to the natives of those countries a go vernment, and' an administration of laws, suited to then= customs, _habits,. and prejudices, and con sistent with the British character, and which shall also be strong and efficient, without adding tin necessarily to the authority of the Executive Government at home or increasing, to any dan gerous extent, the influence of the Crown." .Satis fied, by this declaration; that his Majesty's Govern ment understand the lute r:sts of this country and of British India ,too well to intend any alteration that Would subvert or endanger the system by which . these cast possessions have been acquired, governed, and improsed, and which alone they can be held, to the mutual cenefit of their immense popUlation and of the paramount state, the Court must, of course, believe that the propositions which have just been quoted are supposed to hi& compatible with the continuance of that system, or reducible to a con sistency with it. These suppositions the Court are now called upon to ex.amin'e, and they will endea vour to do so with • the respeCt due to the authority • with which they have to treat, with the duty which they owe to their constituents, and with that regard lot the . interests of their country. which they do not *intend, nor teel - thentselvei required to sink, in sup porting- the integrity of the present Indian system. • If either - of eke two propositions respetting the Indian trade and the indian.• army were to be aced upon in the sense which the terms of ii seem obvi, ouslyto convey, the Court have no hesitation in de daring their decided convietion, that, it would effec tually supersede .and &.stroy, not merely' the r gilts ot*the East India Company, but the' system of En dianadminisiration,. established .by the Acts of 1764 and-1793 ; and with res Peel to the latter proposi ti•n, for the transfer of the native army, it appears to be incapable . of , any modification, which would riot still - make the overthrow' of the present system the certain consequence of it. The Court will take the libefty to stale the reasons on which these opi rtions are founded, with as much , folineis as - the bOunds of a letter, and (he diSpatch necessary at this , period,' will permit ; premising only, that in the tithe and spate to which they must now confine thernselvesymany things, belongitfg to the consider ation of both suhjeas, Must be omitted.. . With respect to the Private Trade, the Company are not ‘ governol by*narrow considerations of com mercial profit or commercial jealousy ; and in fact, the Indian trade,. as . an object of gain,, has gradually ceased to be of importance, either. to the Compaoy or to. individuals. The admission into it-already accorded to British 'residents in India, with the. irodigious.. increase of ' the cotton manofactures of Europe, the changed circumstances of the Euto . pean Contineot, and the almost incessant wars which have* prevailed for the last sixteen' years .(wars still without' any near prospect .of -,termina . tiori) have reduced the value of that trade to a very low point. The Court arc actuated by a thorough persuasion, that the 'unlimited freedori3, for which some persons have of late" years contended, would bare politic?' consequences More • injurioui to th power of 'this. country arid of British 'lndia, than , the advan t ages anticipated by sanguine minds, from en enlargement of the'conimerce• could compen sate; it those advantages were to be tealisert ; and noire.lover, exptctatoo of such advantages iiti brifoontld, - resulting from general piesumptions, which are cororadcted by theseaturo of the Indian , . d . plied With it. fron t t many., 'rer qoar , en, iq rv -4 Very likely. The culture of hem) in India - is yrt in its infancy.. A cli7inge in the cir: umstances of EA. , - lope tnay•check it ; but if it is not , checked, must elapse before the q'rantity produced can to, fr! a Considerabls article of exportation. And h regard to both these commodities of tOtttin,to:d hemp, it is to be observed; first, that cargoes for Europe cannot, be composed of theM only; ko,;! other more ponderous in its bulk, being nre , §s ., ry (or dead Weight, and 'sugar, almost the only articl, of this nature that India can supply, must generally he rather a losing one. Secondly, it - is to be . obset‘e,i, that the private ships `ready to be employed ill lo,tia; must be abundantly stitticient for the supply Of :di the tornage that can be required for these artltlryß which could hardly absorb'any very large amount of capital. Ibus then,•it is also apparent, that country and prOduetions of India afford no new ticid of importance for. the commercial enterciise of this merchants of Great Britain. Bait were it indeed otherwise, where, in the pre sent circumstances of the European Contittehr, couldnw find a commodities, imported into thi s ' countr y coam from India; when many of illo4e already made, and of articles which the Continent used cci take off, remain in our wateliouses? And heard may a; pear the inapplicability of that argument, which has sometimes been urged in favour of enlarg - , ing, or rather opening i t he Indian trade toindivickais; "that they should be allowed to bring home thil surplus product; of India which the Company did not require.". There can be no room for additional importations when the ordinary scale proves too large. But in the use of this plausible plea, respeeling surplus pro= duce, there was,always a great fallacy. It seemed to imply, that these was a 'stook of commodities it India %hid continually remained undisposed 'whereas nothing is more evident than that the pro- • 'cludions of any country will be regulated by the de- . mand, and that • no agriculturists or, manutacturert will go on from year to year to produce that for, . which they have no sale. The tem, as conneeted . with the Company, might also convey the idea, that they were the only .purchasers in the country; • whereas, at that very time British residents and U , reign nations- had the privilege of exporting goods to the western world, and there was a great coastiV and internal trade from one part of India to another: But the argument for permitting individuals to ex-. port the surplus produce, included - fully, though not professedly,. the principle of transplanting capital to India, in order to .raise produce there ; principle which, it may be thought, this country • already carried sufficiendy far in its other distant d pendencies, and which could not be applied to Indi‘i, without political consequences. But it has been , alleged, that the refusal of they Company to make a concession, which appeared to them to be claimed on unsound principles, and to bepregnant, with danger, threw that trade Which might have been brought into the Thames, into the hands of foreigners, pazticularly the Americans. whose great progress in the Indian trade, of late'. years, has been charged to an erroneous policy ots the part of the Company. Nothing can be more mistaken than the whole of this statement. Seve , • tal European nations having from the native sove reigns of India the right of possessing settlements: and carrying On trade there, a right which we 1)4 confirmed, we could not interrupt the exercise of it whilst they remained at peace with us; nor, there-' tore divert from them whatever. portion of the trade their means enabled them to -embrace. And with 'respell to the Americans, they owe their advance-' tnent and success in the Indian trade to the treaty' made with them by . our Government in 1794, to tho belligerent state of Europe since that time, and abov all, IQ the neutral character they possessed, , which enabled them to navigate more cheaply, 'enure expe'_: ditiously, as well as more safely than our mercletets or Company could, and to supply many pat tsot the European Continent and of South Arnerica, i t o which our ships had no access.. These, ,with tl a increase' of the consumption of eastern commodities, araeng themselves, are the true causes•of the growth of American 'trade with India ; and even the.abolit;cto of the Company's privileges could not Fave Irene - ferred t he .5 harc - they acquired el it to our merchints. • because i it could not hale 'lessened theadteintageo under which the Americans then carried it on, n or have gained us either the supply of their hoe , toil de" ' mand, oradmiSsion to many ports which v.ere open to them. What the Company could do, in the waY of regulation, to reduce the inequality between the 'American traders and our own Inercbai i t s ; y ou k no w.' Sir, wai effeded, as soon after the expiration of tits treaty of 1794, as,hislVlajeit) Government thought expedient. [To be continued tilit I Il.) On Thursday last, Mrs, Martncw,l-lolland, of Sackvilic street °fa Son. , • . _ On Monday„ at her father's house, Clapham-road, Lady Of Colonel George Cookson, k. A of a Daughter. The same thy, at Shnehimpton, Gloucestershire, tll's Lady of Captain Rowland Money,' ot a Son • On Tuesday last, Mrs.,Cdok, of Woodbridge-House, iu Clerkenwell, of a Daughter. Yesterday, at his house in Grosvenor-place, the Laay-c* R. Cox, of a Daughter. .11.4kR1&D. On Saturday last, Mr. George Hopkinson, rf Skinners. Hall, Solici , or, to Miss Shortridge, of Nefson.sqoare, On Sunday morning last, at St. Philip's Church, mingltam, Mr. john Gorle, of Ruli-steer, to Miss Leigh, daughter of bl. Leigh, of the Saracen's Head - lint. - On Tuesday, at Northampton, 13, M. Wilcox, E sti . at Seymour-place, to Sophia Ann, daughter of the late 13. VanderguJit,. Esq. of Lbwer 1510 A-street. The saute day, at Mary.lelbonne Church, Mr. T. Scott, Old Bond-street, to Miss FranCes Cairo.!, of Lower tierke• ley streer," Port man.square. DIED 13 On the rgth ult. at Dortgater,William Danser, Esq. tort tnerly of the Both Grenadiers, and. late Lieutemott-Culone of the Itbyats, or Ist Regiment of Foot. P . _ On friday the zoth ult. in,the 3lst year of his age, Wil., Liam Catupoeli, EA]: of the Transport Office. On Nloraley inormni the 231 ulr. Mts.. Keyser, wife 0 1 ' 'E. 1: Ke)ser, Esq. of Artillery-place. On Friday last, at her house in flrompton4row, Mrs; Adarni, relief of Thomas Maxwell Adams, Esq. of the Island of Bar hadoes. On 1 riday !nettling, Mary, the wife. of William North, Esq. of Chelsea,. in the 67th year of her age. '' • Lately, after a few days illness, in the 31st year of his age, Mr. lohn Darhon, Wine-cooper. of Mary.le.bonne-street ► Golden_square. On Good Friday, Mr. John Gresham, •Master of the Free School at Dunstable. On Sunday morning, at her house in Manchester-street, Mrs: Mary Dyer, 'wile of Mark Dyer, ksq. bf Alphingtou, De.,;on,lure. j,Wsl) , :•• • :ei hx- 1,0,1 S Ou I.), of 50„,3 5 , ti,aidei. lane, Covent-garden; and Published by WYII LIAM A RMI GE R SCRI PPS, ,South Multon,street; Gruvepor.squure, At the SUN 01 IcE, No, Ile, Strand, where “isements, Orders for the Paper ; letters for the Zditor, ecc. (post-paid), must be addressed. people, climate, and .roatictiotts, arid by the eittie= rience of more than- two centuries. #u any scheme of intercourse, purely commercial, between this country end India, the leading objects Must be to export as many as possible of our bOrne manufactures, and to import those commodities which would either beneficially supply our own con sumption., or the demand of other conntries, Euro pean or Transatlantic : and it is,, nodoubt, imagined by many persons, that if the trade to India were per fedly free e kliese objects could be attained,' in a de gree exteuding far beyond its present scale. The ardour of individual enterprise, it will 'be thought, could,find out channels, which the settled routine of a Company cannot explore, and carry 'on coin mer dal operations more economically and expeditiously than suits with the habits of monopoly, whilst ours most active rivals in the Indian trade would thus be' best counteraded. The present time's, it will also be said, peculiarly demand new attempts and d-s -coveries in commerce ; and his-Majesty's Govern ment may very naturally wish, at such a crisis, to procure for the country every possible facility for the exertion of its commercial spirit, ahci the ern- . ploynaent of its commercial capital. But . before .a change, in its principle altogether novel, and obvi ously conneeled with national interests ot abehighest importance, is adopted, it ought to be seep, not only on what rational grounds the expedation of advan - - tages entertained from it rests, but to what Collsd (peaces so material a change might expose the.coun try and its Indian dependencies.. a Now, with respect to the' benefits supposed to be 'derivable from opening the trade with India, it is, in the first piece, to be Observed e thit no material enlargement, if any entargenient at all, is to he ex •pedled in the exports of cur manufaelures to that ',quarter. The records of the Compaq, for .two centuries, are tilled with accounts of their ndeavours to extend the sale of British fieoduCts in laidia, and of the little success which has attended them. The French, Dutch, and other European nations trading *thither, have equally failed in introducing theana nufaetures pf Europe there., This was not owing to their trading chiefly-in the form of Companies : the Americans; who within the last 20 years have entered into the Indian commerce, and traded large-- ly, not atsn company, but by numerous inclividu,lla, each pursuing his own , scherne in his own way,. in which course no part of the .East is left _onexPlored, carry hardly any European manufactures thither, their chief article for the purchase. of Indian goods, being silverla and such has been the sta'e of the trade from-Europe to-India since the time of the Roa mans., This state results•from the nature of the Indian.people ; their climate, and their usages. The articles of .first necessity-their own country furnishes mere abundantly., and more cheaply than it is pos sible for Europe to supplythem. Tie labour of the great body of the common people only enables them to subsist on -rice, and to wear a slight covering of cotton cloth; they, therefore, can purchase none of the superfluities we offer them. The comparatively . few in better circumstances, restrided, like the aist, by numerous 'religious and civil customs, of which all are remarkably tenacious, find few of our cointno dities to their taste ; and their climate, so dissimilar to ours, renders many of them unsuitable to their use; so that a commerce between them and us can not proceed far from the principle of supplying mutual wants. Hence, except woollens, in a very limited degree, for mantles in the cold season, and metals, on a scale also very limited, to be worked up by their own artizans for the few utensils they need, hardly any of our staple commodities find a vent atnong the Indians ; -the ot her exports which. Europe sends to India being chiefly consumed by the En ropean population t here, and some of the descend ants of the early Portuguese settlers, all of whom, taken colleCtively, formbUtaa small body, in view to any question of national commerce. What is here said, does not relate only to those partsof India where the Company have settlements or faCtories; but to all the shores that embrace the Indian Seas, from - the Golf of -Persia and Arabia to ' the Eastern' Archipelago. Many advocates for a free trade tray suppose, that in so vast a range, nu merous positions, favourable for the vent of- Euro• pear commodities, are still unexplored; but they are not aware, that in the British settlements which themselves extend on the west to Cambay, and on the east to China; there are a number of merchants, native and European, who carry on what is called the coasting trade of India, with great spirit, sending their ships to every mart, insular or continental, where any profitable commodities can be either sold or bought. At all those marts, European commo dities have been tried by the enterprise of iedi- , riduals. .The little demand that has been found for there has been supplied ; and re•idents, settled in India, can carry into such parts the trade in Euro pean commodities, which it is now open to them to reeeive from this, country, with more facility arid advantage - than merchants settled in England. ' To the'se fads and observations,. arising from the .nature and circumstances 'of, the people and coun tries of India, one' remarkable argument may be added, furnished by our own ex i erience at home. In the Chatter - of-1793, provision efts made for the export of gritish reanufactures to India, by any in dividuals who might choose to embark in that trade. The Company were required to find them tonnage to a certain extent, which has always been allotted' at a rate of freight cheaper outward, as well as for the returns, than the Company themselves pay.or, as the Court think, than private ships could turnigh it. But, in all the time that has elapsed since, very few applications, and these to a small extent, have .been made, for leave to export the woollens, metals, and other staples of this country, on private account, the chief applications having been for the freight of wine, for the consumption of Europeans :.and this is not properly a British production, nor is it so much air increase in the trade, as a transfer of it to the private merchants from the commanders and at - Titers of - the Company's ships, part of whose ad vantage usedari arise from being the carriers of this 0.1,1 - nudity. All these_ circumstances, to which other corro borations might be added, the Court trust will fully evince, ''that the entire opening of the Indian trade to the merchants of this country, would not, iii re ality, extend in any considerable degree, it at all, the consumption of British manufactures. Let•it, be inquired, in the next-place, whether, the adoption of so great a change in our Indian tysterri, Woulci be folibwed tv the disdoVeiY of sit h new and valuable produaions of the East, as would serve materially to augment the trade of this country with, the Continents of Eurnpe add America ; for, with regard tb the supply of our home consumption of Indian commodities it cannot be as serted that .the importations already made .by the Company aed individuals do not abundantly suffice for it, or may not, at any time, be extended to the exigencies of the market ; in which, it may be noted, th ht a preference is given to the cotton and silk inattotaetures of our own country, and to Sortie of the' tropical produ6tions brought trom our West India colonies. Nor can it be asserted, that new adventurers in the .Eastern trade„fitting out from. Great Britain, could,. with any profit to theaiselves, _furnish the home consumption on cheaper terms than it is now supplied . ; for both the'Company and British individuals resident in India, must have an advantage over such adventurers in the provision of goods teere (British residents.in the freight also) ; and yet, oflate, the great Indian staple of cotton piece goods has been a losing erode in this country.. Now, as to the productions of India, valuable for foreign commerce, the, trade of European, of differ ent nations, to all parts of it- in the course of the last three centuries, may well be presumed to have - left little for .discovery in that way. The .Portuguese, who, in their early time, spread themselves along ail the shores of the East, explored every considerable part of it, and they were followed by the Dutch, English, and. French Companies, with their tnne eels establishments, some of which extended inland to the Upper India. But the modern European tneretiants resident in the East, who have long been the chief navigators and adventurers in what is called the ,coasting trade, have become well acquainted with the commercial capacity of every region washed by the Indian seas ; so that many countries, sup posed here to be little known, because by the ships of Europe, are larrailiar to them, and whatever articles those Countries ftirnish, valuable for the commerce of the West, are already conveyed, through the medium of private or foreign trade, to Europe. . The chief . commodities. suited to the .European Market, which India has hithertO been found to produce, are spices, pepper, drugs, sugar, coffee, raw silk, saltpe:ee, indigo, raw cotton, and above all, cotton,manufailures of singular beauty and in endless variety. These last have, as already inti mated, forined, from time immemorial, the grand staple, of India ; but, from the rise and excellence of similar manufactures in Europe, particularly in our own country, and from,the general impoverishment which veers and revolutions have brought upon the Continent of Europe; with the obstruCtions opposed, in much the greater part of it, to our commerce, the Consumption of the fine fabrics of India has consie • derabiy decreased,. and it is not likely that it can be restored to its former standard. Spices, sugar, and coffee, have been, furnished chiefly from the .Mo luccas and Java, Dutch - i.lands not in our eiossses e sion, nor, in a commercial vieW, ,Worth the expense of conquering and keeping, them. The cinnamon of Ceylon, now ours, may be brought, in sufficient quantity for the supply of ail Europe, in one ot. two of the Company's snips. , Pepper is a very losing ar ticle. Sugar has been of late, imported from our territories ; but the necessary expense of convey ance from set great distance, prevents it from being profitable, and it can be mech, encouraged only at the expense of our West. India colonies. Raw silk and indigo now produced in great perfeCtion.in Ben gal and its dependencies, have been brought to that state, by the expense incurred, and the support af forded by-the Company. Both are articles occupy ing little space, in proportion to their'value. The flatories where the former is colle&ed and prepared, are in the hands of the Company, wild have, 'in the course 'of many years, established themwith great labour and expense. They can furnish not only all the raw:silk this country requires, but much for the consumption of the Continent, it it was po i ssible to bring it thereinto competitipit with the raw-silk of Italy, ; and the tonnage already employed - by the Company is quite sufficient for its importation from India. The Indigo produced in Bengal and the ad jacent provinces is equal e probably, to three-fourths of the demand of all Europe, and may easily be raised to . the whole demand ; but the manutacture of this article is entirely; and the trade in it chiezly, in the hands of individuals, who need and require no-ship ping from this . country, except what the Company provide, to convey to Europe all that Europe can consume of it. • Saltpetre, furnished only from Bengal, is, for political masons,' prohibited to fo reigners, and exported exclusively in the ships of the Company : for the Same reasons,' it could never be prudent to allow the private ships of this country to carry it away at pleasure. Where, then, is the scope for the,admission of new shipping•and adventurers, without limitation, into the trade of India with Great .Britain? In general, it may be'observede that the commodities which have hitherto come from that country, in a state prepared for use, such as the great staple of cot ton piece goods, being articles of luxury, can have only .a limited , consumption, and that the demand for thetn could not be increased, at all in proportion to the number of new ,competitors that should enter into the trade: The same may be said of all klnds of spices and drugs, which, from their nature, have a Limited consumption ; and with re gard to the importent articles of raw silk and indigo, wntch require a further preparation before they are used, there is already abundant . provision made for" their importation to the utmost extent of dee mand. There remains to be considered, of. all the coin- • modities above enumerated, only the raw material of cotton ; and to this may be added another, of high importance, which India is in time likely to produce abundantly,—namely herop. Now, with respe6t to the former - of these, ft he Company hate . formerly imported it, and permitted private mer chants so to do; but it was found that the cotton of India could not enter into competition with that produced nearer home, in the Brazil', tiro We-t In dies and North America. 01 late, since the -inter ruption of our trade with the las: mentioned country, the Company have themselves commissioned cotton from India, and have been willing to encourage in dividuals to export it from thence : but that it can support a competition with the cotton of Georgia, v. hen the AMerican embargo is taken off, or t;ecoMe an ankle of extensive demand in this country, sup-