The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1810-06-22 00:00:00

PAPERS

RELATING. TO
EAST INDIA AFFAIRS.

tOribeed b tbb House of Coutonoss to
Mt, IBM]

Printed, May

Ito.l.—Exposition of the State of the Company's Finances,
at home and abroad :—SuMnitted to the Honourable
Committee of the Home of Commons, appointed to take
Sato coanderatiou the affairs of the East toilia Company.
1. The p.,cii.iary embarrassments of the Conn-
pony at home, began to be seriously felt in the
course of year 18054; and the e tune. of them
can be 1' lv traced. In the course of the year
1802, num, one peace or Amiens, a Oat', which is
detailed tit the Indian Budget of March 11..03, was
adopted for the liciuida!ion of the !whin d. ht.—
One part of that plan was to increase the annall
di,posable surplus ari-ing from all the Company's
tempts, territorial and commercial, abroad and tit
home, by Nee retrelichm, tits in the expenditure,
sod by additional profits to accrue from augmented
investments to and from Indio and China. In pur-
' *wince of this principle, the exports to those coun-
tries were couaideratify increased both lii goods and
bullion, in the years 1803 and 1803 ; but the war
which hail been commenced in flindinisiaii against
the Malirsttas is 1803, absorbed a large part
of those supplies, particularly the bullion. fhe
same cause hail materially affected the credit
of the Company's paper in India; the provision of
the extraordinary supplies required for carrying on
the war became more difficult and expensive, and
particularly the procuring of money at the station.
.d.nase Presidencies for bills on Bengal, was attended
with a veil heavy loss to the Compsuy. Impelled
by these considerations, the Court. of Directors,
when Lord Cornwallis went out in 1805, still con-
tinued their utmost efforts to stiviiit.on the supplies
to Inditaild China upon, the scale of the tan pre-
egding years, haring not oily in View the relief of
the fininces abroad, and the reduction of tithine,al
expense. but the hope of a speedy terinitiatiou of
hostiiites; and thence early returns proportioned to
the supplies had been sent abroad. Thos,
from the ht of March, 1803, to the lit of March,
1806, the amount of those supplies exceeded
the amount sent in the three years immediately
Preceding in the sum Of 2.712.326 i.; but this *AS
not .11.1 The Company's receipts for sales of L!..osis,
from Ist March, 1803, to the tat March 1806. fill
short of the receipts in three years immediately
preceding, in no less a gain than 3,468,6711. This
was partly owing to the diminished supplies of
iii-
vestment from I lid! a, on account of the war there,
and partly io the reduction of the prices of Indian
good. in the hatne market. the consequence of the
state of Eorope, and by vete large importations in
London, through the medium of British pnvste
laseeelia,it.. It is true, that la the same period of
three year, from M arch 1803, to March 1806, the
rill. of E‘clialige drawn on the Comp my -from
abroad were considerably less thim in the yore
years preceding; hut on a comparison of rectory'
and payments, from March 1803 to March 1806,
with dime orate three years immediately preceding,
the result stands
Persian', us account of investments,ofebarges
ea private trade, sad of Whereat a animates,
leas from isos w isnii 3,363,253
11Payssents, for exports, in goods and
for customs, freight, hills of exchange, of-
limes pay, and divides& two .
Total difference agaiiist the latter period L. 4,439.698

1.09.1.415

The paruculsirs of these stems will appear its the
'lemon, herewith submitted, No. I.

The Estimate laid before Parliament, on the IRth
July 111117, of the Company's Receipts and Dis-
bursements for •Isll7-8, *hewed a deficit of
11,213,796'. It was in consideration of the state of
Wags, exhibited by this *cerium, that the Com-
pany were, last year, empowered by law to increase
tlowr bonded debt two millions beyond the former
limit. As it must be atisfac•ory to the Committee
to know what were the real receipts and nay ments
or the tear IBn7•ts, they are stated in the accompa-
nying Account, No. 2, in which, likewise, for the
further satisfiiction of the Committee, a cumptrison
is uu,sir he meet' the estimated and real ire. ipt..
paytio ots of that year, chewing the exce,a or defi-
ciency of the estimate, and the manner in %%Lich
the actual deficit of wets was supplied hy means
of estencling the issue of Company's laMd-, and by
other ROC

The account No. 3, nr%t to be mentioned, is that
which ha. more i•ottieultate!y oceesiotted :ipplica-
thin tom the Court of Directors to His Maiest)'s
Guyeermirstt ; sod, in eniewcpiettee, A rt fereoce
of the awe or this Compauy's affairs to the
consideration of this Committee. It is an esti-
mate ~1 tne receipts and p'ayments of the COOl.
pang ft the 14 of March 1209. to the at of
March 1 rtti. in which, after taking credit for
the howls yet remaionig to be issued, con-
formably to the extended power given by the
Act of last year, the deficit appears to he 2,433,1051.
Credit is talon In this account for receipts on ac-
count of sales in 1803-9, to the amount of only
4,933.1451. To thew with what propriety this low
sum is assumed, the subsidiary account (D) is sub-
mitted. It ethihita the ettiwatet Amount of sales
fur the year 14074, with the edam/ amount of isles
in that year, and this again compared with the esti-
mate of roles now in question for the year Ma-%
distingui.iiiilig in both years the goods for boinc-
caroautuption and for exportation. It will in gene-
ral have appeared from the documents already re-
ferred to, particularly the statement No. 1, that the
deficiencies in the Company's home fund., for
mine past years, have arisen from exporting "nil
paying intsre on account of India and China,
than has beet' received it, the seine period
from the investments returned by those countries,
after deducting the necessary charges on them.—
The urgent causes which led to large exports of
goods and bullion. for several years, have been al-
ready explained. The export of bullion, how-
ever, ceased with the year 11105-6; but. on net-omit
of the nbotreetions raised on the Continent of Eu-
rope, to the diffusion of the productions of this
country there, and the many end urgent represen-
tations made by manufacturers, particularly in the
great branch of woollen% of the stagnation in their
trade. the Company. who have long made it a rule
to promote. to the utmost of their power, the ex-
portation of the staples of the mother country, al-
though it is well known, that. Rine! the commence-
ment of the war, iu 1793, they have, in general,

lost by them, and might often have sent out bul-
lion to more advautage, were unwilling, unless
compelled by the last lieces‘ity, to reduce their
provision of those .articles; and as the woolleos,
which constitnte • very large proportion of
their exports, are sent chiefly to China, the
returns from whence ore swore adequate, and
come to a better market, no considerable re-
duction could-have been made in the export of those
woollens, or of specie instead of them, without de-
ranging the usual scale of the retort's, and this
must have produced other inconveniences in re-
spect to the shipping which the Company are en-
gaged to employ, and to the state of the tea trade at
home. As another consequence of this unexam-
pled time, extraordinary supplies of troops, of mi-
litary and naval stores, have been sent in the last two
years, amid must be further provided for India and for
then cone. yance au additional quantity of shipping,
far beyond a hat the investment of the company Oat-
ward and homeward requiries, has been mid must vie:
mason!y be employed. Other political charges, pay-
able in Englasid, particularly to Military °dicers re-
tired and on furlough, have also increased. Moreover,
bills of exchange to a very large amount have been
drawn ou the company from I edit and China, either
in liquidation of Nihau debt, or for the supply of
the Canton Treasury with bullion; and it is unne-
cessary to say, that, for the payment of these Bills,
provision must be made. The freight, customs,
and other charges incident to the goods brought
home, are in like manner articles of unavoidable
obligation, sod must be defrayed from the produce
of the sales. All these concurring circumstances
of a failure in the usual sources of income, on the
one hand, and of large outgoings, commercial and
political, ordinary and extraordinary, on the other,
have nattir illy an,' necessarily continued to em-
barrass the home finances of the company, and to
present an alarming prospect for the year 18011-9.
But it is more particularly in the diminished re-
ceipts from India and China, especially the former,
that thm• recent einbarrassitient• are chiefly to be
look d for, and t,,e- inereused deficit in the years
1807-8, and 1808-9, are lii•tioctly to be referred
tot-

H r.e account (n.) Ite..eafter to be leseribed, it
wi,t n ti tit it the amount of Woo goods,
whit:h—
its 1799-9 %to ' L.4,667.29$
In 11104-11 ruc re.iuct
16.45-7 ft II to
la 1887-8 per art ..Bot C.) was 1,309,00)
And in 1806-9 per Ditto. is 1,191,213

Ihe cati.es of these progres.ive diminutions in
the sales ttiti,t he too sell widerstood to require
aoy partieutarexplanation. The sales or she China
investment., which are almost entirely foe home
egoattimption, have continued withoss't any very
inatyrial variation since the the year 1788-9. al-
though the factory at Canton is at this time con-
siderably indebted to the Company for the excess
of the suplilies it has received in some late years,
above its returns to Europe, us will be 'hewn
hereafter.

As therefore the payment% for exports, Bills of
Exchange, end other unavoidable outgoings, have
continued in the two last years nearly at the stand-
ard of the three preceding years, and the receipts
have fallen far below the staitihird, the cause of de-
ficit Loth in the past end present year. becomes at
Apvirete. This, however, will he better il-
lustrated lay the second pert of the aceotint No. 1.
in whirl' the comparison made lwtween the period
from March 180.1, to Nerd, 1806, with the period
from March MO, to March 1803, is carried on in
the seine manner from March 1806, to March
1808.

Cy comparing the receipts and payments in these
Pao years, with the.ar•rrage receipts and paytnent •
of two year% in the three front 1800 to 1803, they
will toa..d thus :
Receipts less L 3,575,550
Payments less, to be deducted 171,31PS
Comprtrative diminution in the year. 150617 and _ -

• •
1•I;. '4
To u.',l the diminution as above stated
twin 10 1806

Total e,ninparatire diminution or Home Foods
...... t of bait, and Chino, an lire yews
to Ist March lliutl... 7,61.7,163

In ibis aer,ont No 1 it will be observed that
the Retrips from Much isoa, to March 1808,

e.e V10105,342
Aid the parar.de 30,31'9,397

—•—
Excess of. payments. I . 7,113,1,55:

It may therefore naturally be an object of
iu-
qui y by what means the Company were enabled
to make up so large 4s sum, and the subsidiary ac-
count (A.) is intended to afford the requisite expla-
nation nn this head; more particislasly to illustrate
the decre..se both iss the amount of sake of the
Company's Indian goods, and in the amount and
the rate of profits ou them in the last five years,
the subsidiary account (B.) already noticed, which
bet ins•with the year 1798.9 end ends with 1806-7
is produced. It contains also a View of the sales
and profit. of China goods, which will be found not
to have fallen off.

The large sum in which, as will be collected
from the account, No. 1., India and China have
become indebted to the home concern, in the
course of the last few years, and of which a more
particular view will be given in the sequel, may, in
consequence of the intended retrenchments in
India, be expected to be in a con.iderable degree
repaid at no distant period. But, in the mean time,
the Company have a great amount of property more
within their reach. The unsold goods at present
in their warehouses in London. atop with mach
certainty expected in the course of the season,
valued at the prime cost, amount, according to the
enclosed account, No. 4, to 7,148,4401. and valued
at the selling prices, moderately estimated, amount
to 13,400,3031. To enable the Committee to com-
pare the amount of goods on hand, at this period,
with the amount on hand in former years, as far
back as the year 1798-9, the aubsidiery acs ount
CE.) is exhibited. It will be found, on examining
this account, that the amount of goods now on
hand, is, in an absolote sense, unusually large
and also, that, in a comparative sense, it is in still
• larger proportion, because it is formed from im-
pensions* inferior to those of preceding years, with
the remains of which the comparison is to be made.
The article of tea, which constitutes **consider-
able a part of the stock of goods on head, is sore

of a sale, because it is chiefly used for home coo.
suinption.
To these more immediate resources the Court of
Directors thieletbenoselves entitled to add the large,
and, as theY.cenceive, most equitable claim which
the Commity still have upon Government, for the
various expenditures made au account of the
in the East Indies; the account of which is now rt-
leered to this Honourable Committee. As a sepa-
rate representation on this subject will be addressed
to the Committee, it shall not here he eiderged
upon; but the Court feel themselves warranted to
expect, that the confidence of the Company in
the liberality of Government, and their prompti-
tude to embank in the public service, without
exact stipulations for the repayment of their dis-
Itursements,should not prejudice them in the settle-
ment of their accounts; and that even what, in a more
flourishing mate of their affairs, they might have
' been willing to pacrifice to the public service, will
not to exacted from thew under the pressures
with which they have to struggle ; but that, as the
present Committee are called to consider generally
of their affairs, and have unrestricted powers for
that cud, so they will feel themselves at liberty to
award to the company, for their demands ou Go-
vernment, whatever sum the justice of the ease,
rendered more indispensable by the present exigent
situation of the Company, shell be found to require.
It is not to be denied, that if the want of sales
should continue through another year, that is the
year I ann-10, the pressure upon the Company's
home finances will also continue ; and for making
rod whatever the available resources of the
Company, including the mitoulit to be received by
them in liquidation of the debt of Goveroment, may
not supply both for the current year, according to
the account No. 3.; and fist the year 1009-10, un-
doubtedly the Comp's.), will require aid. The
amnia of goods on lintel, or expected in the course
of the FC.ISOII, per account No.4,atal which amount,
probably. will not be less at any future period,
except to the case of more current rdcs, which
change would of itself go far to remove the existing
difficulties, may. if security should be required
for the loan, form a near and tangible security ;
hut the repayment can be made only gradually,
and in such proportions as not to interrupt the
necessary currency of the Company's affairs. It is
to be remembered that, if even the prey-ure now felt
should extend beyond the present year. the large
arrears in which India mud China are indebted to
the home concern, may gradually be expected to
flow in, and if nut immediately to increase the sales,
which stay also happen. at least to increase the mass
of seounty at home. It is farther to he recollect-
ed. that the China trade. which is the most solid
source of commercial profit to the Company, re-
mains, and is likely tocontinte, entire.
From this source chiefly. the Company have
Ism stabled to pay the Dividends on their Stock.
regulated by the Act of 1793. and have still the
prospect of (lei-lying from it sufficient funds for that
purpose. The emharrimments which the Com-
pany now suffer, although tantedietely aggrayeted
by the obstructions to the national commerce,
hate in fact their origin, as may be clearly. seen
from the account No, I..and another account to be
afterwards stated, in political causes. It would be
unjust and impolitic, with every fluctuation arising
from such causes, to alter the rate of dividend on
the stork. It would have the worst effect npon
the cre:lit end affairs of the Company. and would
io pa.licillar be unfair to the Stockholders, who
conic in upon the faith of a dividend settled by
Parliament, and derive no advantage Km all the
immense concerns which the Company manage,
but common interest for their money. The Court
of Director therefore earnestly deprecate the idea
of any such alteration in the dividend, if any such
suggestion should be made.
_

4.
With respect to the Indian Finances, after
the cessation of the hlsliratta wars, which Cease..
tion look place about the end of the year 1605, the
Court of Directors had reason to expect a *portly
and cruisideraille reduction of expenditure there,
even reckoning upon large military arrears to be
liquidated after the peace.—And although they
were considerably disappointed by the result of
the year Ibo 6-7, which still showed a drta•it of
1,761,0001., without allowing any thing for invest-
ment, they hod mach confidence in the liositive at-
anraocros of the Governor-General, Sir George! Bar-
low, that in the following year there would he a
clear sad large surplus applicable to the provision
of investment% or the reduction of debt.

To the great surprise and mortification of the
Court, however, the estimate for the year 1807-S,
lately received from India. an abstract of which is
now before the Committee, exhibits a deficit of no
less a sum than 1.150,0001. and the troops sent out
last year will add 150.0001.T0 this deficit, stillwithout
any allowance for investment or commercial charges.
which last circumstance is noticed here for the sake
of explaining the acconnt, not meaning to imply
that the allotment of lirge investments for Europe
would at the present juncture base much relieved
the Cordpaoy's home exigencies, though undoubt-
edly they would Issire.iacreosed the great mass of
property possessed by the Company in England
for the secunty of its home msgegements. But an
Indian surplus would still have been of importance,
even if applied to investment, because upon the
reopening of the channels of commerce, which it
may be hop►d are not to continue in the pre-
ssot unnatural state, it would have proved an avail.
able fund here; or it such a surplus, instead of being
to investment. had been used to lsssen
the amount of Bills upon the Company, from India
and Chine, it would have more immediately coons-
bitten to alleviate this pressure upon the Treasury
at home.