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

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 freeekliese 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 Observedethit 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 exi 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