The Sun.
London, England, 1812-04-03 00:00:00

SMITHFIELD HAYMARKET.

Hay; 41. tos. oti. to $l. iss. ()J.. Straw, 21. 'Ss. od. to 31.
los. Clover, sl. os. od. to 61. cos. od.

• COHN EXCHANGE, APRIL 3.-',-To-day the market
hai not many trust) arrivali r,f Wh4at, the -supplies
on hand but, incons'iderable, -sales brisk at a small
increase -i n price, (s nine s .lect fine D vale
about 148 s. ter qtr4rter). The sarne Way be
noticed in Barley ; Malt rather so ; White Peas
support the last gnotation ; Beans. „of each Lind
soliewhat dea,er. There are tol.!mible suppli s
Oats,, but having a demand in this tra ie, sales are
also namvd rather litg!:er Fiour at late prices.

PAPERS RESPECTLVG the 1V EGOCIAT

FOR A ItENEW4L OF
THE EAST•INDIA COMPANVS EXCLUSIVE
PRIVILEGES.

No. VIII. •
SECRET COURT OF DIRECTORS.

LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN,AND DEPUTY CHAIR-

MAN TO TAB RIGHT HoN. R. DUNDAS, NOTICED

IN THE PRECEDING MINUTE. •
• {Continued from YeSterday.)
• East India I-louse, lan. 13, 1%,9.
Among the speculations of the present day, the
idea may perhaps be suggested, of carrying the pro-
diitilions of India dire.ily to the ports of Portuguese
and Spanish America; arid eagerness for relief
from the pressure which our commerce now feels,
mar be ready to make so great a sacrifice of the na-
vigation law's; but such a measure would essentially
exclude the mother country from being the medium
and emporium of our Indian trade ; and, whilst it
served to.ettrich India, rather than Britain, would
facilitate the progress of the former to independence.
If, however; so dangerous an innovation were not
'adopted into our commercial code, it is altogether
-probable that English ships, admitted without ban!.
tation into the Indian Seas. would take the liberty
of sailing to those markets which would be thought
the most promising, so that, in etiett, The opening
of the Indian trade would be not solely or' chiefly
for this Country,alone, but for other, perhaps for all
parts of the world,.
Having thus shewn, that the opening of the Indian
trade to the subjefis of Great Britain could not Ma-
terially increase, either thb export of the manufac-
tures of this country, or its commerce in the pio-
dudions ut India, it will next be proper to consider,
what the etleds of the proposed change would be
upon the East India,Company and upon British

India.
And, in the first place; it wotild in Vbstence and
in -form, entirely abolish the qualified monopoly,
which the Company still enjoys of the Indian trade.
The admission• of all private merchants, at their
pleasure, and of their ships into that trade, would
make it as perfeelly, free as thearade to our Amer:-
can or West Indian Colonies, There would as to -
India, be an end of all exClusive privilege of trade.
This would not be any. modification of the Ad of
1793, but an essential departure from it. -That At
permitted only the export of British manufa&ures,
and intended only to provide for thereturns to them,
end' for the remittance in goods, of British fortunes
.from India ; both on the ships of the Company.
The proposed measure must, in the nature of it,
make the trade from India not merely a vehicle for
the remittance of fortunes acquired there, or the
produceof British manufadures, but a general trade;
and What is a still more radical change, instead of a
limiled amount of tonnage not incompatible with
the Company's system, it admits all ships, without.
any limitation, or option on the part of the Colle-
t any: it throws all India open to those ships, and
thus sets aside' the Company horn being the sole
channel and medium of the trade, through their own
shipping, or shipping engaged by them, which com-
p ivests there of the last remnant of exclusive
prielieee an ;dial trade.
It would be no argument to say, that in a trade,
by heti they :eye; gain little, they Might admi4,
without much s ,ct dice, -the rest of , the commercial
awe ko Sll,ll*, Tire loss 'of the Indian monopoly,
such as it Ll' A+ left by the Ad of 1793 -would lead,
by no slew process to the entire Subversion of the
Cotneany;- both in their commercial and political.
caeacity, and of that system which .the Legislature
has apeeented for the Government of British India,
of ..vhiah system the Company forms an integral and
esseutial part: . .
If the Indian trade were thrown open, ships would
at tint, no doubt,' swarm into it,. and there would
be a ruinra c impetition in the markets, both abroad
and at home. Goods would. be enhanced in cost.
there, as well as deteriorated itr quality; the selling
prices at home, already too low, reduced still lower,
*and the market overstocked. This was the effect,
in some measure, produced by throwing 'open the
trade in the time of Oliver CrOmwell, who, after
the experience of a few years, revived the Company.
The same- etree't followed from, the collision of the
Old and New-Companies, in, the beginning of the
last century, which forced them to unite, and
their Union received the san'aion of Government.
It is not sufficient to say', on this head, that in-
creased demand abroad will produce increased sup-
ply, and diminished price of gooas at home increase
the sales ; so that this gs will, at length, in both coun-
tries, find their due level. From the nature of the
Indians and, their division into casts, it is. not so
easy among theth as in Europe, to meet an increased
demand by increased production; and it is still less
easy, when they can subsist by furnishing things of
luw or' ordinary quality, to make them aim at ex-
, cellence, which the sepposition of increased sales at
home would require. But of such an increase, in
the present and prospedive state of the trade in
lediatt imparts, enough has been above said to,snew
toe improbability; and before that 'supposition could,
in any case, he realised, the ruin of the parties
ittn-
medi;itely enib irked in' the trade (a trade so distant,
requiaing large caeitals, and snaking slow returns),
toight he c impleted, with the ruin also of the Com-
pany, whose establishments would, have been de-.
ranged by this great change. If the change. itself
did not occasion the fallett the company, the disap-
pointments which the private.adventurers could nut
tail to experience, would, ay them, be "charged to
the influence of the renteinieg privileges of the Corn-
pane, and they would not rest until the whole were
extinguished. ,But it may be observed here, and it
is an observation which might be urged more for-
inelly nod fully, that although the Company have
the justest claim to these territories, which the
powers vested in them by the laws of this land, the
ability of their servants, arid the hazards they have
'encountered, here enabled them He acquire, and that
this right was never questioned, until the acquisi-
tions, and consequently the merit of making th,-m,
became great ; yet that, in a more peculiar sense,
all the principal marts and factories of British-India
are their .property, acquired in /their purely corn-
tnerctal period, either with their money orby grants
from the native princes of the country, and that the
power of admitting settlers and traders to them
stritily belongs to the Company.