Indian system; can the court, with these convictions, lend themselves to promote a dangerous deception, already too prevalent, at the sacrifice of so much individual interest, and of that public interest, the care of which is entrusted to them? If it were, indeed, probable, that by a slow process the commercial intercourse between this country and the East could be enlarged, the effect would be far too distant to relieve present pressures, and the first adventurers be more likely to plunge the trading world into fresh difficulties; as proved to be the result of the general rush into the trade of Buenos Ayres, where it was easy to send exports, but difficult to find sale or return. It will, perhaps, now be said, that the trade with Buenos Ayres has become a regular one; but it can be a regular one only to a very limited extent, being, indeed, partly what subsisted with Lisbon, before it was turned into a different channel: it may not, in a long time, replace the vast sums at first lost there; and, at any rate, it displaced no important system existing before. From the late very favourable change in the affairs of Europe, a better prospect of relief now appears; from the East, it will be found, that no hope of any can be rationally entertained. Eighthly, That a free trade to the East would be a substitute and cure for all present commercial evils; would open an unbounded field to British manufactures, British capital, skill, enterprise and knowledge; which would not only supply the wants of the vast population of the East, but create wants where they did not exist. The practicability of extending, in any great degree, the commerce of this country with the natives of the East, in exports and imports, is undoubtedly a vital question on the whole of the discussion respecting the renewal of the charter; for if no such extension be indeed practicable, to what end should the present system, with all the establishments which have grown out of it, be destroyed? The British merchants appear to entertain the most extravagant ideas of a new world for commercial enterprise; ideas upon which they are ready to risk their own property, and to sacrifice all the interests of the existing Indian system. The Company, backed by the great mass of British subjects now in Europe, who are acquainted with the countries of the East, maintain, in direct opposition to all such imaginations, that it is not now possible greatly to extend among the inhabitants of the East, the consumption of British productions, or in this country, the sale of Asiatic commodities. On the side of the merchants, there is in truth nothing but a sanguine theory; on the side of the Company, there is the experience of all the nations of Europe for three centuries; there is the testimony of ancient history; there are the climate, the nature, the usages, tastes, prejudices, religious and political institutions of the eastern people. If the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope and the account of the first Europeans sent by that route to the shores of India, were only just announced to us, some explanation might be given of the enthu siasm with which the hope of unbounded commerce thither is entertained; but that, after all the knowledge which successive ages have afforded upon this subject, men of general intelligence and cultivation. should, in opposition to the usual course of human affairs, adopt the fond idea of entering at once into the enjoyment of a new world of commerce, is a most striking instance of credulity, and of the power which interest and imagination united, have to impose upon the understanding. The theory of Dr. Adam Smith did not anticipate any such sudden burst of new commerce, when he pronounced that the "East Indies offered a market for the manufactures of Europe, greater and more extensive than both Europe and America put together." Eminent as Dr. Smith certainly was, in the science of political economy, he was not infallible; his infor mation respecting India was very defective and erroneous; his prejudices against the East India Company extreme, and his prognostics concerning their Indian government wholly mistaken. In the period which has elapsed, of nearly 40 years, since he first published his work on the Wealth of Nations, the endeavours of al! Europe and America have made no dicovery of that immense market for European manufactures which, he said, was offered by the East Indies; yet the same doctrine seems to be still in the minds of some of the petitioners, who made it a serious charge against the Company, that its exports to the immense regions of the East, do not amount to a fifth of the exports of this country to North America. But as well it might be a matter of charge against the merchants of England, that their exports to the continent of Africa, which contains so many millions of inhabitants, and those who trade to India, will carry money thither, and bring none back.” less influenced by religious prejudices, and more inclined by taste and manners, than the people of the East, to use our productions, do not equal their exports to our remaining American colonies. The reason is obvious in both cases: all the North American colonies are the same people as ourselves; live under a climate nearly similar, and have a variety of comnodities valuable to us, to exchange: the Africans live under a tropical sun, are poor, and have little means of purchasing even such of our manufactures as they would like to use. It has been already noticed that the Americans have been in the habit of carrying our commodities into other countries. As the court have, in their letter of the 13th January, 1809, to the president of the India board, given the same views and in some detail, on this subject, not deriving their opinion from any single authority, but from the broad page of history and practice, it is unnecessary for your Committee again to enlarge upon it: but may not the attention of the manufacturers of woollens, metals, cotton fabrics, and potteries, be still called to the habits of the Indian people, the bulk of whom live all their days upon rice, and go only half covered with a slight cotton cloth; the rice and cotton both produced by their own soil? The earnings of the common labouring classes, and consequently their expences, may be estimated, on an average, not to exceed 4. 10s. per man, per annum. They are indolent by na As to ligious restrictions: what demand of the A profound observer of human affairs, the president Montesquieu, had, before the time of Dr. Smith, who, however, overlooks his opinion, reasoned more agreeably to nature and experience on this subject. "Although," says he, "com-ture, frugal by habit, under manifold remerce be liable to great revolutions, it may happen that certain physical causes, such as the quality of soil and climate, shall for ever fix its character. In the commerce which we carry on with India, in modern times, the export of money thither is indispensible. The Romans carried to India every year about fifty millions of sesterces. That money, as ours now is, was exchanged for goods, which they brought back to the West. Every nation which has traded to India has uniformly carried the precious metals thither, and brought back goods in return. Nature herself produces this effect. The Indians have their arts, which are adapted to their manner of life. Our wants are essentially different from theirs; and what is luxury to us never can be so to them. Their climate neither requires nor permits the use of almost any of our commodities. Accustomed to go almost naked, the country furnishes them with the scanty raiments they wear; and their religion, to which they are in absolute subjection, instils into them an aversion to that sort of food which we consume; they, therefore, need nothing from us but our metals, which are the signs of value, and for which they give in return, the merchan. dize that their frugality, and the nature of the country, supply in abundance. Ancient authors, who have written upon India, represent the country precisely such as we now find it, as to police, to manners, and to morals. India always has been, and India always will be, what it now is; * In a late statistical account of Dinagepore, a province of Bengal, there are statements of the annual expences of different classes of society; and among them, one of the expences of a labouring man with a wife and two children. The amount is only rupees 22, 10, 11, or near 31. per annum; being at the rate of 158. per head. The article of clothing, for this family of four persons, is only 6s. per annum. bringing back returns, if the European commodities could be disposed of. With respect to China, it is not denied that it might, in all probability, take off many of our manufactures, if the Chinese government would allow the free dissemination of them. The jealous restrictions of that government, however, which, though they have been already stated, it may be proper to notice again here, prevent their own subjects, in general, from any dealings with Europeans; and it has been seen, that the magnificent style of lord Macartney's embassy, which bespoke the grandeur of the British sovereign, with the refined diplomatic talents of that nobleman, which even struck the Chinese courtiers, were incapable of moving the government to depart in the smallest degree from its established policy. If instead of the regulated, long experienced organ for European trade, the Company's Canton establishment, under whose respectability, in fact, the Americans were admitted, a swarm of unconnected private traders were to be let loose upon that country, it is altogether probable, that the Chinese would either shut their doors entirely upon them, or contract even the present narrow entrance. in India and into England, have repeatedly sold to a loss, or have remained long on hand, for want of sale. The nature of this trade should be considered; the numerous commanders and officers of the Company's ships (a very superior class of nautical men) have no adequate provision from direct pecuniary allowances; their compensation has been in the privilege of trade, and a certain allowance of tonnage, freight free. This has generally made them traders; and as they are to look to trade for their emolument, (for but few, comparatively, make money by passengers,) they continued to adventure, though often with little success; and your Committee are assured, that though they pay no freight nor commission, being their own agents, they still find it, on the whole, a precarious, unproductive business. Now, if these men do not succeed, it can hardly be expected that those who have freight and commission to pay can fare better. But it will be said that other individuals do, nevertheless, embark in this trade. To this it is to be answered, that the manufacturers of indigo, in Bengal, (an article originally promoted and always fostered by the Company,) generally send If so many proofs of want of know- their produce to England; and this is a ledge on Indian subjects did not crowd matter of necessity; because the great on your Committee, they might express bulk of the article cannot otherwise be surprise at finding any persons still so un- disposed of. Again, there is a certain informed, as to hold up the trade carried annual amount of acquisition by Euroon by individuals in the time of Cromwell, peans in India; and as this, (doubtless, a as gainful to the parties, and useful to the large amount in all) is in one way or anonation. The fact is now ascertained to ther to be remitted to England, merchants have been notoriously otherwise. The in India may find their account tolerably competition of the traders led them to well in taking up such money in India; undersell their exports in India and their investing it in goods, and granting bills, imports in England: the public, indeed, at a rate favourable to the drawer, payfor a little time, got Indian goods remarkable from the sales in this country. A ably cheap, but the adventurer could not go on; and Cromwell, induced by the representations made to him, in which several of those very adventurers joined, restored the Company, in order to save the Indian trade to the nation. Parliament is now told by the petitioners, that the private trade, to which individuals were admitted by the Act of 1793, enlarged by the arrangement of 1802, has succeeded, and produced a profit, even whilst the Company have been trading to a loss. The court have very substantial reasons to believe, that although some articles of private trade may at certain times have sold to a profit, yet that large importations of other articles, both sort of new transit capital arises in this way every year, and men may be tempted, occasionally, to seek to make an advantage of it, who would not regularly fix a capital of their own in the trade. There is also a third sort of trade from India, which men of large capital speculate in when favourable occasions seem to offer: and in this way sometimes cotton piece goods, sometimes cotton wool, sometimes indigo and raw silk have been adventured in. But your Committee suppose it to be an undisputed fact, that these larger adventures have repeatedly been attended with heavy losses to individuals, particularly the very great importation of piece goods, exceeding in value two millions adverted to. And for the Company, they are told first of their wealth, knowledge, and experience (all of which have been before disparaged), as enabling them to oppose, unassisted, private efforts; that if they can carry on trade to greater advantage than individuals they have nothing to fear, and that they will reap their reward in competition. All this is particularly applied to the China trade, which is not a new trade, nor, as has been shewn, either susceptible of increase, or likely to be preserved at all as a general trade. The transfer of it to other hands would add nothing to the nation, whilst the entire benefit of it is necessary for the support of the political interests of the Com. pany. Secondly; it is proposed, that for indemnifying and remunerating the claims of the Company, they "shall have a fair and equal impost on the trade in question." If the trade and rate of impost were both likely to be considerable, which your Committee see no reason to suppose, the idea of an indemnification for the whole by giving afterwards a part (and probably a smail part), can hardly be treated as a serious idea. But for the detriment which the Company in their political capacity might sustain, for all the ill consequences that might ensue to the government and immense population of India, no provision whatever is proposed. And against an entire failure of the vast prospects now so sanguinely entertained, this consolation is at last administered, that "the very worst that can occur, in the event of" the abandonment of the trade by the public, would be, that matters might" return again to their pre sent state. But can it be seriously supposed, that after the fabric of the Company and its immense dependent and connected establishments in England, in India and China, should have been set aside and left to decay and ruin; when India should have been laid open, and the China establishment superseded, and so much capital sunk, that things could be brought back to their former state? The possibility of such a mighty convulsion, and the ease with which it is contemplated by the petitioners, may be sufficient to excite a salutary fear of the rage of theory, speculation and innovation, may suggest the prudence of stopping short of the precipice to which they would conduct us; of at least resting at some point, so far safe, as not to expose the whole of the empire, Indian and European, to the terrible alternative here brought into view. A great extension of the trade to or from the East, the object for which such dangers are to be run, is shewn in the preceding pages to be impracticable; and it has been also shewn, that in the prosecution of the attempt to obtain it, the interests of British India, and of the finances of this country, would be endangered. But if an experiment is still required to be made in the vast continent of Hindostan, and its adjacent islands, (for to push the experiment into China, would be to risk the trade of that country and all its advantages, without the chance of any benefit), the means of making a large ample experiment, in which the whole nation may participate, through the port of London, are now offered; means which shall give the fairest opportunity to ascertain the practicability of extending the trade, without breaking down present establishments, or exposing the empire, in case of failure, to the most disastrous consequences. At the same point, therefore, here described, your Committee humbly hope the wisdom of his Majesty's ministers and parliament, will still see fit to rest. (Signed) HUGH Inglis. ROBT. THORNton. JOSEPH COTTON. CHARLES GRANT. GEORGE SMITH. EDWARD PARRY. SWENEY TOONE. WILLIAM ASTELL. ENQUIRE REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE APPOINTED ΤΟ INTO THE CORN TRADE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.-Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, May 11, 1813. The SELECT COMMITTEE appointed to enquire into the Corn Trade of the United Kingdom, and to report their Observations together with their Opinion thereupon to the House; and who were empowered to report the Minutes of the Evidence taken before them;-have examined the matters to them referred, and have agreed upon the following REPORT: The returns of the exports and imports, and average prices of corn, for the last 21 years, which were presented to the House on the 17th of March last, first attracted the attention of your Committee. From these it appears that the value of foreign corn imported into Great Britain during that period, according to the average market prices, amounted to 58,634,1351.;* that the average price of the quarter of wheat for the same period has been 77s. 3d. and that the average price of it for the last four years has been 105s. 5d. Your Committee are of opinion, that so great a degree of dependance on foreign countries for a sufficient supply of food, and so great an advance in the price of wheat as is hereby proved, require the interposition of parliament without further delay, in order that some remedy may be applied to evils of such great prejudice to the public welfare. Under this impression, and with a view of ascertaining what measures it would become your Committee to propose, as best calculated to induce our own people to raise a sufficient supply for themselves from their own soil, and at the same time to reduce the prices of corn, they have examined into the means which the United Kingdom possesses of growing more corn, and into those laws which from time to time have been made for regulating the corn trade. In order to ascertain the means of growing more corn, certain queries were communicated to the Board of Agriculture, and to the Farming Society of Ireland, which, 2,826,9471. was paid for bounties on corn imported from 1796 to 1803. together with the answers that have been returned to them, are given in the Appendix. Your Committee also judged it expedient to examine more particularly into the circumstances of Ireland, in consequence of the new and peculiar character which that part of the United Kingdom bas of late filled as a tillage country. The result of their enquiries is as follows: In regard to Great Britain, that there has been a great increase of tillage during the last ten years; that the land now in tillage is capable of being made much more productive by the extension of the improved system of cultivation, and that much land now in grass is fit to be converted into tillage. The answers of the Farming Society of Ireland to the queries of the Committee, show that there has been a very considerable increase of tillage in that country in the course of the last ten years; estimated by many skilful persons at nearly one fourth. That the land already in tillage is capable of being rendered much more productive; that the same land in some parts, upon which formerly seven barrels of wheat the acre was considered a good return, now yields by better management (without the loss of two seasons rent and labour under the system of open fallow) at least ten barrels the acre; and that there are very considerable tracts of land now in grass fit to be converted into tillage; almost all the meadows and pastures which are dry and free from rock being capable of producing a crop of leaoats with one ploughing, and of being made productive afterwards by rotation crops in the usual way. The evidence of several persons well acquainted with Ireland concurs in proving that the tillage of Ireland has of late years increased very much, and is capable of being still further increased. Of the actual practicable increase it is impossible to form any correct opinion; but when all the various circumstances are taken into consideration which exist in Ireland favourable to such an increase, the production of a much greater quantity of corn may be expected than would be sufficient |