made to extend their export trade, are stated in the reports of the select committee of the court of directors on this subject, before the House, and the success of those exertions appears on a reference to No. 8, in which the amount of goods, stores, and bullion exported to India and China is stated from 1776 to the present time. The increase of export goods only, since 1784, has been from below 400,000l. per annum to 800,000l. and of stores in nearly an equal proportion, being, on the whole, an increase from 400,000l. to 1,000,000l. In the estimate here referred to, it is supposed that to provide an investment in India should be applied 1,127,000l. and that the supplies towards the China investment should be 250,000l. This would leave a small sum of 32,1277. in India. In regard to the amount supplied from India to China, it appears by No. 7, that on the average of three years to 1791 223,3147. per annum has been supplied from thence towards the China investment: but, in the present view of the subject, the mode of remitting the surplus seems only in so far applicable, as it tends to show with what profit it can be realized at home. The amount of goods from In dia sold in the last three years has been per annum......... £.2,394,751 Prime cost of ditto £.1,090,185 Customs ........ 563,269 Freight and Demo 2,042,920 Being on the average an excess of the sale above the prime cost and charges......... £.351,831 I do not call this the actual profit on the trade from India, because in a mercantile point of view, the interest of the money employed in that trade, and a sum for insurance, should be allowed; but this excess of the sale value above the prime cost and charges, sufficiently proves that the remittance of the surplus revenue, through the medium of the trade, is a profitable mode, and that it may be realized at home with profit both to the public and the company. On the average of the last three years, the prime cost of goods sold by the company was...£.1,090,185 In the directors' report, the cost of the annual investment is estimated at......................................................... 1,127,000 And, consequently, the sale amount and profit on the whole, should be stated at a larger sum. But in order to keep so far below the probable actual result as to meet unforeseen contingencies, I shall consider the profits on the Indian trade even below the sum already stated; as it certainly appears in the estimate of the prime cost and sale amount of goods from India, in the report to the court of directors. In this the sale amount of goods from India is stated at...... £.2,314,900 Prime cost of the In this appropriation of the sums to be raised in India from the surplus revenues, and the sale of British manufactures, a sum exceeding the whole estimated surplus revenue is supposed to be invested in India goods, on which the profit above stated would be obtained; the remittance of the whole estimated surplus is thus provided for. A sum equal to the principal part of the amount arising from the sale of goods exported from England is estimated to be sent from India to China; and, in a general view of the company's trade, it is not material to discriminate, whether the sum so remaining, after the provision of an adequate investment, be applied to the liquidation of debt in India or to the provision of investment in China which, by being realized at home, may discharge the debts transferred home from that country:-except that the latter is undoubtedly the preferable mode, as it increases the commerce between India, the Eastern Islands, and China; renders a less quantity of bullion necessary to be exported from Britain to China; and opens a larger remittance for the fortunes of individuals, to be brought home from India, in the shape of transferred debt, to be paid by the surplus revenues, or produce of the export trade in India, remit ted directly in the ordinary way of trade, or circuitously through the Eastern Islands and China. above the prime cost and charges, was ........ £.5,103,094 Average of three years prime 4,186,597 £.916,497 In these statements, the prime cost of the goods only is taken, and the charges at home; the commercial charges in India being, according to the estimate, paid out of the surplus revenues. The great improvements which have been made in the company's commerce are forcibly exemplified, in comparing the prime cost and charges of the goods sold with the sale amount; the average of the excess of sale above the cost and charges being, for the latter three years, double the amount of the former average. In the last year, ending at this present time, the profit, as it may be called, fell below the amount of the two preceding years, owing to the investment from India having been diminished in 1791, in order to afford a larger supply for the exigencies of the armies at that time subsisting in the enemy's country. The return of peace would immediately remove this obstacle, and accordingly a considerable augmentation was made to the amount allotted for the provision of investment at Bengal, on the information arriving there of the conclusion of the war. Under these circumstances, and taking into consideration the economical arrangements which have been introduced into the management of the company's commercial transactions, there can be little apprehension of the profits on their trade, in time of peace, falling below the amount realized on the average already stated. TRADE TO THE EAST-INDIES IN GENERAL-Having thus shown what the future surplus of India, on the lowest calculation may be stated to amount to, and having proved that a sum equal to that amount may be remitted home through the medium of trade, with profit both to the company and the public, the next object is, to bring forward the state of the trade in general. On this subject, accounts have been annually laid before the House; but as the commercial concerns of the company are distinct from the produce of the revenues of India, which it was the object of former statements to illustrate, they have not been discussed in the same manner. On the present occasion, however, it is equally necessary for me to examine the state of the trade from India and China, as to particularize the amount of the revenues and charges of the Indian provinces. And, first, with respect to the receipts and payments at home. In No.6, is an account of the receipts and payments made by the company at home in each year, from 1787 to the present time, and an estimate for the following year. This account shows the purposes to which the sums realized from the revenue and trade at home have been applied. But as this statement contains a variety of receipts and payments, some in private-trade, and others not connected with their commerce, a particular account is before the House of what the trade for the last six years has produced. This is No. 4, in which the amount of the company's sales in cach year is stated, and the charges of freight, customs, and charges of merchandize, payable on that sale, as also the prime cost of the same in India and China. In the first three years of this period it appears that the profits resulting from the sale were very low, the ex- In the estimate of the cost, customs, cess of the sale of the goods above the freight, and charges, in England, reportprime cost being only 434,581l. per an-ed to the court of directors, and forming num, after paying customs, freight, and charges of merchandize. But the improvements which had been made in the manner of conducting the company's affairs abroad and at home, have rendered the investments abroad more valuable in proportion to the quantity, and made the trade in general more profitable. Accor dingly, by the average of the three last years, the profits on the trade, or more correctly, the excess of the sale amount No. 5 of the accounts now before the Being an excess of sale amount 4,988,300 ..... £.743,602 which is less than the average of the last three years by 172,895. per annum, and estimated annual payments at home. Those for customs, and freight and demorage, are included in the total of prime cost and charges of the goods sold as already mentioned. The charges of merchandize are here stated at 375,000l. In the preceding estimate there was charged against the sale of the goods 299,2981. The excess is 75,702, which is allowed for the raising of recruits, half-pay to officers, &c. and also interest on loans. On the average of the last three years, these expenses have amounted to 382,530, being 7,330. more than this estimate. The excess, however, of the average is owing to the large expense in the last year, by raising recruits to send out to India, &c. and the interest on the loan borrowed of the bank being included, and also the expense of fitting out the embassy to China. These circumstances considered, the above sum appears to be taken sufficiently high. affords another proof of the moderation of the estimates now under consideration. As the trade of the East-India company has, with some variations, been increasing both in quantity and in profit, for several years past, the estimate here referred to must be supposed to allow a considerable sum for contingences, or for the possibility of the trade relapsing again towards the state in which it appears to have been previous to the last three years sales. In taking, therefore, this estimate as the probable future amount of the prime cost and sale of the goods from India and China, it will certainly not be objected, that I make no allowance for contingencies. Indeed, any man who attentively considers the state of the East-India company's affairs, and the circumstances which have brought them to their present prosperity, and at the same time takes into his view the competition of foreign companies, with which they had formerly to contend, but which now scarcely exists, The next article is the amount of goods such person will necessarily conclude, and stores to be exported to India and that the trade, and the profits on it, must China; these, including St. Helena, amount cæteris paribus, increase. I shall, how-to 1,017,000l. By No. 8, the goods and ever, take the amount of the sales at 4,988,300l., and the prime cost and charges of the same at 4,244,6981. The next estimate states the annual receipts and payments of the company at home. This, after allowing for a dividend of 87. per cent. on the capital stock, makes the annual surplus at home, including the 1,059,0277. derived from the revenues of India, amount to 1,207,114., which, together with the small sum estimated to be left in India, makes the total surplus 1,239,2411. The first article on the receipt side of this account is the sale of goods, which has already been stated to be considerably below the average of the last three years. The next is the charges and profit on private-trade, estimated at 70,000l. per annum. This, on the average of the last three years amounted to 83,3931., and in last of those years to 102,000l. The 31. per cent. interest annuities from government is not liable to variation. The sum here stated includes 1,6877. allowed for managing those annuities. The other receipts being for goods sold in private-trade, money raised by bonds, or otherwise borrowed, are not included in this estimate, as, being merely receipts which are repaid or to be repaid, they do not affect the general state of the company's affairs. The other side of this account is the stores exported in 1791 amounted to 974,9594.; and, in the present season, are estimated at 1,083,3244.; the amount in this estimate is, therefore, about a medium of those two. It is impossible, in stating this article, not to advert to the great increase which has been made in the export trade during the last eight years, being, exclusive of bullion, from 400,000l. a year to a million. The article of bills of exchange, or bullion, is merely taken to make up the estimated prime cost of goods in China, that prime cost being provided for as follows: By supplies from India £.250,000 600,000 644,580 any profit; so that, on the whole, the export trade is estimated to produce a loss of 50,000l. per annum. If it was material to enter into the investigation, I should assign reasons why I doubt the propriety of stating any such loss on the export trade; but it is not necessary, for the present purpose, to take up the time of the committee with that discussion. I shall take the directors estimate as they state it; and upon the whole, from the several circumstances above stated (particularly from the low amount at which the surplus in India is taken, and from the low estimate of the sales, and profit on the trade), there can be no doubt of this estimate being calculated in an unfavourable point of view, and that the surplus on the whole resulting from it, is stated below the amount annually to be expected. on a capital furnished by their servants, to the injury of the navigation of Great Britain, and the diminution of the home revenues in duties and customs. There can be no question, therefore, respecting the best mode of liquidating the debts in India; it certainly is, to allow a certain sum to be subscribed annually in India for bills on the company. The amount should be limited in its extent: but the subcribing to that extent should be left to individuals, to suit their own convenience in remitting their fortunes home. 500,000l. per annum is fully large enough for all the purposes of remittance, either considered as gradually liquidating the debts, or as affording an adequate fund for remittance. This, by the year 1800, would reduce the debt bearing interest in India to about 3,000,000l.; below which, in the opinion of many persons well acquainted with the situation of affairs in India, it would not be proper to reduce the amount of debt bearing interest, but leave it as a fund, in which the natives may invest a part of their property, and thus attach them to the support of the British government by the powerful motive of interest. If the subscriptions in India should fall short of that sum annually, the only effect it would have off in India, and increase the surplus at home, to be applied either to the payment of debts, or to such other purposes as may be deemed most proper for the interests of the public and the company. APPROPRIATION OF THE SURPLUS.Having thus established that a surplus, to the amount of 1,239,2117. at least, may be expected in future, it next remains to consider the most equitable mode of applying this surplus. The first object is, the liquidation of the debts. These, in India, amount, as has been already stated, to 9,084,550%.; of which 6,933,9431. bore an interest in January 1792; but which, from later advices, is stated in the direc-would be to lessen the amount of debt paid tors estimate at 6,669,082/. But taking it something higher, and suppose that 7,000,000/. ought to be provided for, and that 2,084,550%. (if the debts should be as high at the termination of the war as they were in 1792) might continue as a floating debt, since the debts owing to the company in India are considerably higher than that sum: it is next to be considered what is the best method of liquidating this debt, so far as it may be thought proper to pay it off. There are only two ways: either to pay it off in India by the surplus there, or to remit it to England, and discharge it by that surplus, realized through the medium of trade. The latter is, undoubtedly, by much the more preferable mode; as in the other case, the investment could not be made adequate to the demand, without sending bullion to India. The British subjects, of whose fortunes a considerable part of these debts consists, if they were paid in India, must find some other mode of remittance to Europe: and thus would, as formerly was the case, supply foreign companies with the means of carrying on a trade to India, in competition with the company, The debts of the company in Great Britain consist of the amount transferred from India and unpaid on 1st March 1793 which amounts to 1,354,050.; and the other debts at the same date, which are calculated, exclusive of the capital stock, at 9,217,019/.; the total of both 10,601,C691.This includes the sum owing by the company to the annuitants, which is included as a debt due to them on the other side of the account. This statement shows the value of assets at the same period, which at home and afloat (including the balance of quick stock in China) amounts to 13,437,460, or omitting the articles of expenses for French prisoners, for the expedition to Manilha, and hospital expenses (422,0117.) to 13,015,4191. The value of assets in India, consisting of cash in the treasuries, bills, goods and stores, amounted in January 1792 to 4,098,105/ exclusive of debts owing to the company in India, which are stated at 3,518,393. I From this statement it appears, that in the first year a balance will remain unappropriated, and which, as the debt in India is paid off, will be annually in2,454,579 creasing. cial concerns, amount to This deducted from the above amount, leaves a debt to be provided for of If bonds be kept in market to the amount of............ The debt remaining to be paid off at home is........... £. 2,446,440 1,500,000 This result leads me to mention to the committee an idea I have for a consider3,916,410 able time entertained in my own mind, and which I have recently suggested for the consideration of the East-India company. My opinion certainly is, that the whole of the estimate of the court of directors is taken too unfavourably, and that the surplus of revenues in India, and the commercial surplus at home, will exceed what I have calculated upon in the appropriation I have just mentioned. If I shall appear to be right in this opinion, there must be an ulterior appropriation of the additional balance, and that appropriation should be for the purpose of vesting in the hands of the public that additional surplus, to remain there without interest; but the public to be answerable for it to the proprietors, if, from calamity, permanent or casual, the capital of the company should be impaired, or the situation of their affairs should not at any period be able to afford the dividend on the capital, which it is now suggested they should receive. Without further enlarging on the idea at present, I con. tent myself with barely mentioning it; at the same time, I am confident that if such an arrangement could be made, it would be a most wise and salutary measure, beneficial to the public, and highly so to the East-India company. It will naturally be asked,-If the calculations I have submitted to the committee, will not, in a great degree, be affected by the conti In what way this small debt is to be discharged, must depend on what determination the East-India company shall form on a suggestion which has been lately made to them. There are two ways of discharging it; either by increasing the capital one million more, which there can be no doubt of rapidly doing, either by the present proprietors subscribing in proportion to the stock they respectively hold, or by admitting new subscribers to advance the amount. The other method is by instalments, to which, considering the smallness of the debt to be ultimately discharged, a very moderate sum only need be appropriated. I certainly, in every point of view, give the preference to the first mode, both as tending to an immediate liquidation of the debt, and as it will enable the company, by an additional capital, to extend their export trade to the utmost the Indian or Chinese market will admit of. If the proprietors shall adopt this idea, they will have a just claim to receive an additional dividend, amounting to ten per cent., on both the old and new capital; and after allowing for this, there would |