The Letters of Gracchus on the East India Question 3
LETTER III.
_Thursday, January 14, 1813._
It is at all times an object equally interesting and instructive, to
trace the origin of laws and institutions, and to follow them in the
progress of their operation; but this inquiry becomes more powerfully
attractive, when the pursuit is stimulated by an anxiety to defend a
supposed right, or to acquire an extension of advantages which are
already possessed.
Such an investigation appearing to be a necessary sequel of the subject
treated of in a former communication, let us now take a succinct view of
those provisions of the Act of 1793, by which the East India Company,
upon the last renewal of their Charter for a fixed time, were called
upon to relax from the exclusive restrictions of the monopoly which they
had so long enjoyed. Taking that Act as the source and origin from
whence the present India Question arises, let us briefly follow the
subject in its progress, down to the propositions that are now before
the Public.
It is necessary to premise, that the Company had, from an early period
of their commerce, granted as a favour and indulgence to the Captains
and Officers of their ships, permission to fill a regular portion of
tonnage with certain prescribed articles, upon their private account,
subject to the condition; that those privileged articles should be
lodged in the warehouses of the Company, that they should be exposed by
them at their sales, and that they should pay from 7 to 5 per cent. to
cover the charge of commission and merchandise.
The Act of 1793, relieved the trade carried on under this indulgence, by
reducing the rates of charge to 3 per cent.; which was established as
the rate, at which the more enlarged trade, for the first time allowed
by that Act to private merchants unconnected with the Company, should
pay to the Company; which trade was then limited to 3000 tons, the
shipping for which was to be provided by the Company, who were to be
paid freight for such tonnage, and were to have the same control over
the goods which might be imported, as they already exercised over the
trade of their Captains and Officers.
It was soon found, that the conditions, under which this trade was
opened, changed its operations, so as to render the privilege of little
value. The residents in India, for whose benefit it was professed to
have been principally intended, presented memorials upon the subject to
the Governments abroad; and the merchants of London represented to the
authorities in England, the necessity of an enlargement of the
principle, as well as a correction of the regulations. It is not
necessary, to go into any detail of the reasons upon which those
applications were supported; because Mr. Dundas, who then presided over
the affairs of India, and who had introduced and carried through
Parliament the Bill of 1793, did in the most explicit terms inform the
Court of Directors, in his letter of the 2d April, 1800, that "he should
be uncandid, if he did not fairly acknowledge, that experience had
proved it to be inadequate to the purposes for which it was
intended--and that therefore he was clear, that the clause in the Act
ought to be repealed, and in place thereof _a power be given to the
Governments abroad, to allow the British subjects, resident in India, to
bring home their funds to Britain on the shipping of the country_;" that
is to say, on ships built in India. This letter, of the President of the
Board of Control, was referred by the Court of Directors to a special
Committee of their body; who, in a very elaborate Report, dated 27th
Jan. 1801, that is to say, after the deliberation of eight months,
declared that it was impossible for them to acquiesce in the proposition
then made by Mr. Dundas. They supported their opposition by a variety of
arguments, from which the following short passage need alone be
selected:--"The proposals which have been brought forward by certain
descriptions of men, both in India and in England, for the admission of
their ships into the trade and navigation between India and Europe,
_proposals which extend to the establishment of a regular and systematic
privilege_ in favour of such ships, appear, when maturely weighed, and
followed into all their operations, _to involve principles and effects
dangerous to the interests both of the Company and of the nation_; that
_the adoption of those principles would, immediately and essentially,
affect both the system of policy which the Legislature has established
for maintaining the connexion and communication between this country and
British India, and the chartered privileges of the East India Company_.
And the introduction of any practice of this nature, would tend to widen
gradually, and indefinitely, the channel of intercourse between India
and Britain; to multiply the relations between the two countries; and to
pour Europeans of the lower sort into India, and Indian sailors into
this country; to lessen, by both these means, the respect for the
European character; _to disturb and shake our government there_; and, in
a word, to lead progressively but surely to colonization."
The language employed by the Court of Directors at the present day, in
opposition to the proposition for allowing private ships returning from
India to import to the places from whence they had sailed upon their
outward voyage, is feeble and languid; in comparison with the passage
which has been just now recited, from the Report of their Special
Committee, made upwards of twelve years ago, upon the proposition then
submitted by Mr. DUNDAS. That Minister, in his reply of the 21st March,
1801, to the Court of Directors, observed, "_I have reviewed my own
opinions with the most jealous attention, and I have weighed, with the
most anxious care, the arguments of those who suppose that the system
which I have recommended, is likely to produce any inconvenience or
danger to the rights, privileges, and exclusive interests of the East
India Company: but it is my misfortune to view the subject in an
opposite light. If any thing can endanger that Monopoly, it is_ AN
UNNECESSARY ADHERENCE TO POINTS NOT ESSENTIAL TO ITS EXISTENCE." Mr.
Dundas then adverted to a letter of the 30th September, recently
received from the Governor-General, Marquis Wellesley, which, he said,
"had with clearness and precision ably detailed and demonstrated the
grounds of those opinions."
But, the judgment and reasoning of Mr. Dundas, elucidated by the
arguments of Marquis Wellesley, (which were founded on the knowledge of
what, at the time, was passing under the eye of the Governor-General,)
had not influence upon the Court of Directors, sufficient to make them
adopt the proposition of the President of the Board of Control; and
still less, the enlargement of that proposition, as suggested by Lord
Wellesley; who represented, "the great advantages that would result to
the Sovereign State, by encouraging the shipping and exportation of
India; and, that if the capital of the Merchants in India, should not
supply funds sufficient for the conduct of the whole private Export
Trade from India to Europe, no dangerous consequences could result from
applying, to this branch of commerce, capital drawn directly from the
British Empire in Europe:" thereby taking that trade from foreign
nations, whose participation in it was become "_alarmingly increasing_."
These distinct and concurring opinions, of the President of the Board of
Control and the Governor-General, could not prevail upon the Court of
Directors to "alter the opinion they had delivered." They accordingly
drew up paragraphs, to be sent to the Governments in India, conveying
their _final resolutions and instructions_.--"The British residents in
India," they said, "aided by those who take up their cause here (_viz._
the King's Ministers and the Merchants of London), desire to send their
own ships to Britain, with private merchandise; and the principle of
employing British capital in this trade, is also contended for. This
trade, although it might for a time be carried on through the existing
forms of the Company, would at length supersede them; the British
commerce with India, instead of being, as it is now, _a regulated
monopoly_, would deserve, more properly, the character of a regulated
free trade; a title, which it is to be feared would not suit it long."
Such is the substance of the paragraphs which the Directors had
prepared, upon the propositions we have been considering; although both
the one and the other of those propositions explicitly provided, _that
all the private trade with India, export as well as import, should be
confined to the Port of London_. The Board of Control, though no longer
presided at by Mr. Dundas, interposed its authority; and, on the 2d
June, 1801, the Directors were enjoined not to send those paragraphs to
India.
The language of the Court of Directors in 1813, upon the question of the
Import Trade, is, as has been already affirmed, feeble and languid in
comparison with that which the same body employed in 1800 and 1801, with
regard to the admission of India-built ships in the carrying trade
between Britain and India; but Indian-built ships have, from that time
to the present, been employed in that trade, and none of the alarming
consequences, which the Directors had predicted, have resulted from that
practice.
May it not therefore be reasonably assumed, that the alarm under which
they now profess themselves to be, would prove to be equally unfounded;
that the direful influence upon the Constitution and Empire, which the
Directors tell us is to be apprehended, from any change in the existing
system that shall admit private ships returning from India to import at
the places whence they had cleared out, would be found to be as little
entitled to serious consideration; and that neither the public revenue,
nor the immediate interests of the Company, would be endangered by an
experiment, which the Government and the Company would be equally bound
to watch; and which Parliament could at all times control, and if
necessary, absolutely bring to a termination?
GRACCHUS.
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