ページの画像
PDF
ePub

leged neutral rivals, whose operations he had already in part developed, and should further expose in the next session. So much with regard to any selfish object on his part.

He should next proceed to notice the danger of removing our artizans (ship-builders he presumed were meant) out of this kingdom, to our dominions in Asia; but did there, he would ask, exist any want of ship-builders abroad? It was true, at Penang (rince of Wales's island) there were neither workmen nor materials, neither revenues nor provisions; but was that the case at Bombay, on the MaJabar coast, or at Calcutta? Were no ships built there by British subjects? Were none built at Pegu, or Demaun, by Burmals and Pursecs? Was it not a notorious fact, that ship-building materials of every kind superabounded in our own territories? That they no less abounded in artizans, and master-builders of the first eminence to put them together? Was it not then sound policy for this government to encourage the extraction of these materials, and indeed of every other resource, which dependencies dearly acquired, and of such precarious tenure, could furnish to the mother country? Would it not be sound policy to build ships there for government, which might partly pay for their construction by a freight home; and to compel the company to build there for their own commerce, and leave the oaklings of our home forests to acquire their natural growth? If, said the alderman, the peninsula was worth the winning, was it not folly if we did not enjoy the benefits which the possession of it afforded?

Would the ship-builders of Blackwall, or of any other yard, complain of such a necessary expedient? Did they not candidly acknowledge, and every ship-owner feel, that the expences, and of course the profit of refitting and repair, exceeded those of original construction; that materials were grown so scarce and dear at home, that no merchant vessel could be built to sail against neutrals, nor any Indiaman be allowed to arrest the inefficient and scanty supply of our own timber for the royal navy? Was not the contract price of building for the King's service more than doubled within these few years? Could the commissioners obtain contracts at all to the extent required?These facts made most completely against the honourable director's assertions.

The honourable director had next brought forward the

company's

company's trade as a nursery for British seamen, and deprecated the employ of Indian shipping as injurious to that system. In the first place he would ask, by whom were the company's ships now manned, and were likely to be, both in peace and war, whilst our enemy was attempting to rival us on the seas? By foreigners mostly when outward-bound; and back, principally by Lascars, natives, or subjects of British India. Which of these two descriptions deserved most to be encouraged, he need not ask. Our commerce was now become too much the nursery for seamen of other countries, and unless care was taken hereafter, most of our British sailors would become Americans. It was not interest but necessity that ever induced the employ of black sailors on board merchant ships. The greater number of them required, in proportion to the tonnage, made it always cheaper to navigate with Europeans, and particularly with British seamen. But if any preference was due, the British Lascars ought in policy to be preferred to Danish or American sailors.

The honourable director had paid a just tribute to the skill and gallantry of the men who navigated the company's ships, and of those who commanded them; no man, said the alderman, had an higher opinion of them than himself; they were the best seamen, and the first navigators, in the world; they had distinguished themselves against Souffrein, under Sir Edw. Hughes, in 1778, and the last glorious instance of gallantry, in the China seas, under Captain Dance, would for ever endear them to their country; but how that establishment was supported, and merit or seniority regarded, he would not then stop to enquire. In nothing, he said, was there any design to deprive the company of their shipping, nor of that trade which they were able to carry on, which trade ought, however, to maintain its own maritime establishment.

The noble lord had fairly stated the expansion of the double system of trade and dominion, to have called for a greater amount of fixed and floating assets than had been formerly requisite; but where among them was to be found any capital applicable to trade? In all the budget speeches the surplus revenue and the product of exports were expressly mentioned as the amount applicable to investment: the rest at any rate was borrowed for the purpose, as the noble lord had himself confessed, in his last budget statement (page 35,) his words were: "The question that

will

[COM. will naturally be suggested on this occasion is, as to the prudence or propriety of investing so large an amount in goods, when the surplus from the reve, ues is estimated so low; as the system of providing funds for this puriose by new loans has been often chiccied to. Mr. Dundas's words in the statement of 1801, at page 29, were these: “The question must naturally arise from whence fun is could be derived to meet demands to so co siderable an amount; to which I shall merely now reply, that in whatever amount the supplies from Europe in bullion, an I the cash received for bills on the court of directors, were found deficient, money was raised on loans, as will appear in the increa e of Indian debt."

Here the alderman aflirmed, that, notwithstanding all assertion to the contrary, much the greater part, if not all, of that debt, had been created by the trade.

The exclusive system, according to the honourable director, embraced great political objects, and ough not therefore to be judged of on the narrow principles of a profit and loss trade. This, the alderman observed, might possibly be rational doctrine, if the revenues were able to make good the deficiencies in trade; but had that been the case? On the contrary, the Indian debt had encreased as the commerce extended; nor had the ex-chairman, the noble lord, the honourable general (Wellesley), nor the director himself, been able to shew any solid capital on which the trade had been supported. The fact was, a trade on money borrowed at Indian interest had ruined the compa y. The company, as he had repeatedly asserted, never had an active capital applicable to the purposes of commerce. He would state their capital a qco;

The united company were incorporated in the year 1702, by an indenture between her Majesty Queen Anne and the two East India companies, which had previously existed on separate establishments. In 169, the 10th of King William, there had been raised for this purpose, by subscription, and ia virtue of his letters patent,

On a capital of 3,200,0007. at <71⁄2 per cent. £.2,800,000 Of which they had lent to government at

8 per cent. interest

They had also paid for dead stock under Lord Godolphin's award

to

Which sums made a deduction of

So that the active capital amounted only

2,000,000

400,000

2,400,000

400,000 To

To which a fresh subscription was made in 1701, upon 800,000. stock, at 155 per cent. of

£.1,240,000

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

same year

1,200,000

The capital remaining, then, for trade, was

only

[ocr errors]

410,000

At this time the rate of interest was reduced to five per cent.

In 1729 à douceur was paid to government

of.

200,000

Unless, therefore, the trade had increased

their stock beyond their dividend, the capital was reduced to

240,000

1,000,000

760,000

In 1741, they lent, however, to government,
without any call on the proprietors
which exceeded their funded subscription
afloat

At this time the loan to government amount-
ed to 4,900,000!.

In 1750, the interest on the loan was reduced to three per cent.

In 1789 a fresh subscription of 1,000,000l. stock at 174 added to the company's re

sources

In 1793 the capital becoming more inefficient, 1,000,000. stock was added, though not all subscribed till the year after, and this produced

1,740,000

£.2,027,295 16s.

Upon this capital and the surplus revenues, had the company conducted their complicated system of conquest and commerce, with what success the committec were now the judges.

One souree of loss, however, the alderman observed, he ought to state, and that was on the sale of three of the four millions due from government, which their necessities had compelled the company to dispose of, at the market price, after the whole loan to government had been converted into consols at three per ceat. The remainder, which was of no greater value than the consols of the day, was still a resource, though at the decreased value he had before stated, in examining the stock by computation. Upon VOL. III. 1805-6.

4 Z

such

such slender means had the machine been conducted, how far adequately he would not detain the committee to enquire, but a reference to the annual balances of their stock account would in a moment shew the progress of their affairs. The hon.ex-chairman(Mr.Grant) had broadly admitted the company's present distress, and indeed to have denied the fact would have been strangely inconsistent with his declarations in another place. The noble lord (Castlereagh) had also made a similar confession, but the prospect of a long peace in our provinces, afforded, in their opinion, ample confidence in the resources of the company to surmount its present difficulties. The noble lord admitted that the Indian debt had afforded the capital for its commerce; he had also corroborated the able statement of the honourable general (Wellesley) for a peace establishment, in which he was able only to exhibit the hope of a saving of 740,000 per annum, and this without any allowance for unliquidated arrears of the war, the increasing interest on the bonddebt, and the funds constantly required for investment on the present footing. Both, however, had denied the insolvency of the company, or that India was now more likely to be a burthen than a relief to the mother country. The noble lord's illustration of the grounds of this confidence, was in unison with the declarations so often officially made by him, and his predecessors in the board of control; it was only a stronger dose of that sweet nepenthe annually distributed in their budget speeches-"Hope travels on, nor quits us till we die." The fate, however, of a certain other great monopoly, framed upon extravagant speculation, ought to be a warning to this country, as well as to the India company. In a large building between Leadenhall-street and the Royal Exchange, was there not at this very day an evidence of the country's being compelled to pay a composition upon the capital as well as the debts of a privileged corporation? The Mississippi bubble had ruined French credit, and so would the South Sea project have ruined that of England, had not government stept for ward with the public purse to pay a part of the corporate deficiency. But the company, says the noble lord, and the ex-chairman, and after them the director who had just sat down, bad ample resources to prevent ultimate loss to the state. They had their claim of ten millions for buildings and fortifications. This, the alderman said, he had completely disposed of. The noble lord had stated that they were, it was true, 1,598,000l. deficient of their capital, assuming

« 前へ次へ »