We will next see what Employment this Trade gives to Ships as it's now managed in a Company, and how far it promotes Navigation by making Saylors; The Number of the first is but small, and I think far from making Seamen, long Voyages being usually their Bane, those Ships seldom bringing home so many Saylors as they carry'd forth, whereas shorter Voyages do more, made out of Land-Men, both the Imployers and the Imployed being desirous to make their first Tryals on such Voyages; besides, longer require better Saylors to provide for the Casualties which attend them, and may be said rather to use Seamen than to make them; and this is one great Reason why the Dutch raise them so easily, most of their Imployments being a home Trade.
If then it appears this Trade is no more profitable to the Nation in general we will next see how it is to that Company in parricular; I do not say to the particular Members thereof, who by ill Practices have raised their private Fortunes, many of which have been lately laid open, but to the Company as such; and here we find that a former failed; the last is thought to have gotten little, considering the long time they have been a Monopoly; and what Advantage the new Fund will make Time must shew, the Tricks used to engage Men therein causes me to doubt whither 'twill answer the Expectations of the Subscribers.
On the whole let us consider what Arguments can be offered to the Wisdom of the Nation to limit this Trade to an exclusive Company as was desired, or (as in truth it is) to turn it into a Monopoly by Law, a thing very contrary to the Genius of the People of England, and seems to barr the Freedom and Liberty of the Subject.
Were Monopolies to be allowed it must certainly be in One of these three Respects.
1. That we might put off our own Commodities to other Nations in Barter for those we received from them.
2. That we might keep down the Prices of their Commodities, whilst we advanced our own.
3. That as the Consequence of these two we might encourage our Manufacturers at home, and furnish Foreign Commodities cheap.
But when a Monopoly shall cause quite different Effects it's not to be allow'd on any Terms.
As for the first; the East-India Company takes off little of our Manufactures, nor do I think the Trade will admit it, for I cannot see how that Nation can be supplied with Manufactures hence fit for their Wearing answerable in Price to their own, except they were a Luxurious People who cared not what they gave to please their Fancies, which I do not take them to be, but generally very Provident; for if we consider that when the East-India Company hath brought their Calicoes and Silks hither with great Charges, and sold them at an extraordinary advance, they find vent by their cheapness, how can we believe that any of our Manufactures can afford them a profit in India, where they must be sold suitable in price to the others first cost; and therefore 'twould not be amiss if the Government were put on making a narrow Inquiry whither the Company do boná fide export so much of the Product and Manufactures of rhis Kingdom and land them in India as they are obliged to do by their Charter, elfe many ways may be found out to evade it, and the Nation be deprived of the only Advantage expected from that Monopoly.
The Dutch and we deal not thither on the same Terms, their Manufactures are small, and so no Matter what they Trade on, besides their Settlements in the East-Indies are so great, that what they bring thence may almost be called their own Product, whereof by monopolizing that Trade they make greater Prices in Europe, which being chiefly spent either in Foreign Markets or by Temporary Residents brings them more Profit; They have also great Advantages above us in their East-India Trade, being possest of the whole Traffick to Japan, whither they carry Cloth, Lead, and other Commodities from Holland, Calicoes, Spices, &c. from India, which they sell for Gold and Silver, increasing thereby their Bullion as we diminish ours; Besides their East-India Company is not settled on such a narrow Foundation as ours, which being limited to one City exclusive of all others sells their Commodities for greater Advance than any other Traders, whither we consider their Risque, or the time they are out of their Money, which should be the standing Rules in Trade; Nor can it be otherwise whilst they remain a Company, the Charges both abroad and at home being much more than when manag'd by private Stocks, besides the affected Grandeur in all which must be paid by the Nation, whereon I take that Monopoly to be a Tax so far as it might be supply'd with them on cheaper Terms if the Trade were laid more open by a Regulation; I know there is much talk'd by the Company about Forts Castles and Soldiers to defend their Interests in India, but I cannot see the use of them, for either they are thereby defended against the Natives, or the Dutch their Competitors; the former have no reason to quarrel with them, for bringing them a Trade so highly their Advantage as the purchasing their Product and Manufactures with Money, especially if they pay for what they buy; And as for their Competitors the Dutch, if they were not better defended against them by our Fleets at home, and the Protection of the Princes they trade with, than by all the Force they have there, the Trade had been but ill-secured, and must have sunk long ago; Only those great Words serve to hold us amused, whilst their Guineas in the two last Reigns were the Support of their Charter.