The dividend to the shareholders, at the rate of 4 per cent. for six months, or 8 per cent. per annum, on the original capital of £973,378, amounted to £38,933, leaving a surplus balance of about £6,781, to be carried to the next account.
If even the amount paid to the directors from the 2½ per cent. (deducted for charges of management, being for a half year, £8,248 10s. 9d.), were added to the surplus balance of £6,781, and a dividend paid to the proprietors at the rate of 10 per cent., the scale suggested by their lordships, a residue would only be left of about £5,296; from which residue the expenses of management, and ordinary salaries for managing directors, would have to be defrayed.
Their lordships will thus have before them the means of considering what modification of the terms of the contract the present and prospective state of the profits of the company would appear to justify; or whether it would be expedient to adopt such modification to the varying profits of the company in the terms proposed by it; viz., that when the financial position of the company, with respect to such mail services, shall be such as, after making the customary allowances for the repairs, &c., a maximum dividend of 10 per cent. can be realised to the shareholders, any surplus over and above such maximum dividend shall be placed to the credit of the Government.
(Signed) A. Ellice,
Wm. H. Bond.
APPENDIX.
No. 1.—Memorandum of Contracts with Government for the Conveyance of Her Majesty’s Mails by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.
| STATION. | Distance per Voyage. | Annual Distance. | Annual Sum. £ | Per Mile. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Southampton to Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar; three times a month, say on the 7th, 17th, and 27th | 2,400 | 86,400 | 20,500 | 4/8¾ nearly 4/9 |
| 2. Southampton to Malta and Alexandria, once a month, on the 20th | 6,084 | 73,008 | 28,500 | 7/9½ |
| 3. Southampton to Malta and Alexandria (bi-monthly) on the 3rd | 6,084 | 73,008 | 15,525 | 4/3 |
| 4. Calcutta to Madras, Point de Galle, Aden and Suez, and Point de Galle to Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong, once a month | 15,590 | 187,080 | 160,000 | 17/1¼ |
| 419,496 | 224,525 | 10/8¼ nearly ½ |
London, 8th June, 1848.