With respect to the institution of public sales at Batavia for Japan copper, spices, and sugar, on the introduction of which it was supposed the establishments in Western India might be for the most part reduced, they were of opinion, after deliberating with the Council of India, and after a personal inquiry into the actual state of the private trade at Batavia, that chiefly for the want of an adequate means among the purchasers such sales were entirely impracticable, and that it would therefore be preferable, after making some partial reductions in the expense, to continue the establishment in Bengal and the coast of Coromandel, but that Cochin on the Malabar coast might, perhaps, be advantageously abandoned[7].

To determine the mode in which the trade with India should in future be conducted, these Commissioners assumed a general calculation of the receipts and disbursements which would occur at home and abroad, on the supposition that the Company should, in future, navigate with hired vessels only, and that all marine establishments should be abolished. The result of this calculation was in abstract as follows. The estimate may be considered as affording an interesting view of the hopes and prospects which were at that time entertained of the resources of the Eastern Islands.

The whole estimate was framed on the principles of monopoly, and with a view to an increase of the trade on the one hand, and a reduction of expenses on the other. The quantity of coffee stated at eighteen million pounds, was calculated upon the produce which might be expected after two years. In the calculation of the quantity of pepper, an augmentation of 1,500,000 pounds beyond the produce of the preceding year was anticipated, from the encouragement given to the growth of that article in Bantam and other parts of Java. With regard to the sugar, calculated at 8,000,000 of pounds for the home cargoes, it is stated, that the actual deliveries

From Batavia at that time amounted to6,000,000lbs.
From Chéribon500,000
From other ports in Java1,000,000
7,500,000lbs.
Supposing therefore the home cargoes8,000,000lbs.
The demand for Surat3,500,000
For Japan900,000
For the consumption of the Company's own establishments200,000
The quantity required would be12,600,000lbs.

Or 5,100,000 pounds more than the actual produce. The whole of that quantity, however, the Commissioners felt confident might be produced in three years, by encouraging the manufacture in the Eastern Districts of Java. Among the retrenchments was a tax upon the salaries of all civil servants, which reduced the average salary of each to the sum of fifteen Spanish dollars per month.

ESTIMATED ACCOUNT OF THE COMPANY'S RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS AT HOME AND IN INDIA,
Exclusively of the direct Trade to China, upon the Plan of the Commissioners of Inquiry, A. D. 1795.
RECEIPTS.DISBURSEMENTS.
Florins.Florins.
Public Duties2,350,000For the Surplus Expenses at the Cape of Good Hope150,000
Freight on Company's vessels50,000For the same in Bengal33,120
Additional public revenues400,000For the same at Surat40,000
Profits on Trade in India:​—For the Military Expenses in India2,571,314
Profit on opium1,250,000For Salaries to Civil Servants1,000,000
Ditto on 12,880 pikuls tin, at 26 rix-dollars per pikul228,000For Ammunition, &c.,100,000
Ditto on5,000 lbs. Mace43,000For Fortifications and Repairs400,000
Ditto on15,000 lbs. Nutmegs90,000For Sloops and minor Vessel200,000
Ditto on 120,000 lbs. Cloves420,000For Hospital Expenses100,000
Ditto on 730,000 lbs. Japan Copper292,000On Account of Confiscations18,000
Total on Spices and Copper845,000For Presents to Native Princes32,000
At Surat:​—Interest on Sums lent in India100,000
On Sugar190,000For Stores and Goods shipped in India200,000
On Camphor10,000For eventual Losses100,000
On Tin18,000For the Purchase of the Produce in India4,519,400
218,000For Insurance at five per cent. on the Money sent to India212,700
In Japan, on divers Europe and Indian articles76,000For Freight on Returns of Homeward-bound Cargoes3,300,000
2,617,000Insurance and Risk of the Sea in India200,000
And for Sundries at the coast of Coromandel33,000For Freight of Tonnage in India699,030
2,650,000For Freight for 2,320 Men, to complete the Military and Civil Establishment in India219,240
For the produce of the Indian Returns in Europe:​—For the Passage home of 450 men28,350
Coffee, 18,000,000 lbs., deduct Wastage, &c. is 16,000,000 lbs. at 8½ stivers per lb.6,813,281Bounty Money to 2,020 military men303,000
Pepper, 3,765,000 lbs., deducting Wastage, &c. is 3,263,789 lbs. at 12 stivers per lb.1,958,273Premiums to 300 civil servants60,000
Tin, 530,000 lbs. deducting Wastage, &c. is 490,913 lbs. at 40 florins per cwt.196,365Recognition to the Admiralty360,000
Cotton Yarn, 60,000 lbs., or nett 57,000 lbs., at 35 stivers per lb.99,750Contribution to the same500,000
Indigo, 30,750 lbs. deducting Wastage, &c. is 27,645 lbs. at 80 stivers per lb.110,580Total Expenses of the Company's Establishments at home1,000,000
Sugar, 8,000,000 lbs. deducting Wastage, &c. is 7,068,000 lbs. at 10 stivers per lb.1,767,000Yearly Interest to be paid4,758,000
Saltpetre, 1,650,000 lbs. deducting Wastage, &c. is 1,285,350 lbs. at 30 florins per cwt. is385,605Dividends at 12½ per cent. to the Holders of Stock831,000
Sappan Wood, 600,000 lbs. or nett 513,000 lbs. at 12 florins per cwt.61,56022,035,154
Cowries, 160,000 lbs. or nett 101,460 lbs. at 8 stivers per lb.40,584Balance1,052,379
Camphor, 64,000 lbs. or nett 56,344 lbs. at 23 stivers per lb.65,025|
Cardamons, Java, 22,000 lbs. or nett 18,810 lbs. at 20 stivers per lb.18,810|
Tamarinds, 115,000 lbs.43,700|
Arrack, 140 leagers46,000|
Cinnamon, 400,000 lbs. at 5 florins per lb.2,000,000|
Cloves, 250,000 lbs. at 65 stivers per lb.812,500|
Mace, 110,000 lbs.937,500|
Nutmegs, 320,000 lbs.561,000|
Bengal Piece Goods970,000|
Surat do. do.550,000|
17,437,533|
For Freight and Recognition on Private Trade200,000|
TotalFlorins 23,087,533TotalFlorins 23,087,533

These Commissioners seemed to entertain no very favourable ideas of the benefits which would arise to private trade from the license it already enjoyed. As a measure much more beneficial to the general trade of Europe and to the Company, they proposed, in lieu of it, to throw open to individuals, under certain restrictions, the trade and navigation from Europe to Bengal and Coromandel.

Thus we see these Commissioners sent out with the view of introducing something like free trade on Java, coming to a resolution to take away from it even the little private trade which it had previously been allowed to enjoy.

The Company's trade with continental India had already been so much encroached upon by foreigners, that it was judged expedient no longer to exclude the Dutch free trader from his share in the spoil; but it was hoped, by increased strictness, to preserve entire to the Company the exclusive trade in spices, Javan coffee, pepper as far as it was the produce of her own possessions, Japan copper, the opium which was consumed in Java and in the Moluccas, and Javan sugar.

The trade of the Dutch Company has thus been brought to the period, when its monopoly was proposed to be almost exclusively confined to Java and the Eastern Islands, including Japan. The causes which operated to destroy the Dutch influence on the continent of India, are too well known to require any particular description.