For ten years preceding the year 1780, the average annual sales of the Company amounted to upwards of twenty millions of guilders, which was considerably more than in former years, and the prices of the different articles were nearly the same as they had been from the years 1648 to 1657, when the sales only amounted on an average to about eight millions a year; it was therefore clear, that the decline of the Company was not to be attributed to the decrease of trade.
On an examination of the Indian books, it was found, that from the year 1613 to 1696, the profits in India, though moderate, had always kept equal pace with the profits in Europe.
| From 1613 | To 1653. | To 1663. | To 1673. | To 1683. | To 1693. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guilders. | Guilders. | Guilders. | Guilders. | Guilders. | |
| The total profits were | 101,704,417 | 142,663,776 | 206,072,335 | 259,250,969 | 322,735,312 |
| Expences | 76,177,755 | 117,616,961 | 161,271,745 | 212,282,020 | 274,416,306 |
| Nett Profits | 25,526,662 | 25,046,315 | 44,330,590 | 46,968,949 | 48,319,506 |
| Thus, on an average of forty years till 1653, the annual profits were about | 640,000 | guilders a year; | ||
| Of fifty years | to 1663 | about | 500,000 | do. |
| Of sixty do. | to 1673 | 750,000 | do. | |
| Of seventy do | to 1683 | 670,000 | do. | |
| Of eighty do | to 1693 | 600,000 | do. | |
In the year 1696, the nett profit from the same year (1613) amounted to only 40,206,789 guilders, being full eight millions less than it had been in 1693, only three years preceding; and the average nett annual profit from 1613 was reduced to 484,371 guilders. But from 1697 to 1779, comprehending a like period of eighty-three years, the losses were so exorbitant as to overbalance and absorb, not only the contemporary, but all the preceding profits in Europe, and even a large amount of fictitious profit stimulated to screen the government in India.
The nett amount of profits calculated from 1613, amounted
| Guilders. | ||
|---|---|---|
| In 1697 | to only | 38,696,527 |
| In 1703 | 31,674,645 | |
| In 1713 | 16,805,598 | |
| In 1723 | 4,838,925 | |
| In 1724 | 1,037,777 | |
In 1730 there was already a total loss of 7,737,610, and in the year 1779 this loss amounted to 84,985,425.
The Company used to send yearly to India, before the commencement of the war of 1780, twenty ships of about nine hundred tons each, and eight or ten of about eight hundred tons each, which, to the number of twenty-two or twenty-three, returned with cargoes: four from China, three from Ceylon, three from Bengal, one from Coromandel, and twelve or thirteen from Batavia. They annually exported to India provisions and other articles of trade to the amount of two millions six or eight thousand florins, and in cash from four to six millions, and sold yearly to an amount generally of twenty or twenty-one millions; and it was estimated that the Indian trade maintained, directly and indirectly, all the external commerce of Holland, employing a capital of about two hundred and sixty millions of florins.
From the inquiries of a commission appointed by the government of Holland, in the year 1780, to ascertain the real state of the Company's finances, and to report how far the nation would be warranted in giving its further support to the credit of an institution which had so rapidly declined, it appeared that in 1789, the arrears of the Company amounted to seventy-four millions of florins, and that this amount had since increased to eighty-four or eighty-five millions, of which sum no less than 67,707,583 florins had been advanced by the nation.