[353] The expense of the dock police force alone amounted in 1872 to 25,636l. 4s. (see Accounts, Mersey Docks and Harbour Board).
[354] Reports of G. F. Lyster, Esq., Engineer of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, 1872.
[355] Engineer’s Reports, p. 14.
[356] The [frontispiece] to this volume contains a plan on a reduced scale of the whole of the existing and contemplated dock-accommodation, which has been courteously supplied by the Secretary.
[357] Bye-laws of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, 1866.
[358] Bye-laws, Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, p. 36.
CHAPTER XIII.
East India Company—Early struggles—Rival company—Private traders—Coalition effected—Their trade, 1741-1748, and continued difficulties up to 1773—Their form of charter—Rates of freight—Gross earnings—Evidence of Sir Richard Hotham before the Committee of Inquiry—The effect of his evidence—Reduction of duties, August 1784—Extent of tea trade—Opposition of independent shipowners—India-built ships admitted to the trade—Board of Control established, 1784—Value of the trade, 1796—Charter renewed, with important provisions, from 1796 to 1814—Restrictions on private traders—East India Company’s shipping, 1808-1815—The trade partially opened—Jealousy of free-traders—Efforts of the free-traders at the out-ports—Comparative cost of East India Company’s ships and of other vessels—Opposition to the employment of the latter—Earl of Balcarras—Her crew—Actions fought by the ships of the Company—Conditions of entering the service—Uniforms—Discipline—Promotion—Pay and perquisites—Abuse of privileges—Direct remuneration of commanders—Provisions and extra allowances—Illicit trade denounced by the Court, and means adopted to discover the delinquents—Connivance of the officers of the Customs—Pensions, and their conditions—Internal economy of the ships—Watches and duties—Amusements—Gun exercise—Courts-martial—Change in the policy of the East India Company—Results of free-trade with India, and of the Company’s trading operations—China trade thrown open, 1832-1834—Company abolished, 1858—Retiring allowances to commanders and officers—Compensations and increased pensions granted—Remuneration of the directors—Their patronage.
Early struggles.
We have already noticed the difficulties English navigators had to encounter in their earliest endeavours to gain a share of the lucrative trade which, after the discoveries of Vasco de Gama, the Portuguese carried on with India, and their long struggles against them and the Dutch East India Company, who shared it with them for more than a century, thus maintaining a virtual monopoly of the commerce of the East. Nor were the English any more successful when the Pope’s Bull ceasing to have effect induced the government of England to grant to the few merchants and shipowners we have named the charter of incorporation,[359] for the purpose of encouraging the systematic development of that valuable trade. Although the charter gave to the association an exclusive monopoly of the commercial intercourse between England and India, besides numerous special privileges, the directors had considerable difficulty in obtaining the requisite capital to equip their first expedition.[360] Indeed, their success, as a whole, for many years afterwards, though occasionally considerable, was not equivalent to the risk they encountered; and even when they had secured factories or depôts at Surat and settlements in Bengal, their prosperity was of so variable and unstable a character that their charter had to be frequently renewed with increasing privileges.