Rates of freight.
A secret committee of Parliament[364] was, however, appointed to inquire into the mode in which the business of the Company had been managed, and from its proceedings some valuable information may be obtained with regard to the trade of the East at this period, and the mode in which shipping business of the highest class was then conducted. As the chief object of the inquiry seems to have been to ascertain if the Company could build and navigate ships at less cost than they could be chartered, the rates of freight, size of vessels, the conditions of charter, and other matters came under the consideration of the committee. The charter-party was exceedingly voluminous.[365] In it the Company covenanted with the shipowners that no vessel was to carry less than four hundred and ninety-nine tons at the rate therein specified, including eighty tons of iron kentledge[366] for the purpose of ballast. It further provided that notwithstanding “the ship is let to freight for four hundred and ninety-nine tons, yet the Company may, if they think fit, lade what more they please,” at certain rates. The rates of freight varied. For instance, from China the freights on rough goods were 24l. per ton in 1753; 37l. in 1760; and 29l. in 1772. Fine goods in the same years paid 27l., 40l., and 32l. respectively. The freights from Bombay in these years were somewhat higher; and the rate of demurrage[367] per day was 12l. 2s. in 1753, 20l. 3s. 4d. in 1760, and 18l. 3s. in 1772.
Gross earnings.
Voluminous accounts were produced of the vessels employed, their capacity and cost. Those engaged for India in 1772 will suffice to furnish an illustration. In that year thirty-three ships were employed by the Company, of twenty-three thousand one hundred and fifty-nine tons, builder’s measurement, which brought home twenty-one thousand one hundred and fifty-eight tons of merchandise, the cost of freight amounting to 457,600l., besides an allowance for surplus freight of 95,390l. 16s. 8d., and 57,733l. 11s. 4d. paid for demurrage. From a return furnished of the China ships engaged during the five years preceding 1773, the Company appears to have imported fifty thousand three hundred and forty-three tons of produce, in vessels registering forty-eight thousand eight hundred and sixty-five tons, builder’s measurement.
Evidence of Sir Richard Hotham before the Committee of Inquiry.
The effect of his evidence.
Among the witnesses who appeared before the committee, there was no one more intelligent than Sir Richard Hotham, an eminent shipowner, who declared that the existing mode of freighting ships by the Company was absurd, and that their charter-party was one of the most useless for the purpose that could possibly be conceived. Analysing the whole system, and the clumsy and expensive mode in which they conducted their business, he gave the following particulars of what they actually paid for carriage on every ton of produce imported from the East:—
| £ | s. | d. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | tons of kentledge, at the fixed rate of 9l. 13s. 4d. per ton | 773 | 6 | 4 |
| 11 | tons of China ware, at the chartered rate of 29l. per ton | 319 | 0 | 0 |
| 393 | tons of tea and silk, at the chartered rate of 32l. per ton | 12,576 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | tons, private trade, at the chartered rate of 32l. per ton | 480 | 0 | 0 |
| 499 | 14,148 | 6 | 4 |
THE ‘THAMES’ EAST INDIAMAN, 1360 TONS REGISTER, 25 GUNS, AND 130 MEN. E. W. Cooke, R.A.