Or equal to 32l. 10s. per ton, after the freight on kentledge had been deducted; and he showed how a saving could be effected in the cost of freightage on the vessels employed, from China alone, of upwards of 43,000l. annually.[368] Sir Richard offered to bring goods from any part of the East at twenty guineas per ton, and this offer, combined with other important facts which had been adduced in evidence, produced at the time various changes in the mode of conducting the chartering and loading of their vessels. The Company also resolved to construct vessels of a larger class for their own use, vessels which became famous in more modern times, of which we furnish an illustration of one of the latest [on the preceding page].
Reduction of duties, August 1784.
Extent of tea trade.
Though the operations of the Company as traders continued in full force for ten years after this inquiry, its shipping business underwent very considerable changes by reason of Mr. Pitt’s judicious reduction of the duties on various Indian productions,[369] especially on tea; the duty on which was then reduced from 120 to 12½ per cent. ad valorem. High duties had been found to encourage smuggling,[370] and divert the trade from England to continental nations. Although in the nine years preceding 1780 the importation of tea from China to Europe amounted to 118,783,811 lbs., only 50,759,451 lbs. out of that quantity had been imported in vessels belonging to or chartered by the Company. But the change in the duty effected a revolution, and the sales and importations of tea by the Company were trebled. Their export trade also increased, and in 1789 they began to ship tin to China for the first time. Whilst the value of their exports in 1784 was only 418,747l., in twenty-seven ships, it rose in 1792 to 1,031,262l., employing forty-three vessels. On the other hand, the quantity of bullion despatched to the East materially declined. During the same period the “private trade” carried on by the commanders and officers of the Company’s ships, and by the merchants holding licences who resided in India, rose from 144,176l. of imports in 1783, to 400,784l. in 1794,[371] and increased to no less than double that amount in the following ten years.
Opposition of independent shipowners.
The Liverpool and Bristol shipowners now began to agitate still further for a participation in the East India trade. The Company, however, having obtained fresh capital, were thus enabled, combined with other causes, to secure a renewed lease of exclusive commercial power, which now virtually extended over Europe, and was not overthrown until many years afterwards. The Dutch East India Company having incurred enormous losses, and the other companies having either relinquished the business or declined to such a point as to render their rivalry no longer dangerous, left the trade of the East to a large extent in the hands of the English. In 1789 the Portuguese, who once engrossed the whole of the oriental trade, had but three ships at Canton, the Dutch five, the French one, the Danes one, the United States of America fifteen, and the English East India Company forty, while British subjects residing in India had a similar number. Moreover, a very considerable portion of the trade of the East was then conducted in Indian ships, owned by the natives, by whom as many voyages were undertaken from India to China, and from the coast of Malabar to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, as in the days before the passage to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope had been discovered.
India-built ships admitted to the trade.
It was not, however, until 1795 that India-built vessels were permitted to convey goods to London. In the course of that year a great number of the Company’s ships having been employed in the service of the English government, instructions were sent to the Presidencies to engage vessels of India build at 16l. per ton for rice and other dead-weight stowage, and 20l. for light goods to the Thames, with liberty to take back on their own account whatever merchandise they pleased to the territories of the Company, or to any place within the limits of its charter.
Many of them having been constructed on speculation, under an impression that they would be permanently employed, although warned by Lord Cornwallis to the contrary, their owners were greatly disappointed when they found that after the immediate wants of the government and the Company had been satisfied their services were no longer required. English shipowners in the service of the Company inflexibly maintained their monopoly, and having secured stipulations for a number of voyages during successive years, they successfully opposed for a time any innovation of a permanent character upon their chartered rights. The contest, however, which arose between the independent merchants of England, who had combined with the owners of native shipping against the Company on this point, induced the Directors to make various concessions, which were the prelude to the opening of the trade at a future period.
Board of Control established, 1784.