The Letters of Gracchus on the East India Question

by William Augustus Miles

Yet he can discover, neither error nor want of candour in his statement. If those advocates will take the pains to follow the whole argument of the Directors, on the present occasion, throughout, they must be sensible, that his statement cannot be controverted. The Directors, indeed, avoid expressing their proposition in the fair and distinct form in which it is here drawn out; yet such is the proposition in effect. For, if the whole of it be reduced into a form of syllogism, it is no other than this:—

"Whatever shall cause the subversion of the present system of Indian Government, will cause danger to the Empire and Constitution.

"But, pressing the extension of an import trade from India to the out-ports, will cause the subversion of the present system of Indian Government.

"Therefore, pressing the extension of an import trade to the out-ports, will cause danger to the Empire and Constitution."

If we question the minor proposition, and ask, Why, pressing an import trade for the out-ports, should necessarily cause the subversion of the existing system of Indian Government? the answer of the Directors is already given:—Because they will not continue to carry on that Government, if an import trade from India should be granted to the out-ports. Thus, the original statement is demonstrably established; and all the logic of the City cannot overturn it.

The Directors must permit the words "will not;" for, with the record of the East India Company's history before us, it is impossible to say they cannot. In proof of this assertion, let us take a review of that history, and let us examine, what evil resulted to the Company, during the period that the import trade from India WAS ACTUALLY extended to the out-ports of Great Britain.

When the first, or London East India Company, had incurred the forfeiture of their Charter in 1693, by the non-payment of a stipulated sum of money, their privileges were immediately restored to them, and confirmed by letters patent, granted by King William III. upon this express ground:—"Considering how highly it imports the honour and welfare of this our kingdom, and our subjects thereof, that a trade and traffic to the East Indies should be continued; and being well satisfied that the same may be of great and public advantage; and being also desirous to render the same, as much as in us lies, more national, general, and extensive, than hitherto it hath been," &c.

This principle, of promoting a more national, general, and extensive trade to India than had subsisted under the then existing Company's exclusive Charter, gave rise to a new measure in the year 1698, in an Act passed in the 9th and 10th year of the same king, entitled, An Act for raising a sum not exceeding two millions, &c. and for settling the trade to the East Indies. The parties subscribing towards that loan, were formed into a Society, called The General Society of Merchants, &c.; and such of them as chose to unite their subscriptions, and to form a joint-stock, were incorporated under the name of The English East India Company, &c. The General Society possessed the privilege of an export and import trade with India, with the power of bringing their import cargoes from India to the OUT-PORTS of the kingdom, in the same manner as is proposed by Government at the present day; with this only difference, that the General Society of Merchants were not restricted as to the ports at which they should enter, whereas Government have now proposed, that merchants should be restricted to such ports as can best afford the means of guarding against the depredations of smuggling.

The regulations, which were adopted for ships importing from India to the out-ports, are to be found in the Act 9 and 10 William III. c. 44. s. 69. and were as follows:—

"Provided always, and it is here enacted, that no Company, or particular person or persons, who shall have a right, in pursuance of this Act, to trade to the East Indies, or other parts within the limits aforesaid, shall be allowed to trade, until sufficient security shall be first given (which the Commissioners of the Customs in England, or any three or more of them for the time being, are hereby authorized and required to take, in the name and to the use of His Majesty, his heirs and successors), that such Company, or particular persons, shall cause all the goods, wares, merchandise, and commodities, which shall at any time or times hereafter, during the continuance of this Act, be laden by or for them, or any of them, or for their, or any of their accounts, in any ship or ships whatsoever, bound from the said East Indies, or parts within the limits aforesaid, to be brought (without breaking bulk), to some port of England or Wales, and there be unladen and put to land, &c. And that all goods and merchandises belonging to the Company aforesaid, or any other traders to the East Indies, and which shall be imported into England or Wales, as aforesaid, pursuant to this Act, shall by them be sold openly and publicly, by inch of candle, upon their respective accounts, and not otherwise."

Upon this Act of the 9th and 10th of William III. was built, in the following year, that famous Charter of the Company, upon which they rest the weight of their pretensions; and that very Charter, as is here rendered incontestable by the Act itself, comprehended the principle, of an Import Trade from India to the OUT-PORTS of the kingdom.

The form and condition of the security which was to be given by the out-port merchants, will be found in the Act, 6th Anne, c. 3. entitled, "An Act for better securing the duties on East India goods." By that Act, the security to be given was fixed "at the rate of 2500l. sterling for every hundred ton their ships or vessels shall be respectively let for;" and the only restriction imposed upon the import trade from India was, that it should be brought "to some port in Great Britain."