The Letters of Gracchus on the East India Question

by William Augustus Miles

If, upon maturely weighing the case before them, the Company should accede to the proposition of Government; and if an arrangement, founded upon that proposition, should receive the sanction of Parliament;

1. The Company will preserve the entire China trade; and this principal sphere of their commercial profit, will remain undisturbed.

2. They will possess advantages for continuing to carry on the India trade, so far superior to those of all private competitors, from their territorial and commercial revenues, that, with a moderate exertion of their activity, they may preserve almost the whole of that trade.

3. They will possess the regulation and control of the India trade, so far as depends upon the Indian Governments; and as those Governments will continue in the exercise of the executive power, all the private Merchants, who may repair to the ports and harbours within the extensive limits of their jurisdiction, will of course be subject to the authority of their Government.

4. They will retain the whole patronage and expenditure of a revenue of upwards of Fifteen Millions sterling per annum in India, together with very extensive establishments at home, depending upon that revenue.

5. The accounts between the Public and the Company, being brought to no sudden and violent crisis of settlement, may be amicably and leisurely adjusted, with a view to mutual convenience.

On the other hand, should the Company incautiously drop the substance to pursue the shadow, and refuse the proposition of Government; and should Parliament, upon a full and deliberate consideration of the actual circumstances of the Company, deem it more advisable to bring their accounts with the Public to a thorough investigation and final settlement, than to admit the Company's new pretensions to a perpetual monopoly;

1. The Company will lose as much of the China trade as may fall into the hands of the private merchants, who think they shall be able to sell tea 85 per cent. cheaper than the Company.

2. They will lose the control of the India commerce, and will carry on their traffic in India as subjects, in common with the private British merchants.