found to be still unpaid; that 42,105/. 66 66 obliged to postpone many other of their "commercial debts," these sums are again postponed; and the Company empowered to encrease their bond debt in the sum of 500,000l. By 23 G. 3. cap. 83. It appears that the Company owed 644,7437. 17s. 2d. for customs; that 270,000l. more would be due by 10th December, 1783; that the 100,0007. (part of the 400,0007. due in 1781) was still unpaid; that from March 1782 to March 1783, profits were deficient to pay the 8 per cent. dividend of 256,000l. by 255,8137., in other words, that they had only 1877. of profit; that "the Company were much distressed in their 66 66 affairs at home, whence it was found necessary to grant further relief;" wherefore the above payments were again deferred; and the commissioners of the treasury empowered to assist the Company with a loan of Exchequer bills to 1783. 1784. the amount of 300,000l. at 47. 15s. per cent. interest; and until these debts could be repaid, and the bond debt reduced to 1,500,000l the public were to forego all participation in the surplus revenue and profits. By 24 Geo. 3. sess. 1. cap. 35. The debts for customs, &c. being still unpaid, pay ment again postponed until May 1784. 1784. By 24 Geo. 3. cap. 34. The debt for customs being now 923,5197. 5s. 2d., the debt of 100,0007. due in 1781 still unpaid, as well as the debt on Exchequer bills of 300,000l. the bond debt being 2 millions, and a deficiency in the year's profit of 141,9417. to pay 8 per cent. dividends; and finally bills drawn on the Company for 1,690,000l., besides China bills, being to be met, and 300,000l. due on accepted bills;* a further postponement of the debts to the public was granted till 1st Jan. 1786. Meanwhile a dividend of 8 per cent. was still authorized;† and the surplus revenue • Vide Chap. III. p. 533 to 536, and the 9th Report of the select committee for the occasion of these bills. + Throughout these difficulties, the 8 per cent. dividend was always carefully provided for, on which Mill observes, that the Company "borrowed money to divide among themselves, a "singular way for a trader of keeping out of debt."-Mill, vol. ii. p. 693. and profits ordered to be wholly appropriated to the liquidation of debts. By 26 Geo. 3. cap. 62. The Company were authorized to raise money to relieve their distresses by selling or mortgaging 1,207,5597. 15s. being part of the debt of 4,200,000l. due by Government to the Company, to be held by subscribers on the same terms as the 2,992,440l. 5s.— other part of the said debt-were held; and likewise to borrow, or add to their capital stock, 800,000l. it being neces"sary and expedient, it is stated, that "the Company should be thus enabled to "raise a further sum of money than they "otherwise could do, to extend their "trade, and to discharge the demands to "which they are liable.” 66 66 By 28 Geo. 3. cap. 29. The Company were empowered to raise 1,200,000l. on their bonds, "in consideration of the state of "their affairs, and to discharge debts." By 29 Geo. 3. cap. 65. "The affairs of the Company again requiring the advance "of a considerable sum of money" to meet pressing demands, they were accordingly authorized to raise the same by adding one million to their capital stock; and By 33 Geo. 3. cap. 47. To add another million to their capital stock for the same purpose; 1786. 1788. 1789. 1793. thus borrowing, or adding to capital, (another name for borrowing) no less a sum altogether, from 1773 to 1793, than 9,587,559/.* which, together with all the surplus revenue of India during the period, was applied) as manifested in the preceding statutes (and therefore wholly sunk. in the discharge of the Company's commercial expenditure and debts. But this was not all. The Committee well knew that, from 1793 down to the period of their own sitting in 1812, frequent applications continued to be made by the Company to Parliament for relief, under commercial difficul One million added to capital in 1789, yielding.. 1,740,000 Do. do. 1793, do.....2,000,000 Total..... ....£9,587,559 Exclusive of loans from the Bank, which, in as far as the same or other loans were repaid, could only be so discharged by the whole surplus revenue of India being left, as seen in the statutes above quoted, at the disposal of the Company. + Whether any or what money was raised on this security is not stated. The whole sum still stands in the public accounts, as" due by Government to the Company." ties; that with a large surplus revenue in India, which they themselves fully admit, not one of the grand anticipations of Mr. Dundas in 1793, (p. 593-4.) with a trifling exception in the two succeeding years, of 250,000l. each into His Majesty's Exchequer, had even a beginning; that even this trifling attempt was mere delusion, for, in the same year, or 1794, the 33d of the King, cap. 47., having required the bond debt, then 3,200,000/., to be reduced to 1,500,000/., in the attempt to do so, and to make shew of a payment into the Exchequer, further distress occurred, and a fresh application to Parliament for relief; on which the Company were released from further reductions of the bond debt, its limit being extended to two millions, with liberty to borrow one million more.* The Committee also knew that, in 1797, the Company were empowered to add two millions more to their capital stock ;† but this was not availed of for the plainest of all reasons, that additions to capital were generally required by Parliament, to be employed in reducing bond debt a salutary restriction which was afterwards repealed on account of the Company's encreasing difficulties. From 1793 to 1795, the bond debt appears +37 Geo. 3. cap. 31. 34 Geo. 3. cap. 41. |