as he says in another place, furnished it with "investments virtually for nothing." tures. It would be a vain task to attempt to exhibit any thing like a balance of profit or loss on the preceding series of commercial advenThe omission of charges, which uniformly and habitually occur in the Company's estimates of commercial profit, has been more than once noticed in these pages. In one of the plans for British India detailed by Mr. Bruce* there is a remarkable confirmation of our remarks on this head. It is too long for a quotation; but the reader may refer to it from the following abstract. An estimate (for we have nothing but commercial estimates any where) of the Company's trade is presented, taken as an average from aggregate amounts in preceding years, in which it is computed that 1,110,000l. are annually required to " provide investments in India," and 1,500,000l. to "provide investments in China; "that the sale proceeds of these investments in England would average 4,700,000l.; and that after deducting prime cost, with no other charges than, freight, 66 "customs, and charges of merchandize in England," this would leave a profit on the 66 + Bruce's Plans, &c. p. 226. et seq. And this is called their home profit, or commercial cruits, and pensions to superannuated officers and servants, together per ann. 40,000 For annual interest on India debt trans ferred home 105,000 For do. on 3,200,000l. bond debt ...... 128,000 at 8 per cent. ... 400,000 673,000 Leaving, therefore, an excess of charge, of....£101,774 To this may be added the charges of merchandize in India, which seem to be omitted in the estimate, together with the "commer"cial charges not added to invoices." The latter is stated in the appendices to Chap. II. to amount to 121,2997. per annum, though greatly, as I conceive, under-rated.* The es *In the Second Report of the Committee of Secrecy of 1772, p. 30, the expence of commercial buildings and forts, between 1757 and 1772, is stated to be 3,728,5527. or per ann. 248,570l. timate also supposes neither profit, nor loss, on the export trade; although, in other official documents, a considerable loss is admitted. With these additions it is manifest that the whole loss on the Company's trade at this time, or deficit of what is called their commercial revenue, must have amounted to several hundred thousand pounds per annum, and may therefore easily account for the constant accumulation of debt.* The difficulties of unravelling the Company's commercial accounts were not confined to this period. A Select Committee of the House of Commons was employed, from 1809 to 1812, on a very laborious investigation of the Company's affairs; and their five Reports, with their several appendices, contain a mass of important and useful matter. Valuable, however, as these documents are, the two most important points of the whole enquiry did not attract so much of the Committee's attention as could be desired; and being left * In page 13 of the Fourth Rep. of the Sel. Com. of the House of Commons in 1812, there is a similar estimate of profit. These documents are referred to as being of authority, to shew that our remarks, in respect to the habitual omission of real charges, are fully borne out. Mr. Moreau's Tables, p. 24, contain another proof of the same fact as to the habitual omission of actual commercial charges on the Company's estimates of profit. by them in an imperfect state, I shall chiefly devote to these points the remainder of the present chapter. First-A prominent feature in all the Company's accounts, which have been submitted to the public'since 1793, is a constant and striking tendency to lighten the commercial head of every possible charge, for which the slightest pretext can be devised for transferring it to the territorial head; consequently to load territory with a mass of charges, which are neither of a territorial origin, or character; and by afterwards blending the whole in one account, to render the difficulties of analyzing it insurmountable. Secondly-The absolute certainty of a surplus revenue, which flashed upon the Committee at the commencement of their labours, and which they must have been at once sensible was utterly incompatible with territorial debt; but which important fact the Committee had no sooner discovered than it was consigned to neglect, and never afterwards followed out, or noticed in the subsequent course of their enquiries. Under the first of these heads may be noticed the delusion through which the Company's debts abroad were conceived to be territorial, and accordingly charged by the Act of 1793, both principal and interest, on the revenues of India-an error which could never have been committed by Parliament, had this matter been properly investigated, and well understood; neither could it have occurred, if territory and commerce had been at this time two separate persons, or separate bodies, vigilant in the protection of their respective interests and rights. The union of these two branches in one body is, indeed, the sole cause of that mystification, and obscurity, which pervade the whole of the Company's commercial accounts submitted to the public; which the Select Committee of 1809 to 1812, declared themselves utterly unable to unravel; which has defeated the most persevering industry of individuals ever since that time, to analyze and explain; and which, as the accounts are still exhibited to the public, would defy the skill of the ablest accountant in existence to reconcile with known and undeniable results.* Another charge in the Company's accounts which attracted the attention of the Select Committee in 1809 to 1813, is the expense of * Mr. Bruce in admitting this fact gives the following reason for it. "The conclusion therefore is, that the revenues from In"dia could only be realized through the trade, [rare discovery !] "and that the whole of the Company's concerns is made up of "parts mutually supporting each other, and incapable of being "reduced to the mercantile idea of a distinct profit and loss "from each transaction."-Bruce's Plans, p. 322. |