STATE PAP E R S. 



487 



revenues are fifteen millions 

 per annum, there is a deficit of 

 1,019,097/. 



What is most obvious and strik- 

 ingin thisstatement, is the increase, 

 not of the charges only but also of 

 tliedebt, as the revenues increased, 

 and not merely in proportion to 

 the increase of the revenues ; for 

 whilst from the year 1793-4; to the 

 year 1805-6, the amount of the re- 

 venueshas not been quite doubled, 

 that of the charges has been in- 

 creased as five to two, and that of 

 the debt nearly quadrupled, be- 

 sides a very large sum of debt 

 transferred in the course of that 

 period to England. 



After all allowances and adjust- 

 ments, which, according to thebest 

 knowledge of the court, compre- 

 hend every thing the account ought 

 to contain, the balance is in favour 

 of England, or of the Company 

 at home, 5,691,689/. 



Before concluding, the execu- 

 tive body of the company think it 

 may be proper for them to declare, 

 that they are not conscious of 

 having, by improvidence or mis- 

 management, contributed to bring 

 the company's affairs into the em- 

 barrassments in which they are 

 now involved. They may be placed 

 in a very material degree to the vast 

 increase of the Indian debt— the 

 consequence of various measures 

 adopted abroad under the admi- 

 nistration of control exercised 

 by his majesty's government since 

 the year 1784'. Those embarrass- 

 ments proceed also in part from 

 causes which it has not been in 

 the power of this country to con- 

 trol. An unexampled European 

 war, which has already continued 

 fourteen years, has in every way 

 aggravated the expences, and di- 



minished the profits of the com- 

 pany at home and abroad. The 

 increased charges of freight and 

 demorage alone, occasioned by this 

 war, have amounted, since its com- 

 mencement, to more than seven 

 millions sterling. Whenever Great 

 Britain is involved in European 

 war, the effects are always felt in 

 India in increased military ex- 

 pences, even when no European 

 enemy appears in the field there; 

 but that war has been carried into 

 India ; and, at the desire of his 

 majesty's government, the compa- 

 ny havehad tosustain the expence 

 of various foreign expeditions 

 against the French, Dutch, and 

 Spanish possessions in India, and 

 to Egypt, all chiefly on the national 

 account, in which,as is well known, 

 the company expended very large 

 sums, borrowed at high Indian in- 

 terest, to the prejudice of their 

 general credit and affairs, in ways 

 which cannot be made matter of 

 account. This war moreover has 

 occasioned a gradual rise in the 

 cost of home manufactures and 

 metals, which the company, con- 

 sulting the national interest, have 

 continued to export for manyyears 

 to the extent of 2,200,000/. annual- 

 ly, notwithstanding the known dis- 

 advantage under which they pro- 

 secuted that trade ; for the increas- 

 ed cost could not be compensated 

 by a corresponding increase in the 

 selling prices abroad, nor b}' a de- 

 crease in the prices of goods pur- 

 chased for Europe, and has there- 

 fore been attended with positive 

 and considerable loss to the com- 

 pany. Tl)e progressive diminu- 

 tions of profit on their Indian im- 

 portations here, have been already 

 shewn. All these evils arc now 

 followed by a stagnation in the 



