CHAPTER I. 



OF SOUND PRINCIPLES OF TRADE AS APPLIED 

 TO AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS IN INDIA. 



IN the discussions which have lately taken place 

 in Great Britain regarding the Cotton Famine, the 

 Free Traders of Manchester have been liberally 

 accused of abandoning 1 the principles of sound poli- 

 tical economy, and plentifully sneered at for propos- 

 ing to the Government of India to turn " Cotton 

 Merchant."* The Manchester Chamber of Com- 

 merce in reply on the 16th July, 1862, passed the 

 following Resolution : 



" That any direct interference with the regular course of 

 production and trade, either by the Government of this country, 

 or by any private association, by undertaking to purchase, or 

 giving a guarantee, of a remunerative price, for all the cotton 

 that might be produced, would be contrary to sound principles 

 of trade, and being only temporary, and precarious in its 

 nature, would not be likely to provide for the permanent suc- 

 cess of its cultivation." 



I see no occasion for the sneers on the one hand, 

 nor the Resolution on the other. The Governments 

 of half the Countries in Europe, are Tobacco Mer- 



* See The Times of 3rd July, 1862, letters signed an Old 

 Indian, and many others. 



B 



