A. D. 1773. 541 



loan of /"i ,500,000 at four per cent interefl for four years, with a 

 liberty of repayment fooner, if they fhould be able, in fums of not lefs 

 than ;^3CO,ooo. They propofed at the fame time to reftrid their divid- 

 ends io fix per cent till half the loan fliould be difcharged, and thereafter 

 to eight per cent till the final payment of the whole ; and then to appro- 

 priate the furplus profits above eight per cent to the difcharge of their 

 bond debts, till they fhould be reduced to ^^1,500,000 : and thereafter 

 they offered to divide the furplus profits equally between the public and 

 themfelves : and they requefted to be difcharged from the heavy penal- 

 ties incurred by the non-payment of the compenfation, owing to go- 

 vernment in confequence of the fum produced by the reduced duties 

 on tea falling fhort of the amount of the former duties; and alfo to be 

 difcharged from the annual payment of ^400,000 for the remainder of 

 the five years, for which they were bound by the late adt of parliament ; 

 and they requefted permiflion to export teas free of all duty to America 

 and to foreign countries *. They moreover propofed, that the accounts 

 of their territorial revenues, of their fales, and, in a word, a complete 

 ftate of their affairs, fliould be annually laid before parliament. 



After keen and interefting debates in both houfes of parliament for 

 about three months, and remonflrances and petitions from the India 

 company, and from the corporation of London, whom the company 

 had perfuaded to interefl themfelves in the event, the following regula- 

 tions were ena6ted. 



June 21" — The annual eledion of twenty-four new dircdors having 

 made the adminiftration of the company's affairs too fluduating and 

 imftable, they are in future to remain four years in oflRce, and fix of 

 them to go out every year ; fo that every year there fhall be an eledion 

 of fix, inflead of twenty-four, new diredors. The election is to be made 

 by proprietors of not lefs than ;jr 1,000 ftock, who only have the privi- 

 lege of voting in future f, which they mufl have held without collufion 



• Thi« part of the petition was fpeedily complied with by an aft which received the royal af- 

 fent on the lo'" of May, the fubltance of wliich the reader has already fcen. 



f The numbers of proprietors of Eall-Iiidia (lock, holding j2^Qo or more, appear by the com- 

 pany's book to have been as follows on the 4" of March 1773. 



Proprietors of j£ 1,000 (lock or more, 



Engiisli 487 - - holding j6'i,OI8,398 19 .11 



Foreign 325 - - - t>yo,940 17 O 



812 1,909.339 16 II 



Proprietors of ^500 or 



more, not amounting to 

 s£ 1,000, 



English 1,246 ... 634.4frt 1 8 



Foreign ys . . . .?0,22(j O 



1,341 684,690 1 S 



V>y the prcfent aCl there were 1,246 proprietors of India (lock disfranchized, and the whole govern- 

 ment of the company's affairs thrown into Uie hands of 487 proprietors. This, to be lure, favcs trouble 

 to the candidates for the direftion. 4 



