LAND, LABOUR AND COMMERCE. 153 



continuance of the importation of goods by the transports was 

 the restrictive nature of the Charter of the East India Company. 

 According to its regulations no vessels of less than 250 tons 

 could trade with New South Wales. The return freights were 

 so small that under this restriction the incentive to private 

 owners to send vessels to New South Wales was very weak, and 

 the cost of freight thither exceedingly high. Thus the convict 

 transports were a valuable channel of trade. But there would 

 be no need of them if vessels of, say, 1 50 tons were permitted to 

 trade with the Colony. According to Macquarie the transports 

 and the ships belonging to Riley and Jones carried on the whole 

 import trade, and Riley and Jones sold badly selected shipments 

 at " griping extravagant prices ". He was therefore very ready 

 to comply with the memorial and removed the prohibition until 

 further representations should have been made to the Secretary 

 of State. 1 Thus the matter remained until 1820, when the re- 

 striction as to tonnage was removed by Act of Parliament. 2 

 There remained then no reason for the continuance of the in- 

 dulgence, save Macquarie's desire to retain it. In 1820 

 Goulburn, the Under-Secretary of State, proposed that private 

 ventures might be taken on board the convict transports on pay- 

 ment of the usual freight, and the Treasury were asked to make 

 arrangements for carrying this out, not only in England but at 

 the Cape and Rio Janeiro also. 3 Shipowners of course protested, 

 but without success, and the trade continued to be carried on 

 under these regulations. 4 



The eagerness which Macquarie showed throughout to per- 

 mit this indulgence to masters and officers of transports was 

 probably due to his great liking for all " discretionary " powers, 

 a liking shared by every autocratic Governor. It was a tolerated 

 illegality and therefore wholly dependent on his favour. His 

 obstinacy had also been aroused by the attempt made by a 

 colonist to seize two convict ships, the Tottenham and the 



^.G.O., 2ist November, 1818. 



2 59 Geo. III., c. 122. Passed in 1819 but came into force in 1820. 



3 Goulburn to Treasury, 2oth March, 1820. C.O., MS. 



4 Jackson to C.O., ist April, 1820. R.O., MS. There is no doubt that 

 Macquarie greatly overrated the need of this trade. In 1820, between January and 

 April, six private merchant vessels of tonnage from 370 to 500 sailed to New 

 South Wales. See Jackson above. 



