56 INDIGO. 



Letter to 27. If tliese observations are just with respect 

 28 Aug^isoo. to Oude, they will apply with still greater force to 

 countries beyond it, not at all connected with us ; 

 whence however we are told, not only that much 

 of the indigo exported by Oude comes, but that 

 the profits on indigo raised in those countries have 

 furnished the funds for paying formidable military 

 levies made in them. As w e are certainly under 

 no oblio'ation to auo-ment their manufactures or 

 facilitate their exports, we must think ourselves 

 at liberty to decline measures which would have 

 such effects, even though attended with some in- 

 termediate advantage to Oude, if those measures 

 were to interfere with the interests of our own 

 territories. 



28. Our leading idea, however, in respect to 

 this important subject, has been, as we have 

 already intimated, to give to British India the 

 supply of indigo for the British market in Europe. 



29. It has been supposed, that the provinces 

 strictly called our own could produce enough, not 

 only for this purpose, but for the consumption of 

 all Europe, at east on its present scale, and the 

 supposition appears a very probable one. We 

 conceive that Bengal, Behar, and Benares, may, 

 one year with another, furnish 40,000 maunds, or 

 about three millions of pounds weight ; and be- 

 sides that, it might be natural for us to give those 

 Provinces some preference as far as their capabili- 

 ties went, for which there may also be just poli- 

 tical 



