62 



INDIGO. 



No. 16, 



Extract Letter from the Court of Directors to the 

 Governor -general in Council, Bengal, dated the 

 ^\st August 1804. 



Par. 9 to 19. Indigo Cultivators solicit assistance. Court's 

 orders of 8th September 1802 to the contrary received. 

 Reasons for making advances during the present season, to 

 the amount of six lacs. 



Letterto Pal'. 85. Relying upon the assurances you have 

 31 given, that this measure will not be repeated, we 



shall not withhold our sanction to it. We cannot, 

 however, avoid expressing our opinion, that all the 

 points which are referred to in favour of assisting 

 the indigo manufacturers, were equally applicable 

 to the important article of raw-silk, in which our 

 interests were more deeply concerned ; and that 

 if, on the one hand, you acted on a sound prin- 

 ciple, in declining to restrain the attempts of new 

 adventurers in indigo, it was rather inconsonant to 

 that principle, to advance again the funds of the 

 Company to assist the embarrassments of such 

 adventurers, which, in effect, operated in the 

 nature of a premium in favour of competition. 



No. 



