74 



INDIGO. 



Letter to 1810-11, UD to the date of the last despatches 



Bengal, n -n , 



10 April 1811. irom Bengal. 



18. In order, therefore, to secure an investment 

 of indigo at reasonable prices^ it appears proper 

 that advances of cash should be made under con- 

 tracts to the manufacturers, agreeably to the plan 

 which is contained in your letter of the 25th May 

 1810, upon musters previously fixed; and it is 

 essential that the whole of the transactions with 

 the manufacturers shall be concluded and settled 

 in Calcutta, the profit or loss on the sales in Eng- 

 land being wholly at the risk of the Company. 



19. We also consider that, although it is a de- 

 sirable object, as well with the view to a remittance 

 to Europe as to the general magnitude of the Com- 

 pany's commerce, that the Company should take 

 a considerable share of the trade in indigo if they 

 engage in it at all, yet it is by no means expedient 

 that the cultivation of indigo should at this time 

 be materially extended, by the erection of new 

 factories, or indeed by any measure which may 

 force an unusual production at the factories now 

 in existence. 



20. And we have resolved that, on a supposition 

 that the actual value, in Calcutta, of all the indigo 

 which is annually shipped for London, may amount 

 on the average to seventy-six lacks of sicca ru- 

 pees, it is our opinion that the Company's 

 advances should be equal to one-fourth part of the 

 whole export to London, and therefore that the 

 sum which it may be proper to invest in a provi- 

 sion 



