\ 
276 TRAVELS IN 
- It IS liable alfo to another obje£lion, grounded on the detri- 
ment that would enfue to the London market in general. It is^ 
certain that foreign merchants, purchafing goods at Leadenhall- 
ftreet, find their advantage by laying in, at the fame time and 
fending in the fame fhip, an alTorted cargo, the produce of our 
colonies and the manufadures of Britain. Now if thefe mer- 
chants could contrive to purchafe Indian articles at a cheaper 
market than that of London, they might alfo be induced to- 
make up their cargo with other articles at the fame place, to the,- 
prejudice of the London trader- 
Thefe objedions may, perhaps, lofe much of their weight by 
the following confiderations. The Eaft India Company's trade,, 
according to the Diredors' own account, is fully competent ta 
the whole fupply of the Eaft India and China markets, in com- 
modities of European growth and manufadure : and they are 
fatisfied in fupplying the demands of thofe markets merely with- 
out a lofs, in order to monopolize the trade and cut out foreign 
nations, who are thus obliged to purchafe cargoes chiefly in 
exchange for fpecie. Even the privilege of 3000 tons allowed 
to the private merchant, by the terms of the Company's late 
charter, is faid never to be filled up ; to fuch a low rate have 
they reduced the prices of European articles in India and China, 
that the private trader finds no advantage in fending goods on 
his own account, on a moderate freight, to the eaftward of the 
Cape of Good Hope. The Americans are the only nation 
who, by their fifheries, are enabled to work themfelves into a 
cargo to exchange for India and China goods j with which they 
fupply 
