A 
oF rag 
- sterling. 
512 
although when in 1793.4 the revenues 
were only eight nullions per annum, there 
was a surplus of /.1,600,000, now that 
the revenues are fifteen millions per 
annum, there is a deficit of 1.1,019,097. 
‘What is most obvious and striking in 
this statement, is the increase not of the 
charges only but also of the debt, as the 
revenues increased, and not merely in 
proportion to the increase of the reve- 
nues; for, whilst from the year 9793-4 to 
the year 1805-6, the amount of the re- 
venues has not been quite doubled, that 
of the charges has been increased as five 
to two, and that of the debt nearly qua- 
drupled, besides a very large sum of debt 
transferred tn the course of that period to 
England. 
‘* After all allowances and adjustments, 
which, according to the hest knowledge 
of the court, comprehend every thing the 
account ought to contain, the balance is 
in favour of England, or of the Company 
at home, /.5,691,689. 
“ Before concluding, the executive body. 
of the Company think it may be proper 
for them to declare, that they are not 
conscious of having, by improvidence or 
mismanagement, contributed to bring the 
Company’satfairs into the embarrassments 
in which they are now involved. They 
may be placed ina very material degree 
to the vast increase of the Indian debt— 
the consequence of various measures 
adopted abroad under the administration 
of controul exercised by his Majesty’s 
government since the year 1784. Those 
embarrassments proceed -also in part 
from causes which it has not been in the 
power of this country to controul, An 
unexampled European war, which has 
already continued fourteen years, has in 
every way aggravated the expences, and 
diminished the proiits, of the Company at 
home and abroad. Theincreased charges 
of freight and demorage alone, occasioned 
by this war, have amounted, since its com- 
“mencement, to more than seven millions 
Whenever Great Britain is in- 
volved in European war, the effects are 
always felt iu India in increased military 
expences, even when no European enemy 
appears in the field there ; but that war 
has been carried into Indias; and, at the 
desire of his Majesty’s government, the 
Company have bad to sustain the expence 
of various foreign expeditions against 
the French, Dutch, and Spanish posses- 
sions in India, and to Egypt, all chiefly 
on the national account, in which, as is 
Papers relative to the East India Company. 
[Jan. 4, 
well known, the Company expended very 
arge sums, borrowed at high Indian in- 
terest, to the prejudice of their general 
credit and atfairs, in ways which cannot 
be made matter of account. This war 
moreover has occasioned a- gradual rise 
in the cost of home manufactures and 
metals, which the Company, consulting 
the national interest, have continued te 
export for many years to the extent of 
2.2,200,000 annually, notwithstanding 
the known disadvantage under which 
they prosecuted that trade; for the in- 
creased cost could not be compensated 
by a curresponding increase in the sels 
ling prices abroad, nor by a decrease in 
the prices of goods purchased for Europe; 
and has therefore been attended with 
positive and considerable loss to the 
Company. The progressive timinutions 
of profit on their Indian importations 
here, have been already shewn. All 
these evils are now followed by a stag- 
nation in the home sales of the Company, 
In this they suffer with the nation, and 
with Europe at large, but the conse- 
quences, as already described, fall with 
peculiar severity upon them in the other 
circumstances of their affairs; for the Ins 
cian finances, which are become of im- 
mensé importance in the system of the 
Company, instead of affording relief, are 
in a state that imperiously calls for ins 
stant and effectual regulation. It is by 
no means to be concluded, however, that 
affairs would now have been better under 
any other supposable mode of Indian 
administration; it is perfectly within the 
power of this country to afford the aids 
which are now required for the relief of 
the Company’s finances, both at homeand 
abroad, for consolidating the credit of 
the Company, and_ strengthening the 
hands of the authorities at home, so ne 
cessary to the well-being of the Com- 
pany’s affairs. 
“The expected deficit for 1808-9, of 
1,2,433,185, was supplied by receipts be- 
yond the estimate from the following ~ 
SUUrces, Viz. : 
Sales of imports - 1.851,348 
Charges and freight . 
on private trade 168,813 : 
- 1,4,020,158 
Received on account of Com- 
pany’s claims on the public, i 
onreport of thécommittee 1,500,000 
1.2,520,158 
SUPPLEMENTARY 
