The sum of six millions sterling is thus paid by the people of Great Britain for Government duties and the support of the tea monopoly, centered in the East India Company, being three times the original cost of the article, or 300 per cent. But there is more than this; there is an addition of 30 per cent. to the retail-dealer. It is high time that tea-drinkers should know, that for every mouthful of their favourite beverage they swallow to the amount of one penny, they put three pence in the pockets of Government and of the East India Company, besides a halfpenny more to their nextdoor neighbour, the retail-grocer. The Americans manage the matter in a very different sort of way, and in the precise manner in which the merchants of this country would do, were the monopoly of the East India Company broken up, and a free and unrestricted trade permitted to China. The following is a well-authenticated estimate of the rate at which teas are landed in Europe by an American vessel : A ship of 400 tons' measurement carries, of tea, 75 to 100 per cent. on the regular tonnage; is sailed with eighteen or twenty men, including captain and officers; and is chartered for the voyage at 1500 dollars per month, the shipowners paying all expenses. This vessel takes 7000 chests of Congo tea, weighing 64 lbs. each, or 468,000 lbs. net, or 3510 peculs; which is purchased with money or goods, at the average cash price of twenty-four tale per pecul, amounting to..... Dollars 117,000 per cent.. 2,400 2,400 7,200 Charter, as above, for 12 months, at 1,500 per month 18,000 30,000 Dollars 147,000 Thus, we find that 468,000 lbs. of Congo tea, equal in quality to the Company's, could be landed in England for 147,000 dollars; being somewhat less than 31 per cent. on the prime cost, (calculating the dollar at 4s. 6d. sterling,) instead of 300 per cent., as we pay at present. And what equivalent does this country derive for its encouragement and expenditure on the East India Company? Nothing, or next to nothing, if we except the simple gratification of drinking tea. The spirit of any trade or commerce between two countries is allowed, on all hands, to consist in exportations equal, or nearly equal, in value to the importations, in a fair interchange of the respective productions of such countries. But have the East India Company encouraged such a reciprocity? We think we shall be able to show that they have invariably pursued measures having a tendency directly the reverse, and that they have recklessly thrown into the hands of foreigners a trade that would unquestionably have saved this country from much of the commercial difficulties and distress which it has been doomed to suffer for years. In a preceding Number of this work we observed, that the woollen manufactures of this country were peculiarly adapted to the climate, taste, and fashions of the Chinese; yet, nevertheless, we know that little or no progress, or encouragement, has ever been made, or given, by the East India Company for this article of consumption in China. At one time, and when this species of manufacture was of less value than it is at present, the exports of woollens from this country to China amounted to about one million and a half; but now the whole British exportations, by the East India Company, cannot be rated at more than seven hundred thousand pounds' worth; showing a decline of nearly one half! And, in reply to any inquiries on this point, the Company have the hardihood to state, that every exertion has been made on their part to promote the introduction of British goods, and they give an imposing detail of the means they have used for the purpose of effecting this. But when we come to examine how the fact stands, and to investigate the real state of the exportations to China from other parts of the world, we are irresistibly led to doubt the truth of what they set forth, or come to the more satisfactory and correct conclusion, which is this that they have altogether lost the capacity. How, otherwise, can we account for the fact, that while the trade of the Company has decreased, there has been no diminution in the supply of British articles of manufacture in the port of Canton? And how is it, that while all the exportations of the Company have been lessened in quantity and value, those of the Americans have increased in a greater ratio, and consist, very frequently, of various articles of British manufacture, which have ever been unknown to the trade of the Company? The fact is just as we have stated it; and we repeat, that although the exports of the Company from Great Britain have decreased, the demand for, and consumption of, British goods have in nowise fallen off in China; and that, instead of a deficiency in the supply of such goods, there is a considerable increase yearly,-establishing the fact that, while there is no disinclination on the part of the Chinese to purchase and use such articles of commerce, the trade and the supply have passed from the legitimate channels, and have been forced into the hands of foreigners, to the manifest injury of the British public. The Americans, by the unshackled state of their commerce, by the free exercise of their active and liberal commercial principles, by the cheapness of their purchases, by the moderation of their freight and their charges, have gradually been driving the East India Company from a most material branch of commerce; and they have the merit of introducing into China, as well as to other parts of the world, various articles of British produce, which, as far as depended upon our great commercial junta, would for ever remain unknown abroad, and be useless and unavailing at home. case. We owe much to the Americans,-more than our countrymen seem willing to give them credit for,-much more than the East India Company will ever allow. The manufacturer of Great Britain is greatly indebted to the American; and, but for the little provision about an annual export of British goods inserted in the charter of the East India Company, he would be infinitely more indebted to him than he is at present. We owe to the American the knowledge that a free trade to China is perfectly compatible with the inclinations and wants of the people of that country, which the East India Company would fain make us believe was not the It is to the American that we owe the proof that the productions of China can be conveyed to any quarter of the world at one-third the rate charged by the East India Company, and still realize a handsome mercantile profit; it is to the American we owe the introduction of British cotton and printed goods to half the population of the East, which the Company confess they have in vain endeavoured to introduce; it is to the American we owe the knowledge that it is the monopoly of the East India Company alone that has prevented British shippers from becoming the carriers to Europe, and almost every other nation, in one of the most bulky articles of commerce, and one which employs more shipping, in proportion to its value, than almost any other article in trade; it is to the American we owe the proof that a voyage of nearly the same length and danger as from England to China, can be performed with facility once a year in succession, while the Company's ships take two years; it is to the American we owe the knowledge of the practical fact, that a voyage to India and back can be performed under ten pounds a ton, while the Company rate their precious voyages at twenty-three and twenty-seven pounds. And, finally, it is to the American that we owe the knowledge of the fact, that the tea for which we pay from five to ten shillings the pound, ought, on fair and equitable terms, to be given to us for two and four shillings the pound. All this would, of course, be concealed by the East India Company; but it is the pride and boast of the Americans to have disclosed it; and whether we are permitted or not to benefit by the knowledge of these things, still we have to thank them for the information and the proof. The Americans have all along proceeded on the true commercial principle which recognises, that whatever may be the direction of the capital employed by any one nation, whatever may be the circuitous nature of its operations, and whether employed collaterally or directly in the commerce with other nations, the wealth and profits it accumulates eventually return to the bosom of the country from whence it first issued. In amassing, as some of them have done, the greatest commercial fortunes in the world, they have arrived at the practical knowledge, that whatever shape their capital may have taken, the direction, and the tangible return of it, invariably remain with the party who first put it into action. This never appears to have entered into the imagination of the East India Company; and the consequence has been, and will continue to be, that they are unable to compete with the free trade of the Americans, (and would be much less able to compete with the free trade of the British merchant, did it exist ;) that, in a short time they will, in all probability, be altogether ousted by them from the export trade to China; and that, unless a speedy remedy be applied, the monopoly will stand a monument of the legislative folly of the British nation, who philanthropically bestows all its benefits on foreigners, to the exclusion not only of the Company itself, but of every individual in the mother country. We stated in a previous page, that the equivalent which this country derived for the encouragement and expenditure so freely bestowed on the East India Company, amounted to little or nothing; that, compared with the payment of 8,000,000l. sterling per annum for importations from China, our exports, through the means of the Company, were insignificant; and we now proceed to show that, in stating this, we are not distorting the fact. We know that the return cargoes of tea, (taking into account the various qualities forming the Company's cargoes,) amount, per annum, to 25,000,000 lbs., purchased in To which add, Factory expenses, Commission, &c... Giving, (we stated before, 2000,000.,) the value of the Against this, we have the original value of the Com- £1,700,000 70,000 30,000 350,000 2,070,000 700,000 Leaving 1,470,000 One million four hundred and seventy thousand pounds, thus becomes the sum necessary for the Company for their purchases at Canton, after the trifling amount of their exports; and, as they profess to be great losers by their outward investments, it is natural to inquire how they came at this sum. This, it will be found, is supplied from the Company's surplus revenue in India, either by shipments of cotton, &c., cousigned to Canton, or by bills of exchange drawn by the supercargoes on the different Presidencies; and therefore the account in reality will be found to stand thus : Surplus revenue in India.. £1,470,000 700,000 Giving £2,170,000 Which sum covers the whole of their purchases and expenses in the year; and for which the good people of England pay four millions sterling, besides four millions more of Government duty. Moreover, we are convinced that, had there not been a provision in the Company's charter, compelling a certain exportation of British goods, the export of British manufacture would, long ere now, have ceased altogether; and we believe that the Company, having ample means in India to answer all the purposes of their investments in China, have long sincerely wished that that provision had never been introduced; having then the power, which they have given too powerful manifestations of using, not to have any thing whatever to do with the exportation of the productions of their own country. Having now given an account of the relative value of the importations and exportations of the Company's trade with China, and having shown, by the example of the Americans, that there is a total mismanagement on the part of this country in that trade, we may be permitted to offer a few observations on the commerce of the West India Islands and the colonies in tea, silk, and nankeens; and here again we shall be able to prove, that a system of gross delusion, and of the most disgraceful mismanagement, has been palmed upon the British public. An account on this subject was presented by the India House, purporting that the quantity of teas, from 1811 to 1818 inclusive, amounted to 4,378,607 lbs. From the preamble to this account, a person cursorily glancing it over would be apt to infer that this was bona fide an export trade, entirely distinct from home consumption; but, upon a close examination, the reader will find, that Ireland is included in that account of exports, to the amount of 3,439,742 lbs., and that the exports to the British colonies and West India Islands amount to no more than 771,075 lbs. This was a delusion utterly unworthy of the persons who may have been instrumental in drawing up the statement. But how will they account for the fact, that, while that statement shows the exports to the British colonies and the West Indies to be no more than 771,075 lbs., in a previous period, say 1814, they amounted to 1,200,500lbs. ? We believe that the account was drawn up in the cunning manner described, to hide the disgraceful fact that their trade to the colonies fell off about one-half, and to delude all those interested into a belief that it had greatly increased. After what has been already said, it will be unnecessary to go into any detailed statement to prove, that the trade to the colonies in teas, &c., is now in the hands of the Americans; and hence the decrease in the Company's exportations. During the American war, when a temporary interruption had taken place in the illicit supplies, the export trade from Great Britain suddenly rose from 236,144 lbs. to 1,200,577 lbs. ; an evidence that, while straitened in the illicit trade by temporary restrictions, the colonies |