Coalition effected.
Satisfactory estimates were taken of the value of
the possessions in India of both companies, and
adjusted accordingly. Various minor arrangements
were made, and after a period of seven years the
new association was inaugurated with the title
"The United Company of Merchants of England
trading to the East Indies;" and thus, in 1708,
that powerful body was restored, or rather re-*created,
which became ultimately possessors of a
considerable portion of the vast continent of India,
and rulers over more than a hundred million
people.
Their trade, 1741-1748,
and continued difficulties
But this united Company was frequently opposed.
In 1730 the merchants of Bristol and Liverpool,
with other capitalists resident in London, made
vigorous efforts to prevent the government from
granting a renewal of the Company's charter, under
an impression that its profits were enormous. Such
may have been the case in some branches of their
trade, or in special years; but it afterwards appeared
that, on an average of eight years, ending
1741, the value of British goods and products of all
sorts exported by the Company to India and China
amounted to only 157,944l. per annum, while the
average annual value of imports during the seven
years ending 1748 was not more than 188,176l.;[1]
so that their profits as merchants could not have
been large, unless the percentage of gain was excessive
upon the amount of business they transacted.
Some of their servants, no doubt, realised immense
fortunes, especially when the Company secured possession
of large tracts of land. But the Company
- ↑ McCulloch's 'Commercial Dictionary,' p. 567.
