to such a point as to render their rivalry no longer dangerous, left the trade of the East to a large extent in the hands of the English. In 1789 the Portuguese, who once engrossed the whole of the oriental trade, had but three ships at Canton, the Dutch five, the French one, the Danes one, the United States of America fifteen, and the English East India Company forty, while British subjects residing in India had a similar number. Moreover, a very considerable portion of the trade of the East was then conducted in Indian ships, owned by the natives, by whom as many voyages were undertaken from India to China, and from the coast of Malabar to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, as in the days before the passage to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope had been discovered.
India-built ships admitted to the trade. It was not, however, until 1795 that India-built vessels were permitted to convey goods to London. In the course of that year a great number of the Company's ships having been employed in the service of the English government, instructions were sent to the Presidencies to engage vessels of India build at 16l. per ton for rice and other dead-weight stowage, and 20l. for light goods to the Thames, with liberty to take back on their own account whatever merchandise they pleased to the territories of the Company, or to any place within the limits of its charter.
Many of them having been constructed on speculation, under an impression that they would be permanently employed, although warned by Lord Cornwallis to the contrary, their owners were greatly disappointed when they found that after the immediate wants of the government and the Company
