London; and in one instance within our own knowledge, the commander of one of the ships employed on the "double voyage"—that is, from London to India, thence to China,[1] and thence back to London, where he had a large interest in the freight on cotton or other produce conveyed from India to China—realised no less than 30,000l.
Illicit trade denounced by the Court, But notwithstanding these numerous privileges, the Court of Directors having frequently received information of an illicit trade carried on by too many of the officers and commanders of their ships, at last resolved, with the view of putting an end to practices "so detrimental to the revenue, the Company, and the fair trader," to invariably dismiss from their service any one found guilty of such practices. Indeed, in the hope of detecting the delinquents, they went so far as to publish advertisements, wherein they state that "having received information that great quantities of woollens, camblets, and warlike stores have been illicitly imported; also great quantities of tea,
- ↑ In the passage from Bombay to China, where the ships were chiefly laden with cotton, the commanders and officers, by a resolution of the Court of the 6th March, 1805, were allowed nearly two-fifths of the whole tonnage space of the ship's capacity for their especial use and benefit, and free of all charge, on the very reasonable condition that "the Company shall not be subjected to any expense whatever for securing the Company's cotton or otherwise." In the event of the Company not requiring to ship any cotton or other goods on their own account on this intermediate voyage, the remaining three-fifths' space in the ship's hold, usually appropriated for their own use, was to be disposed of to the highest bidder, but the commander and officers were in all cases to have the preference, with the very prudent and no doubt necessary precaution, that "they were to deliver their proposal at the same time with the other tenders, and were not to be allowed to amend their tenders after their proposals have been opened." Similar privileges were granted to the commanders and officers employed in the intermediate trade between Bengal or Madras and China.—Regulations, East India Company. Hardy, pp. 132, 133.
