Results of free trade with India,
Events thoroughly demonstrated the force and
truth of these impressions. In the face of many
difficulties, private traders, whenever they obtained a
footing in the trade of the East, were certain immediately
afterwards to secure an ascendancy over the
Company in its trading operations, and in a very
short time trebled the trade of England with the
East. Such in this case, as in numerous other
instances, are the effects of individual energy, even
when curtailed and contracted as in the present
instance, over monopoly, however influential and
powerful. How indelibly marked are now the footprints
of free-trade in the pages of the commercial
history of the East Indies! In 1814, when the close
monopoly of the Company was brought to an end, the
value of exports from the United Kingdom to British
India amounted to 1,870,690l.; in 1820, after the
trade had been partially opened to individual energy,
it reached 3,037,911l.; in 1830, when still somewhat
fettered, it was 4,087,311l. In 1840 the
exports amounted to 5,212,839l.; and in 1850 to
7,242,194l. In 1854 the value of the exports
and imports was 20,293,572l.; in 1860 it had
reached 32,791,195l.; and in 1870 it amounted to
no less than 45,183,912l.[1]
and of the Company's trading operations. It is very questionable if the East India Company, even at the period of its closest monopoly, or, indeed, during any portion of its career, ever realised much profit by its commercial operations. Many of their employés were enabled to amass very considerable fortunes, but the shareholders were paid their dividends from other sources of gain than com-*
- ↑ Returns furnished by the Board of Trade.
