"selling to individuals they before enjoyed, our opinion on the whole is, that these complaints "have originated upon the premeditated designs "of the delâls [factors or brokers] to thwart the "new mode of carrying on the company's business, "and to render themselves necessary." They say in another place, that there is no ground for the dissatisfactions and difficulties of the weavers ; "that they are owing to the delâls, whose aim it "is to be employed." 66 This desire of being employed, and of rendering themselves necessary, in men, whose only business it is to be employed in trade, is considered by the gentlemen of the board as no trivial offence; and accordingly they declare, "they have established "it as an invariable rule, that, whatever deficiency "there might be in the Dacca investment, no purchase of the manufactures of that quarter "shall be made for account of the company from private merchants. We have passed this reso"lution, which we deem of importance, from a persuasion, that private merchants are often "induced to make advances for Dacca goods, "not by the ordinary chance of sale, but merely "from an expectation of disposing of them at an "enhanced price to the company, against whom a rivalship is by this manner encouraged;" and they say, "that they intend to observe the same "rule with respect to the investment of other of "the factories, from whence similar complaints may come." 66 This positive rule is opposed to the positive directions of the company to employ those obnoxious persons by preference. How far this violent use of authority, for the purpose of destroying rivalship, has succeeded in reducing the price of goods to the company, has been made manifest by the facts before stated in their place. The recriminatory charges of the company's agents on the native merchants have made very little impression on your committee. We have nothing in favour of them, but the assertion of a party powerful and interested. In such cases of mutual assertion and denial, your committee are led irresistibly to attach abuse to power, and to presume, that suffering and hardship are more likely to attend on weakness, than that any combination of unprotected individuals is of force to prevail over influence, power, wealth, and authority. The complaints of the native merchants ought not to have been treated in any of those modes in which they were then treated. And when men are in the situation of complainants against unbounded power, their abandoning their suit is far from a full and clear proof of their complaints being groundless. It is not because redress has been rendered impracticable, that oppression does not exist; nor is the despair of sufferers any alleviation of their afflictions. A review of some of the most remarkable of the complaints made by the native merchants in that province is so essential for laying open the true spirit of the commercial administration, and the real condition of those concerned in trade there, that your committee, observing the records on this subject, and at this period, full of them, could not think themselves justifiable in not stating them to the house. Your committee have found many heavy charges of oppression against Mr. Barwell, whilst factorychief at Dacca; which oppressions are stated to have continued, and even to have been aggravated on complaint at Calcutta. These complaints appear in several Memorials presented to the supreme council of Calcutta, of which Mr. Barwell was a member. They appeared yet more fully and more strongly in a bill in chancery, filed in the supreme court, which was afterwards recorded before the governour-general and council, and transmitted to the court of directors. Your committee, struck with the magnitude and importance of these charges, and finding, that with regard to those before the council no regular investigation has ever taken place; and finding also, that Mr. Barwell had asserted, in a minute of council, that he had given a full answer to the allegations in that bill, ordered a copy of the answer to be laid before your committee, that they might be enabled to state to the house, how far it appeared to them to be full; how far the charges were denied as to the fact; or, where the facts might be admitted, what justification was set up. It appeared necessary, in order to determine on the true situation of the trade and the merchants of that great city and district. The secretary to the court of directors has informed your committee, that no copy of the answer is to be found in the India house; nor has your commitee been able to discover, that any has been transmitted. On this failure, your committee ordered an application to be made to Mr. Barwell for a copy of his answer to the bill, and any other information, with which he might be furnished with regard to that subject. Mr. Barwell, after reciting the above letter, returned in answer what follows: Your committee considered, that with regard to the matter, charged in the several petitions to the board, no sort of specifick answer had been given at the time and place where they were made, and when and where the parties might be examined and confronted. It was considered also, that the bill had been transmitted with other papers relating to the same matter to the court of directors with the knowledge and consent of Mr. Barwell; and that he states, that his answer had been filed, and no proceedings had upon it for eighteen months. In that situation it was thought something extraordinary, that no care was taken by him to transmit so essential a paper as his answer, and that he had no copy of it in his hands. Your committee, in this difficulty, thought themselves obliged to decline any verbal explanation from the person, who is defendant in the suit, relative to matters, which on the part of the complainant appear upon record, and to leave the whole matter, as it is charged, to the judgment of the house to determine how far it may be worthy of a further enquiry, or how far they may admit such allegations as your committee could not think themselves justified in receiving. To this effect your committee ordered a letter to be written to Mr. Barwell; from whom they received the following answer: "In consequence of your letter of the 17th, I "must request the favour of you to inform the "select committee, that I expect from their jus"tice, on any matter of publick record, in which "I am personally to be brought forward to the "notice of the house, that they will at the same "time point out to the house what part of such "matter has been verified, and what parts have "not, nor ever were, attempted to be verified, though introduced in debate and entered on the "records of the governour-general and council "of Bengal. I am anxious the information should "be complete, or the house will not be competent "to judge; and if it is complete it will preclude all explanation as unnecessary. 66 66 "I am, Sir, "Your most obedient humble servant, "Richa Barwell." "St. James's-square, "22d April 1783. "P. S. As I am this moment returned from the country, I had it not in my power to be earlier "in acknowledging your letter of the 17th." Your committee applied to Mr. Barwell to communicate any papers, which might tend to the elucidation of matters before them, in which he was concerned. This he has declined to do. Your committee conceive, that under the orders of the house they are by no means obliged to make a complete state of all the evidence, which tend may to criminate, or exculpate, every person, whose transactions they may find it expedient to report; this, if not specially ordered, has not hitherto been, as they apprehend, the usage of any committee of this house. It is not for your committee, but for the discretion of the party, to call for, and for the wisdom of the house to institute, such proceedings as may tend finally to condemn or acquit. The reports of your committee are no charges, though they may possibly furnish matter for charge; and no representations or observations of theirs can either clear or convict on any proceeding, which may hereafter be grounded on the facts which they produce to the house. Their opinions are not of a judicial nature. Your committee has taken abundant care, that every important fact in their report should be attended with the authority for it, either in the course of their reflections, or in the Appendix; to report every thing upon every subject before them, which is to be found on the records of the company, would be to transcribe, and in the event to print, almost the whole of those voluminous papers. The matter, which appears before them, is, in a summary manner, this: The Dacca merchants begin by complaining, that in November 1773 Mr. Richard Barwell, then chief of Dacca, had deprived them of their employment and means of subsistence; that he had extorted from them 44,224 Arcot rupees (£4,731) by the terrour of his threats, by long imprisonment, and cruel confinement in the stocks; that afterwards they were confined in a small room near the factory gate, under a guard of sepoys; that their food was stopped, and they remained starving a whole day; that they were not permitted to take their food till next day at noon, and were again brought back to the same confinement, in which they were continued for six days, and were not set at liberty until they had given Mr. Barwell's banyan a certificate for forty thousand rupees; that in July 1774, when Mr. Barwell had left Dacca, they went to Calcutta to seek justice; that Mr. Barwell confined them in his house at Calcutta, and sent them back under a guard of Peons to Dacca; that in December 1774, on the arrival of the gentlemen from Europe, they returned to Calcutta, and preferred their complaint to the supreme court of judicature. The bill in chancery filed against Richard Barwell, John Shakespeare, and others, contains a minute specification of the various acts of personal cruelty, said to be practised by Mr. Barwell's orders, to extort money from these people. Among other acts of a similar nature he is charged with having ordered the appraiser of the company's cloths, who was an old man, and who asserts, that he had faithfully served the company above sixteen years without the least censure on his conduct, to be severely flogged without reason. In the manner of confining the delâls with ten of their servants, it is charged on him, that, "when "he first ordered them to be put into the stocks, "it was at a time when the weather was exceedingly bad, and the rain very heavy, without al"lowing them the least covering for their heads, or any part of their body, or any thing to raise 66 "them from the wet ground; in which condition they were continued for many hours, until the "said Richard Barwell thought proper to remove "them into a far worse state, if possible, as if studying to exercise the most cruel acts of barbarity on them, &c.—And that during their im"prisonment they were frequently carried to, and "tortured in, the stocks, in the middle of the day, "when the scorching heat of the sun was insup"portable, notwithstanding which they were de"nied the least covering." These men assert, that they had served the company without blame for thirty years a period commencing long before the power of the company in India. It was no slight aggravation of this severity, that the objects were not young, nor of the lowest of the people, who might, by the vigour of their constitutions, or by the habits of hardship, be enabled to bear up against treatment so full of rigour. They were aged persons. They were men of a reputable profession. | verance of individuals. Mr. Barwell might possibly be generous enough to take no advantage of his eminent situation but these unfortunate people would rather look to his power than his disposition. In general, a man so circumstanced, and so charged, (though we do not know this to be the case with Mr. Barwell,) might easily contrive, by legal advantages, to escape. The plaintiffs being at a great distance from the seat of government, and possibly affected by fear or fatigue, or seeing the impossibility of sustaining with the ruins of fortunes, never perhaps very opulent, a suit against wealth, power, and influence, a compromise might even take place, in which circumstances might make the complainants gladly acquiesce. But the publick injury is not in the least repaired by the acquiescence of individuals, as it touched the honour of the very highest parts of government. In the opinion of your committee some means ought to have been taken to bring the bill to a discussion on the merits; or supposing, that such decree could not be obtained by reason of any failure of proceeding on the part of the plaintiffs, some process, official or juridical, ought to have been instituted against them, which might prove them guilty of slander and defamation, in as authentick a manner as they had made their charge, before the council as well as the court. The account given by these merchants of their first journey to Calcutta, in July 1774, is circumstantial and remarkable. They say, " that, on their arrival, to their astonishment, they soon learned, "that the governour, who had formerly been vio"lently enraged against the said Richard Barwell for different improprieties in his conduct, was 66 now reconciled to him; and that, ever since there By the determination of Mr. Hurst, and the was a certainty of His Majesty's appointments resolutions of the board of trade, it is much to be "taking place in India, from being the most in-apprehended, that the native mercantile interest "veterate enemies they were now become the most "intimate friends; and that this account soon taught them to believe they were not any nearer "justice from their journey to Calcutta, than they had been before at Dacca." 66 66 When this bill of complaint was, in 1776, laid before the council, to be transmitted to the court of directors, Mr. Barwell complained of the introduction of such a paper, and asserted, that he had answered to every particular of it on oath about eighteen months, and that, during this long period, no attempt had been made to controvert, refute, or even to reply to it. He did not, however, think it proper to enter his answer on the records along with the bill, of whose introduction he complained. On the declarations made by Mr. Barwell in his Minute (September 1776) your committee observe, that, considering him only as an individual under prosecution in a court of justice, it might be sufficient for him to exhibit his defence in the court where he was accused; but that, as a member of government, specifically charged before that very government with abusing the powers of his office in a very extraordinary manner, and for purposes (as they allege) highly corrupt and criminal, it appears to your committee hardly sufficient to say, that he had answered elsewhere. The matter was to go before the court of directors, to whom the question of his conduct in that situation, a situation of the highest power and trust, was as much at least a question of state, as a matter of redress to be solely left to the discretion, capacity, or perse must be exceedingly reduced. The above-mentioned resolutions of the board of trade, if executed in their rigour, must almost inevitably accomplish its ruin. The subsequent transactions are covered with an obscurity which your committee have not been able to dispel. All, which they can collect, but that by no means distinctly, is, that as those, who trade for the company in the articles of investment, may also trade for themselves in the same articles, the old opportunities of confounding the capacities must remain; and all the oppressions, by which this confusion has been attended. The company's investments, as the general letter from Bengal of the 20th of November 1775, par. 28, states the matter, are never "at a stand; advances are made, and goods are "received all the year round." Balances, the grand instrument of oppression, naturally accumulate on poor manufacturers, who are intrusted with money. Where there is not a vigorous rivalship not only tolerated but encouraged, it is impossible ever to redeem the manufacturers from the servitude induced by those unpaid balances. 66 The No such rivalship does exist: the policy practised and avowed is directly against it. reason assigned in the board of trade's letter of the 28th of November 1778, for its making their advances early in the season, is, to prevent the foreign merchants and private traders interfering with the purchase of their (the company's) assortments. part of the trade should not fall into the hands of species of the poppy, is of extensive consumption those, who with the name and authority of the in most of the Eastern markets. The best is progoverning persons have such extensive contracts induced in the province of Bahar: in Bengal it is of their hands. It appears in evidence, that natives an inferiour sort, though of late it has been imcan hardly trade to the best advantage (your com- proved. This monopoly is to be traced to the very mittee doubt whether they can trade to any advan-origin of our influence in Bengal. It is stated to tage at all) if not joined with or countenanced by have begun at Patna so early as the year 1761, but British subjects. The directors were, in 1775, so it received no considerable degree of strength or strongly impressed with this notion, and conceived consistence until the year 1765; when the acquisithe native merchants to have been even then re- tion of the Duanny opened a wide field for all produced to so low a state, that, notwithstanding the jects of this nature. It was then adopted, and company's earnest desire of giving them a prefer- owned as a resource for persons in office; was ence, they "doubt whether there are at this time managed chiefly by the civil servants of the Patna "in Bengal native merchants possessed of pro- factory, and for their own benefit. The policy was perty adequate to such undertaking, or of credit justified on the usual principles on which mono"and responsibility sufficient to make it safe and polies are supported, and on some peculiar to the prudent to trust them with such sums as might commodity, to the nature of the trade, and to "be necessary to enable them to fulfil their en- the state of the country: the security against gagements with the company." adulteration; the prevention of the excessive home consumption of a pernicious drug; the stopping an excessive competition, which by an over-proportioned supply would at length destroy the market abroad; the inability of the cultivator to proceed in an expensive and precarious culture without a large advance of capital; and lastly, the incapacity of private merchants to supply that capital on the feeble security of wretched farmers. 66 66 The effect, which so long continued a monopoly, followed by a pre-emption, and then by partial preferences supported by power, must necessarily have in weakening the mercantile capital, and disabling the merchants from all undertakings of magnitude, is but too visible. However, a witness of understanding and credit does not believe the capitals of the natives to be yet so reduced as to disable them from partaking in the trade, if they were otherwise able to put themselves on an equal footing with Europeans. The difficulties at the outset will however be considerable. For the long continuance of abuse has in some measure conformed the whole trade of the country to its false principle. To make a sudden change, therefore, might destroy the few advantages, which attend any trade, without securing those, which must flow from one established upon sound mercantile principles, whenever such a trade can be established. The fact is, that the forcible direction, which the trade of India has had towards Europe, to the neglect, or rather to the total abandoning, of the Asiatick, has of itself tended to carry even the internal business from the native merchant. The revival of trade in the native hands is of absolute necessity; but your committee is of opinion, that it will rather be the effect of a regular progressive course of endeavours for that purpose, than of any one regulation, however wisely conceived. After this examination into the condition of the trade and traders in the principal articles provided for the investment to Europe, your committee proceeded to take into consideration those articles, the produce of which, after sale in Bengal, is to form a part of the fund for the purchase of other articles of investment, or to make a part of it in kind. These are, 1st, Opium; 2dly, Saltpetre; and 3dly, Salt. These are all monopolized. These were the principal topicks, on which the monopoly was supported. The last topick leads to a serious consideration on the state of the country; for in pushing it the gentlemen argued, that, in case such private merchants should advance the necessary capital, the lower cultivators "would get money in abundance." Admitting this fact, it seems to be a part of the policy of this monopoly to prevent the cultivator from obtaining the natural fruits of his labour. Dealing with a private merchant he could not get money in abundance, unless his commodity could produce an abundant profit. Further reasons, relative to the peace and good order of the province, were assigned for thus preventing the course of trade from the equitable distribution of the advantages of the produce, in which the first, the poorest, and the most laborious producer ought to have his first share. The cultivators (they add) would squander part of the money, and not be able to complete their engagements to the full; law suits, and even battles, would ensue between the factors, contending for a deficient produce; and the farmers would discourage the culture of an object, which brought so much disturbance into their districts. This competition, the operation of which they endeavour to prevent, is the natural corrective of the abuse, and the best remedy which could be applied to the disorder, even supposing its probable existence. Upon whatever reasons or pretences the monopoly of opium was supported, the real motive appears to be the profit of those, who were in hopes to be concerned in it. As these profits promised to be very considerable, at length it engaged the attention of the company; and after many discus sions, and various plans of application, it was at length taken for their benefit, and the produce of the sale ordered to be employed in the purchase of goods for their investment. In the year 1773 it had been taken out of the hands of the council of Patna, and leased to two of the natives; but for a year only. The contractors were to supply a certain quantity of opium at a given price. Half the value was to be paid to those contractors in advance, and the other half on the delivery. The proceedings on this contract demonstrated the futility of all the principles, on which the monopoly was founded. The council, as a part of their plan, were obliged, by heavy duties, and by a limitation of the right of emption of foreign opium to the contractors for the home produce, to check the influx of that commodity from the territories of the nabob of Oude and the rajah of Benares. In these countries no monopoly existed; and yet there the commodity was of such a quality and so abundant, as to bear the duty, and even with the duty in some degree to rival the monopolist even in his own market. There was no complaint in those countries of want of advances to cultivators, or of law suits and tumults among the factors; nor was there any appearance of the multitude of other evils, which had been so much dreaded from the vivacity of competition. On the other hand, several of the precautions inserted in this contract, and repeated in all the subsequent, strongly indicated the evils, against which it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to guard a monopoly of this nature, and in that country. For in the first contract entered into with the two natives, it was strictly forbidden to compel the tenants to the cultivation of this drug. Indeed, very shocking rumours had gone abroad, and they were aggravated by an opinion universally prevalent, that even in the season immediately following that dreadful famine, which swept off one third of the inhabitants of Bengal, several of the poorer farmers were compelled to plough up the fields they had sown with grain, in order to plant them with poppies for the benefit of the engrossers of opium. This opinion grew into a strong presumption, when it was seen, that in the next year the produce of opium (contrary to what might be naturally expected in the year following such a dearth) was nearly doubled. It is true, that, when the quantity of land necessary for the production of the largest quantity of opium is considered, it is not just to attribute that famine to these practices, nor to any, that were or could be used: yet, where such practices did prevail, they must have been very oppressive to individuals, extremely insulting to the feelings of the people, and must tend to bring great and deserved discredit on the British government. The English are a people, who appear in India as a conquering nation; all dealing with them is therefore, more or less, a dealing with power. It is such when they trade on a private account; and it is much more so in any unauthorized monopoly, where the hand of government, which ought never to appear but to protect, is felt as the instrument in every act of oppression. Abuses must exist in a trade and a revenue so constituted, and there is no effectual cure for them but to entirely cut off their cause. Things continued in this train, until the great revolution in the company's government was wrought by the regulating act of the thirteenth of the king. In 1775 the new council general, appointed by the act, took this troublesome business again into consideration. General Clavering, Colonel Monson, and Mr. Francis, expressed such strong doubts of the propriety of this, and of all other monopolies, that the directors, in their letter of the year following, left the council at liberty to throw the trade open, under a duty, if they should find it practicable. But General Clavering, who most severely censured monopoly in general, thought, that this monopoly ought to be retained; but for a reason, which shews his opinion of the wretched state of the country; for he supposed it impossible, with the power and influence which must attend British subjects in all their transactions, that monopoly could be avoided; and he preferred an avowed monopoly, which brought benefit to government, to a virtual engrossing, attended with profit only to individuals. But in this opinion he did not seem to be joined by Mr. Francis, who thought the suppression of this and of all monopolies to be practicable; and strongly recommended their abolition in a plan sent to the court of directors the year following. Vide Mr. Select Com- mittee's 6th The council, however, submitting to the opinion of this necessity, endeavoured to render that dubious engagement as beneficial as possible to the company. They began by putting up the contract to the highest bidder. The proposals were to be sealed. When the seals came to be opened, a very extraordinary scene appeared. Every step in this business develops more and more the effect of this junction of publick monopoly and private influence. Four English and eight natives were candidates for the contract; three of the English far out-bid the eight natives. They, who consider that the natives, from their superiour dexterity, from their knowledge of the country and of business, and from their extreme industry, vigilance, and parsimony, are generally an over-match for Europeans, and indeed are, and must ultimately be, employed by them in all transactions whatsoever, will find it very extraordinary, that they did not by the best offers secure this dealing to themselves. It can be attributed to this cause, and this only, that they were conscious, that without power and influence to subdue the cultivators of the land to their own purposes, they never could afford to engage on the lowest possible terms. Those, whose power entered into the calculation of their profits, could offer, as they did offer, terms without comparison better; and therefore one of the English bidders, without partiality, secured the preference. The contract to this first bidder, Mr. Griffiths, |