rived at that
point, when, the investment from surplus revenue or from the spoil of
war ceasing, it is become much more necessary to fix its commerce upon a
commercial basis. And this opinion led your Committee to a detailed
review of all the articles of the Indian traffic upon which the profit
and loss was steady; and we have chosen a period of four years, during
the continuance of the revenue investment, and prior to any borrowing or
any extraordinary drawing of bills, in order to find out how far the
trade, under circumstances when it will be necessary to carry it on by
borrowing, or by bills, or by exportation of bullion, can be sustained
in the former course, so as to secure the capital and to afford a
reasonable dividend. And your Committee find that in the first four
years the investment from Bengal amounted to 4,176,525_l._; upon
2,260,277_l._ there was a gain of 186,337_l._, and upon 1,916,248_l._ a
loss of 705,566_l._: so that the excess of loss above gain, upon the
whole of the foregoing capital, was in the four years no less than
519,229_l._

If the trade were confined to Bengal, and the Company were to trade on
those terms upon a capital borrowed at eight per cent Indian interest,
their revenues in that province would be soon so overpowered with debt,
that those revenues, instead of supporting the trade, would be totally
destroyed by it. If, on the other hand, the Company traded upon bills
with every advantage, far from being in a condition to divide the
smallest percentage, their bankruptcy here would be inevitable.

Your Committee then turned to the trade of the other factories and
Presidencies, and they constantly found, that, as the power and dominion
of the Company was less, their profit on the goods was greater. The
investments of Madras, Bombay, and Bencoolen have, in the foregoing four
years, upon a capital of 1,151,176_l._, had a gain upon the whole of
329,622_l._ The greatest of all is that of Bencoolen, which, on a
capital of 76,571_l._, produced a profit of 107,760_l._ This, however,
is but a small branch of the Company's trade. The trade to China, on a
capital of 1,717,463_l._, produced an excess of gain amounting to
874,096_l._, which is about fifty per cent. But such was the evil
influence of the Bengal investment, that not only the profits of the
Chinese trade, but of all the lucrative branches taken together, were so
sunk and ingulfed in it, that the whole profit on a capital of
7,045,164