20 $
ACCOUNT OF JAVA AND BATAVIA.
to take in water, without touching at Batavia. The time when they fet fail fromBatavia for China is generally about the beginning of July *.
The Company ufed, formerly to trade to Cochin-China , Tonquin, Siam, Pegu,Aracan, Perfia, and Mocha ; but they have now abandoned all commerce with thefeplaces. Their connexions are, at prefent, limited to thofe I have before fhortly no-ticed : and among thefe there are feveral which, in my opinion, are more prejudicialthan advantageous to the Company, efpecially thofe in the weft of India ; which mullbe afcribed to a change of times, and of circumftances.
When the Company eftablifhed their commerce in thofe parts, their rivals werevery inconfiderable; the Englifh were not a match for them, and the Indian Princestraded rather with the Dutch than with their neighbours. But this is now entirelyaltered.
The Englilh, who did not then come into any confideration, are now as ftrong, andperhaps ftronger, in the weft of India, than the Dutch Company are in the eaft. Theyhave prefcribed laws to the Emperor of Indoftan, and are, in confequence, mafters ofthe whole trade of his dominions, efpecially at Surat and in Bengal, where the Com-pany ufed to make important profits, both by the goods which they imported, and thofewhich they exported.
If the fea-rilk, the {hips’ charges, and the intereft of the money employed, wereaccurately computed, their prefent gains would, perhaps, be found to be extremelytrifling.
* The Dutch faftory at Cantors is not, like alt their other fettlements and places of trade in India ,fubordinate to the government at Batavia, but has, for upwards of forty years, been under the manage-ment of a fpecial committee of directors in Holland; yet everything relative to it, is communicated toand tranfadied in concert with the government at Batavia. The cargoes of the four or five fhips which theDutch fend annually to China amount in value to/.2,400,coo, or f.2,5 oo.coc, about 225,000! flerling,one half of which confifts in filver, either in bars or Spanifh dollars, and the other half in tin, lead,pepper, cloves, and nutmegs, upon which articles a profit of at ltalt y.66o,c.oo, about 60,cool, fterling ismade. For the above capital the Company’s agents purchafe between four and five million pounds oftea, of all forts, and a quantity of filks, nankeens, china, turmeric, &c. We fubjoin a lift of the quantitiesof tea exported in Dutch fhips from China , for the twenty years between 1776 and 1795 :
Years.
1776
Ships.
5
•
Pounds of Tea.
4,923,70°.
1777
4
-
-
4,856,500.
1778
4
r
•
4,695,700.
1779
4
m
•
4,553,'00.
1780
4
•
•
4,687,800.
178 1
4
•
»
4,957,600,.
1782]
1783
1784J
1785
none, on account of the
4
war.
•
5,334,000.
1786
4
•
4,458,800.
1787
5
■
5,943,200.
1788
5
•
5,794,900.
1789
4
•
4,179,600.
1790
5
•
5,106,900.
1791
3
V
1,328,500.
1792
2
•
2,051, 33°.
1793
3
S
2 > 93 8 > 53 °-
1794
2
•
2,417,200.
ms
4
4,096,800.
Not