ACCOUNT OF JAVA AND BATAVIA.

209

Not only the Englifh but almoft all the naval powers of Europe have, at prefent,fhips trading to the Indies, and eftablifhments of more or lefs confequence in theWeftern parts.

The trade in piece-goods which, in former times, produced fuch confiderable benefitto the Company, is now almoft entirely in the hands of the Englifh ; at leaft they arevery detrimental to the portion of it that {till remains with us, by their competitionfor purchafes.

I fhall not fay any thing of the honefty and fidelity of the Company’s chiefs at theirout-faftories, that is out of the line I propofe following ; when I was in Bengal, I hadan opportunity of obferving fome inftances, not very confonant with the above virtues ;and it is not many years ago that the Company had proofs of the like, in the governmentof the Coromandel coaft.

On the other hand, the number of officers, and their appointments, remain thefame ; and a numerous body of ufelefs placemen, and too many military, are maintainedby the Company.

If the trade in Bengal, at Surat , and on the coaft of Coromandel were reduced to •the fame regulations as that of China and Japan; and if, inftead of expenftve fortifica-tions, trading-houfes, or faftories, were only retained, the profits which are actuallytuade, would remain, and the prefent charges would be amazingly diminifhed. It can-n °t, in my opinion, be of any real advantage to the Company, that they pretend toappear as a fovereign ftate, where they have not an exclufive trade, and where theypannot interdict the trade of every other nation. At Ceylon, Java, and the otherhlands in the eaftern parts, where they have the territorial property, and the fovereignpower, it is neceffary both to difplay and to maintain their dominion ; for there theycan, and juftly, difpute the right of all others, whether authorized traders or inter-lopers ; but it is money thrown away to pretend to make a fhew of fovereignty at thebefore-mentioned places, for it augments neither their commerce nor their refources.

The goods which they carry thither, and which cannot be furnifhed by any othernation, the Dutch being the foie dealers in them, fuch as the finer fpices, and Japan copper, are of a nature which renders them indifpenfable in the weft of India . Theirnnps loaden with thefe articles, would be, with pleafure, fucceffively received, andbey would fpeedily and gladly be bartered for cargoes of other commodities.

Moreover, there would be the advantage, that the conduftors, having to fuperintend ac s extenfive concern, would the better be enabled to difcover and reform all errors and. tues: whereas the extent of the object under their controul affords, at prefent,innumerable openings for mifcondutt and miftakes, which undermine the wholefuperftrudture. >

n.b e Englifh have not only been very prejudicial to the trade of the Company in the

e t of India , but have alfo endeavoured, if not to fupplant them in the entire poffef-10 n of Ceylon, at leaft to participate in the advantages of that rich ifland.

, At the time of the laft war in Ceylon, when the Company had blocked up all the-

r . 0Urs with their fliips, and the Emperor was nearly reduced to be befieged in hisafTf} 5 t ^ e Englifh fent an ambaffador from Madras to the Emperor, with an offer ofvid l ° ex P e ^ ibe Dutch from his dominions, for which purpofe they would pro-an e a ar g e number of fhips. But their own pertinacity was the reafon that the alli-en 6 Was not formed in time; for the ambaffador would not comply with the orientalWer oin _°f addrefs, which is efpecially prevalent in Ceylon, and to which the Dutchu Pon U jv i t0 conform 5 that is, he refufed to proftrate himfelf upon the ground, or fallhls knees, when he was firft introduced into the prefence of the Emperor.

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