[Sidenote:  State of trade in the Carnatic.]

Such is the actual condition of the trade of Bengal since the establishment of the British power there.  The commerce of the Carnatic, as far as the inquiries of your Committee have extended, did not appear with a better aspect, even before the invasion of Hyder Ali Khan, and the consequent desolation, which for many years to come must exclude it from any considerable part of the trading system.

It appears, on the examination of an intelligent person concerned in trade, and who resided at Madras for several years, that on his arrival there, which was in the year 1767, that city was in a flourishing condition, and one of the first marts in India; but when he left it, in 1779, there was little or no trade remaining, and but one ship belonging to the whole place.  The evidence of this gentleman purports, that at his first acquaintance with the Carnatic it was a well-cultivated and populous country, and as such consumed many articles of merchandise; that at his departure he left it much circumscribed in trade, greatly in the decline as to population and culture, and with a correspondent decay of the territorial revenue.

Your Committee find that there has also been from Madras an investment on the Company’s account, taking one year with another, very nearly on the same principles and with the same effects as that from Bengal; and they think it is highly probable, that, besides the large sums remitted directly from Madras to China, there has likewise been a great deal on a private account, for that and other countries, invested in the cash of foreign European powers trading on the coast of Coromandel.  But your Committee have not extended their inquiries relative to the commerce of the countries dependent on Madras so far as they have done with regard to Bengal.  They have reason to apprehend that the condition is rather worse; but if the House requires a more minute examination of this important subject, your Committee is willing to enter into it without delay.

III.—­EFFECT OF THE REVENUE INVESTMENT ON THE COMPANY.

Hitherto your Committee has considered this system of revenue investment, substituted in the place of a commercial link between India and Europe, so far as it affects India only:  they are now to consider it as it affects the Company.  So long as that corporation continued to receive a vast quantity of merchantable goods without any disbursement for the purchase, so long it possessed wherewithal to continue a dividend to pay debts, and to contribute to the state.  But it must have been always evident to considerate persons, that this vast extraction of wealth from a country lessening in its resources in proportion to the increase of its burdens was not calculated for a very long duration.  For a while the Company’s servants kept up this investment, not by improving commerce, manufacture, or agriculture,