Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/731

 CiiAP. XII I MONOPOLY OF PRIVATE TRADE. G97

tlie inland trade, ought to have given due weight to this consideration, and a.d. itcs been prepared when they suppressed an obnoxious source of income to provide another. This they entirely failed to do; and hence Clive considered himself entitled to supply the omission by tiie least objectionable mean^ at his disposal.

Tlie plan adopted was as follows: — A society or partnership was formed, and The mono vested with the exclusive right to cany on the trade in salt, betel-nut, and to- vatu trauo bacco. The partners consisted of the Company's servants, arranged in three iKutnureiup classes, and the stock was divided among them in certain definite shares. To the o7iIl^'|^'* first class were allotted thirty-five shares, distributed thus — the governor, five .shares, the general or commander-in-chief, three shares ; the second in council, three shares ; the other ten members of council and two colonels, two shares each. To the second class were allotted twelve shai-es, or two-thirds of a share each to eighteen persons — namely, one chaplain, three lieutenant-colonels, and fourteen senior merchants. To the third class were allotted nine shares, being one-third of a share each to twenty-seven persons — namely, four majors, four first surgeons at the presidency, two first surgeons at the army, one secretary in council, one sub-accountant, one Persian translator, and one suVj-export-warehouse keeper. To compensate the Compan}^ who in their new position as dewan were entitled to draw a considerable revenue from the monopolized articles, an ad valorem duty of 35 per cent., estimated to produce £100,000 per annum, was paid, and us a security to the natives some precautions were taken to prevent the enhanced price naturally produced by a monopoly. Though nothing can be more objec- tionable in principle than the payment of public officers by the profit of a mono- pol}' of the articles which, next to rice, formed in Bengal the principal neces- saries of life, there cannot be a doubt that the sums realized were sufficient to furnish ample .salaries to all who had the privilege of sharing in it. Clive's calculation was that from the ])artner.ship a colonel would draw £7000 per annum. This being the ])rofit on two shares, each share must have yielded £3500 ; and hence, the five reserved to himself as governor, must have given an income of £17,500. As he had declared his determination not to derive any pecuniary advantage from his re-appointment, he appropriated the whole of tlie profits thus received to the members of his household, and more especially to his brother-in-law, his secretary, and his surgeon, all of whom had accompanied him from England. The court of directors, on being made acquainted with the plan, ri.m dis

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adhered to their former views, and in their general letter to the select commit- .lirectore. tee wrote as follows: — "Much has been urged by our servants at different times in favour of the right to this trade, which we have always treated as a most absurd claim The words of the phirmaund are, ' Whatever goods the English Company shall bring or carry, cOc, are duty free.' To suppose that the court of Delhi could mean by these words, a monopoly of the necessaries of life over their own subjects, is such an absurdity that we shall not lose time or words in trying to refute it. With respect to the Company, it is neither consistent with Vol I. 88