Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/503

 *

the Directors had no valid reasons to offer against the entire opening of their trade, and had evidently no longer any desire, especially in face of the increased power of the free-traders, to resist the demands which were made to allow private shipowners to trade to all parts of the East, including China, on the same conditions, in all respects, as the vessels belonging to or chartered by the Company: the owners, therefore, finding it impossible to compete, with any prospect of success, against individual energy, unless protected, sold their ships, and from that time the Company ceased to be traders.
 * pany's charter came to be again discussed in Parliament,

In the Appendix will be found an account of how the vessels belonging to the Company were disposed of, the names of their purchasers, and the prices realised, which are small indeed compared with what they must have cost. From April 1834, when the Company's trade with China ceased, its functions have been wholly political, and the Directors, though retaining their patronage in the civil and military services, became little more than a council to advise and assist the president of the Board of Control. In 1858 they were deprived by Parliament of all their power and privileges, and ceased to exist as a governing body, the whole of the British dominion in India being then placed under a Secretary of State in Council for India, and its military and civil services merged with those of the United Kingdom.*