In order to open more fully the tendency of the policy which has
hitherto prevailed, and that the House may be enabled, in any
regulations which may be made, to follow the tracks of the abuse, and
to apply an appropriated remedy to a particular distemper, your
Committee think it expedient to consider in some detail the manner in
which India is connected with this kingdom,--which is the second head of
their plan.

The two great links by which this connection is maintained are, first,
the East India Company's commerce, and, next, the government set over
the natives by that company and by the crown. The first of these
principles of connection, namely, the East India Company's trade, is to
be first considered, not only as it operates by itself, but as having a
powerful influence over the general policy and the particular measures
of the Company's government. Your Committee apprehend that the present
state, nature, and tendency of this trade are not generally understood.

[Sidenote: Trade to India formerly carried on chiefly in silver.]

Until the acquisition of great territorial revenues by the East India
Company, the trade with India was carried on upon the common principles
of commerce,--namely, by sending out such commodities as found a demand
in the India market, and, where that demand was not adequate to the
reciprocal call of the European market for Indian goods, by a large
annual exportation of treasure, chiefly in silver. In some years that
export has been as high as six hundred and eighty thousand pounds
sterling. The other European companies trading to India traded thither
on the same footing. Their export of bullion was probably larger in
proportion to the total of their commerce, as their commerce itself bore