HC Deb 03 February 1813 vol 24 cc354-60

A Petition of the merchants, and manufacturers of Manchester and Salford, was presented and read; setting forth,

"That many of the petitioners have been long and extensively engaged in commercial transactions, embracing chiefly the sale and exportation of the cotton manufactures of this kingdom, on which the numerous population of the town and neighbourhood of Manchester mainly depend for their support; and that the petitioners have entered fully into the various considerations which arise from the efforts of the East India Company to obtain a renewal of their expiring charter, and it appears to the petitioners capable of the most satisfactory proof, that the exclusive privileges hitherto enjoyed by the company, under the authority in question, have been found highly injurious to the general interests of the country; and that, after the very ample discussions the subject has received, and the detrimental consequences which have resulted from the system of monopoly so universally complained of, the petitioners here abstain from troubling the House with the detailed grounds they are prepared to prove, and on which they urge the national injustice of prolonging these evils; and that the serious pressure occa- sioned by the unexampled measures of the enemy to effect the destruction of British commerce, and the natural results of the wars in which the nation is now unavoidably engaged, are circumstances which call loudly for every attention to new and legitimate sources of a more extended and permanent trade; and that, to establish an open commercial intercourse generally with the countries from which the existing charter excludes the British merchants, would not only afford the most effectual relief in the present situation of public affairs, but would, as the petitioners confidently submit, most essentially contribute to the lasting benefit and prosperity of the kingdom at large, for it cannot be doubted that the daily improvement and marked superiority of our machinery, the unrivalled skill and ingenuity of our artificers, and the great variety and perfection of our manufactures, would constantly ensure them the advantage of the markets alluded to; and that the petitioners therefore earnestly trust that the House will be pleased to adopt such measures as may, after the termination of the present charter, fully secure to all his Majesty's subjects the right of a free and unlimited trade with those countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope from whence they are now prohibited; and that with this view the petitioners humbly: crave leave to be heard, by their counsel, against the expediency of renewing the Company's exclusive powers, and that, if necessary, they may be also allowed to give evidence On the subject at the bar of the House."

A Petition of the magistrates and common council of Glasgow, in council assembled, was also presented and read; setting forth,

"That, observing, from its recent resolutions, that the House is to take into its early consideration what arrangement ought in future to be adopted for the regulation of the commerce of these kingdoms with the countries situated to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, and to the west of Cape Horn, the petitioners deem it their duty again to appeal on this most important subject to the justice, the wisdom, and the liberality of parliament; and that the petitioners have learned, with surprise, that it has been maintained the House is precluded, by the vested rights and privileges of the East India Company, from adopting such an arrange- ment as may be ascertained to be, upon the whole, the most just and expedient; and that the petitioners humbly conceive that, in point of justice, all his Majesty's subjects are equally entitled, as the united company of merchants trading to the East Indies, to hold commercial inters course with all the quarters of the habitable globe: they apprehend that freedom of commerce is one of the birthrights of Britons, which nothing but state necessity, or strong and obvious national expediency, ought ever to induce the legislature to abridge or controul; and they submit that the present question is in reality not whether parliament ought to take from a trading corporation its vested rights and privileges, for these, being of an artificial and temporary nature, necessarily cease with the charter to which they owed their origin, but whether parliament can, in the discharge of its great and paramount duty, longer lend its sanction to an exclusive grant, which experience has proved to be highly inexpedient in general, and not even advantageous to the possessors, and by which the interests of the whole are obviously sacrificed to those of a part of the nation; and the petitioners cannot entertain a doubt that, by laying open to the capital, the skill, and the enterprize of British merchants, those vast regions from which they have been so long excluded, the manufactures of this country will be promoted, its commerce and navigation extended, and the financial and naval resources of the government thereby augmented; and the opening of such a field is certainly at the present conjuncture peculiarly necessary, when the overgrown power of the tyrannical ruler of France excludes this nation from so large a portion of the European continent, and when the natural intercourse with the North American States is for a time interrupted; and that the petitioners are convinced that, under proper regulations, the import as well as the export trade with the countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope may be extended indiscriminately to the ports Of the united kingdom, without any risk of the payment of the revenue derived by government from that source being evaded; and, if the latter object can be attained, the extension of the privilege to all his Majesty's subjects who are in a condition to avail themselves of it is certainly most consistent with the liberal policy of the British legislature; and that the petitioners are also firmly persuaded that, under proper regulations, the merchants of Great Britain and Ireland may be admitted to a free and unfettered commercial intercourse with the provinces of India, without exciting any unfavourable disposition in the natives towards this country, and without any danger whatever to the stability of the provincial government; and, while they cannot but consider as extremely hard the existing enactments, by which foreign nations have been admitted to the benefit of this commercial intercourse, and British subjects excluded, the petitioners humbly suggest the propriety of making such arrangements as may in future secure to the British merchant trading to the British possessions in Asia that protection; and reception to which he is justly entitled; and that finally, the petitioners own they cannot perceive that the expenditure incurred by the company in the extension and in the government of the British possessions in the Indian peninsula affords any sufficient ground, in justice or expediency, for continuing to that corporation the monopoly of the trade to China; they have reason to believe that the trade with China, although laid open to all his Majesty's subjects, may be placed on such a footing, and under such regulations, as to prevent any risk of offence by individuals to the government or people of that vast empire; and they are decidedly of opinion, that admission to the Chinese trade is indispensably necessary to enable the British merchant to carry on the trade with the British possessions in Asia with advantage, and with success; and praying the House, in its wisdom, to refuse its sanction to any renewal of the exclusive commercial privileges of the E. I. Company, and to restore to his Majesty's subjects in general their right to carry on, from as many of the ports of the united kingdom as the security of the revenue will permit, a free trade with the British possessions in Asia, and with the other countries situated to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, particularly the empire of China; and farther praying to be heard by counsel in support of this Petition."

A Petition of several merchants, traders, and other inhabitants of the city of Bristol, was also presented and read; setting forth,

"That the petitioners, in contemplation of an intended application to the legisla- ture by the East India Company, for a renewal of their exclusive privilege of trade, and confident in the justice and wisdom of the House, the natural and powerful guardians of the people's right, deem it their indispensable duty thus early to represent to the House, that the full and free-right to trade to and with all countries and people in amity with their sovereign, and more particularly with those countries and settlements acquired and maintained by the efforts and valour of the forces of his Majesty, is the undoubted birthright and inheritance of the people of this empire; and that the exclusive privilege of the E. I. Company is a manifest infringement of that right, from which many and great evils have resulted; and that the petitioners further humbly submit to the House, as a sound and incontrovertible principle, that, in this enlightened age, commerce can neither be benefited nor extended by monopoly; and that all ideas of direct participation by the public treasury in behalf of the nation, in the profits of trade, as a compensation or purchase for such monopolised commerce, must and ever will be vain and illusory; and the petitioners humbly adduce the disappointed expectations of the nation and the legislature, in regard to the E. I. Company in complete illustration of this principle; and that the petitioners refer to the information before the House, to show that the trade carried on by the E. I. Company has decreased at the very time when, by British exertions, its field has been extended and itself protected from enemies and hostile rivalry,; and that foreigners, by the advantages of free and unfettered exertions, have been at the same time successfully competing with the E. I. Company not only in the trade of the Company's own settlements, but also in the trade to China to a vast amount, whilst such trades have been long and obstinately denied to the subjects of the United Kingdom; and that the petitioners further humbly submit to the House, that the prospect of pecuniary participation held out to the country in 1793, not only has not been realised, but has been converted into repeated claims by the E. I. Company on the public purse and credit; and that further and still greater pecuniary assistance will be required to avert embarrassments in which the E. I. Company must otherwise soon be involved; and that the petitioners rely, with the utmost confidence that the House will disregard any arguments that may be adduced in favour of the E. I. Company's exclusive privilege, which would, if admitted, apply with equal force against the freedom of any and of every branch of British commerce, the whole of which might thus be paralized by monopoly, as this great arm of our strength has been, to the ruin of our naval greatness, and the consequent downfall of our independence; and that the petitioners beg leave humbly to submit to the House, that of all the effects of monopoly none is so injurious as its confinement of commerce to a particular port, and that the principal out-ports of the United Kingdom have an undoubted right to equal privilege of trade with the port of London, bearing, as they do cheerfully, their full and common proportion of the burthens of the state, and the privations which the unexampled state of Europe has brought upon the trading and manufacturing classes of the community; and that trade, when confined to a single port of a great empire, must of necessity, from being cramped and narrowed, languish and decline; and that great and expensive improvements have, of late years, been made in most of the principal out-ports, with a view to the extension of commerce, and to the accommodation of a larger class of ships; and that the known loyalty, integrity, and opulence of the merchants resident in the out-ports, afford ample security for their care of the vital interests of their country, in respect of its national revenue, which the petitioners, with deference assert, is as diligently and faithfully collected, and as cheerfully paid, in those out-ports as in the port of London; and that the petitioners, however, far from having a wish to deprive the E. I. Company of any right or claim they may have on the justice or liberality of parliament for indemnification, are most anxious that all such claims may be fairly examined and fully and liberally remunerated; but further humbly submit to the House, that the means of such remuneration should arise from a fair and equal impost on the trade in question, and should not be attempted by restrictions which can only serve to shackle and injure commerce, and to harass and perplex the merchant, without any solid benefit to the E. I. Company; and praying, that the House, taking the premises under their consideration, will refuse to comply with any application that may be made by the E. I. Company for a renewal of their exclusive pri- vilege, and will leave the trade to India and China fully and freely open to the enterprize, skill, and capital of the merchants of the United Kingdom, subject only to such salutary laws for its regulation and protection as the legislature, in its wisdom and paternal care, may deem necessary; and that the petitioners may be allowed to be heard, by themselves their counsel and agents, at the bar of the House, in support of the objects of this Petition."

Ordered to lie upon the table.