ed out of a landed revenue has certainly some tendency to lessen
the net amount of that revenue, and to forward a produce which does not
yield to the gross collection, rather than one that does.

The Directors declare themselves unable to understand how this could be.
Perhaps it was not so difficult. But, pressed as they were by the
greatness of the payments which they were compelled to make to
government in England, the cries of Bengal could not be heard among the
contending claims of the General Court, of the Treasury, and of
Spitalfields. The speculation of the Directors was originally fair and
plausible,--so far as the mere encouragement of the commodity extended.
Situated as they were, it was hardly in their power to stop themselves
in the course they had begun. They were obliged to continue their
resolution, at any hazard, increasing the investment. "The state of our
affairs," say they, "requires the utmost extension of your investments.
You are not to forbear sending even those sorts _which are attended with
loss_, in case such should be necessary to supply an investment to as
great an amount as _you can provide from your own resources_; and we
have not the least doubt of your being thereby enabled to increase your
consignments of this valuable branch of national commerce, even to the
utmost of your wishes. But it is our positive order that no part of
such investment be provided with borrowed money which is to be repaid by
_drafts upon our treasury in London_; since the license which has
already been taken in this respect has involved us in difficulties which
we yet know not how we shall surmount."

This very instructive paragraph lays open the true origin of the
internal decay of Bengal. The trade and revenues of that country were
(as the then system must necessarily have been) of secondary
consideration at best. Present supplies were to be obtained, and present
demands in England were to be avoided, at every expense to Bengal.

The spirit of increasing the investment from revenue at any rate, and
the resolution of driving all competitors, Europeans or natives, out of
the market, prevailed at a period still more early, and prevailed not
only in Bengal, but seems, more or less, to have diffused itself through
the whole sphere of the Company's influence. In 1768 they gave to the
Presidency of Madras the following memorable instruction, strongly
declaratory of their general system of policy.

"We shall depend up