factures. It is nevertheless a fact, that the Company have no footing whatever in China coming under the denomination of permanent. Their intercourse with the merchants of that extensive empire is very limited, being exclusively confined to a small factory in the vicinity of Canton, occupied by the sufferance of the court of Pekin, under strict regulations, specifying the parties with whom and the manner in which the trade is to be conducted. The factory is merely the place of occasional residence, which the members quit at the close of the season. The Chinese merchants with whom the Company's agents transact business are termed Hong merchants, expressly licensed by the Chinese government to have dealings with them. The designation of the official agents of the Company is that of Supra-cargoes: they are united in one commission, and the four senior generally are termed the president and select committee, who are assisted in transacting the business of the factory by the remainder, and by writers; the whole being under special covenants for the performance of the duties committed to them respectively. The business of the season being finished, and the ships laden and despatched on their return to England, the Supra-cargoes retire from the factory to the island of Macao, where they continue till the opening of the ensuing season, the commencement and close of which are not distinctly defined, being affected by various contingencies, but its close may be fixed about the month of April. The coins made use of are a tale, mace, candarine, and cash. The tale is reckoned at 6s. 8d.,. and it is divided into 10 mace, 100 candarines, or 1,000 cash. Teas, silks, and nankeens, are the immediate object of the Company's trade. The exclusive right of trading to India and China was granted to the Company in pursuance of the act of 9 and 10 Wm. III, cap. 44, and has been continued, so far as respects the trade to China, to the year 1834. In 1793, when the renewal of the Company's exclusive privileges was under discussion, it was agreed, in accordance with a proposition from Mr. Dundas, that if, in consequence of the embassy to Pekin, then in progress under Lord Macartney, any cession of territory should be obtained, distinct and separate from the continent of China, and L 3 and wholly free from any jurisdiction or authority of the Chinese Government, individuals should be permitted, under certain regulations and restrictions, to export British and Irish merchandize in the Company's ships at a moderate rate of freight, the same being consigned to the Company's supracargoes, or such other persons as the Company, with the approbation of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, should license to reside for that purpose only; and that such persons should be restrained from any connexion or intercourse with the continent of China, and from any trade or concern whatever, save and except the sale of the manufactures beforementioned, also from any interference with the affairs of the Company, and be subject to the usual covenants entered into by the servants of the Company, they paying the produce into the Company's treasury for bills at the existing rate of exchange at the time. No person was to be permitted to reside in any place or places so ceded, nor to trade or communicate with any port or place in China, who was not a servant of the Company. A clause to that effect was inserted in the 33d Geo. III, cap. 52, sec. 76. By the 133d section of the same act, and the 104th section of the 53d Geo. III, cap. 155, the supra-cargoes have the power of sending unlicensed persons to England.—(Vide British Subjects, page 111, sec. 18.) In the act of 1813, a clause was inserted for securing the exclusive trade with China to the Company. The 2d section of the act 4th Geo. IV, cap. 80, which consolidates the several laws as to the trade within the limits of the Company's charter, expressly reserves the trade with China and in tea to the Company; and the 9th section of the same act declares that none of his Majesty's subjects, unless licensed by the Company, can trade or traffic with the dominions of the Emperor of China, or import or export from or to any ports or places within or without the limits of the Company's charter tea, or in any manner to trade or traffic in tea. It is likewise provided by the 136th section of the 33d Geo. III, cap. 52, that none of his Majesty's subjects belonging to Great Britain, or any of the islands, colonies, or plantations recited in that act, shall procure, solicit for, or obtain, or act under under any commission, authority, or pass from any foreign prince, state, or potentate whatever, to sail, go, or trade in or to the parts aforesaid in India or China, The English, when they first adventured in the China trade, presented themselves to the notice of the Chinese necessarily under the double disadvantage of being foreigners and merchants: nevertheless, since they have been invested with the character of representatives and servants of a great Company, enjoying the declared and immediate protection of the sovereign of their nation, they have succeeded by sure, though gradual advances, in raising the British trade to a pitch of prosperity, and themselves personally to a degree of respectability in the estimation of the Chinese, which the most sanguine expectations, under a due knowledge of the circumstances of the case, would hardly have anticipated; securing at the same time to the revenue of Great Britain, an annual sum exceeding £3,500,000, without any charge of collection. Exclusive LAWS. Exclusive Trade to China reserved to the Company. na, and trade in by or repugnant further term. (1) And be it further enacted, that the sole and trade with Chi- exclusive right of trading, trafficking, and using the tea; and provi- business of merchandize in, to and from the dominions sions of former of the Emperor of China, and the whole, sole, and acts not repealed exclusive right of trading and trafficking in tea, in, to to this act, con- and from all islands, ports, havens, coasts, cities, towns, tinued during and places between the Cape of Good Hope and the Streights of Magellan, in such manner as the same rights now are or lawfully may be exercised or enjoyed by the said United Company by virtue of any act or charter now in force, but not further or otherwise; and all and singular the profits, benefits, advantages, privileges, franchises, abilities, capacities, powers, authorities, rights, remedies, methods of suit, penalties, forfeitures, disabilities, provisions, matters and things whatsoever, granted to or vested in the said Company by the said acts of the thirty-third year of his present Majesty, or either of them, for and during the term limited by the said act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and all other the enactments, provisions, matters and things contained in the said acts of the thirty-third year of his present Majesty, or in any other act or acts whatsoever, which are limited, or may be construed 1813. 53 Gro. S, c. 155, § 2. LAWS. 1813. c. 155, to be limited, to continue for and during the term granted to the said Company by the said act of the Parliament of Great Britain of the 53 Geo. 3, thirty-third year of his present Majesty, so far as the same or any of them are in force, and not repealed by or repugnant to this act, shall continue and be in force during the further term hereby granted to the said Company, subject to such alterations therein as may be made by any of the enactments, provisions, matters, and things in this act contained. § 2. 1823. c. 80, $ 2. Trade may be carried on in Briall places, except China, within tish vessels with East-India Company's charter. (2) And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful 4 Geo. 4, for any of his Majesty's subjects, in ships or vessels registered and navigated according to law, to carry on trade and traffic in any goods, wares, or merchandize, except tea, as well directly as circuitously, between all ports and places belonging either to his Majesty, or to any prince, state, or country at amity with his Majesty, and all ports and places whatsoever situate within the limits of the charter of the Company, except the dominions of the Emperor of China; and also from port to port and from place to place within the same limits, except the said dominions of the Emperor of China, under such rules and restrictions as are herein-after mentioned; any thing in any act or acts of Parliament, or in any charter of the said Company, to the contrary notwithstanding.-(Vide Trade.) § 9. 1793. c. 52, § 136. Trade in Tea exclusively with the Company. Act not to per mit trade with China, or in tea, (3) Provided also, and be it further enacted, that nothing herein contained shall authorize any of his Majesty's subjects, other than the said Company, or persons properly licensed by them, to carry on trade or traffic with the dominions of the Emperor of China, or to export or import from or to any ports or places within or without the limits of the said Company's charter, any tea, or in any manner to trade or traffic in tea, British Subjects not to Trade under Commission from (4) And be it further enacted, that no person being a subject of 33 Geo. 3, his Majesty, his heirs or successors, of or belonging to Great Britain, or any of the islands, colonies, or plantations aforesaid, shall procure, solicit for, obtain, or act under any commission, authority, or pass from any foreign prince, state, or potentate whatsoever, to sail, go, or trade in or to the said East-Indies, or any of the parts aforesaid; and every such person who shall offend therein shall incur and forfeit for every offence five hundred pounds, one half part of which penalty shall belong to such person or persons as shall inform or sue for the same, and the other half to the said United Company, and if the said United Company shall inform or sue for the same, then the whole of the said penalty shall belong to the said Company. COIN. THE right of coining money is vested in the Sovereign: it has ever been claimed and allowed as a prerogative of the executive power. Blackstone observes, that, as money is the medium of commerce, it is the King's prerogative, as the arbiter of domestic commerce, to give it authority or make it The exercise of this power in India was granted to the Company by letters patent from King Charles II., bearing date the 5th October 1677, in the 28th year of his reign; and was confirmed to the Company by letters patent from King James II., bearing date the 12th April 1686, in the second year of his reign. current. The laws passed from time to time in England, to prevent and punish the counterfeiting the coin of the realm, are very severe, and evince the extreme jealousy with which the preservation of the lawful money has been guarded. With regard to the materials of which money is to be made, Sir Edward Coke (who died in 1634) lays it down that the money of England must be either gold or silver. At the time he wrote no other metals had been coined by authority of the monarch; but copper coins were issued by Charles II. to be current under certain limitations, and similar limitations were, by the 14th Geo. III. cap. 42, passed as to silver coins. In GREAT BRITAIN the accounts are kept in pounds, shillings, pence and farthings. A GOLD COINAGE was first introduced in the year 1267, by the 41st of Henry III., when the King made a penny of the finest gold, which was to pass current for twenty pence. In 1489, a new money of gold was issued. The coin was to be of fineness and standard of the gold monies of the realm, to be of the value of twenty shillings sterling, and to be called the SOVEREIGN. In 1683, the twenty shilling pieces which were then coined obtained Hen. 7. |
