Note 8 — LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE INDIA COUNCIL

Raynal devotes book iv of his Établissemens et commerce des Europées (t. i, pp. 400–548) to the “voyages, settlements, wars, and commerce of the French in the East Indies.” The first voyage to India undertaken by a French commercial company (1601) was commanded by Pyrard de Laval, whose account of his adventures in the Maldive Islands has already been cited in these volumes; but this enterprise was unsuccessful. After various abortive attempts by Frenchmen to engage in the Oriental trade, an East India Company was formed in France (1664) by the great Colbert, with an exclusive charter and many special privileges. The company made a settlement in Madagascar, which was abandoned in 1670, and the French ships then went to India, where they established a post at Surat, and afterward one at Pondicherry. At first the trade prospered, especially at the latter post; but after a time the affairs of the company were mismanaged, its funds diminished so that ruinous expedients, only temporarily successful, were resorted to; its markets at home were spoiled by the sale of India goods, taken by French privateers from English and Dutch prizes, at very low prices; for lack of money, the company could not keep up its purchases in India; heavy duties were laid on all India goods; the conduct of the home government toward the company was, although vacillating, generally oppressive, and its administration corrupt; and the company long struggled on the brink of ruin. At the end of the fifty years’ term of their charter, they secured (1714) an extension for ten years more; and in the period of “frenzied finance” engineered by John Law (1716–21) various other trading companies were merged in this one, which later was substantially aided by the French government. For a time the company acquired great power and extensive territories in India; but war broke out between France and England, and in 1761 Pondicherry was captured and destroyed by the English. Afterward, from 1764 to 1769, the company conducted a prosperous Oriental trade; but its affairs had long been mismanaged, and the government had meddled with these unduly, while there had been much corruption among both its directors and its officials. It was found to be heavily indebted, and its finances fell into almost hopeless confusion; and finally a royal decree dated August 15, 1769, suspended the exclusive privileges granted to the Company of the Indies, and gave all Frenchmen liberty to navigate and trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope. The company thereupon undertook to liquidate their affairs, and made over to the government (April 7, 1770) their property, the latter assuming the debts and obligations of the company.

In the period 1725 to 1770, the East India Company of France sent out 761 trading ships, an average of 17 each year; the number in 1725 was 33, but it dwindled toward the close of that period until, in 1769, it was but 3; the ships, during the 45 years, were manned by 87,223 men, an average of 115 to each ship. The amount of merchandise carried to the Indias varied from 7,800,000 livres’ worth (in 1769) to 612,000 (in 1764), and for the entire period was 133,000,000. The vessels that returned to France numbered 585; they carried thither goods which had cost 344,000,000 livres in the East, and which were sold in France for 636,000,000: the years in which these sales produced most profit were: 1741, a gain of 12,327,000 livres; 1752, 13,719,000 livres; and 1755, 12,785,000 livres. During the first decade, the company paid on its sales, as duties to the crown, the sum of 25,000 livres annually; then until 1765, with a few exceptions, 3,000 livres a year; and during 1765–71, sums varying from 538,000 to 126,000 livres a year. The annual dividends varied usually from eight and a quarter to three millions of livres; steadily decreasing (in groups of years) to the latter figure; in 1746 the dividend was 15,000,000, but in that year the company borrowed the large sum of 25,000,000. In 1765 the dividend was but 766,000 livres. Its capital in 1725 was 100,000,000 livres due from the crown, and 39,835 in its ships and other assets. In June, 1747, the government increased its obligations to the company to 180,000,000 livres, in compensation for depriving it of the monopoly of the sale of tobacco, and engaged to pay it the interest on that sum forever at the rate of five per cent. (See a tabulated statement of the affairs of the French company, at the end of the atlas volume of Raynal’s work.)

After the exclusive privileges of the company were suspended, the India commerce was carried on by private persons, and steadily flourished. Raynal presents another table, showing the net product of this private commerce, as indicated by the sales at the French port of l’Orient, during 1771–78 inclusive, of merchandise brought from the Indies, China, and the islands of France and Bourbon; it shows a regular and large increase, save in 1778. The amounts of these sales vary from 10,336,000 livres in 1771 to 27,509,000 in 1777; in the following year the amount was but 14,026,000. The total sales for the eight years amounted to 149,273,000 livres, an annual average of 18,659,000. ↑