Note 92 — PART II
Reading edition
It is not here meant to controvert the principle of this kind of commerce being at times the most lucrative that can be carried on; but to remark, that had it not been for the strange system of trading just described, the restrictive system, and the monopoly of the Phillippine Company, the activity and ingenuity of private traders would have discovered other branches of commerce, and with them, that their own produce might suffice to pay for the piece goods of Bengal. As an instance, the English and every other nation of Europe have for a century carried betel-nut to China, but from the Phillippines not a nut was exported—it was a royal monopoly! and the merchants and growers were thus deprived of about half a million of dollars annually, that the king might pocket 30,000. Many other instances might be cited. ↑