ABSTRACT
THE East India monopoly of British trade to the East until 1813. Not until the very end of our period was it legal for a British merchantman to round the Cape of Good Hope without the Company's licence; and only in exceptional circumstances was such a licence ever issued. As regards all seaborne trade between Asia and Europe the monopoly was fairly rigidly upheld. The trade, on the other hand, between different ports in the East, although covered by the terms of the Company's Charter, was not monopolised. Instead, it was open to the business enterprise of the white communities in India as well as to the natives. This “Country Trade,” as it was called, was virtually assigned by the Company to its own servants and protégés in India. It was a flourishing trade, carried on in ships which were built, owned, manned and insured in India; ships which traded between one part of India and another, between India and the East Indies, between India and China. In this chapter, therefore, we are concerned with two different branches of trade; the Company's trade and its Asiatic offshoot. Only indirectly did the latter business form a part of British overseas trade. “Country” ships sailed, however, under the British flag. They will be dealt with, therefore, at the end of the chapter, which must be devoted mainly to commerce between London and the East; to the trade which was completely monopolised( 1 )
