ABSTRACT
It was thus that the monopoly of the East India Company in the Eastern trade was first abolished, when their Charter was renewed in 1813. Private trade, being once admitted, increased in volume, while the Company's trade declined. And when the time approached for renewing the Charter once more in 1833, the question arose whether the East India Company's trade should not be abolished altogether. Public opinion in England was strong in favour of the view that trade between England and India should be left altogether in the hands of private traders without the unfair competition of a Company with territorial possessions in India, and that the duties of traders were not consistent with the duties of the rulers of an empire. This last argument was urged with increasing vehemence by the traders of London and the other large commercial centres of England, who were jealous of the unfair advantages possessed by the Company in India, and who hoped to increase their own trade if the Company could be stopped from carrying on trade at all.
