[1]

THIRD EDITION.

Free Trade with India.

AN ENQUIRY

INTO

THE TRUE STATE

OF

THE QUESTION AT ISSUE

BETWEEN

HIS MAJESTY'S MINISTERS,

THE HONORABLE

THE EAST INDIA COMPANY,

AND

THE PUBLIC AT LARGE,

ON

THE JUSTICE AND POLICY

OF

A FREE TRADE TO INDIA.

By COMMON SENSE.

LONDON:

SOLD BY MESSRS. SHERWOOD, NEELY & JONES, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1813.

[Price One Shilling.]

[2]

Printed by W. Glendinning, 25, Hatton Garden.

[3]

PREFACE

TO THE

SECOND EDITION.

The first edition of the following view of the question of a FreeTrade to India having been sold off in the space of two days, is aproof of the interest the public take in the question of a Free Trade;my aim has been to clear the subject of all extraneous matter, andpresent it in a plain and perspicuous manner to my readers, I haveneither addressed myself to their prejudices nor their passions, buthave endeavoured by a simple chain of reasoning to come at the truth,which is my single object, for being totally unconnected withGovernment, the East India Company, or mercantile concerns, I can haveno motive for disguising it. Soon after the publication of the firstedition on the 23d instant, I received the following letter, which willperhaps be more acceptable than any thing further from me by way ofpreface.

Tavistock Place, Jan. 25, 1813.

Dear Sir,

I have read your Common Sense, which is good sense, and so intelligiblethat he who runs may read, and he who reads can scarcely fail tounderstand.

I wish you had treated the subject of monopolies more copiously, andinformed your readers that in the early ages of commerce monopolies wereso extended, and the principle so abused, that they could not fail tobecome obnoxious to all, and tradition has made the name hateful eversince.

[4]The kings of France, particularly Louis XIV. to raise money soldmaitrices, as they were called, or a sort of privilege for exercisingcertain trades, and he at the same time limited the number, thispractice, together with the former monopolies not abolished, created ageneral wish for Freedom of Trade in France.[A] The sect of economistswere composed of republican philosophers, who proclaimed the grandadvantages to be derived from the entire Freedom of Trade, nor was itthen foreseen that under that pretext they were seeking Liberty andEqua