It must unquestionably have thrown the whole
mercantile system of the country into the greatest confusion. With
regard to the natives, no expedient was proposed for their relief. The
case was serious with respect to European powers. The Presidency plainly
represented to the Directors, that some agreement should be made with
foreign nations for providing their investment to a certain amount, or
that the deficiencies then subsisting must terminate in an open rupture
with France. The Directors, pressed by the large payments in England,
were not free to abandon their system; and all possible means of
diverting the manufactures into the Company's investment were still
anxiously sought and pursued, until the difficulties of the foreign
companies were at length removed by the natural flow of the fortunes of
the Company's servants into Europe, in the manner which will be stated
hereafter.
But, with all these endeavors of the Presidency, the investment sunk in
1769, and they were even obliged to pay for a part of the goods to
private merchants in the Company's bonds, bearing interest.
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