The Supreme
Court of Judicature about this time (1776) also fulminated a charge
against monopolies, without any exception of those authorized by the
Company: but it does not appear that anything very material was done in
consequence of it.
The trade became nominally free; but the course of business established
in consequence of coercive monopoly was not easily altered. In order to
render more distinct the principles which led to the establishment of a
course and habit of business so very difficult to change as long as
those principles exist, your Committee think it will not be useless here
to enter into the history of the regulations made in the first and
favorite matter of the Company's investment, the trade in _raw silk_,
from the commencement of these regulations to the Company's perhaps
finally abandoning all share in the trade which was their object.
RAW SILK
The trade in _raw silk_ was at all times more popular in England than
really advantageous to the Company. In addition to the old jealousy
which prevailed between the Company and the manufactory interest of
England, they came to labor under no small odium on account of the
distresses of India.
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