A policy of that sort could not fail of being highly popular,
when the Company submitted itself as an instrument for the improvement
of British manufactures, instead of being their most dangerous rival, as
heretofore they had been always represented.
They accordingly notified to their Presidency in Bengal, in their letter
of the 17th of March, 1769, that "there was no branch of their trade
they more ardently wish to extend than that of raw silk." They
disclaim, however, all desire of employing compulsory measures for that
purpose, but recommended every mode of encouragement, and particularly
by augmented wages, "_in order to induce manufacturers of wrought silk
to quit that branch and take to the winding of raw silk_."
Having thus found means to draw hands from the manufacture, and
confiding in the strength of a capital drawn from the public revenues,
they pursue their ideas from the purchase of their manufacture to the
purchase of the material in its crudest state. "We recommend you to give
an _increased price_, if necessary, _so as to take that trade out of the
hands of other merchants and rival nations_.
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