In that state of price, they condemn their servants, very justly,
for entering into contracts for three years,--and that for several
kinds of silk, of very different goodness, upon averages unfairly
formed, where the commodities averaged at an equal price differed from
twenty to thirty per cent on the sale. Soon after, they formed a regular
scale of fixed prices, above which they found they could not trade
without loss.
Whilst they were continuing these methods to secure themselves against
future losses, the Bengal ships which arrived in that year announced
nothing but their continuance. Some articles by the high price, and
others from their ill quality, were such "as never could answer to be
sent to Europe at any price." The Directors renew their prohibition of
making fresh contracts, the present being generally to expire in the
year 1781. But this trade, whose fundamental policy might have admitted
of a doubt, as applied to Bengal, (whatever it might have been with
regard to England,) was now itself expiring in the hands of the Company,
so that they were obliged to apply to government for power to enlarge
their capacity of receiving bills upon Europe.
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