Your Committee think it hardly necessary to observe, that the many
changes of plan which have taken place in the management of the salt
trade are far from honorable to the Company's government,--and that,
even if the monopoly of this article were a profitable concern, it
should not be permitted. Exclusive of the general effect of this and of
all monopolies, the oppressions which the manufacturers of salt, called
_molungees_, still suffer under it, though perhaps alleviated in some
particulars, deserve particular attention. There is evidence enough on
the Company's records to satisfy your Committee that these people have
been treated with great rigor, and not only defrauded of the due payment
of their labor, but delivered over, like cattle, in succession, to
different masters, who, under pretence of buying up the balances due to
their preceding employers, find means of keeping them in perpetual
slavery. For evils of this nature there can be no perfect remedy as long
as the monopoly continues. They are in the nature of the thing, and
cannot be cured, or effectually counteracted, even by a just and
vigilant administration on the spot.
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