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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 3, p. 260.

260 THIE INDIAN EMfPIRE [CHAP. greatly coveted trade were restricted within limits which would now be regarded as insignificant. Growth The operations of the English Company for some years trarietish after the grant of the first charter were equally limited. An annual fleet of five or six ships, the largest of which re- presented no more than 600o tons, comprised the whole extent of the trade carried on by England, not only with India, but with Ceylon, the Archipelago, and the China seas. The natural obstacles to commercial intercourse, the very imperfect development of communications by sea and by land, the state of incessant war in the country among the rival rulers and states, the struggles for supremacy among the European adventurers, and the costly nature of the articles comprising the trade which limited the demand for them, were all factors tending to keep the trade small. To these causes of restric- tion we must add the effect of the strict and narrow monopoly established. In spite of these drawbacks trade increased, and in I675 the Company's exports were valued at £430,ooo and the imports at £86o,ooo, besides the private trade. It was said that the Company devoured 'above half the trade of the nation.' The profits were so great that in I682 the dividend was i50 per cent., and early in the eighteenth century the Company was enlarged. A century later the sales at the India House reached a total of £3,000,000 sterling. In I8I3, when the abolition of the Company's monopoly was under considera- tion, it was stated that the value of the trade was only £2,500,000 sterling. Compared with modern standards the volume was certainly not large; and so late as I834, the earliest year for which a statistical record exists, the value of the whole trade of India was no more than- Rs. Imports of merchandise .4,26,1I,o60 Exports ,, ,, 7,99,34,200 Imports of gold and silver . . . . . I,89,30o,230 Exports ,, ,, 19,47,4I0 TOTAL 14,34,22,900 Taking the rupee at that time to be equivalent to two shillings, this total represents in sterling £ i4,342,290. Changes in The trade carried on by the Company in the eighteenth trade. and nineteenth centuries was more diversified in its nature than it had been in the days of the Portuguese and their pre- decessors. Silk, both raw arid manufactured, maintained an important place among exported merchandise, as also did spices. Calico and muslin, however, began to decline as