Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c24.3

c24.3

1. In the commerce between India and England, a source of deep injury to the former country arises from England having deprived her of the trade in cotton cloth, the manufacture of which was, but a few years ago, one of the most valuable and extensive of Indian products; while from no other having been as yet introduced as an export to balance the imports from England, it has become necessary to drain India of her specie to pay the expenses of the Government, and for the articles she requires from the mother country. The Government both in England and in India have therefore been unremitting in their endeavours to promote and foster the export trade from India; and in the mean time have endeavoured to economise by means of the internal productive resources of the country, and thus in some measure reduce the export of specie, and at the same time disseminate a knowledge of practical manufacturing processes.