for them the encouragements, which, upon the unimpeachable testimony of Mr. Forster, they have long received in Persia, and in parts of Russia. The advantage of collecting together, at stated periods and in established points, the productions of human industry and ingenuity, has been so universally felt by all nations; that there is scarcely a country, advanced to any degree of civilization, in which the practice has not prevailed. To effect this object, with a view to the extension of our export trade in India, _active encouragement_ is alone requisite; but, in order to give it stability, _native agency_ must be called forth into action. The supplies which (as was mentioned on a former occasion) were found at Poonah, were obtained from that source alone. The Parsee merchants at Bombay, are the principal agents of the Commanders and Officers of the Company's ships; such parts of their investments as are not disposed of among the European population, are purchased, and circulated in the interior, by the Parsees. The small supplies of European manufactures which find their way into the principal cities of the Deccan, proceed from this source: but there is reason to believe, that the articles which arrive at those places are too frequently of an inferior sort, or such as have sustained damage in the transit from Europe. To give perfection to the great object here sketched out, it will be indispensably necessary that the local authorities in India should direct their most serious attention to this subject. As _our Indian empire is our only security for our Indian trade_, so our Indian trade must be rendered an object of vigilant concern to those who administer the Government of that empire. From the multiplicity and importance of their other avocations, that trade has not hitherto received all the consideration to which its high value is entitled; but, whenever an adequate regard shall be paid to it, it will become a duty of the Governments to take active and effectual steps, for _drawing the attention of the natives to our exported commodities_, and for _promoting the dispersion of those commodities_, within the sphere of their influence or power. We now discern _one operative cause_ of the comparatively small demand for, and consumption of, our European articles, in the Indian empire; a cause, however, which it is within our capacity to control, or to remove. And, after what has been summarily exposed, in this and in the preceding communication, it can be no difficult point to determine, whether _this cause_, or the alleged _prejudices of the Hindoos_, have most contributed to limit the extent of our Export Trade to India. GRACCHUS. FOOTNOTES: [5] Forster's Travels, p. 135-6. [6] P. 166. [7] Forster's Travels, p. 228. [8] Forster's Travels, p. 259. LETTER X. THE RIGHTS AND PRETENSIONS OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. _Monday, March 8, 1813._