William Pulteney

“ They knew that no opinion could be procured to give a foundation for the doubt which they pretended to entertain, and therefore they took no opinions, but made use of their pretended doubt as a mask to cover the real motives which induced them to engage in their conspiracy against the interest of the proprietors whose servants they are. ”

“ The creditors to whom the book debts are owing are under no uneasiness, nor do they complain of the increase of dividend, which it is now allowed the Company are fully able to pay, and to continue that payment out of the profits of their trade alone.
Every merchant, when he regulates the sum to be bestowed by him upon his subsistence, or the annual expence of his family, considers, first, what is the total amount of his effects, compared with his debts ”

“ The Company's trade is so much extended of late years beyond its former limits, that its power of borrowing on annuities and bonds ought also to have been increased; for if six millions was thought reasonable forty or fifty years ago, the publick ought now by the same parity of reason to allow at least eight or ten millions to be borrowed under seal, especially as the wealth of the nation, and of consequence the market for borrowing has so greatly increased during that period. ”

“ But indeed upon the footing of the Directors argument that the Company can never divide if they have other debts besides their bonds and annuities, no dividend can ever take place, for the Company cannot carry on their trade in a proper manner without contracting such debts as the price of goods purchased on credit, and the freights of ships employed by them. ”

“ It is impossible that we could either have carried on these wars which have ended with so much success, or have extended our commerce and the exportation of home commodities to the amazing degree we have done, if the statutes restricting our borrowing under seal had been understood to prohibit the using our credit in the purchase of goods. ”

“ It is the duty of every British subject to submit with reverence and veneration, to whatever obtains the sanction of the three branches of the Legislature; but when any particular bill appears, to common apprehension, to be of dangerous consequence, we are entitled to hope and presume that it never will pass into a law. [Pg 22]
State of the East India Company's affairs with respect to the cash which will come into their treasury, and what must be issued from thence at different periods. ”

“ The debts due by the Company at present, exclusive of its bonds and annuities, are particularly set forth in an account delivered in by order of the House of Commons, the particulars of which debts are these: [Pg 7]
The customs are not payable till the goods are sold, and even as to those sold, a long delay of payment is always allowed. ”

“ In the course of the Company's trade, they have been in the practice, like all other merchants, of purchasing goods upon credit, and of contracting for ships upon freight, and only advancing a part of that freight 'till after the voyage was compleated. ”