and arranging the Books of Account of the East-India Company, in England, &c.

APPENDIX.

II.-Finance and Accounts.-Trade.

APPENDIX, No. 1.

A STATEMENT of the Steps which have been taken, by the Commissioners for the
Affairs of India, or Directors of the East-India Company, for carrying into effect the
Separation of the POLITICAL and COMMERCIAL ACCOUNTS of the said Company;
according to the 64th Section of the Act 53d Geo. 3, c. 155.

MEASURES were taken by the Court of Directors of the East-India Company, immediately after the passing of the Act of the 53d Geo. 3, c. 155, for carrying into effect the provisions contained in the 64th section, relating to the Separation of the Territorial and the Commercial Departments, in the Books of Account, Abroad and in England.

The Act passed on the 21st July 1813; on the 6th September following, the Court of Directors, with the approbation of the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, forwarded to the Supreme Government in India, particular Orders for carrying the Separation into effect, together with the Outline of a Plan for keeping their several Books and Accounts. Copies of these Orders, and the Enclosure, are hereunto annexed.*

A Plan of Arrangement for keeping the Books of Account in England being submitted by the Court of Directors to the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, early in the year 1814, was, with certain amendments, finally approved by the Board on the 30th June in that year. Copy of this Plan is annexed.†

The Books of Account, in India and in England, are now kept in conformity to the Plans sanctioned and approved by the Board of Commissioners, for each respectively. The year 1814-15 was the first year of their operation. The Accounts of that year, kept in England, were presented to Parliament on the 24th May 1815, in conformity to the directions of the Act of the 54th Geo. 3, c. 36, s. 55.

The Indian Accounts for the year 1814-15 will be presented within the prescribed period in the present year, if Documents shall be received in sufficient time from the several Presidencies in India.

II. APPENDIX, No. 1.

Statement of Steps for carrying into effect the Separa

tion of Accounts.

India Board Office,

8th May 1816.

THOS. PER. COURTENAY.

* (A.) and (a 1.)

† (B.)

APPENDIX,
No. 1.

(A.)

Extract of Letter

rectors to the Governor-General; 6 Sept. 1813.

(A.)

EXTRACT of a Letter from the Court of Directors of the East-India Company to the
Governor-General in Council in Bengal, in the Public Department, dated 6th Sep-
tember 1813; with the OUTLINE of the Plan for keeping the Books of Account in
India.

Para. 9. YOUR attention will be naturally drawn to the general principles laid down in the Act, for the future administration of India; but the very marked difference between the provisions of it, and those of the Act of the thirty-third, as they relate to the conduct of the Financial Departments of our Governments, renders it highly expedient that you should be furnished, at the earliest period practicable, with our views and opinions upon this branch of the subject, and such instructions as at present appear to be requisite.

10. The most prominent feature of the difference now made, and which will be the first object of remark, is, the entire separation of the Territorial or Political from the Commercial Branch of our Affairs, as directed by the 64th section. As very particular stress appears to have been laid upon this point, for reasons not necessary at present to be detailed; and as it is no less our earnest wish than our positive duty to yield the most implicit obedience to the directions of the Legislature, we are extremely anxious that such regulations should be framed, and such arrangements made, as shall most effectually accomplish the end required. For this purpose, the mode of keeping the Books of Account at our several Presidencies and Settlements is obviously a paramount object of attention. We are aware of the difficulty of furnishing you with instructions, which shall fully embrace every point of the detail of this extensive subject; and that the completion of any arrangement must in some measure be left to the exercise of the practical knowledge and experience of your Accountant General: but we deem it of importance to apprize you, that it is indispensably necessary that measures should be taken for keeping and arranging the several Books of Account in the Departments under your Government, so as to contain and exhibit the Accounts of the Territorial and Political Departments separately and distinctly from such as appertain to, or are connected with, the Commercial Branch of our affairs, according to the letter and the spirit of the Act; and it is highly essential that the arrangements for this purpose, at each of our Presidencies and Settlements, should, as far as practicable, be carried into execution upon a principle of complete uniformity.

11. We are led to hope that, from the mode in which the Books of Account in India are already kept and arranged, the difficulty of effecting the separation now directed will not be very considerable.

12. Our Auditor of Indian Accounts having, in pursuance of our directions, laid before us a plan of the future mode of keeping your Books of Account, a copy of the same is sent a number in the Packet, in order to be referred to your Accountant-General, who is to consider it as the general outline or ground-work of the future arrangement of those books; but is nevertheless to be at liberty to suggest any additions or alterations of the system thus laid down, which may in his judgment have a tendency to render it more complete.

13. According to the strict letter of the Act, the operation of this section, as well as of those relating to the appropriation of the Revenues, which will next be noticed, must be considered as commencing after the 10th April 1814. As your official year terminates the 30th April, it does not appear necessary to make any of the alterations in the general form of your books till the opening of the year 1814-15; but you will give the requisite directions, that any advances that may have been made from the Political to the Commercial Department in the manner hereafter directed, between the 10th and the 30th April 1814, may be carried to account accordingly, and stand as a debit to the latter Department

• (a 1.)

APPENDIX,

Department in the books of 1814-15; so that it shall be practicable to present to Parliament the Account of the Territorial and Commercial transactions completely contradistinguished from each other, at the period required by the Act.

No. 1.

(A.) Extract of Letter

14. The next point of difference in principle from the former Act, to which your from Court of Diattention must be very speedily directed, is in the 55th and 56th sections of the present rectors to the GoAct, respecting the appropriation of the revenues and profits of our Territorial posses- vernor-General; sions, and the funds which are assigned as immediately applicable to the purchase of 6 Sept. 1813. investments, or the purposes of commerce.

15. You will observe by the 55th section, that the Territorial revenues and profits are first to be appropriated to defray the several descriptions of Charge; which are enume

rated under their respective heads; viz.

The Charges and Expenses of collecting the Revenues.

The Military Establishments.

The Interest upon the Debts.

The Civil and Commercial Establishments, and the Territorial Charges paid in
Europe, or the Advances made in Europe on account of Territorial Charges.

16. The surplus which shall result, after defraying all these charges, is to be applied to the liquidation of Territorial Debt, or of the Bond Debt in England, or to such other purposes as we may think proper to direct from time to time. This is the general outline of the appropriations to be hereafter made.

17. The appropriation now prescribed differs from that prescribed by the Act of the 33d principally in the mode of advance, and in the extent of what is to be issued in each year for the purchase of Investment, the Act of the 33d directing it to be made in a specific sum from Surplus Revenue; whereas the whole amount to be issued in India, for the purposes of Commerce, in the purchase of Investment in India or China, is in future to be regulated by the actual payments which shall have been made in England, during the year preceding, from our Commercial funds on account of Territorial charges. 18. We cannot more distinctly explain our views of the construction of the Sections of the Act which have now been brought under notice, than by observing, that although the management of the whole as one concern remains with us, it is requisite that the Political branch should be considered as an affair of Government, the Commercial as that of a mercantile transaction, and by debiting and crediting in account the transactions between them in advances and supplies, as if they were absolutely distinct and separate concerns; so that accounts of receipt, expenditure, and balance, may be duly rendered by each respectively in the way required by Parliament.

19. The sections of the Act now passed, relating to the finances, appear to us to have been founded upon the positive assumption, that during peace at least, the revenues of the Territorial or Political branch will be fully sufficient not only to defray its own charges both at home and abroad, but to furnish a surplus applicable to the reduction of the debt; and that the ultimate proceeds or profits of the Commercial branch will likewise amount to a sum exceeding what shall be required for the liquidation of all demands of a commercial nature, including the dividends on the Capital Stock and the interest upon the Bond Debt in England.

20. The effectual accomplishment of these objects is of the highest importance to the future prosperity of our affairs, and, in so far as respects the Political branch particularly, is viewed by us with the utmost solicitude and anxiety. The result of the actual accounts of Revenue and Charge in the year 1811-12, as advised in your letter from the Financial Department, dated 21st November 1812, is highly satisfactory to us; and although the result estimated for the year 1812-13 in the same letter, falls far short of that of the preceding year, we trust that the expectations held out by you, that the actual result will not be less than a million sterling, will be fully realized. We propose communicating in the next despatch our orders relative to the branches of the Indian establishments