PEACOCK, Thomas Love.

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Manuscript outlining the East India Company's official response to criticism of its monopoly and trade practices. A draft official document composed by Peacock in his capacity as an assistant examiner at East India House. The submission to the Board of Trade, summarizing the views of the Court of Directors, responds to complaints from tea-dealers in Edinburgh that the company was failing to adequately supply the home market, forcing prices upwards, and delivering inferior products.Peacock's "provisional appointment... was approved by the court of directors in May 1819, as part of a larger experiment to open the higher posts in the examiner's office to outside talent. At the East India House he showed great skill in drafting dispatches, and his appointment was confirmed in April 1821 with a salary rise to £800. His subsequent career was one of steady advancement" (ODNB). This document is a provisional draft, differing somewhat in wording and content from the final version published in parliamentary papers and signed by Joseph Dart, the company's secretary.The document is discussed in the expansive 1924-34 edition of Peacock's works: "The latest Peacock MS. to be discovered consists of his 'Observations on a Memorial which has been presented to the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury from certain Tea-dealers of the City of Edinburgh.' It is a pencil draft, written on paper bearing the East India Company's watermark, probably in 1824 (the date '6th

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