BY 1812, it was clear to the Company that it was under siege once again: there were numerous interests determined to end its monopoly of trade in the East. The Company was equally determined to keep interlopers out of its domains and protected its interests with increasing forcefulness, refusing licences and insisting that those who managed to enter India illegally be sent home. We saw in the previous chapter how this had affected missionaries. With the Company's charter due for renewal, both missionaries in India and their friends at home believed the time for legislative action had come.

Initially Wilberforce believed that there should be a partnership between those wanting to end the Company's monopoly and the missionary lobby. In February 1812 he wrote in his diary that those interested in the cause of religion would probably be compelled ‘to join the great body of commercial and political economy men, who will I doubt not contend for destroying the monopoly of the Company, and leaving the road to the East Indies free and open’. However, Grant, as a Director and former Chairman of the Company, had a very narrow view of the relationship between trade and Christianity. He was unequivocally against the ending of the Company's monopoly, fearing that the opening of India to unlicensed adventurers would be disastrous for commercial, political and religious reasons.