A Plain and Uninterested Reflection Upon the present CASE OF THE East-India COMPANY, Under its following Circumstances, Viz.  
I.— OF having been established and supported by an Uninterrupted Series of Royal Charters of Incorporation, from Queen Elizabeth, and her Princely Successors, down to those of his present Majesty; from whom, and from her late Majesty Q. Marry of blessed Memory, it received Confirmation, by like Charters, in October and November, 1693, for 21 Years then to come; Whereof more than 16 rest yet unexpired.  
II.— Of having had, in Virtue of these their Majesty's last Charters, few less than 800 New Adventurers, incorporated into it; but not without 740000 l. first Subscribed, towards the enlarging of its Stock, and rendering the Trade of it, more extensive, and more beneficial to the Nation.  
III.— Of having, notwithstanding these Grants, and though in manifest Diminution of their Rights thereby, and to the known prejudice of its Trade, submitted with all Alacrity, to a later Charter of Regulations in 1694, by which it is in particular made dissolvible upon its appearing to the King, not to be profitable to him, or this his Realm; but yet not till after three Years Warning first given it, under his Privy Seal or Sign Manual.  
iv— Of the Unspeakable Charge, it has undergone in Purchasing the Freehold of divers Forts, Factories, Buildings, and Lands in India, for the necessary Carrying on of its Trade; besides other immense Sums, in fortifying, building on, and Accommodating to its Service, the Islands of Bombay and St. Helena, both invested by the Crown in the said Company, as its perpetual Inheritance.  
V— Of its like extraordinary and Unavoidable Charge, in the Purchase and Fortifying of its Forts on the West Coast of Sumatra, and Coast of Mallabar, for the preservation of its Pepper-Trade; as that without which, the same must have been exposed to an obvious hazard of being lost to the Nation.  
VI— Of its having (besides the Public Benefits, otherwise arising from these its Expenses, to the Nation's Trade there) acquired to its self a Standing Income of Rents and other Duties, to more than 40000 l. per Annum; and that Yearly increasing.  
VII.— Of having, besides it's forementioned 740000 l. Subscription-Mony, paid upwards of 85000 l. to the Crown for its Stock, during the late War, over and above its Proportion for the present Year; and 295000 l. more for Customs, since the Date of that Subscription.  
VIII.— Of its having, notwithstanding and besides all these Burdens and Payments, and particularly that of its Customs towards the security of its Trade; undergone within the five Years of its present Charter, the yet more heavy Calamity of losing 12 Ships, to the Value of above a Million of Pounds Sterling more.  
IX.— Of having from these its losses, joined to its other Charges, been necessitated (for preserving the Remainder of its Unhappy Stock, and supporting of its Trade) not only to the making further Advances of its own, but taking up Considerable Sums elsewhere at Interest, for which both it and its said Stock, stand at this day answerable.  
X.— last; Of finding itself no sooner brought within View of enjoying its Share at least, with the rest of his Majesty's Trading Subjects, in the benefits of PEACE; after so great an Over-proportion of Sufferings, from the Calamities of the WAR; but that, without the least Default assigned for it on the part of the Company, or regard shown to the Provision even in that Case made by his Majesty himself, in the three Years Warning: A Project has been concerted by Persons (Merchants and Others) not interested in the said Company, for the utter Supplanting it, and gaining to themselves, exclusive of all Others, an immediate Propriety in its Trade by Act of Parliament; in plain Derogation of his Majesty's Charters; to the manifest Oppression of the present Company, the much greater part of whose present Members, have not to this day (from the many forementioned Charges and Losses) touched one Penny of clear Profit, from the day of their Subscription; and to the Obvious Ruin of Thousands of Others, interested with them in the same.  
In which their so Unaccountable Enterprise, should these Gentlemen, by the Strength of what they have without any or at most with little Adventure, been gathering from the Public, succeed; to the spoiling the Company, of the little which this Accumulation of Evils in the Service of the Public has left it, of the Trade it has so dearly paid for the sole Title to: It seems worthy of every ingenuous Dealer's Reflection: Viz.   

REFLECTION:  
What degree of Oppression, Circumvention, or Violence to Public Faith it can be thought to be; that these Gentlemen can ever pretend to find fault with: When (as none will now think it impossible) another Juncture may arise, wherein Themselves, under the best Securities either of Right or Merit, may be attacked with the same  Argument they now glory, in being able to over-bear the present Company with?   

One Plain REFLECTION Upon the Case of the East-India Company.