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 «»
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EUROPEAN COMMERCE 
 
 WITH 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED 
 
 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS 
 
 FOR AND AGAINST 
 
 THE TRADE WITH INDIA, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE MANAGEMENT OF IT BY A CHARTERED COMPANY ; 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN APPENDIX OF AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTS. 
 
 By DAVID MACPHERSON, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE ANNALS OF COMMERCE, &C. 
 
 HISTORY IS PHILOSOPHY TEACHING BY EXAMPLE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER- ROW. 
 
 1812.
 
 Primed by Strahan and Preston 
 PriDters-Streev.LorKJopj .•
 
 r Vi 
 
 >- 
 
 or 
 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 a: 
 
 tO 
 
 PREFAC E. 
 
 IT is a matter of regret to some of the most enlightened politicians and 
 patriots, that the affairs of India are treated by most people with an indifference 
 and apathy, which, if the vast importance of that country, whether commerci- 
 ally or politically considered, were duely known, would immediately be shaken 
 off by every well-educated British gentleman, who knows that it is his duty to 
 understand, and by every honourable means to promote, the interest of his 
 native country. 
 
 No work has hitherto been offered to the Public, containing a faithful account 
 of the commerce with India, brought down to the present time * : and therefor 
 whoever wishes to acquire a competent knowlege of that most important branch 
 of commercial history, must labour through a vast number of volumes, some 
 written in Latin, and others in almost all the modern languages of Europe, with 
 a copious interspersion of Oriental vocables f, and also through prodigious 
 masses of controversial publications: and these being generally written with a 
 view to mislead rather than to inform, the greatest caution is necessary in the 
 perusal of them to guard the reader's judgement from being carried away by 
 the misrepresentations of party zeal or commercial jealousy : and he must also 
 obtain access to official documents, many of which even money cannot procure, 
 
 * The Abbe Raynal's Philosophical and the name of a pedant : he, who drops a pro- 
 political History conies no lower than the year vincial word or phrase, is esteemed little better 
 1778 : and his lively imagination and fre- than a clown. But pedantic or provincial 
 qnently-erroneous information, have too often words are much more tolerable, because they 
 betrayed him into well-meaning, but mistaken, are pretty generally intelligible, than Oriental 
 fe addresses to the passions of his readers. words, which no person in this country, unac- 
 
 f A writer, who makes too frequent an use quainted with India, can possibly know any 
 
 of Greek or Latin words, not generally natural- thing of. 
 reed in the English language, is branded with 
 
 a be fore 

 
 ii PREFACE. 
 
 before he can acquire accurate information respecting the origin and progress, 
 the misfortunes and successes, of a trade, which has in all ages enriched the 
 Nations who have prudently conducted it, and has raised some of them in com- 
 parative political importance very much above the rank, which their natural 
 advantages could have acquired for them in the scale of Nations. 
 
 But few can have leisure and inclination to undertake the labour of such an 
 extensive research : and therefor, in order to bring so desirable a branch of 
 knowlege within the reach of every reader, I have composed the following con- 
 cise History of the European commerce with India, traced from its origin, and 
 brought down to its present state. 
 
 Though the India trade of the andents was so very different from that of the 
 moderns, that it may seem scarcely necessary to connect them, I have thought 
 that a very brief sketch of it, prior to the famous voyage of Gama, would be a 
 proper Introduction to the work, and render it somewhat more complete within 
 itself. 
 
 Some may perhaps think, that the history of the commerce of our own coun- 
 try with India is all that can be interesting to a British reader, and that the history 
 of the India trade of the European continental Nations is superfluous. But, as 
 the great use of history is to teach by example, the knowlege of the past being 
 the only guide we can have in forming a judgement concerning the future, it is 
 of great importance to know the events, which have promoted the prosperity, or 
 brought on the decline, of the India trade of all the Nations of Europe, who have 
 entered into it. 
 
 The India trade of Portugal, conducted, without any knowlege of the prin- 
 ciples of commerce, for the sole account of the Sovereign, in subservience to a 
 sanguinary system of conquest, rapine, and persecution, and liable to be de- 
 ranged by the caprices of a rapid succession of ignorant, arbitrary, and avar- 
 icious, Viceroys, is particularly worthy of attention, as holding out a most im- 
 portant lesson to every Nation connected with India, and most especially to this 
 Nation, whose India Company, by means infinitely more just and honourable, 
 have acquired a much more compact, and, we may hope, more permanent, em- 
 pire, than the Portuguese possessed in the most splendid period of their 
 domination. 
 
 The history of the India trade of France and some other countries shows the 
 fatal consequence of commercial Companies depending for their pecuniary re- 
 sources on the bounty or favour of Government, and especially of an absolute 
 Government, and being subject to the interference and direction of such a 
 
 Government. 
 
 The
 
 PREFACE. Hi 
 
 The East-India Company of this country have risen, from a very small begin- 
 ning, through innumerable hardships and distresses at home and in India, to a 
 height of opulence and power, which has made them the admiration and envy of 
 the Nations. In tracing their progress I have endeavoured to lay before the 
 reader every important event, which has obstructed or promoted their pro- 
 sperity : and. as the facts I have narrated rest upon the unquestionable author- 
 ity of original records and official documents, I trust they may be confidently 
 referred to by every enlightened politician and merchant, who may wish to ap- 
 pretiate the political and commercial importance of the greatest commercial 
 Company that ever existed in any age or country. 
 
 The question, whether the East-India trade shall be conducted by a great 
 Company, trading regularly and uninterruptedly with a joint stock, and vested 
 with an exclusive privilege, or be left to the pleasure of every individual to enter 
 into it when he thinks proper, or to throw it up when he thinks proper, is not, 
 as some may be apt to think it, a matter, in which only the Company, on the 
 one side, and those who wish to engage in the trade without controul, on the 
 other side, are concerned. It is of the utmost importance to every person, who 
 feels himself interested in the prosperity of the British empire, to be possessed 
 of the facts, which may enable him to judge, whether a monopoly under ju- 
 dicious regulations, or an open trade scarcely susceptible of any regulation, is 
 most likely to secure to Great Britain the vast revenue, and other great com- 
 mercial and political advantages, arising from a branch of commerce so essenti- 
 ally differing from all others as that of India ; or, in other words, whether the 
 India trade, together with that great portion of our general commercial pro- 
 sperity and maritime power derived from it, shall be preserved to this country, or 
 be abandoned to foreigners. 
 
 Of late there have appeared several publications, calculated to influence the 
 public mind in favour of an universal freedom of trade with India, and others 
 recommending a continuation of the monopoly, on condition that a few mer- 
 chants of a certain description may be admitted to share the benefits, without 
 bearing any part of the burthens, of the privileged Company. The reader, 
 who takes the trouble of looking into them, will find in most of them frothy 
 declamation, and even scurrilous abuse, together with some perverted statements, 
 instead of solid arguments and authentic facts. Of facts indeed, whether truely 
 or erroneously stated, they are very sparing : but they deal largely in random 
 predictions (like the prospects of possible advantages held out to the unwary in 
 lottery advertisements) of the wonderful national benefits to be derived from a 
 vast extension of the India trade ; though it is evident to every thinking per- 
 
 a 2 son.
 
 ir PREFACE. 
 
 son, and has been repeatedly confirmed by dear-bought experience, that any very 
 great extension of the trade (and some of the modern projectors have proposed 
 to carry it to ten times its present extent) must infallibly ruin the merchants 
 concerned in it, and eventually deprive the British consumers of a regular sup- 
 ply of commodities, which their habits have rendered necessary to their comfort- 
 able existence. 
 
 In order to make the reader acquainted with the claims and the proposals of 
 the opponents of the Company, and of the arguments which have been adduced 
 for and against the justice and policy of conducting the trade under the manage- 
 ment of a joint-stock Company, invested with a modified exclusive privilege, I 
 have endeavoured to lay before him a fair abridged review, or abstract, of what 
 has been said on both sides of this important controversy, which forms a proper 
 sequel to the historical narrative. I foresee that the advocates for open trade 
 will accuse me of partiality to the Company. But I can very sincerely declare, 
 that, if any such partiality exists, it has been produced in my mind by a strict at- 
 tention to facts, and a careful examination of the arguments on both sides, which 
 have led to a conviction, contrary to the opinion I entertained many years ago, 
 that an abolition, or even a diminution, of the commercial or political privileges 
 of the East-India Company would deprive this empire of a great part, perhaps 
 the whole, of the valuable trade, carried on by them with such distinguished 
 pre-eminence over the East-India trade of all other Nations, and would go far to 
 destroy that mutual dependence of the several branches of the Legislature, 
 which is esteemed the great perfection of the British constitution. 
 
 I am fully aware of the very great disadvantage I must lie under in presuming 
 to dissent from the opinions of authors of such great and established reputation 
 as De Witt and Smith. But the former of these, though justly esteemed one of 
 the greatest Statesmen of the age he lived in, whose judgement, as Sir William 
 Temple observes, was never perverted, except by what he conceived to be the 
 interest of his country, was obviously erroneous in supposing the East- India and 
 West-India trades reducible to the same system of management. The later, 
 though his authority upon other points of political economy has repeatedly been 
 referred to as an oracle by the most distinguished members of the British Senate, 
 has fallen into the same gross error with De Witt ; nor are his other notions 
 respecting the commerce of India less erroneous. It must be remembered, how- 
 ever, in justice to Doctor Smith, that, when he wrote, Indian affairs were less 
 known in this country than they are now ; that the Company's territorial acquis- 
 ition was recent, and that, before their government was properly established, 
 many unwarrantable actions were committed by some of their servants in India, 
 which were related, with a good deal of exaggeration, by Colonel Dow in his 
 
 ' History
 
 PREFACE. , 
 
 ' History of Hindostan,' published in the years 1768 and 1772, a work from 
 which Smith appears to have drawn much of his information upon East-India 
 affairs *. 
 
 The history of modern times, being generally drawn from a comparison of a 
 great variety of vouchers, many of them equally entitled to confidence, and all 
 of them making equal pretensions to veracity, can scarcely admit of that pointed 
 reference to authorities, which is essentially necessary to a modern composition 
 of antient history, and which I have punctually given in those parts of my for- 
 mer works, which contain antient history. The reader, who has honoured those 
 works with his attention, will probably be disposed to believe that I have not left 
 any accessible authority unexamined, nor neglected any means to draw out the 
 truth from the contradictory assertions of contending interests, though I have not 
 filled the pages of this work with the names of the innumerable authors, official 
 accounts, and other documents, from the laborious perusal and careful compar- 
 ison and estimation of which I have constructed my narrative. The authorities 
 adduced in the Introduction are chiefly in support of facts, which have been 
 overlooked by some modern writers, and misrepresented by others, in conse- 
 quence of not attending to the antient authors most worthy of credit. Some pas- 
 sages in the body of the work, which are liable to doubt or controversy, are also 
 fortified by reference to authorities. 
 
 The Accounts contained in the Appendix comprehend a thesaurus of un- 
 questionable information, which ought to be the foundation of all arguments 
 concerning the India trade, and they are presented in a very compendious form, 
 for the use of those who desire to think for themselves. 
 
 The Map, which accompanies this work, has been constructed under my own 
 immediate direction, and contains every Oriental country and place mentioned 
 in it, except some small forts on the Island of Bombay, and two or three places, 
 of which the position is now unknown. 
 
 Though the work, which I now presume to lay before the Public, is com- 
 pressed into one moderate-sized volume, I have employed, in obtaining and di- 
 gesting the materials of it, all the time I could spare from other avocations dur- 
 ing a considerable number of years, or rather, in some degree, during the 
 greatest part of my life-time ; as commercial history has occupied a good deal 
 of my attention, ever since I have been convinced that mankind are much more 
 deeply interested in contemplating the progress of industry, civilization, social 
 
 * Dow's first and second volumes are dated his Inquiry in 1775. See Advertisement to his 
 j 768, and his third 1772. Smith began to print third edition. 
 
 order,
 
 y\ PREFACE. 
 
 order, comfortable subsistence, and happiness, which in every part of the world 
 go hand-in-hand with well-directed commerce, than in studying the revolutions 
 of empire, or the miseries brought upon the human race by the sanguinary ex- 
 ploits of conquerors. In noticing the time employed upon the work, I do not 
 propose to make the reader expect a finished or elegant performance, but merely 
 to show that it is not one of the crude publications, which are got up in a hurry, 
 and obtruded upon the World with scarcely any attention to the authenticity of 
 facts. 
 
 Having now given a sketch of the plan and execution of the work, I respect- 
 fully submit it to the candour of the Public. 
 
 Church Terrace, Pancras, 
 u' h March 1812.
 
 GENERAL CONTENTS. 
 
 System or Scheme) 
 
 Introduction, containing a brief account of the intercourse of the western 
 parts of the world with India before the discovery of the route to it by sea . 
 
 The Commerce of the Portuguese with India 
 
 the Dutch 
 
 the English 
 
 the French 
 
 (This includes the history of the Mississippi 
 
 the Danes 
 
 the Ostend Company 
 
 the Swedes 
 
 the Prussians 
 
 the Imperial Company of Trieste, &c. 
 
 the Spaniards 
 
 A Review of the arguments for and against the trade with India, and of those 
 for and against the management of it by a chartered Company with a joint 
 
 StOCK ...«•..«. 
 
 An Appendix of Authentic Accounts ..... 
 
 The Index ........ 
 
 i 
 
 10 
 
 4i 
 
 72 
 
 2S4 
 
 285 
 294 
 
 3°5 
 3" 
 3 r 3 
 3*9 
 
 335 
 411 
 
 427

 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EUROPEAN COMMERCE with INDIA, 
 
 V 
 
 % 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE commerce of the western parts of the world with the opulent and 
 early-civilized nations of the East has in all ages produced the most important 
 advantages to the people who have engaged in it. In a very early age those ad- 
 vantages were well understood by the nations spread along the south coast of 
 the great peninsula of Arabia, who appear, from the book of Job, to have 
 made great progress in fisheries, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, and 
 also in many of the arts and sciences, particularly astronomy, geometry, arith- 
 metic, music, engraving on metals and stones, and shipbuilding. That they had 
 an early commercial intercourse with India, appears unquestionably in the very 
 dawn of history, which exhibits to us the first commercial adventure upon 
 record *, conducted by an Arabian caravan, consisting of ' a company of Ish- 
 
 * meelites, come from Gilead, with their camels, bearing spicery, and balm, 
 
 * and myrh, going to carry it down to Egypt \.' 
 
 Of all the many nations comprehended under the general name of Arabians, 
 the Sabseans were the most distinguished for commercial eminence and nautical 
 enterprise. Their voyages probably extended to Coromandel, Ceylon, and even 
 
 * I call this the first upon record, because f Genetis, c.37. Saint Jerome translates the 
 
 no particular commercial transaction is recorded articles of their merchandize, ' aromata, et re- 
 in the history of Job, and his age is not ascert- * sinam, et stacten.' 
 ained, though the most learned commentators 
 seem to agree in placing him as early at Abraham. 
 
 B the
 
 i INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Spice Islands, from which they seem to have imported the spices of superior 
 quality, which, together with other magnificent gifts, were presented by their 
 Oueen to Solomon, the wise, pacific, and commercial, King of Israel. [77 Chron- 
 icles, c. g.~\ Happily situated in the south corner of the peninsula, at a great 
 distance from all the turbulent conquerors, who successively ravaged the 
 greatest part of Asia, and possessing Aden (or Arabia Felix) and some other 
 convenient ports, which enabled them to command the trade of the eastern and 
 western parts of the world, they enjoyed tranquillity and safety, and derived 
 from their extensive commerce an abundance of all the comforts and all the 
 splendid luxuries of life. 
 
 The Sabreans established colonies in foreign countries, and some of their 
 merchants possessed a territory in Africa, from which, we are told, they received 
 a tribute, to bring home which they sent their ships, under the conduct of 
 commanders and supercargoes, well acquainted with the language and manners 
 of the tributary nation. It is not impossible that those merchants may have 
 been merely proprietors of plantations in the African colonies (as many British 
 merchants in the present day are proprietors of West-India plantations) and that 
 the sight of the produce, brought home to the proprietors, might lead our 
 Egyptian-Greek informers into a mistaken notion, that it was a tribute payable 
 to themselves. But if those merchants were really so powerful as to hold a 
 distant country under subjection to them, they must have been a great corporate 
 body, acting with united councils and strength, like a modern East-India 
 Company. 
 
 The Southern Arabians long continued to be the principal commercial agents 
 between the nations of the East and those of the West. The Egyptians received 
 the rich merchandize of the Oriental regions immediately from Arabia; and 
 all the other western nations were supplied by the Sidonians, Tynans, and other 
 Phoenicians, including the merchants of Carthage, and those of the little island 
 of Gadir, now called Cadiz, who all obtained their Indian goods, immediately 
 or mediately, from the merchants of South Arabia, who also supplied Syria and 
 Mesopotamia by the navigation of the Euphrates, and by land caravans *. 
 
 The commercial prosperity of the Phoenicians of Asia suffered a great de- 
 pression in consequence or their subjection to the Persians, and afterwards to 
 
 * As the very curious and 'interesting ac- be found at great length in the work of Jlga- 
 
 count of the commercial prosperity of the Sa- tharchidcs, apud Phothm, whose account it 
 
 bxans, and of the Southern Arabians in general, supported by some notices in the Periplus of the 
 
 has been overlooked by most modern writers, it Erytbrean Sea. 
 is necessary to inform the reader, that it may 
 
 the
 
 INTRODUCTION; 
 
 the Macedonians* Ptolemy, one of the Macedonian Generals, having obtained 
 the kingdom of Egypt, as his share of the conquests of Alexander, his deceased 
 Sovereign, used every means of compulsion and encouragement to draw the 
 trade away from the Phoenicians to Alexandria, his new capital : and in process 
 of time that city was raifed to opulence and splendour by the profitable trade of 
 supplying not only Egypt and the neighbouring parts of Africa, but also all the 
 coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, with the productions and manufactures of the 
 East. They were procured, as formerly, in Arabia, and landed on the west 
 coast of the Red Sea, whence they were carried by camels across the desert, 
 and floated down the River Nile, which, with the help of a canal of commun- 
 ication, conveyed them to Alexandria. 
 
 The trade continued in this channel till the overwhelming power of the 
 Romans reduced Egypt to the condition of a province of their vast empire. 
 Then the Egyptian-Greeks, seeing almost all the nations in the western parts of 
 the world their fellow-subjects, resolved to make the best use of an opportunity 
 so exceedingly favourable to a great and safe extension of their commerce, 
 and at last opened their eyes to the advantage, which the situation of their 
 country presented to them, for taking into their own hands the direct trade 
 with India, which none of their ancestors had ever attempted*. Alexandria 
 
 thereupon 
 
 * Several modern authors have believed, that 
 a direct trade between Egypt and India was 
 established by the first Ptolemy, and kept up 
 by his successors : and some have been even so 
 wild as to assert, that the most antient Egypt- 
 ians were not only the first traders to India, 
 but even the inventors of commerce and navig- 
 ation. In a work, the plan of which does not 
 admit of entering deep into literary controversy, 
 it would be improper to transcribe all the proofs 
 which might be produced against the existence 
 of an Egyptian trade with India : but neither 
 must they be all omitted, as it is necessary, in 
 order to satisfy the reader, to shew that the 
 belief of fuch a trade, though admitted by some 
 writers of reputation, is not only entirely de- 
 stitute of any historical evidence, but even con- 
 tradicted by unquestionable authority. 
 
 Agatharchides, who lived in Egypt, could 
 scarcely have neglected to mention the voyages 
 of the Egyptians to India, had any such been 
 made in his time : but on the contrary, he in- 
 
 forms us in his minute account of the trade of 
 the Sabaeans, already referred to, that they sup- 
 plied the Egyptians with Oriental merchandize. 
 This is at least a strong presumptive evidence 
 against the existence of an immediate Egyptian 
 trade with India : but what follows must be 
 received as proof positive. 
 
 Strabo was in Egypt twenty-three years be- 
 fore the birth of Christ, being then a young 
 man, and he composed his geographical work 
 in his old age. He notices, that, as the vessels 
 of the Alexandrians now sail even as far as 
 India, many things respecting distant countries 
 are much better known than they were former- 
 ly ; and he says, that, when he was in the upper 
 part of Egypt, one hundred and twenty vessels 
 (which, as we know from other authority, were 
 very small) sailed from Myos Hormos, a port 
 of the Red Sea, for India, Afterwards, when 
 observing that the revenue of Egypt must be 
 much greater than it was under the Kings of 
 the Macedonian race, in consequence of the 
 2 fuperior
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 thereupon became the commercial capital of the whole Roman empire, and was 
 scarcely inferior to the imperial city itself in population and opulence. In a 
 few years after the commencement of the India voyages, the route was rendered 
 shorter by the Egyptian-Greek navigators acquiring the knowlege of the period- 
 ical regularity of the monsoons ; whereupon larger vessels were employed in 
 the trade, which continued to flourish as long as the Roman empire remained in 
 vigour *. 
 
 Though Alexandria was the great and chief entrepot of the commercial in- 
 tercourse between the eastern and western parts of the world, it was not the 
 only channel of conveyance. There was also a very considerable trade carried 
 on by a conveyance comprehending land carriage, river navigation, and the na- 
 vigation of the Euxine (or Black) Sea and the Caspian Sea, by means of which 
 
 tuperior energy of the Roman government, and 
 the acquisition of the trade with India and Ethi- 
 opia, he says, ' Formerly there were not twenty 
 
 * vessels that ventured beyond the entrance of 
 
 * the Arabian Gulf (or Red Sea) ; but now 
 
 * large fleets sail as far as India and the farthest 
 
 * coast of Ethiopia, from which the most pre- 
 ' tious articles of merchandize are brought to 
 
 * Egypt.' [Strab. Geogr. L. ii,/>. 179 ; L. xvii, 
 p. 1 149, ed. Wesseling.~\ 
 
 Having thus fixed the date of the commence- 
 ment of the Egyptian trade with India with suf- 
 ficient certainty, it is necessary also to point out 
 the mart, which previously supplied the Egypt- 
 ians with Oriental goods, which we are enabled 
 to do with equal, or still greater, certainty. 
 
 Theophrastus, who was contemporary with 
 the first Ptolemy, informs us, that vessels sailed 
 from Hero-opolis, a port at the head of the 
 north-west branch of the Red Sea, to Sabaea, 
 where they purchased frankincense, myrh, 
 casia, cinnamon, &c. [Hist. Plant. L. ix, 
 ..4.] 
 
 Agatharchides, already quoted,who lived two 
 centuries later than Theophrastus, corroborates 
 his evidence ; and he also observes, that Egypt 
 was much enriched by the trade with Sabaea. 
 
 The judicious and accurate author of the Peri- 
 plus of the Erythraean Sea, who appears to have 
 lived in the first century of the Christian aera, in- 
 forms us, that the city of ArabiaFelix( Arabia the 
 
 Happy, or the Fortunate) a port of Sabaea, was 
 so called, ' because when as yet no person sailed 
 ' from India to Egypt, neither had any one ven- 
 
 * tured to sail from Egypt as far as India, they 
 ' proceeded only to that city, which was a 
 ' mart for the merchandize both of India and 
 
 • Egypt.' [Peripl. Mar. Erythr. p. 156, ed. 
 Blunt ardi.~] 
 
 These authorities, it may be presumed, are 
 fully sufficient to prove that Egypt, before it 
 was subject to the Romans, had no direct com- 
 mercial intercourse with India. 
 
 Even in the present day, the Egyptian sailort 
 are very awkward, and there are very few of 
 them. [See Browne's Travels, p. 75.] But 
 all writers and travelers, from the author of 
 the book of Job to Chardin and Niebuhr, dis- 
 tinguish the South Arabians, and more espe- 
 cially those of Yemen, the antient Sabaea, as 
 the most skilful navigators in the Indian Ocean : 
 and we learn from Niebuhr, that the South 
 Arabians still preserve the antient trade of sup- 
 plying Egypt with Indian goods, and almost in 
 the same channel of conveyance, which was 
 used by their remote ancestors. 
 
 * So great and lucrative was the commerce 
 of Alexandria, that Firmus, a merchant of that 
 city, towards the end of the third centurv, 
 was able to maintain an army. But he lost his 
 great riches, and also his life, in a vain attempt 
 to make himself an Emperor. 
 
 India
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 India goods were carried as far as Constantinople. The conveyance by the 
 Persian Gulf and the Euphrates was also kept up ; and Palmyra, a city standing 
 on a fertile spot amidst sandy deserts, by being an entrepot in this trade, be- 
 came wealthy and magnificent, as the ruins of it, still remaining, testify. 
 
 When the unwieldy Roman empire fell by its own weight, the Arabians re- 
 sumed their rank as the first commercial people in the western world : and, 
 being stimulated by the enthusiasm of a new religion, which held out Paradise 
 as the sure reward of military prowess, they also became the greatest con- 
 querors, and with most astonishing rapidity obtained lasting possession of many 
 of the finest countries upon the surface of the globe. Their military ardour did 
 not detach them from their commercial pursuits, but rather added new vigour 
 to them. Their conquests enabled them to command the whole extent of the 
 Mediterranean Sea, and also to assume the empire of the Indian Ocean, and 
 thereby to extend their commercial voyages far beyond the utmost limits of tha 
 navigation of their ancestors. On almost every shore of that Ocean, they 
 either became the ruling people, or established factories, and were thereby en- 
 abled to command the commerce of silks, pretious stones, pearls, spices, and 
 other articles of luxurious expenditure. 
 
 The frantic expeditions, undertaken in the middle ages by innumerable legions 
 of warlike pilgrims for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Saracens *, 
 though they depopulated and impoverished the western countries of Europe, 
 were nevertheless productive of some beneficial effects. The few warriors, 
 who survived the fatigues, the diseases, and the slaughter, of the expeditions, 
 returned to their native countries with their minds somewhat expanded by their 
 intercourse with nations more advanced in civilization than themselves ; and they 
 were in some degree cured of the ignorant pride, which makes barbarians esteem 
 themselves the wisest and the best people upon the face of the earth. Together 
 with some improvements in science they acquired a taste for many of the comforts 
 and elegancies of life, which they had never known before, among which the 
 Oriental articles of pretious stones, silk, and especially spicery of all kinds, appear 
 to have been most in request. Some specimens of these and other foreign rarities, 
 which they carried home with them, created a desire of obtaining greater 
 quantities of them among their countrymen, and stimulated their dormant 
 industry to cultivate, or manufacture, some commodity, which they might give 
 
 * This name, which properly belonged to it was afterwards alfo applied to the Turks, 
 a small Arabian tribe near the border of Egypt, probably because they embraced the new religion 
 was extended to all the Arabian nations ; and of the Arabians. 
 
 in
 
 6 -INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in exchange for the new objects of desire *. Thus nations, hitherto sunk in list* 
 less indolence, or only roused from it, when hunger urged them to the chase, or 
 their chiefs led them to battle, acquired INDUSTRY, the only efficient and 
 legitimate source of all other acquisitions, and of national prosperity. 
 
 Most of the writers, who have occasion to mention Alexandria during the 
 Holy wars, which, from their commencement in the year 1095, continued, with 
 some intermissions, till 1 29 1, say nothing of any considerable trade being carried 
 on in it. After the expulsion of the crusaders from Jerusalem in the year 1 1 87, 
 Saint John de Acre, a sea-port of Palestine, became their chief residence, and 
 the principal emporium of the Mediterranean, where the productions of the East 
 and the West were exchanged, the merchants of Venice, Genoa, and some of 
 the other cities of Italy, being the principal conductors of the European branches 
 of the trade. Those merchants also traded to Constantinople, which was the 
 chief mart for the India goods conveyed by the northern land carriage. About 
 the year 1300 Alexandria appears to have recovered its commercial pre» 
 eminence t : and it continued to flourish as long as any land carriage was required 
 in transporting the merchandize of India to Europe. 
 
 The revival of science in Europe, and the accounts of the rich Oriental regions, 
 hitherto utterly unknown in the western parts of the world, given by Marco 
 Polo, a Venetian gentleman, who had traveled through many of them in the later 
 
 * The beneficial effects of, what some people 
 stigmatize by the name of, luxuries, or fuper- 
 fluities, cannot be better exemplified than by a 
 simple little story, related by Doctor Franklin, 
 which I give in his own words. 
 
 ' The skipper of a shallop, employed be- 
 4 tween Cape May and Philadelphia, had done 
 4 us some small service, for which he refused to 
 
 * be paid. My wife, understanding that he had 
 
 * a daughter, sent her a present of a new- 
 ' fashioned cap. Three years after, this skip- 
 ' per being at my house with an old farmer of 
 4 Cape May, his passenger, he mentioned the 
 ' cap, and how much his daughter had been 
 
 * pleased with it. But, said he, it proved a 
 4 dear cap to our congregation. — How so ? — 
 ' When my daughter appeared with it at meet- 
 ' ing, it was so much admired, that all the 
 ' girls resolved to get such caps from Phil- 
 ' adelphia ; and my wife and I computed that 
 
 * the whole could not have cost less than a 
 
 4 hundred pounds. — True, said the farmer, 
 ' but you do not tell all the story. I think, 
 ' the cap was, nevertheless, an advantage to 
 4 us ; for it was the first thing that put our 
 ' girls upon knitting worsted mittens for sale 
 4 at Philadelphia, that they might have where - 
 ' withal to buy caps and ribbons there ; and 
 4 you know, that that industry has continued, 
 4 and is likely to continue, and increase to a 
 ' much greater value, and to answer better 
 ' purposes. — Upon the whole, I was more 
 4 reconciled to this little piece of luxury, since 
 4 not only the girls were made happier by hav- 
 ' ing fine caps, but the Philadelphia!]* by the 
 4 supply of warm mittens." [Franklin's Works, 
 v.W, p. 425, ed. 1806.] 
 
 f Galvano, in his Chronology of Discoveries, 
 says, that in the year 1300 the Soldan of Cairo 
 gave orders that the merchandize of India should 
 be carried through the Red Sea, as it used to 
 be before. 
 
 part
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 part of the thirteenth century, began to excite a spirit of discovery in some parts 
 of Europe. About the middle of the fourteenth century, the navigators of 
 Dieppe, a sea-port of Normandy, explored the west coast of Africa, almost as 
 far as the Equinoctial line, and established factories, from which they imported 
 gold and many other articles of African produce, among which may be part- 
 icularly mentioned ivory, as it gave birth to a manufacture of utensils and 
 trinkets from that material, by which Dieppe has been distinguished down to the 
 
 present time *. 
 
 In the year 1402, Jean de Bethencourt, also of Dieppe, settled a colony in 
 
 the Canary islands, the discovery of which is claimed both by the French and 
 
 the Spaniards. 
 
 In the fifteenth century the commerce and power of Genoa declined ; and the 
 Venetians enjoyed the unrivaled monopoly of the Indian trade with Egypt, 
 Syria f, and Constantinople, which supplied them, not only with the rich 
 productions and fine manufactures of India, for which the increasing civilization 
 of Europe had greatly increased the demand, but also with many materials 
 requisite for their most valuable manufactures, by which the industry of all the 
 classes of their people was animated and supported. In consequence of the 
 great extension of their trade, the merchants became exceedingly opulent, and 
 lived in a sdle of magnificence, which few of the Princes of the uncommercial 
 parts of Europe could then command ; the people were all employed, were all 
 easy in their circumstances, and were all happy ; and the state was powerful^ 
 and respected by all the Sovereigns of Europe. 
 
 But neither the Venetians, though they had the advantage of the earliest 
 notice of the discoveries of their countryman, Polo, though their seamen were 
 
 * The discoveries and commerce of the Nor- f About the year 1420 the Venetians sent 
 
 mans on the coast of Africa are denied by some annually to Egypt and Syria 500,000 ducats 
 
 authors. But they are supported by the respect- in money, besides merchandize, part of which 
 
 able authority of De Guignes in Mem. de Litter- consisted of woolen goods received from Flor- 
 
 ature, V. xxxvii, pp. 51 8-521 ; the Abbe de la ence. In those days England exported some 
 
 Pluche in Spectacle de la Nature, V. iv, p. 429, woolen cloth, but much more wool in an un- 
 
 til. 1739; besides Savary, the author of the manufactured state : and though the Venetians 
 
 Dictionnaire de Commerce, Raynal, and many imported into England a vast variety of spices 
 
 others : and it must be acknovvleged, that and other expensive articles, the balance of the 
 
 there is not the least appearance of improb- trade was in favour of the Englifh to the amount 
 
 ability in the account given of them. Neither of 100,000 ducats annually ; one fifth of the 
 
 is the negative kind of argument against the money thsy paid for the merchandize of India, 
 
 veracity of the Norman voyages, from the \_Speech of Mocenigo, the Duke of Venice, in 
 
 Portuguese being ignorant of them, if indeed Sanuto, Vite de Duche di Vene%ia, apud Muratori 
 
 they were ignorant of them, by any means Scriptores rerum Italicarum, V. xxii, col. 959.] 
 conclufive. 
 
 apparently
 
 3 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 apparently more numerous * and more skilful than those of any of the greater 
 states of Europe, nor any of the other states of Italy, ever made any attempt to 
 enlarge the sphere of nautical and commercial enterprise f. On the contrary, 
 they wished that it might be confined for ever to the condition in which it then was, 
 which, according to the ideas then generally entertained of navigation, rendered a 
 voyage to the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean too arduous an undertaking 
 for the commercial capital, or the nautical knowlege, of the western countries 
 of Europe. 
 JJp; At this time Malacca was the great emporium of commerce in India, for 
 which pre-eminence it was chiefly indebted to its commanding situation on a 
 strait between the extensive peninsula of the same name and the great island of 
 Sumatra, the general thoroughfare of all vessels passing between the eastern and 
 western parts of the Indian Ocean. To that city were carried the cloves, 
 nutmegs, and mace, of the Molucco and Banda islands, the sandal wood of 
 Timor, the camphor of Borneo, the gold and silver of Luqonia, the pepper, 
 drugs, dye-stuffs, perfumes, rich silks, porcelain, and all the vast variety of 
 merchandize produced and manufactured in China, Java, Siam, and the neigh- 
 bouring countries or islands. There the merchants from all the more eastern 
 countries met with those of Hindoostan and the western coasts of the Indian 
 Ocean ; and every one procured what was in request, in exchange for what 
 was redundant, in his own country. The cities of Calicut and Cambay on the 
 west side of Hindoostan, Ormus in the Persian Gulf, and Aden on the south 
 coast of Arabia, were particularly enriched by the trade with Malacca ; and they 
 also traded to Pegu for rubies and lacker, to Bengal for cloths, (now called 
 
 * Mocenigo, in his speech, says the Vene- Aloise de Cadamosto, a Venetian navigator, 
 
 tians have 3,345 vessels, which carry 36,0x50 was employed, and much caressed, by Prince 
 
 seamen ; and 16,000 carpenters are constantly Henry, who was desirous of availing himself of 
 
 employed in the dock yards. the knowlege of spices which the Venetians 
 
 f Though no voyage of discovery was ever had acquired in their Oriental trade. Giovanni 
 attempted from any port of Italy (for I take Gavotta (or John Cabot), who discovered 
 the Genoese voyage in the Atlantic Ocean in the North America in the service of Henry VII, 
 year 1291, mentioned by Baptista Burgus, to King of England, and some merchants of Bris- 
 be a fiction of a later age) the superior nautical tol, was also a Venetian. Amerigo Vespucci, 
 knowlege of the Italian navigators induced the a navigator in the service of Spain, and after- 
 Princes and adventurers of other countries to wards of Portugal, whose name is immortalized 
 prefer them for conducting their voyages of by being given to the new-found continent of 
 discovery. The two Nolis, who, in the serv- America, Empoli, another navigator in the 
 ice of Prince Henry of Portugal, discovered service of Portugal, and Verazzani, who con- 
 the Cape-Verd islands, and Christopher Colon, ducted the first French voyage of discovery 
 who discovered America for the Sovereigns of in the western hemisphere, were natives of 
 Spain, were natives of the territory of Genoa. Florence. 
 
 piece
 
 INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 piece goods), to Calicare (or Kilcare) for pearls, to Narsinga for diamonds, to 
 Ceylon for cinnamon and rubies, and to the coast of Malabar for pepper, ginger, 
 and many other kinds of spices. From Ormus the Oriental goods were carried 
 upon the Persian Gulf to Bassora, a city on the Euphrates, which owed its 
 origin and its opulence to this trade : and thence they were forwarded by the 
 navigation of the river, and by caravans, to Armenia, to Trebisond on the 
 Black Sea, and to Aleppo, Damascus, and Baruth (the ancient Berytus), on 
 or near the Mediterranean Sea, where they were mostly purchased by the 
 Venetians, Genoese, and Catalonians. The merchants of Aden, following the 
 example of their ancestors, carried their goods up the Red Sea to Tor or Suez ; 
 from the later they were carried in three days to Cairo, where caravans from 
 the interior part of Africa received what they wanted for their own countries. 
 From Cairo the Indian and Arabian merchandize, together with the gold, 
 ivory, &c. of Africa, were wafted upon the Nile to Alexandria. The Sovereigns 
 and people of Egypt, without taking any very active concern in the trade, were 
 enriched by the transit duties, and the commissions and profits they obtained 
 from the merchants of the West, who dispersed the rich productions of the East 
 through every country of Europe *. 
 
 Some India goods were carried entirely over land, by the way of Cashgar and 
 Balk, even as far as Russia and the coasts of the Baltic Sea. But they must 
 have been only very pretious articles that could bear such an expense : and the 
 quantities must have been but trifling that could reach those northern and 
 western extremities of Europe. 
 
 * This account of the Indian commerce be- 
 fore the arrival of any Europeans in the Indian 
 Ocean, is taken from the Portuguese historian, 
 Joao de Barros, [Dec. i, L. 8, c. I.] who must 
 have got at least a part of it from information 
 
 obtained by his countrymen in India. It is 
 worthy of remark, that the great commercial 
 intercourse at Malacca is also noticed by Marco 
 Polo. 
 
 THE
 
 ( io ) 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE PORTUGUESE 
 
 WITH INDIA. 
 
 HAVING thrown a rapid glance over the antient commercial intercourfe 
 between India and the western parts of the world, we now come to an event, 
 which forms a new aera in the commercial history of the world, the discovery 
 of a route to India by sea, which, though actually more circuitous than any of 
 the antient ones, is more compendious in time and expense, and has thereby 
 facilitated and increased the intercourse between Europe and India very far 
 beyond the greatest extent it could ever have reached in the antient mode of 
 conducting the business, and, in conjunction with the other great discovery, of a 
 vast continent, formerly utterly unknown * to the people of the old hemisphere, 
 has given a new spring to the commercial energy of Europe, the effects of 
 which have reached those countries which have never had any immediate inter- 
 course with India or America. 
 
 The first instrument, under the direction of Divine Providence, for bringing 
 about this important change, was Henrique (or Henry), a younger son of 
 Pedro, King of Portugal f. This Prince, enlightened beyond the standard of 
 the age in which he lived, was a lover of the sciences ; and he particularly 
 delighted in astronomy, geography, navigation, and those branches of the 
 mathematics, which are subservient to them. He invited the most eminent 
 masters of these sciences to instruct a number of young men, who were bred 
 up under his eye ; and thereby he rendered the Portuguese, in a few years, 
 the most scientific navigators in Europe. He made it the business of his whole 
 life to prosecute maritime discovery, in the hope of accomplishing a passage by 
 sea to India. With this view he sent a ship in the year 141 2 to make discoveries 
 on the west coast of Africa ; and he continued, as long as he lived, to send out 
 ships, commanded by the ablest navigators he could find in his own country, or 
 could attract by his liberality from others. Every one of those commanders 
 went a little way beyond his predecessors ; and some Portuguese colonies were 
 settled upon the African coast. But Henry, who died in the year 1463, had 
 
 * The discovery of the great western con- -f The mother of this Prince of discoverers was 
 
 tinent, about the year 1000, was utterly for- Philippa, the daughter of John, Duke of Lan- 
 gotten long before the fifteenth century. caster, a son of Edward III, King of England. 
 
 not
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE PORTUGUESE. u 
 
 not the satisfaction to see the object, he had so much at heart, accomplished by 
 his navigators, none of whom proceeded farther than the island of St. Matthew, 
 a little beyond the Equinoctial line, and not much beyond the coast, on which 
 the French merchants of Dieppe had long before established their commercial 
 factories. 
 
 Henry's plan of discovery was prosecuted by several successive Kings of 
 Portugal. In the year i486 Diaz passed the southern extremity of Africa, 
 which, on account of the storms he had there encountered, he called Cabo 
 tormentoso (the Stormy Cape) ; but King Joao II, when he heard of the dis- 
 covery, gave it the more auspicious name of Cabo de Boa Esperanqa (the 
 Cape of Good Hope), which has ever since been used by all the nations 
 of Europe. 
 
 The King, full of hope that the greatest difficulty in finding a passage to 
 India was now surmounted, ordered Pedro de Covillam and Alonzo de Payva 
 to travel to India by land, in order to obtain information respecting the trade 
 and navigation of it. Covillam, being master of the Arabic language, traveled 
 with great address and prudence through the Mohamedan countries, embarked 
 at Aden (the Arabia Felix of antiquity) for India, where he visited Calicut and 
 several other ports on the west side of Hindoostan. Thence he returned to 
 Cairo, and there found Abraham of Beja, a Jew, employed by the King of 
 Portugal on an errand similar to his own. Having sent the Jew back to Portugal 
 with an account of his discoveries, and a map of the countries he had visited, he 
 went, agreeable to new instructions, into Abyssinia, from which he never returned. 
 
 At this time all men of eminent nautical abilities considered Portugal as the 
 country in which their talents were likely to obtain the most ample recompence 
 of fame and emolument. Christopher Colon, a Genoese navigator, by studying 
 Aristotle's description of the world, and the geographical tables of Ptolemy, 
 who extends the eastern parts of the continent of Asia so enormously, as to 
 bring it almost round to the western coasts of Europe and Africa, very properly 
 concluded (supposing their descriptions to be correct, and they were then 
 universally received as such) that, instead of a long and tedious voyage round 
 the extremity of Africa, a much shorter passage to India might be made by 
 sailing directly west from Europe. In full confidence of the practicability of his 
 scheme, he offered his service in conducting such a voyage of discovery to the 
 court of Portugal : but there his proposal was treated with contempt *. He next 
 
 made 
 
 * Why the King of Portugal refined to en- and so probable, according to the received 
 j;age in a scheme so favourable to his wishes, system of geography, we are not clearly told. 
 
 r - 2 Some
 
 .2 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 made the same offer to Fernando and Isabella, the Sovereigns of Spain. After 
 a tedious attendance of eight years, during which he had sent his br ther 
 Bartholomeo to make the offer to Henry VII, King of England, Colon obtained 
 a squadron of three small vessels, for the outfit of which Queen Isabella pawned 
 her jewels. On the 3d of August 1492 he sailed from Palos in Andalusia, and 
 on the 1 ith of October he landed on the island of Guanahani, to which he gave 
 the name of Saint Salvador, now generally called Cat island, one of the 
 Bahamas, and then full of people, whence he proceeded to the larger islands 
 of Cuba and Hispaniola. He had no dov.bt that he had actually discovered the 
 Indies ; and, leaving some of his men in a fort he erected in Hispaniola, he 
 returned to Spain, carrying with him some bits of gold, and samples of cotton 
 and pimento, together with a few of the natives of the island, some parrots 
 and other animals. 
 
 The general name, which Colon gave to his new-discovered lands, has still 
 been retained in that of West Indies, by which they are distinguished from the 
 real, or East, Indies. 
 
 The Spanish Sovereigns, elated with the flattering prospects of power and 
 wealth opened to them, lost no time in applying for the Pope's authority to 
 appropriate to themselves the vast legions they intended to take possession of. 
 On the 4th day of May 1 493 his Holinefs very liberally made them a gift of 
 all countries and islands, difcovered or to be difcovered, lying west from a 
 meridian drawn at the distance of a hundred leagues from the islands commonly 
 called the Azores and Cape Verd *, except fuch lands as had been actually 
 possessed by any Christian Prince before Christmas in the year 1492, that they 
 might convert the inhabitants to the Catholic religion : and he strictly prohibited 
 all Emperors, Kings, or other persons, on pain of excommunication, from 
 resorting to those countries for merchandizing or for any other purpose, with- 
 out licence from the King and Queen of Castile and Aragon. 
 
 Perhaps his Holiness was not geographer enough to know, that in his ample 
 charter he had made a donation of almost the whole world to his most dear son 
 and daughter. The King of Portugal, being very uneasy upon the occasion, sent 
 an expostulatory embassy to the Court of Spain, and also prepared a warlike 
 fleet to defend the colonies already settled in Africa, and his right to the navig- 
 ation of the sea. He made a proposal to the Court of Spain to divide the world 
 
 Some say, that he secretly sent a vessel to make generously dismissed Colon, after keeping him 
 the discovery, upon Colon's plan ; and that, so long in attendance. 
 
 upon her return without having seen any land, * He must have supposed the Azores and 
 
 he believed the matter impracticable, and un- Cape Verd on the same meridian. 
 
 between
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. , 3 
 
 between the two Crowns, by allowing all new-found countries northward from 
 the Canaries to belong to Spain, and all southward from those islands to belong 
 to Portugal. But this scheme of partition not being accepted, it was at last 
 agreed, that the meridian of demarcation should be removed 270 leagues farther 
 west, and that all the countries discovered, or to be discovered, on the east side 
 of that line, should belong to Portugal, and all on the west side of it to Spain, 
 without considering how their pretensions were to be regulated, when their 
 discoveries should extend 180 degrees east or west of the meridian of partition, 
 and interfere on the opposite side of the globe. This treaty afterwards received 
 the sanction of Pope Julius II. 
 
 This important business being finished, the Portuguese Monarch resumed the 
 prosecution of the discovery of India by the eastern route. The death of King 
 Joao II did not materially interrupt the preparations. Manuel, his successor, 
 appointed Vasco da Gama to the command of three ships and a victualer *, 
 carrying 160 men, some of whom could speak Arabic. On the 8th of July 
 1497 tne fl eet sailed from the Tagus, and, after being distressed with calms and 
 storms, owing to ignorance of the proper seasons for making the passage, they 
 arrived at some ports on the east coast of Africa occupied by Mohamedans, 
 who, having no good will to them, either as Christians, or as intruders upon 
 the navigation of an Ocean which they had for several centuries considered as 
 their own, made several attempts to destroy them. But the prudence of G ama 
 who was every way qualified for the important charge committed to him 
 frustrated all their schemes. 
 
 From these hostile shores Gama proceeded northward to Melinda, a handsome 
 city, consisting of houses built with stone in a stile of magnificence. The 
 adjacent country was fertile and delightful ; and the inhabitants were a civilized 
 people, enriched by trade. They were Mohamedans ; but being of a different sect 
 from those whom Gama had previously fallen in with, they were by no means dis- 
 posed to espouse their quarrel against him. They even lived on friendly terms 
 with the Indian Christians of Saint Thomas, who frequented their port : and Gama 
 was so fortunate as to find four Chrisdan commanders of vessels, arrived from 
 India, from whom he obtained much useful information. The benevolent King 
 
 * The ships were, the Angel Gabriel of King ; the third was purchased. Such was the 
 
 120 tuns, in which the Admiral embarked ; the force destined to effect to important a discovery. 
 
 Saint Raphael of ioo tuns, commanded by A store ship of 200 tuns attended the squadron 
 
 Paulo da Gama, the Admiral's brother ; and the till the provisions were taken out of her, and 
 
 Pilot, a carvel of 50 tuns. The two first were then she was burnt, 
 built at Myna on the coast of Africa for the 
 
 of
 
 i 4 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 of Melinda also provided him an able pilot, a native of the country near the 
 mouth of the Indus, who faithfully conducted him across the Indian Ocean to 
 Calicut, then the chief city for power and commerce on the west coast of 
 Hindoostan, where he arrived on the 2 2d day of May in the year 1498. 
 
 The Sovereign of Calicut, called the Zamorin, appears to have had a 
 kind of imperial authority over several other Kings on the coast. The greatest 
 part of his income arose from his customs upon the trade of the port : and the 
 Mohamedans of Arabia, called Saracens, or Moors, by the Portuguese, were the 
 principal traders. Those Moors, hitherto the greatest merchants and navigators 
 in the Indian Ocean, were very uneasy at seeing European ships, and people, 
 who were the perpetual enemies of their religion, and were now going to be 
 their rivals in trade, appear in those seas, where no European vessel had ever 
 been seen before. They were indefatigable in their intrigues to prejudice the 
 Zamorin against the new-comers : and they threatened to remove their own 
 trade to some other part of India, if he permitted them to trade at Calicut. The 
 Zamorin, who appears to have been of a weak and unsteady character, was 
 divided between the satisfaction of having the prospect of a great and important 
 new trade brought into his dominions, which might render his own revenue and 
 the trade of his subjects less dependent, than they had hitherto been, upon the 
 Moorish merchants, and the fear of offending and losing those merchants, who, 
 in all their settlements, throughout the whole extent of the Indian Ocean, were 
 united in the same views of interest and policy ; and he was quite at a loss to 
 determine how he should act. 
 
 According to the accounts of the Portuguese, Gama was warned by Mon- 
 zaida, a friendly Moor, a native of Tunis, who understood the Spanish 
 language, that all the Moors in the place had joined in a conspiracy to effect 
 his destruction. Notwithstanding this warning, Gama, not less bold than 
 prudent, determined to accept the Zamorin's invitation to visit him at his 
 country palace, about two miles from Calicut. But, before he left the ships, 
 he gave positive orders to his brother Paulo, and to Coello, the other captain, 
 that, if he should be detained, they should pay no attention to any message that 
 should be sent to them in his name, nor enter into any negotiation ; only, some 
 boats should keep near the shore to favour his escape, if he should find it 
 necessary and practicable. If it should be found impossible for him to return 
 to the ships, they were to abandon him to his fate, and return to Portugal, 
 that the important information of the passage to India being completely 
 accomplished might not be lost to their country. 
 
 With
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. j 5 
 
 With this heroic resolution, he put himself into the hands of the Zamorin 
 with a retinue of only twelve men, being unwilling to leave the ships weak- 
 handed for the sake of an unavailing and empty parade of attendance. After 
 a most gracious reception by the Monarch, who professed his readiness to enter 
 into an alliance of friendship and commerce with Portugal, he was recommended 
 to the care and hospitality of the Prime Minister, in whose house he spent three 
 days without the smallest progress being made in the business of settling the 
 terms of trade. After that delay, he had a second audience of the Zamorin, 
 as favourable as the first ; and that Prince even warned him of the hostile 
 disposition of the Moors. 
 
 Gama, having learned by his faithful friend, Monzaida, that the Prime 
 Minister, under whose roof he lodged, had allowed himself to be bribed by the 
 Moors to assist their plots against him, walked down to the shore, in order to 
 get onboard his fleet. But the Moors were not wanting in vigilance : he was 
 immediately pursued and brought back by the Minister : and the Moors pro- 
 ceeded to represent him to the Zamorin as a pirate, banished by his countrymen, 
 who were all faithless robbers. They at the same time repeated their threat, 
 that, if the Portuguese were permitted to trade in his dominions, they would 
 transfer their own commerce to some other part of India. 
 
 Gama was now brought as a prisoner into the presence of the Zamorin, 
 who offered, if he was a banished pirate, to receive him into his service and 
 favour, and desired him, as a proof of his sincerity, to deliver the sails and 
 rudders of his ships. Gama undauntedly refused to comply with his demand, 
 and told him that, though his own life was in his hands, his ships were able to 
 defy all the power of his kingdom, and would not fail to return with such a 
 force as would amply revenge any insult put upon the Ambassador of the 
 King of Portugal. 
 
 After much altercation, the Zamorin, finding he could extort no compliance 
 from Gama by rigorous treatment, allowed him and five of his attendants to go 
 onboard, retaining the other seven as hostages ; whereupon Gama agreed to 
 land the merchandize intended for sale, and to enter into a treaty of commerce 
 and alliance between the King of Portugal and the Zamorin. 
 
 He accordingly moved his ships nearer to the city, and landed the goods. 
 He next requested permission to leave a factor at Calicut, who might attend 
 to the Portuguese interest. But this proposal was treated with rage and scorn. 
 The Moors even bent the fickle Prince so far to their will, that he seized 
 Gama's goods, and put the two men, who had the charge of them, in prison. 
 Gama, having in vain solicited redress, seized the first vessel he found entering 
 
 into
 
 (6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 into the port, in which there were six of the principal men of the country. 
 These, with their nineteen servants, he retained as prisoners, and sent the 
 people belonging to the vessel to give notice of their capture in the city. Soon 
 after, he weighed anchor, and stood out from the port under an easy sail. 
 
 The sight of the ships under sail raised such a clamour among the friends of 
 the captive noblemen, as obliged the irresolute Zamorin again to change his 
 plan of conduct. He sent the seven Portuguese hostages on board, and now 
 requested that a factor might come on shore to dispose of the goods. But 
 Gama, thinking such a Prince unworthy of respectful treatment, answered that 
 lie would not now send any factor, and insisted on the restoration of his goods, 
 which were accordingly sent off to him. 
 
 The Moorish merchants, seeing Gama triumph over all their malice, resolved 
 to pour out their vengeance upon Monzaida, who was obliged to abandon all 
 his property, and with great difficulty escaped onboard the ships. Gama re- 
 ceived him with the kindness he had so dearly merited, and carried him to Port- 
 ugal, where he obtained some compensation for the sacrifice he had made, and 
 became a Christian. Gama, without landing the captives, then made sail in 
 order to leave the coast *. 
 
 A calm, which immediately ensued, seemed to present an opportunity of re- 
 venge to the Zamorin and the Moors. Sixty merchant vessels, filled with armed 
 men, rowed out to attack him ; and his small fleet was soon surrounded by 
 enemies, who appeared resolutely determined to board, notwithstanding the 
 carnage his shot made among them. The Portuguese must have been over- 
 powered by the prodigious superiority of numbers, if the calm had not, most 
 providentially for them, been quickly succeeded by a storm, by which most of 
 the enemy's vessels were destroyed, while the firmer-built Portuguese ships re- 
 ceived little or no injury. 
 
 Gama, after defeating some other attempts against him, sailed for the coast 
 of Africa, where he made the Moors of Magadoxa suffer for the hostility of 
 their brethren in India. He received refreshments from his friend, the King of 
 Melinda, who sent an Ambassador with him to the King of Portugal, and finally 
 arrived in Lisbon with two ships and only fifty-five men. And thus was com- 
 pleted one of the most important voyages ever undertaken, which, rendering 
 the intercourse between the nations of the East and the West more safe and 
 
 * It seems presumable that the goods were very full upon the infidelities of the Zamorin, 
 
 restored on condition that Gama should liberate say nothing of this apparent breach of faith in 
 
 the captives. But the Portuguese narrators the conduct of Gama. 
 of the events of this important voyage, though 
 
 practicable
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA, , 7 
 
 practicable, has effected a complete revolution in the commerce and policy of 
 the world. 
 
 Though Gama's ships brought home no cargo, their return filled Lisbon with 
 transports of joy. The Portuguese now thought the rich commerce of the 
 East, with all its dependent branches, secured to them, and proposed nothing 
 less than to become immediately the first commercial and maritime power in the 
 world. King Manuel, sensible that nothing but superior force could guard 
 his subjects against the malice and opposition of the Moors, prepared a fleet of 
 thirteen ships, with fifteen hundred men, for the next voyage. He gave the 
 command to Pedro Alvarez de Cabral, and instructed him to preserve friend- 
 ship with the Zamorin, if possible, and to ask his permission to erect a fort 
 for the protection of the Portuguese against the malicious attacks of the Moors : 
 but, if that Prince should act as perfidiously as before, he was to make use of 
 force to bring him to reason. The Ambassador of Melinda, and the captives 
 brought to Portugal by Gama, embarked in the fleet. 
 
 Cabral, after being driven by a storm upon the coast of Brazil, of which, 
 notwithstanding the claim put in for Martin of Nuremburg, we must believe 
 he was the first discoverer, and after losing some of his ships by tempests, vi- 
 sited the friendly King of Melinda, and landed his Ambassador. There he 
 took on board two pilots, and proceeded for Calicut, where he arrived with 
 only six ships in August 1 500. 
 
 The Zamorin sent two of his courtiers and a Guzerat merchant onboard to 
 welcome the Admiral : and Cabral, in return, sent on shore the captives, with 
 one of his officers, who demanded that six principal Bramins, whose names 
 had been furnished by Monzaida, should be sent onboard as hostages, before 
 the Admiral would trust himself on shore. After much delay, during which 
 the good impressions, made upon the Zamorin's mind by the report of the kind 
 treatment the captives had met with at Lisbon, were effaced by the persevering 
 malice of the Moors, a treaty was concluded, by which a house was granted 
 for a factory to the Portuguese supercargoes, who were appointed to manage 
 King Manuel's merchandize ; and it was stipulated that their ships should be 
 loaded in twenty days, and in preference to all others. 
 
 In the mean time the Moors, who seem never to have found any difficulty in 
 rendering the Zamorin subservient to their designs, persuaded him to ask 
 Cabral to attack a large ship belonging to Ceylon *, which, he said, was coming 
 
 * Barros says the ship belonged to Ceylon ; others say to Cochin. The difference is immaterial : 
 but Barroe, being the oldest author, merits the preference.
 
 ,8 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 to invade him, and also had onboard a valuable war elephant, which the King 
 of Ceylon had refused to sell to him. The Moors flattered themselves, that 
 an engagement with this ship, which was very large and full of soldiers, would 
 very much weaken Cabral's fleet. But they were utterly confounded, when 
 they saw the great ship brought in as a prize by one of the smallest of the 
 Portuguese vessels, which the Admiral had selected for the action on purpose 
 to impress the natives with a high idea of the superiority of European naval 
 warfare. Cabral now found by the prisoners, that the invasion of Calicut, 
 and the story of the elephant, were mere fictions, and that the commander 
 of the great ship had been advised by the Moors to be on his guard against the 
 Portuguese pirates, who designed an attack upon him. The Admiral thereupon 
 took the most effectual method to convince the Ceylon captain, that they had 
 both been imposed upon : he restored the ship to him, and even paid for 
 the damage she had sustained in the combat ; and thus he converted a 
 plot formed for his destruction into an opportunity of displaying his power and 
 generosity *. 
 
 Instead of the stipulated twenty days, three months elapsed without the 
 Portuguese ships obtaining any cargo. During that time the Moors had bought 
 up the goods at advanced prices, and dispatched several of their ships. The 
 Zamorin, upon Cabral's complaint of the breach of agreement, laid the blame 
 wholely upon the Moors, and authorized him to load his own ships out of their 
 vessels, upon paying them what the commodities had cost. The Admiral was 
 unwilling to proceed to such an act of violence ; but, being urged by Correa, 
 the chief of the factory, who made a formal protest that the neglect of the 
 King's business should be imputed solely to the Admiral, he seized a vessel be- 
 longing to a rich Moor, when she was going out of the harbour. The Moors 
 immediately proceeded to open hostilities. A mob of several thousand people 
 made a furious attack upon the Portuguese, in which Correa, the adviser of the 
 seizure, and about fifty men, were sacrificed to their fury. Cabral expected 
 the Zamorin would make some excuse, or attonement, for this violation of the 
 peace : but, finding none offered, he next day attacked ten of the largest 
 Moorish ships, slew (it is said) six hundred of their men, and made the rest 
 slaves onboard his own ships. Having taken out the merchandize, he set them 
 
 * Such is sometimes the generosity of con- the service of the English East-India Company, 
 
 querors. But it would have been more gen- was asked by the Mogul General to assist him 
 
 erous, as well as more just, to refuse to attack against the Portuguese, he refused to attack 
 
 the people who had never injured him. On a the ships of a nation, with whom his own na- 
 
 iimilar occasion, when Captain Downton, in tion was not at war. 
 
 on
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. i 9 
 
 on fire in the night, and next morning began a bombardment of the town in 
 revenge for the slaughter of his people. Thus was the Portuguese trade with 
 India begun in violence and bloodshed. 
 
 Cabral, having satisfied his revenge, sailed for Cochin, where the fame of his 
 generosity in restoring the ship procured him the most friendly reception. 
 Commercial arrangements were immediately settled to his satisfaction ; and a 
 house was appointed for a factory. The Kings of Cananore, Coulan, and some 
 other places, sent Ambassadors to Cabral, inviting him to their ports ; but he 
 chose to fix his staple at Cochin. 
 
 The Zamorin, eager to be revenged upon Cabral, sent a large fleet, carrying 
 1 500 men, to attack him at Cochin : but his commanders, seeing the Portu- 
 guese prepared to give them battle, thought it best to retreat. Cabral, leaving 
 two factors to attend to the King's merchandize at Cochin, sailed to Ca- 
 nanore, where he completed his loading. There also he left factors ; and re- 
 ceiving onboard an Ambassador, sent from the King of Cranganore to the King 
 of Portugal, he sailed on the 31st of July 1501, with full cargoes of spices and 
 other goods. 
 
 Before Cabral arrived in Portugal, King Manuel had sent out three vessels 
 to India : but, sensible from the information he now received, that so small a 
 fleet could perform nothing effectual, he fitted out twenty more in the year 
 1502, and appointed the great Vasco da Gama to the command of them. He 
 also obtained the Pope's bull, or grant, which conferred upon him the title of 
 ' Lord of the navigation, conquests, and trade, of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, 
 ' and India ;' a title still retained by his successors. 
 
 The views of the court of Portugal seem to have been now less directed to 
 commerce than to the establishment of a domineering supremacy in all the 
 countries and seas of Africa and Asia ; an undertaking equally unjust, and im- 
 possible to be accomplished by the scanty population of so small a kingdom. 
 Corresponding with such views was the conduct of Gama, who, after he passed 
 the Cape of Good Hope, ranged along the African shore, and compelled the 
 Mohamedan Princes to acknowlege themselves tributaries to Portugal. He 
 also attacked all the vessels he met with, belonging to the Moors of Mecca *. 
 When he came near the Malabar coast, he took thirty persons out of some 
 
 * The Moors, or Mohamedans, living in zambic, and Mombaza, on the African coast, 
 
 all the countries bordering on the Indian ocean, were of the communion of the Moors of Mecca, 
 
 were divided, at least by the Portuguese, into The King of Melinda was of the opposite 
 
 two classes or sects. Those who so violently sect, and perhaps for that reason friendly to 
 
 opposed them at Calicut, those of Quiloa, Mo- the Portuguese. 
 
 D 2 vessels
 
 to THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 vessels belonging to Calicut, intending to use them as instruments for enforcing 
 the Zamorin's compliance with his demand for the restoration of the merchand- 
 ize plundered in the insurrection wherein Correa and his men lost their lives. 
 He actually proceeded to hang those innocent prisoners, and sent their dead 
 bodies on shore with a declaration of war, which he followed up by bombarding 
 the city for some time previous to his departure. 
 
 On his arrival at Cochin, he found the factors left there by Cabral highly 
 pleased with the conduct of the King of that place, who steadily resisted all 
 the endeavours of the Zamorin to detach him from the Portuguese interest. At 
 Cochin and Cananore he loaded twelve of his ships with rich cargoes, with 
 which, after defeating two fleets sent against him from Calicut, he returned to 
 Portugal. 
 
 Gama left six ships under the command of Vincente Sodre, with express 
 orders to protect Cochin against the Zamorin. But Sodre, regardless of his 
 orders and the remonstrances of the King's factors at Cochin and Cananore, 
 sailed away for the Red Sea, with an intention to plunder the rich ships trading 
 to Mecca, and left the most faithful ally of Portugal to be destroyed by an ir- 
 ritated enemy, whose power he was utterly unable to withstand. Fortunately 
 for the interest of Cochin and Portugal, Sodre was drowned in a tempest : and 
 the officer, who succeeded to the command, immediately resolved to return to 
 the station appointed by Gama. Before he reached the Indian coast, he fell in 
 with a Portuguese fleet commanded by Francisco Albuquerque, with whom he 
 immediately proceeded for Cochin, the King of which was closely besieged in 
 a small island, or rock, the only territory then remaining to him. The sight 
 of the Portuguese fleet put the Zamorin's army to flight, and reinstated the 
 King of Cochin in his dominions, without a battle ; and Albuquerque, by a 
 donation of ten thousand ducats to the unfortunate Prince, exalted the fame 
 of the generosity of the Portuguese as high as that of their irresistible 
 power *. 
 
 Albuquerque, after having sufficiently humbled the Zamorin, granted him 
 peace on his promising not to molest the King of Cochin, and to restore, or 
 make compensation for, the merchandize belonging to the King of Portugal, 
 which had been plundered by the Moors and others in the tumult, wherein 
 Correa was killed. Then, putting one hundred and fifty men, with one ship 
 and three barges, under the command of Duarte Pacheco, whom he charged 
 
 * It has been remarked, that Albuquerque, with the judicious disposal of this small sum, pur- 
 chased the Indies for the crown of Portugal. 
 
 to
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. 21 
 
 to protect the allies of Portugal, he sailed for Europe. But neither he nor his 
 ships were ever heard of, after they left the coast of India. 
 
 Pacheco, with astonishing valour and success, scarcely inferior to the fabulous 
 achievements of the knights of romance, repelled no less than seven invasions 
 of Cochin by the numerous armies of the Zamorin ; who at last, despairing of 
 ever attaining the gratification of his resentment, gave up the sovereignty, and 
 became a kind of monk or hermit. The repeated defeats suffered by the 
 Zamorin had now delivered all the neighbouring Princes from the vassalage, 
 under which they had hitherto been held by him, and also transferred the com- 
 merce, which had enriched him and his subjects, to their ports. 
 
 The succeeding Portuguese commanders continued to act, as if they believed 
 (perhaps they did believe) that the Pope's bull gave them an undoubted right 
 to plunder and tyrannize over all Princes and nations, who were not Christians. 
 The cities of Quiloa * and Mombaza on the African coast were destroyed, and 
 the countries made tributary to Portugal. Portuguese forts were built on the 
 coasts of Africa and India : and when the King of Cochin, like the Zamorin, 
 exchanged the cares of sovereignty for the tranquillity, or slumber, of a life of 
 religious retirement, the Portuguese commander, in imitation of the Consuls of 
 antient Rome, invested the new King with the insignia of royalty, and made 
 him profess himself a vassal of Portugal. 
 
 The compulsive trade, which the Portuguese carried on by the terror of their 
 cannon, was the entire and sole property of the King f. Notwithstanding the 
 
 heavy 
 
 * A black cat determined the fate of Quiloa. their age, passed very slightly over commercial 
 
 The King had promised to attend Almeyda, affairs, which they thought less dignified sub- 
 
 the Portuguese Viceroy, but was deterred jects than slaughter and pillage, there are not 
 
 from his purpose by meeting this ill-omened wanting sufficient proofs to establish the fact, 
 
 animal upon the way. Nothing less than the Castaneda, who went to India on purpose to 
 
 destruction of the city, and the deposition of collect materials for his work, says [Z,.v, c. 8o] 
 
 the King, could expiate the crime of disappoint- that the Chinese took four vessels loaded with 
 
 ing the Viceroy, who immediately created a pepper, sandal wood, and other merchandize, 
 
 new King, whom he obliged to promise tribute belonging to the King of Portugal, 
 
 to the King of Portugal. Osorius (perhaps the most accessible author, 
 
 f Doctor Smith, the author of ' An Inquiry as he wrote in Latin) expressly mentions the 
 
 ' into the nature and caufes of the wealth of na- King's commerce, the King's merchandize, 
 
 * tions,' and some other respectable modern and the King's factors, in pp. 73, 75,81, 91, 
 
 writers, appear not to have known that the III, 247, &c. &c, 
 
 King of Portugal monopolized the East India Duarte de Meneses, Viceroy of India, wrote 
 
 trade into his own hands But, though the an account of the laws, revenues, expenses, 
 
 early historians of the Portuguese transactions &c. of the Portuguese dominions in India, 
 
 in India, agreeable to the prevailing spirit of which is abridged by Purehas in his Pilgrimes, 
 
 X.ix,
 
 i2 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 heavy expense of arming and manning all the ships in a warlike manner, the 
 frequent losses of ships, and the mismanagement and frauds to which the royal 
 monopoly was undoubtedly exposed, so prodigiously great was the. saving in 
 freight by the new conveyance, that the trade of Venice was almost annihilated, 
 as soon as it became generally known in Europe, that the spices * and other 
 rich productions and manufactures of India could be had much cheaper in 
 Lisbon ; and that city immediately became the resort of traders from every part 
 of Europe. The merchants of Lisbon, incited by the spirit of commerce which 
 now enlivened their city, carried their Indian commodities to Antwerp, then 
 the great entrepot between the north and south parts of Europe, where they 
 met with the traders of all the northern kingdoms, who, glad to see those 
 costly articles brought so much nearer to them, and sold so much cheaper than 
 formerly, bought more largely of them than they ever had done before, and 
 carried them home to their own countries, where the greater abundance and 
 lower prices of them enlarged the demand prodigiously. By these means 
 Lisbon became, what Venice had been, the richest commercial city in Europe. 
 The diminution of their sales, and the reduction or annihilation of their 
 profits, were not all the evils the Venetians suffered from the commerce of the 
 Portuguese. The predominating power of that nation in the East now rendered 
 the supply of Indian merchandize by the antient channel of conveyance 
 
 L.ix, where in pp. 1526, 1527, maybe seen and the Velsares of Augsburg also purchased 
 
 the pay of the officers of the King's ships, permission from the King to have some pepper 
 
 and of the overseers and factors of his goods. brought from India for their account, under 
 
 Linschoten, a Dutchman, who sailed to Ind- the management of their own factors, to whom 
 
 ia"in the year 1583 in a Portuguese ship, also the King assigned cabins and provisions in his 
 
 gives an account of the pay and privilege of ships. See pp. 4, 150, 160, 162, 459, of Eng- 
 
 the officers and men on board the King's ships, Ytsh Translation of Linschoten' s Voyages. 
 
 and observes that the purser was appointed by The only hint of the Royal monopoly of the 
 
 the King's secretary, and the officers of the East-India trade, given by Raynal, is in V. i, 
 
 ship by the Admiralty : he also informs us that p. 1 89. ' Le sucre, le tabac en poudre, le 
 
 the cargo was stowed by the King's people, * poivre, le salpetre, les perles, le bois de sandal 
 
 who were not under the controul of the captain ' et d'aigle, que la Couronne coulinue a acheter 
 
 of the ship, and every article brought onboard ' et a vendre exclusivement.' 
 
 was registered in the King's books. After No account is anywhere to be found of voy- 
 
 Portugal fell under the dominion of Spain, ages from Portugal to India for account of in- 
 
 eomc merchants purchased a farm of the mono- dividual merchants, as there are of English and 
 
 poly of pepper from the King, so as not to French private traders. 
 
 exceed five ship-loads annually, whatever pep- * In those days spices were much more in 
 
 per might remain after loading them being sent demand than they are now, and constituted the 
 
 to Lisbon in other ships for account of the principal part of the imports from India. 
 King. The illustrious merchants, the Fuggers 
 
 through
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. 23 
 
 through Egypt exceedingly precarious, and enormously expensive. The Ve- 
 netians, stung with resentment, and disregarding ecclesiastical censures, entered 
 into an alliance with the Sultan of Egypt, who not only felt his interest affected 
 by the new turn the Indian trade had taken, but also saw with grief and anger 
 the brethren of his religion deprived of the commerce and empire of the 
 Oriental seas, which they had enjoyed without interruption during many 
 centuries. He sent Maurus, a Christian monk, as his messenger to the Pope 
 and the King of Portugal, and required them, in the imperious stile of an 
 Eastern despot, to order all Christians to abstain from navigating the Indian 
 Ocean, and interfering in the trade with India, which belonged by antient and 
 undoubted right to him and the other disciples of Mohamed. He threatened, 
 if they would not comply with his desire, to put to -death all the Christians in 
 Egypt and Syria, and to demolish all the churches in those countries, and the 
 Holy Sepulchre itself. 
 
 These dreadful threats made no impression upon King Manuel ; and the Sultan 
 prepared for war. But he possessed no fleet ; and Egypt produced no timber. 
 Whether he was ignorant of the excellent quality of the cedars of Libanus in 
 his Syrian dominions, does not appear. But his Venetian friends, in order to 
 remove all difficulties, supplied him with timber from their forests in Dalmatia, 
 and carried it and other necessary stores for him to Alexandria, whence they 
 were floated up the Nile to Cairo, and thence carried by camels to Suez on the 
 Red Sea. There a fleet was built by Venetian carpenters, and strongly manned 
 with choice Turkish soldiers. But this armament, far more formidable than any 
 ever yet encountered by the Portuguese upon the Indian Ocean, was, after several 
 obstinate engagements, finally defeated by the superior conduct and bravery of 
 Almeyda in the year 1508. 
 
 In the year 1 506 Alfonso Albuquerque and Tristan de Cugna sailed for India, 
 where they extended the Portuguese empire by a rapid series of victories. The 
 King of Ormus was invited by Albuquerque to put himself under the powerful 
 protection of the King of Portugal : and, after his army, said to consist of 
 thirty three thousand w<f«, was defeated by the Portuguese army, said to be only 
 four hundred and sixty men, he was obliged to bend to the yoke. A Portuguese 
 fort and custom-house were erected: and the duties upon trade were judiciously 
 lowered. 
 
 Albuquerque also compelled the new Zamorin to accept such terms of peace, 
 as he thought proper to prescribe, in consequence of which Calicut was com- 
 manded by a Portuguese fort. He made himself master of the island of Goa, 
 on which he erected a strong fortification. He next attacked and subdued 
 
 Malacca,
 
 24 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Malacca, the key of the navigation, and the grand central depot of the com- 
 merce of the Eastern world. 
 
 Albuquerque, intent upon establishing the dominion of his Sovereign in 
 India, and augmenting the territorial revenue flowing from it, considered com- 
 merce as only an inferior object. Aware of the great uncertainty of receiving- 
 supplies of naval and military stores from Lisbon, he endeavoured to make 
 India supply its own wants from its own resources. With this view he estab- 
 lished Portuguese forts, custom-houses, and courts of law, at convenient distances 
 on every part of the coast, and extorted tribute from almost all the native 
 Princes of the maritime countries. Having chosen Goa for the capital of the 
 Portuguese empire in Asia, he thence issued his orders to all the subordinate 
 governments : there he coined money for the circulation of the Portuguese do- 
 minions : and there he fixed many of his followers, whom he persuaded to 
 marry the women of the country. By his fostering care of this colony, it 
 soon became great and populous, and was able to supply recruits for the army, 
 and ships for the navy, of Portugal. 
 
 Though Albuquerque, in the prevailing spirit of the age, esteemed commerce 
 less worthy of his attention than conquest, he did not neglect it : and he had 
 the judgement (not to be expected in a warrior born in the fifteenth century) to 
 perceive that light dudes produce more revenue than heavy ones. He therefor 
 lowered the duties upon trade, which immediately increased so much as to 
 double the revenue. 
 
 He observed the commercial superiority of Malacca, situated upon a strait 
 about mid-way between the two extremities of Oriental navigation ; and he 
 determined to make it the secondary capital of the Portuguese dominions in 
 India. There also he established a mint, courts of law, and other appendages 
 of a great commercial city. He sent embassies to the neighbouring Princes, an- 
 nouncing a reduction of the duties on trade at Malacca, and inviting a com- 
 mercial intercourse. His offers were accepted, and the harbour of Malacca was 
 again filled with vessels from China, and every other country and island of the 
 Oriental Ocean. He also established a settlement in Ceylon, and sent out 
 proper officers, who prosecuted discoveries among the remote Spice islands, and 
 other islands of the farthest East. 
 
 Albuquerque endeavoured to conciliate the good will of the natives, and to 
 live in friendship with all the Indian Princes, most of whom were better pleased 
 to have the Portuguese, as governed by him, for their neighbours than the 
 Moors, whom he had expelled or subdued. The city of Aden in Arabia was 
 the only place which he could neither gain by fair means nor subdue by force. 
 
 Twice
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. %% 
 
 Twice he attacked it, and each time was obliged to retire for want of military 
 stores. But, whenever any of the Moorish Princes endeavoured to recover 
 what they had lost, they were constantly defeated, though their armies were 
 much more numerous than his. 
 
 It may be obferved, that the Moors, or Saracens, whose rapid torrent of vic- 
 tories astonished and terrified the world in the seventh century, had long ago 
 lost that superiority of valour, which, combined with the ardour of their en- 
 thusiasm, rendered them invincible. Their military and naval force enabled 
 them, however, still to domineer over the feeble natives of Hindoostan : but 
 as soon as the Portuguese appeared in the Eastern Seas, they were found as 
 much inferior to them as they were superior to the Hindoos, who rejoiced to 
 see their oppressors humbled *. It was during the firm and vigorous adminis- 
 tration of Albuquerque, and only then, that the Portuguese might with justice 
 use the proud language of their historian, Faria y Sousa, who says, ' The 
 ' trophies of our victories are not bruised helmets and warlike engines, hung 
 ' on the trees of the mountains ; but cities, islands, and kingdoms, first 
 ' humbled under our feet, and then joyfully worshipping our government.' 
 But, though this lofty eulogium seems to infer that the Portuguese treated the 
 prostrate nations with humanity, it cannot be denied, that they very soon made 
 the most arbitrary and tyrannical use of their superiority. Neither the Moors 
 nor Hindoos were permitted to navigate the Ocean without purchasing a Port- 
 uguese passport ; and they were prohibited from carrying steel, iron, lead, to- 
 bacco, ginger, and cinnamon of Ceylon f. Nor was the passport always an 
 effectual protection against the rapine of a Portuguese cruiser, who could easily 
 find a pretence to elude it, or made no scruple to violate it without giving him- 
 self the trouble of inventing a pretence. 
 
 Albuquerque, one of the greatest men who ever governed the Portuguese 
 dominions in Asia, died on his return from Ormus at the entrance of the harbour 
 of Goa in the year 151 5. In such veneration was he held by the Hindoos, 
 and even by the Moors, in Goa, that it was usual with them to repair to his 
 tomb, and, as if in presence of his shade, utter their complaints, and call upon 
 God to deliver them from the tyranny of his successors. 
 
 * The vast superiority of the Portuguese gether only 270 torn, not the burthen of one 
 
 naval warfare was eminently displayed, when modern sloop of war. 
 
 Gama set at defiance the whole united naval f For a copy of one of these passports in 
 
 forces of the Moors and Hindoos with the guns the year 161 1, see Purebas's Pilgrtnus, L.'vi, 
 
 onboard three small vessels, measuring alto- c. 10, § 2. 
 
 S The
 
 2 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 The cruelties of Soarez, SequeyTa, and Menezes, the succeeding Governors, 
 drove the natives to desperation, and encouraged the Princes, who had been 
 deprived of Goa and Malacca, to attempt the recovery of them : but their un- 
 disciplined numerous armies were not able to stand againfl the soldiers of Port- 
 ugal. 
 
 Though the King of Portugal at first proposed to engross the whole trade of 
 India to himself, yet most of the people in the ships, some with licences, and 
 more without them, interfered very much with the royal monopoly, the profits 
 of which soon fell to a level with, and sometimes below, the expense of con- 
 ducting a military commerce. The trade from port to port in India, though it 
 also nominally belonged to the King, was chiefly in the hands of private ad- 
 venturers ; and it was so lucrative, that the army and other departments of 
 government service were deserted for it. But these free traders seldom scrupled 
 to defraud those who traded with them, if they felt themselves strong enough 
 to do it with impunity, and frequently they procured their cargoes entirely by 
 plunder. By such acts of piracy they brought disgrace upon their country, and 
 became a principal cause of the downfall of the Portuguese empire in India. 
 
 In Europe the Venetians, though their India trade must now have been 
 rather unprofitable, were still struggling to preserve it, in hopes of a favourable 
 revolution in the affairs of the Eaft. They sent their ships to the great mart of 
 Antwerp with the spices and pretious drugs of India, along with other valuable 
 merchandize provided by their own manufacturers and merchants. But they 
 could not long compete with the merchants of Lisbon, who, though they pur. 
 chased from the warehouses of a royal monopolist, had such an advantage in 
 the easier carriage from India to Lisbon, and from Lisbon to Antwerp, that the 
 Venetians were obliged to desist from the competition. As a last attempt, they 
 made a proposal in the year 1521 to the King of Portugal to buy all the spice 
 he should import, beyond the quantity required for the consumption of his own 
 subjects, at a stipulated price. But the offer was rejected without hesitation ; 
 and, indeed, they could scarcely expect it to be accepted. 
 
 In the year 1 5 1 7 Fernando Pedro de Andrade was sent with a fleet of eight 
 ships to Canton, having onboard Thome Perez, who was commissioned by 
 King Manuel as his Ambassador to the Court of China. From Canton Perez 
 was conveyed to Pekin, where he obtained from the Emperor a permission to 
 trade at Canton. Sequeyra, the Governor of India, afterwards sent Simon de 
 Andrade (brother of Fernando) to China with five ships. Simon, a monster 
 capable of every enormity, immediately after his arrival fortified a little island 
 near Canton, and began to treat the Chinese as animals of an inferior species. 
 
 If
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. 27 
 
 If he had suffered the punishment due to his crimes, none would have needed 
 to lament his fate. But unfortunately he escaped, by favour of a tempest and 
 the superiority of European shipping, from the Chinese, who attacked him with 
 a large fleet ; and their vengeance fell upon the Ambassador and his retinue, 
 who were executed as spies, and upon Alonzo de Melo, who, arriving after- 
 wards in Canton with four ships, was seized and massacred, together with every 
 person onboard his ships. Such was the dreadful revenge the Chinese took 
 for the crimes of one wicked commander ; and so the innocent suffer when the 
 wicked are exalted to power. Some years after, the Chinese so far relented as 
 to allow the Portuguese to trade, not at Canton, but at a small island, called 
 Sancian, near the entrance of the Gulf of Canton, where they received Chinese 
 merchandize in exchange for spicery, gold, ivory, and pretious stones. 
 
 After they had carried on their trade some time at their post on Sancian, the 
 weakness of the Chinese navy * afforded them an opportunity of obtaining a 
 better settlement. A pirate had taken possession of Macao, an island situated 
 in the Gulf of Canton. His fleets, superior to those of the Emperor, destroyed 
 the trade, and blocked up the ports of the empire. Canton itself was besieged 
 by him : and the Chinese, reduced to the greatest distress, were obliged to 
 implore the assistance of the Portuguese, who with a few vessels defeated the 
 tremendous pirate. The Emperor, in gratitude for this important service, gave 
 them the possession of a small peninsula at the south end of the island of Macao. 
 There the Portuguese built a town, established a Governor, a Bishop, a Judge, 
 and other officers, and during their prosperity carried on a flourishing trade with 
 China, Japan, Tonquin, Cochin-China, and all the countries and islands of 
 the East. 
 
 In the year 1524 Vasco da Gama arrived, for the third time, in India, 
 having been selected by King Joao III, as the most capable person to remedy 
 the disorders of India. He found the Portuguese trade much harassed by the 
 Moors, whose vessels, being driven out of trade by the Portuguese, were now 
 employed in cruising against them, and were therefor called pirates. The 
 preparations, made by Gama for suppressing the Moors, were interrupted by 
 the death of that commander in three months after his arrival. 
 
 Henry de Menezes followed the footsteps of Gama during his short govern- 
 ment of thirteen months. After his death there ensued a period of civil war 
 between various pretenders to the government, till Nunio de Cunha arrived 
 
 * Every body knows that Commodore Anfon, the power of the Chinese government in Cantou 
 with a single weather-beaten sixty -gun ship, set at defiance. 
 
 e 2 with
 
 2S THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 with a regular commission. This enlightened Viceroy prohibited the priests 
 from persecuting the Hindoos for not being Catholics ; and he administered 
 justice impartially to all persons, whether Portuguese, Hindoos, or Moors. 
 Under his government industry was protected and rewarded, innocence was 
 safe, and guilt was punished. Neither was he wanting in attention to military 
 duties. He sent a fleet to block up the narrow entrance of the Red Sea, which 
 confined the Moorish ships as in a prison. His lieutenants supported the 
 Portuguese military honour upon every coast of India. He re-established the 
 settlement of the Moluccos. He acquired Diu, a strong post, upon which the 
 Portuguese had cast a longing eye, ever since they first knew the advantages of 
 its situation, from Badur, King of Guzerat, whom he assisted against the Great 
 Mogul. He acquired a country adjacent to Goa, called (but, I apprehend, 
 rather improperly) the kingdom of Deccan, at the request, as we are told, of 
 the inhabitants. This transaction was followed by a multitude of sanguinary 
 wars, in which many of the Princes of the continent were engaged, and many 
 hundred thousands of the natives were massacred. The ungrateful Badur, who 
 was the chief instigator of those convulsions, after treacherously murdering 
 Souza, the Governor of Diu, was killed by a Portuguese soldier : and his 
 death put an end to the war, so far as the Portuguese were concerned, except the 
 petty hostilities against the Moorish shipping. But dreadful wars still raged 
 between the Mogul and the Princes of Hindoostan, while the Portuguese and 
 their allies enjoyed tranquillity and prosperity, the envy of all their neighbours. 
 So much does the happiness or misery of a country depend on the virtues and 
 talents, or the vices and follies, of one man placed at the head of it. 
 
 A very formidable, though not very numerous, force was now prepared, for 
 the express purpose of extirpating the Portuguese from India. Selim, the 
 Turkish Emperor, had annexed Egypt and many other countries to his dominions. 
 He did not patiently endure the ruin of the revenues of Egypt by the Portuguese 
 commerce : and his desire of recovering the Indian trade to that country was 
 stimulated by some presents of the rich commodities of India, sent to him by 
 Badur. By command of Selim, seventy stout ships, armed with cannon and 
 all kind of military stores, carrying 7,000 janisaries, and manned by seamen 
 collected from various nations, sailed from Suez under the command of Solyman, 
 the Pacha of Egypt. The Portuguese fort of Diu, destined to be the first object of 
 their hostility, was defended by the garrison with the most resolute valour ; and 
 was delivered by a dissension Smong the enemy. By the artifice of an affronted 
 ally, Solyman was made to believe that the Portuguese fleet was approaching 
 with a reinforcement, whereupon he bravely put to sea with the remainder of 
 
 his
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. *» 
 
 his army, and made the best of his way for the Red Sea : but, not daring to 
 abide the rage of his disappointed Sovereign, he put an end to his own life in 
 Arabia. Such was the termination of an expedition, which, under an able 
 commander, might have extinguished the Portuguese empire in India. 
 
 Nunio's virtuous and prosperous government of ten years was terminated by 
 an order to return to Portugal, where a prison was intended by the King for his 
 reward. But his death during the passage defeated the malice of his enemies. 
 
 Noronha, the succeeding Governor, enjoyed peace in consequence of the 
 respect entertained by the Princes of the country for the virtues of Nunio. He 
 was succeeded by Stephen da Gama, the son of the discoverer of India, who 
 fitted out a fleet at his own expense, wherewith he sailed to the Red Sea in the 
 year 1541, in order to attack the Moors of Mecca, the most formidable maritime 
 enemies of Portugal. But, as if the Court of Lisbon had determined never to 
 allow an able or worthy Governor to accomplish what he had undertaken, his 
 expedition was interrupted by the appointment of a successor. 
 
 It was in the year 1542, during the short term of Gama's administration, that 
 a Portuguese vessel, driven out of her course by a storm, discovered the coast 
 of Japan. The strangers were hospitably received ; and refreshments and stores 
 necessary for their repairs were furnished to them. On their return to Goa they 
 informed the Viceroy, that a rich and populous country presented a noble field 
 for the zeal of the missionary and the industry of the merchant. Both mis- 
 sionaries and merchants availed themselves of the information. The former 
 made many thousands of proselytes, who all fell martyrs to the jealousy of the 
 usurper Taycosoma. The later exchanged some of the produce and manufactures 
 of Europe, and a great quantity of those of India, for the gold, the silver, and 
 the copper, of Japan, and made very profitable voyages. 
 
 Martin Alonzo de Souza, the successor of Gama, a gloomy fanatic, per- 
 secuted and murdered the Hindoos for not being Catholics. He oppressed 
 the merchants ; and he quarreled with the army, who became licentious and 
 mutinous. 
 
 Joao de Castro, a Governor of more talents and virtue, arrived, when the 
 Portuguese were at war with some of the Moorish Princes of Hindoostan, whose 
 combined army was strengthened by 1000 janisaries and 7000 other soldiers, 
 sent to their assistance by the Turkish Emperor. The confederates made a fresh 
 attack upon Diu, which was defended with an obstinacy of valour, equal to that 
 displayed by the Portuguese in the preceding siege. In the ninth month of the 
 siege Castro arrived with a reinforcement. He made a sally from the fort, and 
 drove the besiegers from their works. He then carried the war into the dominions 
 
 of
 
 J0 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 of his enemies, and obliged them to sue for peace. ' In order to prevent the 
 ' ruin of the state, he prohibited the soldiers from becoming merchants.' 
 
 Castro was cut off by death in the midst of his successful career *. The next 
 Governor enjoyed the peace he had procured : but it did not last long. The 
 continual piracies and cruelties exercised by the numerous Portuguese navigators, 
 who infested every creek of the coast in the double capacity of pirates and 
 merchants, acting in either character according to circumstances, rendered it 
 impossible for the natives to be at rest : and a perpetual petty, but sanguinary, 
 war was the consequence. 
 
 The Turkish Emperor did not desist from his endeavours to expell the 
 Portuguese from India. But he was far from the scene of action ; and he was 
 ill served by the Generals he employed. A fleet from Suez with 1 6,000 men, 
 commanded by Pirbec, a famous pirate, plundered Mascate and Ormus, but 
 did nothing effectual. Pirbec, however, hoped to purchase the favour of his 
 master by a large present selected from the booty : but, instead of approbation 
 of his services, the Sultan gave orders to strike off" his head. Two other fleets 
 were successively sent against the Portuguese : but these also did nothing 
 effectual. So very much superior were the Portuguese to the Moorish seamen 
 in those days. 
 
 It would be tedious and disagreeable to relate, or to read accounts of, the 
 innumerable wars, in which the rapacity, the bigotry, and the lascivious tyranny, 
 of the Portuguese involved themselves and all the nations of India. The general 
 resentment at last produced an association of the Princes of almost every part of 
 India and the islands against the cruel invaders of their dearest rights and their 
 properties. The King of the little island of Ternate, one of the Moluccos, in 
 revenge for the death of his father, murdered by a Portuguese Governor, pro- 
 cured this most formidable confederacy of Moors and Hindoos against the 
 common enemy ; and even the Indian Christians of St. Thomas were provoked 
 by the persecutions of the Portuguese priests, who had lately got a tribunal of 
 the inquisition established at Goa, to ally themselves with the enemies of the 
 intolerant Catholics. Five years were spent in bringing their plans to maturity ; 
 and it was agreed that all the confederates should begin their attacks, according 
 to the preconcerted plan, at the same instant. They actually did begin the war 
 in every quarter with great energy, and (if we may credit the Portuguese writers) 
 
 * Castro wrote observations made by liini dur- trees to Europe, which lie planted on his lands 
 
 ing a voyage in the Red Sea in the year 1541, of Cintra, whence they have spread over the 
 
 which may be found in Purchas's Pilgrimes,L.\'n, south parts of Europe and other countries. 
 e. 6. He i6 said to have first brought orange 
 
 with
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. 31 
 
 with armies most prodigiously numerous. But they only furnished an additional 
 proof of the inefficiency of a confederacy, composed of nations differing in 
 religion, language, manners, and interests. 
 
 Though the confederates were far from accomplishing the extirpation, or 
 complete expulsion, of the Portuguese, they very much abridged their power 
 and influence in India. The King of Ternate expelled them from all the 
 Molucco islands. Malacca was invested by a powerful army, led first by the 
 King of Acheen, and afterwards by a female warrior, the Queen of Japara. 
 The settlements in Ceylon were already almost lost in consequence of an insult 
 offered to the religion of the natives. The Moors, and even the Hindoos, were 
 now more expert than formerly in maritime affairs and naval warfare. They 
 had procured artificers, who made artillery for them, and instructed them in the 
 management of them. Their squadrons covered every part of the coast : and 
 it was now not unusual to see Portuguese ships defeated and taken by the 
 country cruisers. 
 
 In this declining state of the Portuguese empire in India, the ministers of the 
 infant King, Sebastian, thought proper (perhaps in imitation of the Roman 
 Emperors in the declince of their power) to divide the government into three 
 parts. The Portuguese territories, from the entrance of the Red Sea eastward to 
 the coast of Pegu, were subjected to the Viceroy of India : the east coast of Africa 
 was put under the charge of a Governor : and another Governor had the care 
 of all the posts and territories from Pegu to China. The unity of councils and 
 action, essentially necessary in territories so far removed from the seat of 
 supreme government, was thus rendered impossible. 
 
 The reign of Sebastian was terminated in the year 1578 by a rash expedition 
 against the Emperor of Marocco * : and Philip II, King of Spain, in about two 
 
 years 
 
 * So complete was the slaughter of the ing which he traveled to the Holy land in 
 Portuguese army in this ill-concerted crusade, performance of a vow, his features were recog. 
 that not above fifty of them were left alive. nized by the Portuguese then in Venice. But 
 Sebastian disappeared, and was generally be- there were much more indubitable proofs of hi$ 
 lieved to be among the slain. But, though a dead identity: one of his arms was longer than the 
 body, covered and quite disfigured ivilh wounds, other, a mark utterly impossible to be counter- 
 said to be the King's, was sent to Portugal, feited ; and he mentioned to the persons, who 
 there seems no reason to doubt, that he was had been Ambassadors to him from Venice and 
 the very person, who in the year 1598 appeared Spain, circumstances which could only be known 
 in Venice, was afterwards made a galley slave to himself and them. The ridiculous pretence, 
 by order of Philip, King of Spain, the usurper that he acquired these secrets, the inequality of 
 of his throne, and at last murdered by torture his arms, and the features of King Sebastian, 
 on a small islnnd near Palermo in Sicily. Not- by preternatural arts, must be in reality con- 
 withstanding the absence of twenty years, dur- sidered as a confession of Philip's conviction. - 
 
 that
 
 je THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 years after the disappearance of Sebastian, took possession of the kingdom of 
 Portugal, to which he laid claim in right of his mother Isabella, the daughter of 
 King Manuel. We shall soon see that this union of the kingdoms accelerated 
 the ruin of the Portuguese commerce and power in India. 
 
 Soon after Philip became master of Portugal, he observed that the revenue, 
 arising from the dominion and commerce of India, was annihilated by the frauds 
 of the numerous agents employed. It appeared also, that the value of the 
 goods shipped in India onboard the King's ships amounted only to about a 
 million of crowns annually in Lisbon ; a sum insufficient to defray the expenses 
 required to support the government of the Indian settlements. Being therefor 
 unwilling to continue a losing trade, he made over the exclusive privilege of 
 trading to India in the year 1587 to a Company of Portuguese merchants, in 
 consideration of a certain sum to be paid to him annually. He retained the 
 sovereignty of the territories in India, the appointment of Viceroys and Gov- 
 ernors, the command of the army, &c. so that he parted with no branch of 
 his territorial revenue or power, while he expected to secure to himself a 
 revenue from the commerce, instead of a loss which had hitherto attended it. 
 
 The establishment of the Portuguese East-India Company excited the ftrongest 
 discontent and resentment at Goa. If the privileges granted to the Company 
 were to be fully carried into effect, the trade of the private adventurers must be 
 cut down to their legitimate profits, which were despised, when compared with 
 those they actually made. All persons in the service of Government, from 
 the Viceroy down to the private soldier, were illicit traders, and occasionally 
 pirates. The commanders of the vessels, sent to collect the King's re- 
 venues, traded for themselves, and also carried goods on freight for others, 
 and by the later branch of their profits, sometimes cleared 1 00,000 crowns in 
 one voyage from Goa to China and Japan *. The profits made by the Viceroys 
 and other officers of high rank were great in proportion to their power ; for all 
 idea of regulation had been for some time given up ; and men of broken fortunes 
 solicited appointments in India for the avowed purpose of re-establishing their 
 affairs. Armed vessels were also fitted out to cruise against the Moors and 
 
 -&- 
 
 that the person, whom he persecuted and * The ships which went to China were of 
 
 murdered, was really his own cousin, and the very great burthen. Linschoten mentions one 
 
 rightful Sovereign of the kingdom he had taken of them of 1 600 tuns [ Voyages, p. 1 60 of Engl. 
 
 possession of. A good account of this very translation^ ; and in the year 1604 the Dutch 
 
 extraordinary, and most infamous, affair, though took a Portuguese carrack of 1 400 tuns on her 
 
 taken from Parrino, a servile Spanish writer, passage from Macao, with 700 men and 100 
 
 may be found in Swinburne's Travels in the Two women onboard. \_Purchas, L. v, #. ij.J 
 Sicilies, V.\.p.l2%. 
 
 others,
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. jj 
 
 others, whom they called pirates, the commanders of which availed themselves 
 of their commissions, and their arms, to plunder all who were too weak to resist 
 them ; and sometimes, deserting from the service of their King, they entered 
 into the service of the Indian Princes, or set themselves up for independent 
 Princes. 
 
 To add to the general distress, there arrived in the year 1594 an order from 
 the Pope and the Catholic King to convert the infidels by force. Such an order 
 was in fact a commission to murder and plunder ; and the pagodas, or temples, 
 hitherto the sacred and inviolable depositories of the wealth of India, which 
 even the ferocious bigotry of the Mohamedans had respected, were despoiled 
 of the accumulated riches of a long succession of ages. The natives with 
 horror beheld their most sacred rites trampled upon ; and their minds were 
 filled with the most rooted detestation of the perpetrators of atrocities, dayly 
 committed against their property, their lives, and their religion. In every part 
 of India the oppressed people wished for a change, to effect which, though they 
 wanted courage and talents to accomplish it for themselves, they would gladly 
 co-operate with any Power, who should offer to relieve them from the intoler- 
 able yoke of the Portuguese. The conduct of King Philip in Europe was now 
 bringing forward the wished-for relief. 
 
 That bigoted Prince was determined that his subjects in all parts of his vast 
 dominions should regulate their religious faith by his standard. His subjects in 
 several parts of the Netherlands, thinking their religion a matter which con- 
 cerned only themselves, chose to be Protestants. Such presumption in subjects 
 was not to be endured : King Philip sent the Duke of Alva with a strong army 
 to convert the heretics by military execution ; and finally he did convert them 
 into independent United States. The Netherlanders, or Dutch, having very little 
 land, depended entirely upon their fisheries, trade, and navigation, for their 
 subsistence. While Portugal was a separate kingdom, their ships resorted to 
 Lisbon for the purchase of East-India goods,- with which they served all the 
 northern countries of Europe : and, after that kingdom fell under the yoke of 
 Spain, the Dutch still sailed to Lisbon under neutral colours, which the 
 Portuguese gladly winked at. But Philip, knowing that their power to oppose 
 him depended entirely upon their success in trade, resolved to reduce them to 
 poverty by depriving them of one of the best branches of it, and with that view 
 seized their ships in Lisbon, and ordered the Portuguese to have no intercourse 
 with them. But the consequence of his blind and barbarous policy was the 
 very reverse of what he expected. The Dutch, deprived of the supply of India 
 goods at Lisbon, resolved to seek them at the fountain head ; and in the year 
 
 * »595
 
 34 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 '595 four Dutch ships sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, and arrived at 
 Bantam, then the chief town of the island of Java. There they immediately com- 
 menced hostilities with the Portuguese, and laid the foundation of a power and 
 commerce in India, which, in no very long space of time, completely eclipsed those 
 of the Portuguese, and remained unparalleled by those of any age or country 
 till after the middle of the eighteenth century, when the English Company rose 
 to a superiority, which, it is hoped, they will ever maintain. 
 
 In June 1602 the first ships belonging to the English East-India Company ar- 
 rived in India, under the command of Captain Lancaster. The English, as well 
 as the Dutch, being at war with Spain, Captain Lancaster sailed with three of his 
 ships, together with a Dutch ship, on an expedition against the Portuguese, in 
 which they took a ship of 900 tuns, richly loaded. But, except in this one instance, 
 the English Company's commanders waged no war but in their own defence. 
 
 The Portuguese, stung with resentment for the invasion of the trade and 
 navigation, which they had so long esteemed their own, and enraged at the 
 thought of the natives discovering that there were other nations equal, or 
 superior, to them in the art of war, practised against the English and Dutch all 
 the treacherous arts, which the Moors had used against their own predecessors, 
 and used every endeavour to persuade the natives to join with them against the 
 intruders. But the deep-rooted hatred of the natives, who rejoiced to see that 
 their oppressors were not invincible, generally baffled their perfidious arts, as 
 the valour and conduct of their enemies defeated their open hostilities. 
 
 The Court of Spain paid little attention to the affairs of Portugal, and still 
 less to those of India *, which did not, like the American continent, send home 
 cargoes of gold and silver, then thought almost the only riches. The Portuguese 
 in India were now mostly natives of the country, of a mixed race, in which the 
 Indian blood predominated ; and being but nominally Portuguese and Christ- 
 ians, they cared little for the country or the religion of their forefathers The 
 Viceroys and all the other officers of government gave their whole attention to 
 the accumulation of wealth, without paying the smallest regard to the justice of 
 the means. Every captain of a petty fort acted as an independent and absolute 
 Sovereign ; and every captain of a vessel was an independent pirate. Govern- 
 ment was dissolved or disregarded : intestine broils and insurrections were 
 common occurrences + "• anarchy and universal corruption marked the ap- 
 
 * In the three years (1620-1622) that Her- f The goldsmiths and the mercers of Goa 
 
 nan de Albuquerque was Viceroy, he never went to war, and, while they were fighting, 
 
 once received any letter of instruction or in- the officers of justice took the opportunity to 
 
 formation from the Court of Spain. rob the shops of both parties. 
 
 proach
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. J5 
 
 proach of inevitable ruin, even though no other Europeans had ever found the 
 way to the Oriental seas. But now the Dutch were beginning to make strong 
 and permanent establishments in the Oriental islands, and received every year 
 such reinforcements from Holland, as plainly showed that it would be impossible 
 for the declining power of the Portuguese to oppose them. The English also, 
 though they had hitherto contented themselves with unfortified factories in a few 
 ports, were so very much superior to the Portuguese in maritime warfare, that, 
 wherever they encountered them, they put them to flight with astonishing 
 facility *. 
 
 In the course of a few years the Portuguese lost many of their settlements. 
 The Dutch, intent upon reducing their power, but still more keenly bent upon 
 the abolition of their commerce, blocked up the mouth of the Tagus in the 
 year 1 606, and prevented any supplies from being sent to India from Lisbon f. 
 In India the Dutch, the Mogul, and the native Princes, in whose eyes they 
 were now become contemptible, harassed them with perpetual hostilities. In 
 this state of affairs the commerce of the Portuguese East-India Company could 
 not be very prosperous. Many of their ships were taken by their enemies : the 
 derangement of their affairs obliged them often to dispatch them at improper 
 seasons, in consequence of which they were lost at sea : and thus it frequently 
 happened that in a whole year not a single ship arrived at Lisbon from India. 
 
 By the misfortunes of their trade the Company were rendered unable to make 
 their regular stipulated payments to the King of Spain, who, in his regret to see 
 himself impoverished, instead of being enriched, by his Indian dominions, sent 
 an order to Avezedo, the Viceroy, to make the government support itself by 
 putting every office to sale to the highest bidder, which was in fact abandoning 
 die Portuguese empire in India to perdition. 
 
 The measure of the extorsions, murders, and persecutions, of the Portuguese 
 in Ceylon was now full. The Dutch, who had visited the island in the year 
 1603, and seen enough to make them anxious to possess the rich trade of it, 
 arrived in force in the year 1632. The natives joyfully assisted them against 
 the Portuguese, little supposing that they were only changing their oppressors, 
 though their destruction of the plantations of cinnamon, the most valuable 
 production of the island, might seem to proceed from a desire of rendering their 
 
 * The accounts of the disgraceful defeats of -j- Grotius \_AnnaI. p. 685] says the Dutch 
 the arrogant Portuguese fleets by small handfuls East-India Company contributed a great sum 
 of English seamen are absolutely wonderful. to the outfit of the blockading fleet, which con- 
 Some of them will be briefly noticed in the sisted of twenty-four government ships, besides 
 history of the English commerce with India. privateers. 
 
 f 2 country
 
 j 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 country less desirable to any foreigners. The attack of the Dutch seems, 
 however, to have re-animated the valour of the Portuguese. They resolutely 
 defended every pass and every fort, and after losing all their other settlements, 
 made a brave defence in Columbo, which, after a siege of seven months, famine 
 compelled them to surrender in the year 1656 to the Dutch. 
 
 In Japan the Dutch also supplanted the Portuguese, but there only as 
 traders, the policy and power of that empire having never permitted any 
 foreigners whatever to assume the slightest shadow of authority in their 
 country. The Japanese had soon become dissatisfied with the conduct of the 
 Portuguese ; though, being unwilling to deprive themselves of the advantages 
 of their trade, they overlooked their pride, their intrigues, and the zeal of 
 their priests in detaching the people from their antient religion. But for some 
 time past the Dutch had also frequented their ports ; and, as they could afford 
 every commercial accommodation as well as their rivals, and did not presume 
 to interfere with the religion or politics of the country, they were thought 
 worthy of the preference ; and the Portuguese were expelled in the year 
 1638. 
 
 While Portugal groaned under the yoke of Spain, the government of the 
 Indian settlements was repeatedly put into the hands of the Archbishops of Goa 
 and other prelates. These ecclesiastical Viceroys made no exertions to recover 
 the sinking state of their Indian empire. 
 
 Faria, the historian of Portuguese Asia, gives an account of 956 vessels, 
 which sailed from Portugal for India, including those which made discoveries 
 along the coast of Africa, from the year 141 2 to 1640 *. Of the whole, he 
 reckons that 150 were lost, and the number of people lost in them, he thinks, 
 could not be fewer than 1 00,000 ; which is not improbable, as many of the 
 ships were prodigiously large f, and carried eight or nine hundred men. After 
 making every allowance for the want of that knowlege of courses and seasons, 
 which our modern navigators inherit from the experience of their predecessors, 
 such a dreadful waste of life and property gives us but a wretched idea of Port- 
 uguese seamanship J. 
 
 * The Appendix, No. I, contains the number He says, from his own observation, that they 
 
 of ships fitted out every year for India. were generally over-loaded, lumbered, and top- 
 
 -|- The fleet, in which Linschoten sailed, con- heavy ; that they were frequently not fea- 
 
 sisted of five ships of from 1400 to 1600 tuns. worthy, and deficient in necessary stores ; and 
 
 [Voyages, p. 4.] that not a fifth part of the people onboard 
 
 % Linschoten says that almost every year one knew the duty of feamen. [Ste pp. 150, 151, 
 
 or two of the Portuguese India ships were lost. 166, 169, 179, &c] 
 
 In
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. 37 
 
 In the year 1640 the Portuguese, by a well-concerted plan, overturned the 
 Spanish government in one week, and made the Duke of Braganza their King, 
 by the name of Joao IV. The new King paid more attention than his Spanish 
 predecessors to the affairs of India : and perhaps a succession of vigorous and 
 prudent Viceroys might have restored the decayed Portuguese empire, if they 
 had had only the Moorish and Hindoo armies to contend with. But the Dutch 
 had now established themselves in many of the islands, and in some of the Port- 
 uguese settlements on the main land, in such force, as cut off all prospect of 
 success in a contest with them. 
 
 For some time after the revolution in Portugal, Great Britain was convulsed 
 by civil wars ; and the commerce of the English East-India Company was in a 
 very languishing state, from which it did not recover till the end of the seven- 
 teenth century, or rather the beginning of the eighteenth, when the two rival 
 Companies were happily united : and from that period, the English, though they 
 long continued to make commerce their only object in India, were able to defend 
 themselves against any force the Portuguese could bring against them, if they had 
 been inclined to hostility. But, as the mother country was in a great measure in- 
 debted for her independence to the friendship and support of Great Britain, the 
 Portuguese in India were obliged to treat the English Company's servants with 
 civility : and, indeed, many of them, as if resigning all pretensions to the 
 commerce of India, offered themselves and their vessels for employment to the 
 English, who made use of them in the Indian coasting trade. 
 
 The King of Portugal had rescinded the privileges of the East-India Com- 
 pany, established during the Spanish usurpation, and resumed the trade with 
 India into his own hands. But as he found that the trade carried on by the 
 Viceroys and all the other Officers in India, and by the officers and seamen of 
 his ships, was extended so very much beyond the limitation fixed for it, that it 
 rendered his own trade prejudicial to him, as he bore all expenses, and they 
 bore none, he issued an order in the year 1687, entirely prohibiting all private 
 trade between India and Lisbon. 
 
 In the year 1731 King Joao V was induced to make a new experiment of a 
 Company upon a very contracted plan of operations ; for they were allowed to 
 send only one ship for a single voyage, which was directed to be to Surat and 
 the coast of Coromandel only. Such an adventure could not produce any 
 very important consequences. 
 
 In the year 1773 King Joseph abolished the inquisition at Goa. He also 
 abolished the high-sounding title of Viceroy, and substituted the more suitable 
 one of Captain-general. He made new regulations for collecting the revenue, 
 
 and 
 
 1
 
 jg THECOMMERCEOFTHE 
 
 and ordered that the soldiers should receive their pay in money, the custom 
 of paying them in necessaries, furnished by the captains, being the means of 
 much abuse. These beneficial alterations, and particularly the suppression of 
 the diabolical tribunal of the inquisition, might have effected some reformation, 
 if there had been any spirit or energy remaining among the Portuguese of 
 India. 
 
 During the American war, the Court of Portugal permitted some individuals 
 to fit out a few ships of about 400 or 500 tuns, which traded from Lisbon to 
 Surat, where the Portuguese have a small factory. But a very minute portion 
 of the trade conducted by means of those vessels belonged to the Portuguese, 
 almost the whole of the cargoes being the property of subjects of the various 
 powers engaged in the war, who availed themselves of the neutrality of the Port- 
 uguese flag. 
 
 From the year 1500, when Cabral carried the first cargo of East-India 
 produce to Lisbon, to the year 1595, almost a century, the Kings of Portugal 
 had the entire monopoly of the trade between India and Europe by the Cape of 
 Good Hope. During the first fifty years there arrived only about five ships an- 
 nually from India. In the subsequent declining state of the Portuguese affairs 
 in India, there arrived annually only three ships upon an average, till Portugal 
 became subject to the King of Spain. During the Spanish dominion the 
 arrivals may perhaps be averaged above three : but the trade was conducted 
 so irregularly, that there were some years in which not one ship arrived. 
 As the goods brought into Europe by the antient channels of conveyance were 
 much dearer than those brought by the Cape of Good Hope, we may be as- 
 sured that the quantity of them was but trifling : and thence it appears that 
 the whole consumption of East-India goods in all Europe was never any very 
 considerable object, till the Dutch, and immediately after them the English, 
 engaged in the trade. But as the domineering system, upon which the Port- 
 uguese Government conducted their trade, enabled them to set their own prices 
 upon Indian as well as European goods, it is believed that the balance, which 
 is now constantly against all the European nations trading with the Oriental 
 countries, was for some time in favour of Portugal, which made the pretious 
 metals more plentiful in that little country than in any other part of Europe 
 before the American mines poured their treasures into Spain for the benefit of 
 the manufacturing and commercial nations. 
 
 Of all the wide-spread dominions of the Portuguese in the Oriental seas, 
 there remain now only a few settlements, of very little value, on the east coast 
 of Africa ; and on the continent of Hindoostan they possess Diu and some posts 
 
 and
 
 PORTUGUESE WITH INDIA. 39 
 
 and factories of inferior importance in the Gulf of Cambay, together with Goa, 
 now, as formerly, the capital of the Portuguese dominions in India. They still 
 have permission to reside at their settlement of Macao near the coast of China, 
 but so much under the controul of the Chinese, that they may be reckoned 
 subjects of the empire, excluded from the society of their fellow-subjects. 
 ' The Portuguese settlers still fit out a few vessels, and send cargoes to some of 
 1 the neighbouring countries. Others lend their names, for a trifling consi- 
 ' deration, to foreigners belonging to the Canton factories, who reside part of 
 ' the year at Macao. These with more capital, credit, connections, and enter- 
 ' prise, are more successful, but require to be nominally associated with Port- 
 ' uguese in order to be allowed to trade from the Port of Macao.' [Staun- 
 ton's Embassy, V. iii, p. 434, 8110 ed.~\ 
 
 The military spirit of the Portuguese induced them to prefer a revenue, 
 extorted by the rapine of conquest, and secured by the superiority of power, 
 to the slower, but more permanent, advantages flowing from the mutually- 
 beneficent exchanges of commerce. Like the Romans, whom they seem to 
 have proposed as the model of their imitation *, they were not aware that such 
 a system contained in itself the seeds of inevitable destruction. The oppression 
 and distress attending the collection of the tribute, together with the sanguinary 
 intolerance of their religious bigotry (wherein, however, they differed widely 
 from the Romans) made all the nations of India look with longing eyes for 
 their deliverance from Portuguese tyranny. The arrival of other Europeans in 
 India at once destroyed the belief of their being invincible : and, in the present 
 day, the total expulsion of them from India is only prevented by their being of 
 no importance in the scale of Indian politics. In commercial importance they 
 rank so low, that there is not, it is believed, one Portuguese merchant in Goa, 
 able to ship goods to the value of ten thousand crowns ; and it may be ques- 
 tioned, if the whole Portuguese trade between that capital and Lisbon has for 
 a long time past amounted to ^50,000 in a year. As an instance of the 
 wonderful revolutions in human affairs, and especially in commercial affairs, it 
 may be observed, that Portugal and the Portuguese colony of Madeira now re- 
 ceive Indian produce and manufactures from Great Britain. 
 
 * When Don Luis de Ataide was hard intrepidity and political arrogance is ascribed 
 
 pressed by the Moorish Princes, he refused the to the Romans. Jono de Castro carried the 
 
 terms of peace they offered, saying, that he imitation of the Romans so far, that he revived 
 
 would have no other peace than such as it the parade of their triumphs, leading the 
 
 should be proper to make in the most nourish- captive generals and soldiers in chains behind 
 
 ing state of the Portuguese affairs. Every his triumphal car through the streets of Goa. 
 
 reader of history knows, that a similar spirit of 
 
 Of
 
 4 o THE COMMERCE OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
 
 Of late the vast demand for cotton in Great Britain has enriched all the 
 countries, which produce that important raw material, and among the rest the 
 Portuguese colony of Brazil, which produces it of a superior quality. In con- 
 sequence of the improvement in their circumstances, the Brazilians have very 
 much increased their demand for the fine fabrics of India, which are as well 
 adapted to their climate as to that in which they are manufactured. But this 
 new demand has produced little or no increase in the trade of the Portuguese 
 settlements in India, almost the whole of it being carried to the British ports, 
 and chiefly to Calcutta : and as the Portuguese purchase their goods almost 
 entirely with bullion, the trade is very beneficial to the inhabitants of the British 
 territories. 
 
 Whether the removal of the Portuguese Royal Family from Lisbon to Brazil, 
 which took place in November 1807, will produce any change in the little re- 
 maining trade of the Portuguese settlements in India, time must show. 
 
 THE
 
 ( 41 ) 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE DUTCH WITH 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 DURING many centuries the inhabitants of the Netherlands were distin- 
 guished among the nations of Europe by their assiduity and proficiency in 
 fisheries and manufactures. These two branches of industry, being nursed by 
 economy, became the foundation of a great carrying trade and an extensive 
 commerce, as commerce was then in the world, when long voyages were un- 
 known, and it was thought necessary to have an entrepot between the northern 
 and southern extremities of the west coast of Europe, where the merchants 
 of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, might meet with those of Great Britain, 
 France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. 
 
 Before the beginning of the sixteenth century, Bruges had been enriched by „ 
 being the seat of this general trade. But in the year 1515 the English 
 merchants removed from Bruges to Antwerp, whither they were followed by 
 most of the merchants of other countries : and thenceforth Antwerp became 
 the chief seat of the trade of the western parts of the World. There the 
 produce and manufactures of every country in Europe were collected and ex- 
 changed ; and thither also the merchandize of India was brought, partly from 
 Venice, but chiefly, and afterwards almost entirely, from Lisbon. Though 
 the merchants of the various countries generally transacted their own business, 
 a considerable portion of it must have fallen into the hands of the Nether land 
 merchants, by which, and the necessary expenditure of a great concourse of 
 people, vast sums of money remained in those towns which the foreign merch- 
 ants favoured with their residence. 
 
 The Netherlanders, whose minds were expanded and enlightened by an 
 intercourse with a variety of nations, were among the first to perceive the 
 absurdities of the Roman-catholic religion, and great numbers of them 
 embraced the reformation. The King of Spain, who was then their Sovereign, 
 resolved to establish an uniformity of religion through the whole of his ex- 
 tensive dominions ; and, in consequence of this pious resolution, as his priests 
 called it, and as he, we may presume, believed it, he persecuted with the most 
 unrelenting cruelty all dissenters from his own standard of faith *. 
 
 * Before the people rose against their op- and the women by being buried alive. \_Grolii 
 pressors, a hundred thousand of them were ju- Anna}. Belg. pp. 15, 17.J 
 dicially slaughtered, the men by fire and sword, 
 
 g Persecution
 
 42 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Persecution is a very powerful engine, which generally produces effects 
 diametrically opposite to those intended by the authors of it : for it disseminates 
 and extends the religion it is employed to suppress, and it depopulates and 
 ruins the country, whose prosperity and tranquillity it is expected to promote. 
 As many of the protestants of the Netherlands, as could possibly withdraw their 
 persons and properties from the Spanish dominion, went to other countries, where 
 they could enjoy civil and religious liberty : and, after the Hollanders declared 
 themselves independent of Spain, Amsterdam and their other towns acquired 
 great accessions of inhabitants, valuable by their opulence, and still more by 
 their industry, who were induced, by the wise Dutch policy of allowing 
 strangers to enjoy equal privileges with themselves in respect to trade and 
 manufactures, to remove to a land of civil and religious liberty. The ruin of 
 Antwerp by the Duke of Parma in the year 1585, while it made a great 
 addition to the most valuable class of the population of Holland, also trans- 
 ferred to that country the superior knowlege of the woolen manufacture and 
 the fishery, which had been the chief means of raising Flanders to the greatest 
 height of commercial prosperity. 
 
 After the year 1580, when Portugal fell under the yoke of Spain, the 
 Netherlanders sent their ships to Lisbon under foreign flags to take in Eaft- 
 India goods, the great market for which was transferred from Antwerp to 
 Amsterdam. Philip, King of Spain, judging truely that their commerce en- 
 abled them to support the war against him, resolved to cut off that resource ; 
 and, in order to strike at the root of their profitable trade in Indian goods, he 
 seized all their vessels in Lisbon, alleging that he wanted them for his own 
 service, and ordered his Portuguese subjects to have no intercourse with them 
 upon any pretence whatever. 
 
 The blind and narrow policy of Philip gave rise to, or at least accelerated, 
 the establishment of the East-India trade of the Dutch. They could not 
 possibly retain the general trade of the north parts of Europe, if their assort- 
 ments were deficient in the important articles of spices and other East-Indian 
 merchandize : therefor, as the King of Spain had shut them out from the 
 only market in Europe where they could be purchased, they resolved to seek 
 them at the fountain head ; and they did not apprehend that they should 
 meet with any very formidable opposition from the declining power of the 
 Portuguese settlements in India, which were utterly neglected by their new 
 Sovereign. 
 
 The merchants, who proposed to engage in the East-India trade, thought, 
 that, if they could accomplish a passage to India by the northern parts of the 
 
 world,
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 4J 
 
 world, (which several English navigators had already attempted) they should 
 have nearly as great an advantage over the Portuguese by the shortness of the 
 voyage, as the Portuguese had over the Venetians by the cheapness of water 
 carriage. With this view three several voyages were undertaken in the year 
 1 594 and the two following years, which, it is not necessary in the present 
 improved state of geographical knowlege to say, were unsuccessful. 
 
 While the merchants were anxiously expecting the discovery of their northern 
 passage to the rich countries of the East, an accidental circumstance induced 
 them to send out some ships, in defiance of Papal and Spanish prohibitions, by 
 the known route round the Cape of Good Hope. Cornelius Houtman, a 
 Dutch merchant, or navigator, who had by some means obtained much in- 
 formation respecting the Portuguese method of conducting the trade of India, 
 being in confinement in a foreign country *, found means to send notice to 
 some of his friends in Amsterdam, that, if the merchants, desirous of engaging 
 in the India trade, would remit him a sum sufficient to relieve him from his 
 distress, he would be glad to employ the knowlege he had acquired in Indian 
 affairs for the service of his benefactors. 
 
 The necessary sum being sent to him, he soon arrived in Amsterdam ; and 
 the merchants, who had relieved him, formed themselves into a partnership for 
 attempting the trade to India by the Cape of Good Hope, under the name of 
 The Company for remote Countries. With a capital of only 70,000 
 gilders, they speedily fitted out four ships, carrying in all 62 guns and 288 
 men, under the command of experienced navigators, who, with Houtman for 
 their commercial director, sailed from the Texel on the 2d of April 1595. 
 
 * Writers differ respecting the circumstances ment, alarmed by his inquiries, ordered him to 
 
 of Houtman's confinement. In the Copen- be kept in close confinement, till he shoidd pay 
 
 hagen edition of Savary's Dictionnaire de Com- a large fine, which, it was supposed, he would 
 
 merce, [ V. v, col. 1 609] he is said to have been never be able to discharge, 
 a long time in the service of the Portuguese, Of these accounts we may venture to say, 
 
 whereby he acquired his knowlege, and that his that the last is the least probable ; for surely 
 
 imprisonment was among the Turks, by whom the same jealous policy, which dictated his 
 
 he had been taken in war. — Raynal \_Hist. confinement, would have refused to release hira 
 
 Philos. et Pol. V. i, p. 200] says, that he was upon any terms whatever, 
 imprisoned for debt in Lisbon : and he is ex- It may be observed that Grotius \_Annal. 
 
 actly copied by the Duque de Almodovar, his Belg.~\ when relating the first Dutch voyage 
 
 Spanish translator, who has altered, and added to India, does not mention Houtman ; and 
 
 to, his narrative, as he saw occasion. Ac- Purchas, in his PUgrimes, does not say any 
 
 cording to Sallengre [Essai d'une Hist, da thing of him previous to his embarking on his 
 
 Provinces Units, p. 63] the Spanish Govern- second voyage for India. 
 
 02 At
 
 4| THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 At Bantam they loaded their ships with spices, partly bought from the 
 natives, but mostly plundered from the Portuguese. Having lost one of their 
 ships, they arrived with the other three in Holland in August 1597; and though 
 the profit of the voyage was much reduced by the loss of the ship, their return 
 inspired their countrymen with full confidence of establishing a successful trade 
 with India. 
 
 Before the return of these ships another set of merchants had associated for 
 engaging in the India trade. But the two Companies, wisely considering the 
 evils to which their interefls would be exposed by competition in India and 
 Holland, agreed to unite their flocks ; and accordingly eight ships, belonging 
 to the United Company, sailed for India in the year 1596. 
 
 About the same time many other merchants in various parts of the United 
 Provinces formed Companies for the India trade, and sent out about forty 
 ships in the year 1597 and the four following years. Four of these ships, com- 
 manded by Oliver Noort, sailed through the Straits of Magellan, and performed 
 the first Dutch circumnavigation of the Globe*, Five others, which sailed 
 about the same time (Summer 1598) under the command of James Mahu, 
 also with an intention of going round the Globe, were obliged by storms to 
 return home from the Straits of Magellan. 
 
 In the Eafl Indies the Dutch were exposed to the hostilities of the Port- 
 uguese, and sometimes of such of the natives as the Portuguese could persuade 
 to attack them. But in general they found the natives exasperated against the 
 Spaniards and Portuguese, and disposed to give a friendly reception to any 
 other Europeans, who would relieve them from their oppression. In Europe 
 King Philip had made no effort to prevent the revolted Netherlanders from 
 bereaving his Portuguese subjects of the monopoly of the valuable trade, which 
 they had enjoyed unrivaled for about a century, till the year 1601, when he 
 sent thirty ships of war to seize the outward-bound Dutch Eaft-India ships. 
 But this great fleet, falling in with eight Dutch ships, not only found an ob- 
 stinate resistance, where they thought they had nothing to do but take prizes, 
 but were finally beat off with disgrace. 
 
 The great number of ships sent out by the several Dutch Companies, though 
 by their strength they supported the cause of their country against the 
 Spaniards and Portuguese, prejudiced their commercial interest in India by 
 
 * The chief pilot of these ships was an was killed by the Portuguese on the coast of 
 Englishman of the name of Melis, who had Africa ; but his papers were found very useful, 
 sailed round the Globe with Candish. He when the ships got into the South Sea. 
 
 their
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 45 
 
 their competition, when the vessels of two or more Companies happened to be 
 in the same port, and also at home by the interference of their sales. But the 
 Dutch, with their characteristic sagacity, soon discovered this commercial 
 error ; and the States-General, as soon as the necessary preliminaries could be 
 adjusted, united all the small Companies into one, to whom, on the 20th of 
 March 1602, they gave a charter, securing to them for the term of twenty-one 
 years the exclusive privilege of trading to India, and investing them with power 
 to commission Governors and other officers, build forts, maintain garrisons, 
 and make war and peace in all countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope. 
 , This great Company being formed out of a number of smaller ones, who 
 were desirous of retaining shares of the trade under their own management, 
 and in their own ports, it was determined, in order to accommodate all parties, 
 to establish six different chambers, each of which should have a proportionate 
 share of the management. Upon this plan, the merchants of 
 
 Amsterdam subscribed 3,674,915 florins, and had 25 Directors*, 
 Middleburg - - - - 1,333,882 ----- 12 
 
 Delft ------ 470,000 7 
 
 Rotterdam - - - - 177,400 7 
 
 Hoorn 266,868 ----- 7 
 
 Enkhuysen - - - - 536,775 7 
 
 The whole capital being 6,459,840 florins, under 6^ Directors. 
 
 The subscription brought a great deal of money into Holland from other 
 countries, and also induced many opulent merchants of the Spanish pro- 
 vinces in the Netherlands, and of other places, to remove with their effects 
 into the Dutch provinces, which thus received a great accession of valuable 
 subjects and capital. 
 
 The Company were so diligent in fitting out their first fleet, which consisted 
 of fourteen large ships, that they dispatched them in June 1602 under the 
 command of Admiral Waerwyk. Near Bantam they were attacked by Don 
 Andreas de Furtado, a brave Portuguese officer, who had the better in several 
 rencounters : but, instead of accomplishing his purpose of driving the Dutch 
 out of the Indian seas, he was finally obliged to retire, and leave them at liberty 
 to prosecute their voyage to the Molucco islands, the country of the best 
 spices, which were then the articles chiefly in demand in Europe. 
 
 * Of the 25 Directors of the chamber of are deputed from the cities of Harlem, Leyden, 
 Amsterdam, 18 are chosen by the proprietors Dort, Gouda, and the provinces of Gelder- 
 <>f stock residing in that city, and the other 7 land, Friseland, and Utrecht. 
 
 The
 
 + 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 The first fleet was followed by a continual succession of others, all strongly 
 armed, which carried out soldiers to remain in the Company's settlements. 
 The power of the Spaniards and Portuguese declined, while that of the Dutch 
 increased, in India : and the natives, very happy to discover that their Port- 
 uguese oppressors were not invincible, gladly joined the Dutch, as soon as they 
 thought they could do it with impunity. 
 
 In the year 1 602 the first ships of the London East-India Company appeared 
 in India : and the Dutch, who were in a great measure indebted to the assist- 
 ance of the English for the establishment of their independence, associated 
 heartily with them against the common enemy, whom, by their united efforts, 
 they expelled from several of their settlements among the Oriental islands, and 
 particularly the Moluccos. 
 
 At length, the Spaniards and the Dutch being both tired out with the long- 
 protracted war, negotiations were set on foot in the year 1 609 for a treaty of 
 peace. The Spanish Commissioners insisted strongly upon the Dutch giving 
 up the East-India trade ; whereupon the Company represented to the States- 
 General, that very great numbers of people of both sexes depended upon them 
 for employment, and that the country was very much enriched by the money 
 brought in from other parts of Europe by their sales, which, with proper at- 
 tention, might be very considerably increased. These arguments had their due 
 weight with the States-General, who assured the Company that they would upon 
 no account listen to any proposal injurious to them. 
 
 After a tedious negotiation, it was found that no definitive treaty of peace 
 could be agreed upon, the Spaniards being still too lofty to acknowlege the 
 absolute independence of the United Provinces ; but, in order to have some 
 respite from the horrors of war, they agreed upon a truce to continue for 
 twelve years. 
 
 In India little attention was paid to the truce on either side. The Dutch 
 were driven out of the Moluccos by the Spaniards. But they soon recovered 
 them : and they also supplanted the Portuguese in the trade with Japan. These 
 successes, and the possession of many good forts and valuable islands, and of 
 fifty large and strong ships, tempted them to depart from the moderation and 
 justice, which had procured them the efteem and good will of the people of 
 India, and assume much of the overbearing deportment, and the tyrannical 
 and oppressive conduct, which had rendered the Spaniards and Portuguese 
 universally detestable. 
 
 While the Dutch were so powerful in India, the English, almost the only 
 other European nation who had presumed to encroach upon the claim of Spain 
 
 and
 
 -DUTCH -WITH- INDIA. 47 
 
 and Portugal to the sole dominion of the Indian seas, were in a very weak con- 
 dition. They had very few ships, and no fortified settlements : and the 
 Dutch, unmindful of bypast kindness and protection, availed themselves of 
 their superiority in the Indian seas by frequently insulting and oppressing the 
 Englifh factories. Notwithstanding a treaty of peace and friendship between 
 the two Companies, concluded at London in June 1619, which will be noticed 
 more at large in the account of the English commerce in India, the Dutch drove 
 the English Company's people out of the islands of Lantore and Pule Roon 
 with circumstances of horrid barbarity ; and in February 1623 they massacred 
 all the Englishmen in Amboyna with the most diabolical tortures, on the 
 bare-faced pretence, that a small handful of men, not exceeding twenty, had 
 conspired to expell them from four strong forts, garrisoned by five or six 
 hundred soldiers *. 
 
 . In January 1 6 1 9 the English Company's people drove the Dutch out of 
 Jacatra, a town situated in the large island of Java, in which both nations had 
 factories. But the Dutch soon returned in greater force, and took the place 
 from the natives, to whom the English had resigned it. Koen, the Dutch 
 commander, immediately laid the foundation of a regular fortified city, which 
 he called Batavia, and appointed it to be the capital of the Company's territo- 
 ries and settlements in India, instead of Amboyna, which had hitherto been 
 the seat of government. 
 
 In the year 1622, as the Company's charter was nearly expired, some people 
 in Holland became very active in propagating the doctrine of the pernicious 
 consequence of monopolies in trade, and endeavoured to persuade the Public, 
 that much more money might be brought into the country by the trade with 
 India, if it were laid entirely open. But the States-General, observing the 
 vast riches brought into the country by the Company, who in the space of 
 twenty-one years had divided near thirty millions of florins, being more than 
 quadruple the original stock, while the stock itself was rendered vastly more 
 valuable by the acquisition of settlements, ships, and other indivisible property, 
 
 (* In Europe the Dutch endeavoured to account of the affair, and accordingly obtained 
 slur over this abominable deed by publishing, little credit. In the year 1654 Oliver Crom- 
 in very general terms, that there had been some well obliged them to make some compensation 
 commotions in Amboyna, which the vigilance to the widows and heirs of twelve of the per- 
 and prudence of the Governor had completely sons murdered by them, and to promise to 
 suppressed : and afterwards, finding the mas- execute judgement upon the criminals, if any 
 sacre universally execrated throughout all of them were living, which amounted to a con- 
 Europe, they published some laboured apolo- feasion of the fact, 
 gies, which were inconsistent with their own first 
 
 and
 
 +8 the" commerce of the 
 
 and considering that a great revenue was derived from the customs on the 
 Company's trade, were by no means disposed to resign what seemed certain for 
 the very doubtful advantages promised by their opponents : and therefor they 
 granted the Company a new term of twenty-one years, to be reckoned from the 
 first day of January 1623. 
 
 The truce with Spain having expired in the year 1622, the States-General 
 sent a fleet of eleven ships, carrying about 300 guns, against the Spanish set- 
 tlements in the South Sea, to the expense of which the Company contributed 
 largely. In this expedition they did much mischief to the Spaniards without 
 acquiring any advantage to themselves : but they incurred merited disgrace by 
 hanging twenty-one prisoners, because the Governor of Callao refused to pay 
 the sum they demanded for their ransom *. 
 
 The Company's affairs continued to prosper in India ; they sent out from 
 thirty-four to forty-one ships, and received home from twenty-five to thirty- 
 four, annually, whereby they were enabled to make great and profitable sales 
 at home : and an affair, which appeared to threaten the total destruction of 
 their trade with Japan, most unexpectedly became the means of improving it. 
 In the- year 1628 Peter Nuyts arrived in Japan as Ambassador from the Go- 
 vernor and Council of Batavia. But he, thinking the representative of a 
 Sovereign Prince would be better received than the Minister of a Company of 
 merchants, assumed the title of Ambassador of die King of Holland; and as 
 such he was presented to the Emperor, and was actually treated with more 
 respect than any person of his real character had ever been before. But the 
 Emperor, learning from some of the Portuguese, then in Japan, that there 
 was no such person as a King of Holland, was induced to examine M r Nuyts's 
 credentials very strictly -, and, after discovering the deception, he ordered him 
 out of the country with disgrace. 
 
 After Nuyts returned to Batavia, Koen, the Governor-general, rather im- 
 prudently, appointed him Governor of the Dutch settlement at Tywan, a large 
 island to which Europeans have given the name of Formosa. The port of 
 Tywan being much frequented by Japanese traders, Nuyts conceived the notion 
 of taking revenge upon some of them for the affront he had suffered in Japan. 
 
 * The Dutch, finding that this barbarous not keep their prisoners ; and they could not 
 
 deed revived the odium brought upon them by set them at liberty, as they would expose their 
 
 the massacre of Amboyna, published a kind weakness to the Spaniards. But, they did 
 
 of vindication of themselves. They alleged propose to set them at liberty, provided their 
 
 that the Governor used them ill ; that they avarice could have been gratified with the sum 
 
 were short of provisions, and therefor could demanded. 
 
 In
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 49 
 
 In consequence of this wise idea, h6 ordered the guns, rudders, and sails, of 
 two large Japanese vessels, bound to China, which had come into the port in 
 order to take in fresh water, to be brought on shore, in imitation of the treat- 
 ment of the Dutch vessels in Japan. The Japanese were obliged to comply, 
 expecting, however, to receive them again, as soon as they should be ready to 
 leave the port. But the Governor, being determined to harass them, detained 
 them till the proper monsoon for their passage to China was past. The Japanese, 
 giving up their intended voyage to China, represented to the Governor, that, 
 having lost the season for making their voyage, they now only wished to return 
 to their families, and offered a large bribe to induce him to let them go. Find- 
 ing the Governor inexorable, they were driven to despair, and determined to 
 effect their deliverance by force, or perish in the attempt. The two ships 
 carried five hundred men. Nine of the principal merchants and officers waited 
 upon Nuyts, and informed him, that they had paid the Chinese merchants in 
 the preceding year for 25,000 pounds of silk, which they were to have received 
 this year : but they were willing to overlook that disappointment, if he would 
 only allow them to go home ; and they concluded by saying, that they were 
 resolved to go. These nine principal men were attended by twenty-four of the 
 bravest men of the two ship's companies, as servants, who had arms under their 
 clothes ; and a hundred and fifty more dropt in by small parties into the court- 
 yard, as if only anxious to know the fate of their petition. The Japanese leaders, 
 finding nothing to be done by fair means, seized the Governor with his son and 
 one of his counselors : and their men in the court-yard, having got the signal, 
 immediately broke into the house, and put to death every person in it, except 
 the captives. The garrison in the fort, as soon as they understood what was 
 going forward, began to fire upon the government house, and continued, till 
 the Japanese obliged Nuyts to order them to desist. They then fortified the 
 house, and compelled the Governor to assemble the Council, in order to sub- 
 scribe a writing, whereby they obliged themselves to restore whatever had been 
 taken from the two ships — to deliver goods to the Japanese merchants out of 
 the Company's warehouse, equal in value to the silk which they had paid for in 
 China— to land the rudders and sails of all the Dutch ships in the harbour, in 
 order to prevent an immediate pursuit — and to give five hostages for the faithful 
 performance of the agreement. Though the Dutch had forces more than 
 double the number of the Japanese, they did not attempt to engage with them ; 
 nor could they prevail with them to abate one article of their demand. When 
 every thing was executed according to their desire, they very generously gave the 
 Dutch the receipts of the Chinese merchants, in virtue of which they were 
 
 h entitled
 
 5 o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 entitled to receive the silk the Japanese had paid for ; though certainly they 
 could not have been blamed, if they had retained that value, as compensation 
 for the damage of above a year's detention. 
 
 When the Japanese arrived in their own country, they reported the whole 
 affair to the Government, whereupon all the property of the Dutch was taken 
 into custody, and a stronger guard than the former one set upon their factory. 
 But they were not maltreated in any other respect ; and they were not allowed 
 to know the cause of the change of conduct towards them, for their country- 
 men, the hostages of Formosa, were kept close in prison in the capital. When 
 they represented to the Emperor that they should be ruined by their goods 
 perishing in the warehouse, he ordered Commissioners to make sale of them, 
 and pay the proceeds to the Dutch, who could not conjecture what might be 
 the meaning of this mysterious conduct. They found means, however, to send 
 information of their inexplicable situation by some Portuguese and Chinese 
 vessels to the Governor-general at Batavia, who, in order to obtain some know- 
 lege of the affair, sent a vessel with a cargo to Japan. There the merchant, 
 who had the charge of her, was permitted to sell h's goods, receive a cargo in 
 return, and depart, without receiving the smallest information relating to the 
 treatment of his countrymen. 
 
 In the mean time the Governor-general, having got notice of the affair by 
 some other means, sent for Nuyts to Batavia. But no punishment was inflicted 
 upon him till about three years afterwards, when Van Diemen, who was then 
 Governor-general, resolved, as the only means to regain the favour of the 
 Japanese Government, to deliver Nuyts into their hands, to be disposed of as 
 they should think fit : and this resolution, which threw the criminal into despair, 
 was speedily executed. Upon his arrival in Japan his person wr.s identified by 
 some of the people he had detained at Tywan, and the Japanese Government 
 proceeded to consider, what they should do with their prisoner : but, after 
 threatening to broil him on the coals, or nail him to a cross, they permitted 
 him to go about in the company of a guard, and restored the factory to all 
 their former liberties, of which they had now (1634) been deprived during 
 five years. Nuyts, who had expected to be broiled or crucified, was very happy 
 to think that he was only to be obliged to pass the remainder of his life in Japan. 
 But in this also he fared better than he expected, or deserved. Among some 
 presents, sent from Batavia to the Emperor, there was a very superb chandelier, 
 which he saw for the first time lighted up on a solemn occasion. Being very 
 much delighted with it, and learning that it was presented to him by the Dutch 
 Company, he sent them in return a valuable present in silver, which he 
 
 accompanied
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 5 i 
 
 accompanied with a grant of some additional privileges ; and he moreover set 
 Nuyts entirely at liberty. 
 
 In the whole of this transaction, who is to be stigmatized with barbarism ; 
 Nuyts or the Japanese ? 
 
 Upon the revolution in Portugal in the year 1 640, the new King, Joao IV, 
 entered into an alliance with the Dutch, they being, as well as himself, at war 
 with Spain ; and it was agreed that both powers should retain whatever territories 
 they then possessed. But the inhabitants of Brazil, who, as subjects of Spain, 
 had been invaded by the Dutch, and had lived some time under their dominion, 
 thinking themselves now authorized to transfer their allegiance to the King of 
 Portugal, whom they considered as their natural and legitimate Sovereign, in a 
 few years expelled the Dutch from their possessions in that country. In this 
 revolt they were assisted by many of the Dutch inhabitants, who were rendered 
 uneasy by the excessive parsimony of the West-India Company in their establish- 
 ments : a memorable and forcible warning to all rulers of the pernicious tend- 
 ency of that false economy, which seeks to obtain services without allowing due 
 compensation for them. 
 
 The loss of Brazil, while it ruined the Dutch West-India Company, was one 
 of the many events, which have contributed to aggrandize the East-India 
 Company ; for the Court of Portugal, thenceforth turning their attention to 
 that country, neglected their dominions in the East, at the very time when they 
 stood most in need of support against the Dutch, whose thirst of gain and con- 
 quest being animated by their neglect, they gladly availed themselves of the 
 revolt of Brazil as an opportunity of commencing hostilities, and vigorously 
 attacked the Portuguese settlements in various parts of India. In the year 1641 
 the important city of Malacca, esteemed the key of the navigation of the Indian 
 seas, was taken, after a siege of four months and twelve days, by means of an 
 agreement with the Portuguese Governor, who was to receive 80,000 dollars 
 from the Dutch, as the reward of his treachery, but, instead of that sum, 
 received his death at their hands, they thinking that the easiest way of settling 
 accounts with him. 
 
 In the year 1 644 the Company obtained a third charter of twenty-one years, 
 for which they were obliged to pay 1 ,600,000 florins into the treasury of the 
 States-General, though their dividends had been smaller during the last term 
 of twenty-one years than in the early part of their trade, owing partly to the 
 very great increase in the expense of their government and establishments, in 
 India, and partly to the competition of the English and French Companies. 
 
 H2 The
 
 52 THE COMMERCEOF THE 
 
 The large demand upon them for the renewal of their privilege was occasioned 
 by a request of the West-India Company to the States that they might be united 
 to the East-India Company, and promising, though they acknowleged them- 
 selves ruined, to pay that sum to the treasury on their petition being granted, 
 which they expected to raise by the advance upon their stock on making so 
 advantageous a connection. The East-India Company, on whose prosperity 
 they proposed to prop up their own bankrupt estate, were thereupon obliged to 
 offer a large sum to preserve themselves from so pernicious an union. 
 
 Philip IV, King of Spain, being heartily tired of the war begun in the reign 
 of his grandfather, Philip II, agreed to acknowlege the States- General of the 
 Low Countries as free and sovereign States, upon whom he should never form 
 any pretensions, and to maintain a perpetual peace with them. By the treaty 
 for this purpose, concluded at Munster on the 30th of January 1648, it was 
 stipulated that the Spaniards and the Dutch should each retain possession of all 
 the territories in America, Africa, and the East Indies, then occupied by them, 
 and moreover, ' That the Spaniards shall keep their navigation in the East Indies 
 ' in the same manner they hold it at present, without being at liberty to go 
 ' farther * ; and the inhabitants of these Low Countries shall not frequent the 
 ' places, which the Castilians have in the East Indies.' Thus were the East- 
 India Company delivered from one enemy, though now not a very formidable 
 one, in the Indian seas. 
 
 It was about the year 1 650 that the Company began to establish their settle- 
 ment at the Cape of Good Hope, which has become so important. Some faint 
 attempts at a settlement on the southern extremity of Africa had been made in 
 former times by the Portuguese, by the English, and by the Dutch themselves, 
 who all deserted it : and it was thought no more of, till M r Van Riebeeck, the 
 surgeon of one of the Company's ships, having attentively considered the nature 
 of the country and its convenient situation, laid a scheme for the settlement of it 
 before the Directors, who immediately resolved to carry it into execution, and 
 appointed M r Van Riebeeck to be the Governor of the proposed colony. He 
 began by purchasing a portion of the country from the natives, for which he 
 paid them to their contentment. A town and a fort were built, and every other 
 necessary improvement executed ; which, as all the materials were carried from 
 
 * That is to say (though they are unwill- Seas than to their settlements in the Philippine 
 
 ing to express it in clear language) that the Islands. It was upon this article that the 
 
 Spaniards shall not sail to India by the Cape of Dutch founded their opposition to the Austrian 
 
 Good Hope, but by the southern extremity of East-India Company of Ostend. 
 America, and go no farther west in the Indian 
 
 3 Europe,
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 53 
 
 Europe, cost in twenty years the sum of twenty millions of florins. But the 
 Company, who became more and more sensible of the growing importance of 
 the colony, cheerfully submitted to the expense : and they have been amply 
 repaid by the great accommodation furnished to their ships in water, wood, 
 fruits, and fresh provisions, and the recovery of their people's health after the 
 fatigues of a long passage, besides a revenue drawn from the territory, after it 
 was settled, which was nearly equal to the sums expended for the government 
 and defence of it. 
 
 The Company had already made some efforts to establish a commercial inter- 
 course with China, which had been unsuccessful. But having learned that the 
 new Tartar * Sovereign of that empire had opened Canton as a free port to the 
 commerce of all nations, and finding that the envoys, who had been sent to that 
 city by the Governor-general of Batavia, had received some degree of encourage- 
 ment from the Viceroys who governed the city and the adjacent province, they 
 appointed Messieurs Boyer and Keysel their Ambassadors to the Emperor, and 
 directed them to sail from Batavia to Canton with a letter and presents to his 
 Imperial Majesty. After a delay of some months at Canton, they proceeded 
 upon the great canal to Pekin, where after a tedious attendance, they were 
 admitted (2d of October 1656) to an audience of the Emperor, who received 
 them civilly, accepted their presents, and gave them presents in return, but 
 declined having any closer connection, though he gave them leave to send 
 vessels, not carrying altogether above one hundred men, once in eight years, 
 to Canton. This embassy and the preceding negotiations cost the Company 
 30,000 taels of silver (about .§€10,000 sterling). [Voyage des Hollandois a Pekin, 
 en Voyages curieux de Thevenot, V. ii, p. 31, et siriv.~] The Company, disgusted 
 by the bad success of their embassy, and the heavy expense of it, thenceforth 
 paid little attention to a direct intercourse with China : and they could the more 
 easily dispense with it, as the Chinese traders, who resorted in great numbers 
 to Batavia, supplied them abundantly with silks, tea, porcelain, musk, and all 
 other kinds of goods, Avhich could be procured in China, and took in return 
 European and Indian goods, upon which they made as good profits, as they 
 could do by carrying them to China. 
 
 The Company's ships had visited Ceylon in the beginning of the seventeenth 
 century ; and the commanders, by promises of assistance had endeavoured to 
 induce the Rajah, or King, to throw off the yoke of the Portuguese. No event 
 of any importance followed these promises for many years, till Rajah Singah, 
 
 1 * I here write Tartar in compliance with custom, though Tatar is the more genuine n?.me. 
 
 who
 
 54 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 who had been educated among the Portuguese at Goa, and learned perhaps 
 more than his tutors wished, being provoked by the oppression of the Governor 
 of the Portuguese settlements in the island, sent Ambassadors in the year 1638 
 to M r Van Diemen, the Governor-general of Batavia, begging his assistance. 
 Van Diemen received the Ambassadors with great respect, informed them that 
 he had similar complaints of the oppression of the Portuguese from every part of 
 India where they had any power, and assured them, that, as the Company 
 delighted in supporting the cause of injured Princes, the Rajah might depend on 
 a powerful relief, which they should send to him merely for the pleasure they 
 took in doing justice ; and that they should restore all his forts and territories as 
 soon as they could be taken from the common enemy, that he might be per- 
 fectly at liberty to direct the trade of his country into any channel most agreeable 
 to himself. In return for these important advantages they only required of him 
 to repay the expense of the expedition, to co-operate with them by bringing all 
 his forces against the enemy, and to allow them a single fort for a retreat to their 
 troops while in his service. 
 
 In February 1639 six Dutch ships of war, having onboard a considerable 
 body of soldiers, arrived on the east side of Ceylon, and took possession of 
 Baticolo and Trincomalee, which they put into the hands of the Rajah, agree- 
 able to treaty, taking care first to demolish the fortifications. Next year a 
 much greater force arrived at Batavia, and took the strong forts of Negumbo 
 and Punta de Gallo, after which the news of the revolution of Portugal, and 
 the treaty between the new King of that country and the Dutch, produced a 
 cessation of hostilities, which, however, was of very short duration. 
 
 The Dutch and Portuguese commanders in Ceylon, when they got intel- 
 ligence of the peace concluded in Europe, agreed that each should retain the 
 posts he then possessed. Negumbo having been retaken by the Portuguese, 
 the only possession of the Dutch was the fort of Punta de Gallo ; and, as the 
 Portuguese refused to evacuate the territory belonging to it, the Dutch were in 
 fact blockaded within their fort. This unfriendly state of neighbourhood 
 produced a sanguinary war, which was at last in some degree terminated by an 
 order from the King of Portugal to resign to the Dutch the quiet possession of 
 the places occupied by them ; whereupon the Portuguese, though very un- 
 willingly, evacuated the contested country in December 1644. 
 
 In the year 1652 the war was renewed ; and the Portuguese were victorious 
 in several battles with the Dutch and the Rajah till September 1655, when a 
 strong reinforcement arrived from Batavia. Victory then declared in favour 
 of the allies, who took Columbo in May 1656. But now the Dutch refused to 
 
 resign
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 55 
 
 resign that fortress to the Rajah, alleging that they should retain it as security 
 
 for the money due to them for the expense of their fleets and armies. 
 
 The Dutch, being further reinforced from Batavia, now made war upon both 
 the Portuguese and the Rajah. But their principal object was to drive out the 
 Portuguese, which at length they accomplished in June 1658 by the reduction 
 
 of Jafnapatam, the last place held out against them. Having quareled with the 
 Rajah, the treaty made with him in 1638 was considered as annulled ; and that 
 unfortunate Prince found, that all the fruit of his warfare of twenty years, and 
 his expenditure of blood and treasure, was only that he had exchanged his 
 masters. 
 
 The Dutch, ascribing the disappointment of their embassy to China to the 
 intrigues of the Portuguese Jesuits in that country, resolved to take the first 
 favourable opportunity of being revenged. In the year 1660, understanding 
 that the Jesuits had a large property onboard a Portuguese fleet, lying with a 
 very rich cargo in the harbour of Macassar, a city at the south end of the great 
 island of Celebes, they sent thirty ships to attack them. Though the Portuguese 
 were assisted by the King of the country, the Dutch burnt and sunk five ships ; 
 and, though they brought ofF only one, the cargo found onboard her was 
 sufficient to reimburse the expense of the expedition, and also that of the unsuc- 
 cessful embassy to China. They moreover obliged the King of Macassar to sur- 
 
 * render to them the port and fortress of Jompandam, to expell the Portuguese, 
 and to become bound never to admit any other Europeans than themselves to 
 trade in his dominions. 
 
 The Company's valuable settlement in the fruitful island of Tywan, or 
 Formosa, which, though near the coast of China, was not then subject to that 
 empire, afforded a retreat to twenty or thirty thousand of the Chinese, who 
 were unwilling to submit to the dominion of the Tartar conqueror. These 
 refugees being permitted to settle under the protection of the Dutch govern- 
 ment, carried on a great and lucrative trade with their countrymen in China ; 
 and they also afforded a considerable revenue to the government, every person 
 above seven years of age paying a capitation tax of half a gilder a month. The 
 island being also at no great distance from Japan, the Company's factory enjoyed 
 a very advantageous trade with that empire, after the interruption occasioned by 
 the misconduct of Nuys, and were in a very prosperous condition.- 
 
 The Dutch have sometimes allowed their love of money to get the better of 
 their prudence ; and their conduct in Formosa was a remarkable instance of 
 such inattention. 
 
 In
 
 5 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 In the year 1653 the Chinese inhabitants of Tywan had entered into a con- 
 spiracy against the Dutch government, which, being discovered by one of 
 themselves, was quelled by the help of the original inhabitants of the island. 
 But the Dutch most unaccountably neglected to bestow the necessary improve- 
 ments upon their fortifications, which were in a very bad condition ; and they 
 were equally careless of conciliating the good will of their Chinese subjects 
 by a mild and judicious treatment, and an impartial administration of justice. 
 
 Coxinga, the Governor of the maritime province of Tche-chiang in China, 
 apprehending that he might be unable to withstand the power of the Tartars, 
 and disdaining to live under their yoke, sent an Ambassador to Werburgh, 
 the Dutch Governor of Tywan, to ask permission to retire with his followers 
 to the island, in case he should find himself unable to repell the invader ; to 
 which the Governor answered, that he should be welcome to come himself, but 
 that his followers could not be admitted. Resolved not to abandon his faithful 
 soldiers, Coxinga sent a second messenger to the island with instructions to 
 warn all the Chinese inhabitants to be ready in a month to come to his standard, 
 on pain of confiscation of all the property belonging to them in China, where 
 they had extensive commercial connections, and of being put to death if 
 they should fall into his hands. His summons was obeyed by about a half of 
 the Chinese upon the island ; and, in order to distress those who remained, and 
 also the Dutch, he allowed no vessels to sail for Tywan, and at the same time 
 declared war against the Dutch. 
 
 Coxinga in the mean time made obstinate resistance against the progress of 
 the Tartars, and with such effect, that the Emperor thought proper to enter into 
 terms with him for a pacification, allowing him to retain the command of three 
 provinces, on condition that his subjects should cut their hair short, which 
 was a very galling mortification to a people, who consider long hair as the 
 most pretious thing they can possess. 
 
 The Chinese in Tywan had now been a year and a half deprived of their 
 trade with the continent ; and, being much distressed by die privation, they 
 requested the Governor to send an Ambassador to Coxinga, and offered to 
 defray all the expenses of the embassy and the presents. The Governor, as 
 anxious for the restoration of the commercial intercourse as themselves, ap- 
 pointed one of the principal Chinese merchants to be his Ambassador for the 
 negotiation of peace. But Coxinga, in resentment of Werburg's late refusal 
 of his request, now refused to accept the presents or admit the Ambassador to 
 an audience. Nevertheless the Governor sent him a second time ; and then 
 
 Coxinga
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 57 
 
 Coxinga granted peace, and the restoration of trade, after it had been inter- 
 dicted about two years. 
 
 Whether Coxinga found himself uneasy in his situation in China, and wished 
 to establish a more independent sovereignty in Tywan, or desired to revenge 
 the affront formerly put upon him by Werburgh, we are not informed : but 
 he resolved upon an invasion of that island, to which he was encouraged by the 
 information he had of the bad state of the fortifications on the one hand, and by 
 the approved valour of his own veteran soldiers on the other. 
 
 Werburgh, informed of Coxinga's intention, wrote to Batavia for succours. 
 But, before they could arrive, the Chinese commander, who had deliberately 
 prepared a fleet of six hundred vessels, well provided with cannon and other 
 arms, arrived at Tywan (March 1661), and immediately reduced some of the 
 out forts, and made himself master of the town and adjacent country. He then 
 sent a deputation of his prisoners to the Governor, offering, if he would sur- 
 render Fort Zeland, the principal strength in the island, to permit him and all 
 the Dutch inhabitants to remain in the country, and retain the whole of their 
 property, but threatening, if his offer were not accepted, to give no quarter. 
 
 Cojet, the Governor of the fort, determined to hold out to the last ; and the 
 siege was vigourously carried on, both by sea and land, when the sight of some 
 ships from Batavia seemed to promise relief. Cawen, the commander of the 
 ships, actually did all that could be done to save the settlement. But a detach- 
 ment of soldiers, who landed from the ships, and fought bravely, were over- 
 powered by numbers, and obliged to retreat with the loss of four hundred men. 
 Neither was the Commodore more fortunate in attempting to force his way into 
 the harbour ; for one of his ships ran aground, and her men, to the number of 
 four hundred, were cut in pieces by the Chinese ; and another of them blew 
 up. The Commodore, discouraged from any further attempt to relieve the 
 place, then took onboard two hundred women and children, who had found 
 means to make their escape, and returned to Batavia. 
 
 The Governor-general immediately dispatched four ships to the relief of 
 Governor Cojet, who, having sustained a close siege as long as it was possible 
 to hold out, was at last obliged to surrender (5 July 166 1) : and Coxinga, not- 
 withstanding his threat of giving no quarter, allowed the remainder of the 
 garrison to go onboard the Dutch ships *. 
 
 * Thus far in the account of the loss of was present. [Thevenot , Voyages curieux, V. \.~\ 
 Formosa I have chiefly followed the narrative He differs in several particulars from Basuage 
 of a person belonging to the Dutch army, who and Neuville. 
 
 1 This
 
 5 S THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 This was one of the severest blows the Dutch Company had sustained since 
 their first appearance in India : for, besides the total loss of a most valuable and 
 lucrative settlement, they were now destitute of a port of refreshment for their 
 ships trading to Japan, and even ran a risk of being intercepted ; whereas, while 
 they were masters of Formosa, they were able to controul the commerce of the 
 Spaniards, the Portuguese, and the Chinese. The only consolation that they 
 had, was, that the Tartar Emperor of China, who may have considered Coxinga 
 as a deserter, promised to restrain his power, and to prevent him from annoying 
 the commerce of China and Japan. 
 
 If Coxinga could have prudently satisfied himself with the dominion of the 
 valuable island, which had now fallen into his hands, and considered that his 
 chief duty as a Sovereign consisted in promoting the happiness of his subjects, 
 his descendents might probably have been the Monarchs of Formosa to this 
 day ; for the Tartar Emperor had no claim or pretension upon it as Sovereign of 
 China. But Coxinga, like most other conquerors, wanted to grasp at too 
 much ; arid we find him soon after engaged in a war with the Emperor's forces 
 on the main land of China, where he seems to have intended to maintain himself 
 in the independent sovereignty of the provinces, of which he had been Governor. 
 This conduct produced an alliance between the Emperor and the Dutch, who 
 sent a fleet of seventeen ships to co-operate with the Chinese forces. Coxinga's 
 fleet was not despicable, either in number, or in arms ; and he showed himself 
 as great in the character of an Admiral as in that of a General. But in two 
 fierce engagements the superiority of the European ships, artillery, and nautical 
 and military skill, finally prevailed ; and the fall of Coxinga in the second battle 
 gave the victory to the Dutch. 
 
 The subjects, or adherents, of Coxinga withdrew from the coast of China in 
 two hundred and sixty vessels : but the place of their retreat was unknown to 
 the Dutch. 
 
 The Dutch believed they should now find no difficulty in recovering Formosa ; 
 and therefor, leaving the improvement of their victory to their Tartar-Chinese 
 allies, who had done nothing at all towards obtaining it, they sailed for that 
 island. But there they were so ably opposed by Coxinga's uncle, Savia *, and 
 afterwards by his son, Tching-king-may, that they were obliged to give up the 
 attempt, and return to Batavia. 
 
 * Savia was a great Chinese merchant, so Coxinga. [Report of the Company to the States- 
 exceedingly rich, that his treasure was the chief General in the year 1664, in Thevenot't Voyages 
 means of supporting the military expenses of surieux, V. ii.] 
 
 Tching-king-may
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 59 
 
 Tching-king-may died soon after, and left his dominions to his son, Tching- 
 ke-san, an infant. Though no attack appears to have been made upon him, 
 either by the Emperor of China or the Dutch, during his minority, he resolved, 
 when he came of age, to resign his dominions to the Emperor. In this resol- 
 ution, so unworthy of the spirit of his ancestors, he presented himself in the year 
 1683 before the Emperor, who accepted his resignation, and settled a pension 
 upon him as an abdicated Prince. The Emperor, having thus made an easy 
 acquisition of Formosa, sent a strong body of troops to occupy it : and neither 
 the Dutch, nor any other nation, have ever made any attempt to wrest it out of 
 his hands. 
 
 While the interest of the Company was suffering by the disastrous events of 
 the war in Formosa and upon the coast of China, they were not forgetful of 
 the constant object of their wishes, the expulsion of the Portuguese, and, in- 
 deed, of every rival, from all parts of India ; and in that they were more 
 successful. 
 
 In the year 1 663 they sent a fleet to the coast of Malabar under Commodore 
 Goen, who took Caulan, Cananore, and Cochin, from the Portuguese. On 
 the arrival of a reinforcement from Batavia, the Rajah of Porca requested to be 
 permitted to become the vassal of the Company on paying the same tribute 
 that he had paid to the Portuguese. Cranganore submitted : and the Zamorin 
 of Calicut, the King of Cochin, and some other Princes of the coast, were ad- 
 mitted to be the Company's allies. Thus were the Portuguese in one season 
 expelled from the coast of Malabar, whereby the sovereignty of a great part of 
 it, and the trade of the whole, were transferred to the Dutch. 
 
 In the end of the year 1666 the Governor-general of Batavia, alleging some 
 cause of complaint against the King of Macassar, sent a fleet against him. 
 The Dutch, after plundering the country, sailed for Boutan, which was then 
 invaded by the army and fleet of Macassar : and, having defeated them, they 
 sent 5,500 of the prisoners to cultivate a desert island, made slaves of 400, and 
 made a present of 5,000 to the Rajah of Palacca, their ally. 
 
 The King of Macassar, who was a man of judgement and enterprise, per- 
 suaded all the neighbouring Princes to unite their forces, and make a gallant 
 stand for their liberties against the common enemy. At the head of this 
 confederacy he appeared so formidable, that the Governor-general found it 
 necessary to make extraordinary preparations against him, and to call upon all 
 the Company's allies, or tributaries, in the islands to assist him with their troops 
 and vessels. Speelman, the Dutch Admiral, had under his command thirty 
 Dutch and Indian vessels, and twelve thousand men, mostly Indians. The 
 
 1 2 King
 
 6o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Kino; of Macassar and his allies mustered an army of twenty thousand men. 
 But the superiority of European artillery and discipline soon decided the fate 
 of the war: and in November 1667 the allies were obliged to submit, and send 
 Ambassadors to Batavia to make terms as well as they could with the Governor- 
 general. 
 
 By the final conquest of Macassar and the neighbouring states the English 
 and Portuguese were not only completely excluded from residing in those terri- 
 tories, but also from obtaining the spices, brought from the islands, which 
 produce them, to Macassar and the neighbouring ports, where they used to 
 find opportunities of purchasing them : and thus was the monopoly of that 
 pretious merchandize more completely secured to the Dutch Company than it 
 had hitherto ever been. 
 
 In the mean time the Company's charter was near expiring ; and it was not 
 without some difficulty, and the payment of a large sum of money, that in 
 February 1665 they obtained a renewal of their privilege, which was to be in 
 force till the last day of the year 1700. 
 
 As many people, who envied the prosperity of the Company, and of their 
 servants, whom they saw return from India with large fortunes, insisted that 
 a very enormous premium should be required for the renewal of their charter, 
 they took occasion to explain to the States-General, that their commerce was 
 exposed to very great losses, great expense for convoys during the war, and, 
 after all, to captures by the enemy, and to much uncertainty of the seasons in 
 India, which in some years occasioned a total failure of the crops of particular 
 spices : they stated the expenses of their civil, military, and ecclesiastical estab- 
 lishments at above three millions and a half *, besides the great expense of 
 maintaining wars againfl their European and Indian enemies. The wealth ac- 
 quired by their servants, whether obtained from the Company, or by their own 
 private trade, was all clear gain to the country, as those gentlemen always chose 
 to return home to enjoy their fortunes. The duties paid upon their imports 
 and exports were also clear gain to the State, as was also all the revenue derived 
 from the many branches of trade connected with, and flowing from, their trade, 
 and the revenue derived from the consumption of the many thousands of people, 
 to whom their trade, and the innumerable branches of foreign and domestic 
 trade and manufactures depending upon it, gave employment. Therefor, as 
 
 * This account being taken from Thevenot's 9,335,000 instead of 3,635,000, it is uncertain 
 French translation, wherein the sum is given which is the exact real amount. 
 ib livres, and the total erroneously printed 
 
 the
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 61 
 
 the emoluments derived by the State from their trade vastly exceeded those 
 which the partners of the Company received in their private capacity, they 
 might with the strictest truth be considered as conducting a very extensive business 
 much more for the benefit of the Public than of themselves. 
 
 The following is the account of the settlements belonging to the Company 
 at this time, as described in their report, presented to the States-General on the 
 22d of October 1664. 
 
 Amboyna, with its subordinate islands, which supply the whole world with 
 cloves. 
 
 The Banda Islands, which produce nutmegs and mace. 
 
 Puloo Roon, ceded by treaty to the English Company, who have not yet 
 taken possesion of it. 
 
 Ternate and the other Molucco islands, which formerly produced the greatest 
 quantity of cloves : but the trees have been extirpated. The Spaniards have 
 lately abandoned their settlement on these islands. 
 
 Macassar and Manado, both near the southern extremity of the island of 
 Celebes. The King of Macassar has expelled the Portuguese agreeable to 
 treaty. 
 
 In the island of Timor a garrison. The few Portuguese remaining in the 
 island are poor. 
 
 In Rima there is a little trade in rice and sapan wood. 
 
 At Martapura in Borneo the Company purchase some pepper and gold. 
 
 In Sumatra the Company possess Jamby, Patimbuan, and Andrigiri. They 
 have a contract for the sole purchase of all the pepper produced on the west 
 side of the island. The factory of Acheen is given up. 
 
 Malacca, a town lately taken from the Portuguese, is too extensive. It is 
 proposed to contract the boundaries of it, in order to lessen the expense of the 
 garrison. Tanacerim and Guadiansalang are posts dependent upon the govern- 
 ment of Malacca. 
 
 The factory in Siam has lately been withdrawn on account of some offence 
 given, by the King, who has made an apology. 
 
 For the same reason the factory is withdrawn from Ligor, a place pro- 
 ducing tin. 
 
 At Aracam the Company purchase rice and slaves. 
 
 Tonquin has been distressed by inundations, which have destroyed the silk. 
 It is now recovering, and a factory is to be established. A good deal of gold, 
 brought from Yunan in China, is bought there. 
 
 From
 
 6z . THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 From Japan the Company receive only silver and copper, the Emperor 
 having prohibited the exportation of gold. The trade with Japan has lately 
 been attended with the loss of several ships. 
 
 It is expected that the Emperor of China will permit the Company to have 
 a free trade, in consideration of the important service they have done in de- 
 livering him from so formidable an enemy as Coxinga. The Company's 
 people have been directed to fortify some of the islands lately occupied by 
 Coxinga. 
 
 In Coromandel the Company have a very important trade in cotton goods, 
 which are sold partly in India and partly in Europe. They are bought at 
 Pu/icate, where the Governor resides, at Negapatan, a town lately taken from 
 the Portuguese, at Masulipatan, with its dependent posts at Palicat, Datcheron, 
 Bincolapumet, Tequenpatan, and some small posts. 
 
 In Pegu there are posts at Ava and Serian. The trade of that country has 
 lately been interrupted by invasions. 
 
 In Bengal the Company have factories at Hooghly, Cossimbazar, Dacca, Patna, 
 Pipi/ipatan, &c. and drive a great trade in silk goods, cotton goods, saltpetre, 
 sugar, musk, rice, butter, &c. 
 
 In Orissa some rice and other provisions are purchased for the supply of the 
 garrisons in Ceylon. 
 
 Ceylon is one of the most valuable possessions of the Company. It produces 
 the best cinnamon, elephants of a superior quality, areka, &c. The company 
 have 2,500 soldiers in garrison at Columbo, Punta de Gallo, Negumbo, Manar, 
 and Jafnapatam. 
 
 At Tutacouri, on the coast opposite to Ceylon, the Company have a trade in 
 cotton goods, and a fishing for pearls. 
 
 In Malabar the Company have Cochin, Cranganore, Coulan, and Cananore, 
 all taken from the Portuguese, in the garrisons of which they have above a 
 thousand soldiers. The country produces pepper and cinnamon of an inferior 
 quality. The Zamorin of Calicut and the other Princes have contracted with 
 the Company to sell all their pepper to them. At Porca the Company have 
 succeeded to all the rights and powers which the Portuguese had there. The 
 English have been warned to withdraw from this station, but have not yet 
 done it. 
 
 The factory at Surat has the charge of the trade of Hindoostan and Guzerat, 
 
 which is very considerable. There are dependent posts at Amadavad and Agra. 
 
 In Persia there is an advantageous trade, the chief seat of which is at 
 
 Gombroon, with a dependent post at Ispahan. The Company have bound 
 
 themselves
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 63 
 
 themselves to take six hundred bales of silk every year from the King of 
 Persia at a fixed price, which they find an unprofitable article ; and therefor 
 they endeavour to diminish the quantity *. 
 
 The factories at Mocha and Bassora were given up : but that of Mocha has 
 lately been resumed upon promise of more advantageous terms of trade. 
 
 The settlement at the Cape of Good Hope is merely intended as a place of re- 
 freshment for the ships on their outward and homeward voyages; and it 
 abundantly answers that purpose. 
 
 The island of Mauritius f was some time ago abandoned : but the Company 
 have lately sent people to re-occupy it. 
 
 In the island of Java the province of Mataran supplies a prodigious quant- 
 ity of rice. There is a factory at Japara. Batavia, the capital of all the 
 settlements belonging to the Company, becomes more populous every year. 
 The adjacent country produces rice, sugar, and all kinds of fruits, pot-herbs, 
 &c. 
 
 Such were at this time the extensive and valuable territories occupied by the 
 Dutch Company in the Oriental Seas. 
 
 The Government of Batavia took an opportunity of a disputed succession 
 in the kingdom, or empire, of Java to interfere in the contest. In the year 
 1677 they persuaded the Prince, whose interest they had espoused, to fix his 
 residence at Kattasura, where they built a fort, and stationed a strong garrison; 
 and they even undertook to guard his person, whereby he in fact became their 
 prisoner, though they still continued to treat him with all the exterior marks 
 of respect and submission, such as pompous embassies, presents, &c. The 
 King of Bantam, the only Prince in the island who did not acknowlege the 
 supremacy of this Emperor, and had lately sent an embassy to the Court of 
 Great Britain, took every opportunity to thwart the measures of the Dutch 
 Company, who, however, soon found means to reduce his country also to a 
 state of dependence. This Monarch, being well advanced in years, placed 
 his favourite son upon the throne, in order to prevent those disputes for the 
 succession which are very common in the East. The young King turned out 
 such a tyrant, that his father repented of his choice, and wished to resume the 
 sovereignty ; but the young man refusing to resign, he besieged him in Bantam. 
 The young King, almost universally deserted, thereupon solicited the assist- 
 ance of the Dutch, which was immediately granted, and the old King was 
 
 * This was effected by presents to the King and his ministers, 
 f Now called the Isle of France. 
 
 soon
 
 6 4 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 soon defeated, and made a prisoner. The Dutch allies immediately took posses- 
 sion of Bantam, and plundered the English and Danish factories, in the former 
 of which they found gold, jewels, and other property, to a vast amount. They 
 also recommended a Dutch Prime Minister to their King, and never rested till 
 they got the English and Danes driven out of the country, which was accom- 
 plished in the year 1683, after which they have had all the pepper in the island 
 upon their own terms. Some subsequent insurrections afforded a pretence for 
 augmenting the Dutch guards, and building a fort for their residence, by which 
 the harbour and the city are completely commanded. 
 
 The Company, in a steady prosecution of their plan of driving every European 
 nation out of India, besieged the French settlement of Pondichery with a very 
 formidable military and naval force, and obliged the French commander to sur- 
 render the place to them on the 6th of September 1693. They immediately set 
 about fortifying it, which they executed in the strongest manner. But, quite 
 contrary to their expectation, they were obliged to restore it, with all its 
 improvements, to the French Company by the treaty of peace concluded at 
 Riswick in the year 1697. 
 
 On the 1 ith of August 1698 the Company obtained from the States-General 
 a new charter, to continue from the 1st of January 1701 till the end of the 
 year 1740, on paying a large sum of money, which they could very well 
 afford, as their trade had been upon the whole exceedingly prosperous for many 
 years bypast. 
 
 On the last day of the year 1721 the Dutch Government at Batavia got 
 information of a conspiracy for the total extirpation of all the Christians of every 
 description in Java, which was to have been carried into effect on the very next 
 day. The chiefs of the conspirators were Catadia, a Javanese, and Erberfeldt, 
 a citizen of Batavia, the son of a Dutch father and a Mohamedan mother, who 
 was to have been King of Batavia, if the plot had succeeded. The King of 
 Bantam, to whom they had made some overtures to procure his co-operation, 
 chose rather to befriend the Company, to whom he was indebted for the support 
 of his power, and even the protection of his person ; for he could not venture 
 to live among his own subjects without a guard of Dutch soldiers. He therefor 
 gave them all the intelligence he was master of, by which they were enabled to 
 seize the principal conspirators without any disturbance, and take effectual 
 precautions against any efforts of their accomplices. About twenty of the 
 criminals were put to death in April 1722 with an extraordinary parade of 
 horrible execution, which, it was alleged, was necessary to strike terror among 
 people who think nothing of seeing a person put to death by any simple process. 
 
 Erberfeldt's
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. fi 5 
 
 Erberfeldt's house was destroyed, and a column erected upon the spot, with 
 an inscription in five languages, briefly relating his crime, and declaring that 
 no house should ever be built there again. The Governor and Council then 
 prudently desisted from any further prosecution of the conspirators, whose 
 names had been revealed to them, that they might avoid driving the people to 
 desperation. 
 
 The next event of importance which occurred in Java was another conspiracy 
 to extirpate the Dutch, and take possession of their property, projected by the 
 Chinese inhabitants of Batavia, who were said to be able to muster ninety 
 thousand men. There were not wanting some, however, who ventured to 
 assert that it was rather a conspiracy of the Dutch against the Chinese, to whom 
 they owed very large sums of money. On the 8th of October 1 740, and the 
 following day, there was a dreadful massacre of the Chinese ; and the quarter 
 of the town occupied by them was burnt to ashes, being set on fire, as was 
 said, by themselves in despair. The number of the Chinese slaughtered on 
 this occasion was estimated at twelve thousand, but, according to some 
 accounts, not fewer than thirty thousand ; and the amount of property plund- 
 ered from them was prodigiously great *. Whether the Chinese began the 
 work of death by attacking the Dutch, or the Dutch, by attacking them, it 
 appears that the apprehension of danger from the Chinese was very soon got 
 over ; for they were, almost immediately after, encouraged to settle in as great 
 numbers as before ; and so strong is the thirst of gain among the Chinese, that 
 they did not seem to be afraid to trust their lives and properties to the protection 
 of the Dutch Government. 
 
 After the destruction of the Chinese, the Government of Batavia thought 
 it necessary to send an embassy to the Emperor of China, in order to represent 
 the necessity of the unfortunate event, with a view to prevent him from reveng- 
 ing the slaughter of his subjects upon the Dutch at Canton. But the Ambas- 
 sador was most agreeably surprised upon being told, that the Emperor took no 
 concern in the fate of unworthy subjects, who had abandoned their native 
 country, and the tombs of their ancestors, to live under the dominion of 
 
 foreigners for the greed of gain f- 
 
 Long 
 
 * The official account of this horrid affair, their offices, and put in prison, in which the 
 
 which was brought to Holland in July 1741, Governor remained till the day of his death, 
 
 was very far from being clear or satisfactory ; The property, which he shipped for Holland, 
 
 nor has any better account ever been given to was said to amount to half a million sterling, 
 
 the Public. The Governor, two members of +/ With all due deference to the celebrated 
 
 the Council, and the fiscal, were deprived of wisdom of the Chinese Government, it may be 
 
 k doubted
 
 66 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Long before the expiration of the charter, the Company solicited a renewal 
 of it, which the States- General, for reasons not known, for a long time refused 
 to grant, and, after all, they only gave them a prolongation of one year, viz. 
 from the beginning to the end of the year 1741. They remained without any 
 proper renewal till September 1748, when they obtained a prolongation of their 
 privilege till the year 1775. 
 
 In the year 1764 the jealousy between the Dutch and the Rajah of Ceylon 
 (or Emperor of Candy, as he is called) which had often broken out in petty 
 hostilities, brought on a great and serious war. The Dutch penetrated into 
 the heart of the country, and got possession of Candy, the capital city, which 
 the impossibility of keeping up a communication with the coast soon obliged 
 them to evacuate, with the loss of four hundred of their best soldiers, who 
 were cut ofF in their retreat by the Candians. 
 
 The command of the supply of salt accomplished for the Dutch what their 
 military superiority could not effect. In the year 1766 the Rajah was compelled 
 by the want of that important article to cede to them some inland districts, and 
 also that portion of the coast which had never been occupied by the Portuguese, 
 whereby the unfortunate Prince was cut off from all communication with other 
 parts of the world, and reduced to the condition of a prisoner in a large prison. 
 He also became bound to pay them an annual tribute of pretious stones, ivory, 
 areka nut, betel leaf, and elephants ; to deliver all the marketable produce of 
 the island to them at stipulated prices ; and to allow no strangers to come into 
 his dominions. In return for these ample concessions the Dutch engaged to 
 supply the Rajah with salt sufficient for the whole consumption of his country 
 without any expense, and to pay him a certain part of the produce of the 
 maritime country now ceded to them : and, in order to flatter his vanity, they 
 gave him the title of Emperor of Candy, and even called themselves his dutiful 
 subjects. 
 
 The possession of the territory, acquired by means of this treaty, put into the 
 hands of the Dutch the valuable fishery for pearls on the west side of the island. 
 This oppressive treaty was followed by a long succession of petty hostilities, 
 in which the Dutch were generally successful, though they never were able 
 completely to subdue the Candian mountaineers. At length, both parties being 
 convinced of the inefficacy of their struggles, they sunk into a state of inactive 
 mutual hatred. 
 
 doubted whether they ought not to encourage feed them, that the horrible crime of child- 
 emigration, as the number of their people is so murder is publicly tolerated. 
 Tery much beyond the power of the country to 
 
 About
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 67 
 
 About the same time the Company's forces in Java were employed in a war, 
 which carried their dominion in that island to the greatest extent. The district 
 of Balambuang, at the east end of the island, which had never hitherto attracted 
 their attention, was now invaded, and, after a warfare of two years, was sub- 
 dued in the year 1768. The unfortunate Sovereign of this country and his 
 family were transported to the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 In the year 1775 the Company's charter was allowed to expire. Their trade 
 had been for some time in a declining state, which had obliged them to reduce 
 their dividends from twenty to fifteen, and afterwards to twelve and a half, per 
 cent ; and they were unable, or at least not willing, to pay such a large premium 
 as they had usually done for the renewal of their privilege. The States-General, 
 having taken time to examine the affair, consented in the year 1776 to renew 
 their charter for thirty years for a payment of two millions of florins, together 
 with a further payment of 360,000 florins every year. In consequence of the 
 renewal, the Company's stock immediately rose nineteen per cent. 
 
 The misfortunes of the Company were increased by the war with Great 
 Britain. In July 1 7 8 1 Commodore Johnstone took and destroyed five of their 
 homeward-bound ships and one of their outward-bound. In November Sir 
 Edward Hughes and Sir Hector Munro took Negapatan ; and thence they pro- 
 ceeded to Ceylon, where they made themselves masters of Trincomalee, the 
 port of which is a very valuable acquisition in time of war, being the only shelter 
 for ships in stormy weather in the whole extent of the Bay of Bengal. But 
 this important station almost immediately after fell into the hands of the French 
 Admiral Suffrein. 
 
 By these and other similar disasters, by the great increase in the expense of 
 their Oriental establishments, by the great diminution of the demand for 
 spices, owing to the change of taste or fashion in Europe, and by the ascendancy 
 acquired by the English East-India Company, together with the advantages 
 which the Danish and Swedish Companies enjoyed in virtue of their neutrality, 
 the formerly-prosperous condition of the Dutch East-India Company was now 
 so far reduced, that the States-General, amidst their own distresses, were obliged 
 to assist them with very large loans *. 
 
 Before the Company could recover from the disasters of the short war of two 
 years, in which the States were engaged, they were involved in the distresses 
 
 * When Lord Macartney was at Batavia in employed, and, for want of ships of force, 
 the year 1793 on his way to China, many of the their navigation was annoyed by the petty 
 houses in that capital were unoccupied, many pirates of India. [Staunton's Account of anjm- 
 of the vessels in the harbour were lying un- bassj to China, V. \, p. 316.] 
 
 K 2 Of
 
 68 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 of another more ruinous one, occasioned by the revolution in France. In August 
 1795 the important station of Malacca was taken from them by the British 
 forces ; and in the following month General Clarke and Admiral Elphinston 
 reduced the colony at the Cape of Good Hope, where every kind of property 
 belonging to the Company was seized by the conquerors, though they permitted 
 the Church, the public institutions, and all individuals, to retain every thing 
 belonging to them. Soon after, all the Dutch forts and territories in the 
 valuable and important island of Ceylon were also reduced by the British 
 forces. 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1796 Admiral Rainier took possession of the 
 two governments of Amboyna and Banda, each consisting of a cluster of 
 islands, which have been esteemed the most valuable possessions of the Com- 
 pany by being (if their orders could controul the bounty of the Father of the 
 universe) the only spots in the world producing cloves, nutmegs, and mace. 
 
 These accumulated disasters destroyed the Company's trade, and put an end 
 to the regular payment of dividends to the partners, who, after the year 1796, 
 received nothing dll 1799, when they got what was in arrear, and were 
 informed that they could receive no more, so long as their affairs should con- 
 tinue in the deranged state, to which they were now reduced. 
 
 During the cessation of hostilities, which took place in October 1801, all the 
 Oriental settlements, which had been taken from the Dutch, were restored to 
 them, except Ceylon. But, since the renovation of the war, they have all 
 been retaken. 
 
 The Dutch Company owed their splendid prosperity and long-unrivaled 
 power, partly to their own steady perseverance in a sagacious system of com- 
 mercial enterprise united with a spirit of conquest, in the prosecution of which 
 they were not very scrupulous with respect to the jusdce of their proceedings, 
 but much more to the degenerate state of the Portuguese in India, who in the 
 seventeenth century were almost as much inferior to the Dutch in military 
 prowess as the Moors and Indians were in the sixteenth to them. Instead of. 
 being at the trouble and expense of soliciting permission from the native Princes 
 to erect forts, and paying high prices for the ground and materials, as the 
 English Company were obliged to do wherever they made any settlements, the 
 Dutch, by carrying on a continual, and generally successful, war against the 
 Portuguese, got possession of forts, houses, and magazines, ready built, pro- 
 vided with artillery and stores of every kind, and generally accommodated with 
 a district of adjacent territory ; and, instead of coming under subjection to the 
 nadve Princes, they immediately assumed the same superiority over them, 
 
 which
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 69 
 
 which the Portuguese had exercised. They were also enriched by the seizure 
 of a vast number of Portuguese vessels, many of them richly loaded ; and it 
 was to these captures, by which the naval power of their enemies was also 
 completely destroyed, and not merely to the flourishing state of their commerce, 
 that they were indebted for their enormous dividends of fifty, . sixty, seventy- 
 five, and in one year (if there is no mistake in the account) one hundred and 
 thirty-two and a half, per cent, which they made in the early years of their 
 existence. 
 
 They did not aim at the universal conquest, which the Portuguese aspired 
 to ; nor did they, like them, pretend to compell the natives of India, the most 
 unconvertible people in the world, to conform to their religious doctrines. 
 They constantly professed to them, that their only desire was to carry on a 
 peaceable trade, and to deliver them from the oppression of the Portuguese. 
 When they did make war upon the natives, it was only for the sake of their 
 commerce ; and all their treaties were for securing the monopoly of the trade of 
 the countries they subdued, or forced into a dependent alliance, without pre- 
 tending to encroach in any other respect upon the authority of the Princes, 
 whom they affected to treat as their Sovereigns, or presuming to interfere in 
 regulating the religion, laws, or conduct, of the people. 
 
 Spices long continued to be the most important articles of Indian commerce ; 
 and the monopoly of them, which the Dutch Company got into their hands, 
 gave them in a great measure the command of the sale of India goods in Europe ; 
 for, as the merchants of every country in Europe were obliged to attend their 
 sales, personally or by the agency of Dutch merchants, for the purchase of 
 spices, they took the opportunity of supplying themselves at the same time with 
 complete assortments of all other kinds of Indian produce and manufactures. 
 But Europe was not the only market for the Company's spices : in every part 
 of Asia they were in request to a very considerable extent ; and the Dutch, by 
 carrying spices to the various ports, found means to establish themselves in an 
 universal carrying trade throughout the whole of the Indian Ocean ; a trade, 
 which made a prodigious addition to their maritime power by employing a great 
 number of vessels and seamen, ready at all times to fight their battles, and 
 defraying the expense of them during the intervals of warfare from commercial 
 resources. 
 
 At home the Company were treated much more favourably by the States- 
 General than the other East-India Companies were by their Governments. 
 The charters of their privileges were renewed for periods of twenty-one, thirty, 
 thirty-five, and even forty, years ; and the sums demanded for the renewals 
 
 may
 
 7 o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 may be reckoned moderate, when the great profits made by the Company are 
 considered. They were not troubled with any interference of Government in 
 regulating their sales or their dividends ; and there was no prohibition of the 
 consumption of the goods imported by them. 
 
 These advantages were in later times overbalanced by several disadvantages. 
 The national valour, which shone so bright in shaking off the Spanish 
 yoke, and was so successfully exerted against the Portuguese in India, seems 
 to have evaporated after the great objects of establishing the independence of the 
 States and the expulsion of the Portuguese from the dominion of India were 
 accomplished. The people employed to manage the Company's business in 
 India became less attentive in the execution of their duty, and seldom scrupled 
 to sacrifice the interest of their employers to their own, which conduct they 
 justified, at least to their own satisfaction, by the consideration of the very 
 inadequate salaries allowed them by the Company. Every sentiment of honour 
 and patriotism was swallowed up in the most sordid avarice *, accompanied by 
 an extravagance of dissipation and ostentatious parade, which, it was alleged, 
 was politically necessary for dazzling the eyes of the natives. The pre- 
 eminence of nautical skill, which contributed very much to raise the Dutch 
 republic to independence and power, was almost extinguished : men were 
 appointed to offices in ships without being qualified to do their duty ; and the 
 improvements in naval regimen, by which prudent commanders provide against 
 the inconveniencies, and guard against the mortality, formerly inevitable, in 
 long voyages, seem to have been scarcely ever known to the Dutch navig- 
 ators f. Neither were the Company better served by their military men, most 
 of whom were not Dutchmen ; for like the antient Tyrians, with whom they 
 had many other points of resemblance, they made a practice of employing 
 foreign mercenaries, who did not conceive that they were guilty of any breach of 
 duty, if, after serving out the time for which they had engaged, they im- 
 mediately transferred their services to the enemies of their former masters \. 
 
 The 
 
 * There have been more than one instance of upon his first lieutenant, ' who was obliged to be 
 
 a Governor-general returning from India with • on deck both day and night, as neither of the 
 
 a fortune exceeding the whole original capital ' two officers next in rank were fit for serving 
 
 of the Company. ' in the capacities they held, and were even 
 
 f Stavorinus, a Dutch Admiral, after ob- ' hardly acquainted with the compass.' [Stav- 
 
 serving, that many of his people died in an orinus's Vcyages, V. i, p. 52.] 
 
 East-India ship, which he commanded, among \ After the British troops landed in Ceylon, 
 
 whom was his second lieutenant, says that, he Colonel de Meuron with his Swiss regiment, 
 
 himself being very ill, the whole duty devolved having completed the term for which they had 
 
 engaged.
 
 DUTCH WITH INDIA. 71 
 
 The first impressions of joy and gratitude, which the Princes of India felt 
 for their deliverance from Portuguese slavery, were universally effaced by the 
 melancholy experience, that they had not recovered their independence, but 
 only changed their masters ; and, though the change was in most cases some- 
 what for the better, it was natural for them to wish to throw off the yoke. 
 Their attempts, or even the apprehension of them, obliged the Company to 
 increase their military establishments, when the reduced demand for spices (the 
 chief articles of their trade), and the competition of other European Companies, 
 had rendered them less able than formerly to support the expenses of their 
 settlements *. Like their predecessors, the Portuguese, they have fallen into 
 the error of thinking that, the more settlements they had, the more they should 
 prosper, whereby another heavy addition to their expenditure was incurred : 
 for, with all the commercial prudence, for which we usually give them credit, 
 they certainly have acted imprudently in keeping up many posts, which ought 
 to have been abandoned ~f. 
 
 At home the interest of the Company suffered by the division of the business 
 among the six different chambers, each of which had their own separate in- 
 terests interfering with those of the others, and by supporting a great number of 
 clerks and other officers, attached to the various establishments, beyond what 
 would have been necessary for one single central seat of supreme management. 
 The Directors also became remiss in their duty, trusted the uncontrouled 
 management of the Company's business to their secretary, and contented 
 themselves with signing the papers, which he prepared for them. 
 
 A community so constituted must inevitably have gone to ruin, even with- 
 out suffering the calamities of war. 
 
 engaged, entered into the British service, and * Before the spice islands were taken by 
 
 assisted in subduing their former employers : Admiral Rainier, the expense of their garrisons, 
 
 and, after the reduction of Columbo, the whole &c. exceeded the profits made by the spices, 
 of the Malays in the garrison also entered into -{- This erroneous conduct of the Dutch wai 
 
 the British service. Colonel Raymond, the noticed in the year 1616 by Sir Thomas Roe, 
 
 only brave officer in the garrison, was a French- Ambassador from King James to the Great 
 
 man. [Percival's Account of Ceylon, pp. 91, 92, Mogul, in his letter to the English East-India 
 
 95, Jirjl edition.'} Company. [Purchat's Pi/grimes, L.iin, c. 17, 
 
 p. 590.] 
 
 THE
 
 ( 72 ) 
 
 THE COMMERCE 0¥ THE ENGLISH 
 WITH INDIA. 
 
 THOUGH the English were only the third European nation, in order of 
 time, who effectually engaged in the commerce of India, they were next 
 to the Portuguese in perceiving the importance of conducting the valuable trade 
 with that country entirely by sea. As the great objects of the Portuguese were 
 to bring home their India goods at a lighter expense of carriage than the 
 Venetians paid upon theirs, and to avoid the dangers and arbitrary impositions to 
 which traders are exposed in traversing the territories of a great number of 
 despotic Sovereigns, so the English proposed to search for a route, which 
 should be shorter, and consequently cost less time and money, than that which 
 the Portuguese had so long been labouring to discover. 
 
 In the beginning of May 1497 Giovanni Gavotta (or John Cabot), a skilful 
 and enterprising Venetian navigator, who had for some time resided in England, 
 being commissioned by King Henry VII, who put two vessels under his command, 
 and having also the direction of some vessels fitted out by the merchants of 
 Bristol, sailed on a voyage of discovery, the object proposed by him, as well 
 as by Christopher Colon, being to find a western passage to India, which no 
 European had yet been able to accomplish by sea in any direction *. As 
 Colon had attempted it by sailing to the south-westward, Gavotta endeavoured 
 to make his passage by keeping more to the northward, but was prevented 
 from proceeding in that direction beyond the latitude of 6y° 30't by the 
 
 * Gavotta sailed about two months before nth of June) in a letter from Sebastian 
 Gama departed from Lisbon on his more sue- himself, who could not mistake the altitude 
 cessful voyage, as is evident from his son taken by his own observation : and so it i* 
 Sebastian's note in a map drawn by him, and stated by Sir Humfrey Gilbert in his discourse 
 cut (engraved) by Clement Adams, and also upon the north-west passage, written in the 
 by the contemporary testimony of Alderman reign of Queen Elizabeth, and published by 
 Fabian. Notwithstanding these unquestionable Hakluyt [F. ii, p. 16, ed. 1600]. The other 
 authorities, later writers have dated hie voyage latitude, 56 , is taken from a conversation Ra- 
 in 1496, 1498, and 1499. musio had with Galeacio Butrigario, who had 
 
 -f- Ramusiojin the second and the third volumes been the Pope's legate in Spain, and reported by 
 of his Collection of voyages, gives discordant memory from a conversation with Sebastian, while 
 accounts of Gavotta's highest latitude. He he was in Spain, long after the voyage ; and it may 
 got 67 30' as the nearest approach to the be observed, that in this information from mem- 
 north pole (which the ships reached on the ory the royage is also erroneously dated in 1496. 
 
 mutinous
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE ENGLISH. 73 
 
 mutinous spirit of his men, which obliged him to bend his course more to 
 the southward, in consequence of which he fell in with Newfoundland and the . 
 continent of North America. [Fadera Angl'uz, V. xii, p. 595 — Hakluyfs Voyages, 
 V. iii, p. 6, ed. \6oo.~\ 
 
 Gavotta was accompanied by his son Sebastian, a youth of a genius similar 
 to his own, who, finding no further employment for his talent of nautical 
 research in England, made some voyages of discovery in the service of Spain ; 
 after which, probably from a predilection for the country in which he had passed 
 some of the early years of his life *, he returned' to England, where in January 
 1548-9 King Edward VI recompensed his services with an annual pension of 
 ^166 13 4!- Inheriting his father's belief of the possibility of accomplish, 
 ing a passage to India by a shorter navigation than doubling the southern 
 extremity of Africa, he persuaded a number of merchants \, with whom several 
 noblemen of the Court also joined, to contribute a capital of £6,000, in shares 
 of ^25 each, for the purpose of prosecuting the discovery in the north part of 
 the world, and laying in a cargo of such goods as, they thought, might be 
 suitable for the countries they expected to arrive at. Such was the capital of, 
 apparently, the first chartered joint-stock Company in England, with which 
 they proposed to begin an East-India trade : but at that time ^6,000, though 
 containing only about the same quantity of the pretious metals that is contained 
 in that sum in the present day, was a very respectable capital. 
 
 The Company having obtained the King's charter, a code of instructions 
 for conducting the intended voyage for Cathay (China) was drawn up ' by the 
 ' right worshipful Master Sebastian Cabota Esquier, Governor of the Mysterie 
 ' and Company of Marchants adventurers for the discoverie of regions, dom- 
 ' inions, islands, and places, unknown;' and on the 9th of May 1553 it was 
 delivered to Sir Hugh Willoughby, who was chosen commander in chief of 
 
 * Some writers call Sebastian a native of pears in the grant, nor anywhere else, that I 
 
 England. But, according to Galeacio But- have found, except in this title of Hakluyt'a 
 
 rigario, Peter Martyr of Angoleria, and Francis and the works of his numerous transcribers. 
 
 Lopez de Gomara, he was born in Venice, and J The principal partners, besides Sebastian 
 
 accompanied his father to England when very Cabota, the Governor of the Company, were 
 
 young. \_See these authors transcribed by Hakluyt, Andrew Judd, George Barnes, William Ger- 
 
 V . iii, pp. 7, 8, 9.] ard, and Antony Huse. \_Camdeni Annates 
 
 f The grant of the pension is published by Elizabeth*, ad an. 1567.] The names of the 
 
 Rymer \_Fmdera, V. xv, p. 181] and also by other principal partners, appointed assistants, 
 
 Hakluyt \_V. iii, p. 10, ed. 1600] who calls it and the appointment of Sebastian Cabota to be 
 
 large (as it certainly was) and says, in the title Governor for life, may be seen in the charter 
 
 of the grant, that he is thereby constituted granted to the Company by Philip and Mary in 
 
 grand pilot of England. No such word ap- February 1554-5. [Hakluyt, V. i, />. 267.]] 
 
 i. the
 
 74 THECOMMERCEOFTHE 
 
 the ships. Passing over the directions for the government of the ships' com- 
 panies, I shall only observe, that the inferior merchants are required to make 
 no trade without the consent of the captains, the Cape merchant, and the 
 assistants, or four of them, whereof the Captain-general, the Pilot-major, and 
 the Cape merchant, to be three; and every petty merchant is to show his 
 reckoning to the Cape merchant. — Accounts to be presented to the Governor, 
 consuls, and assistants, in London in good order, that the King may have what 
 is due to him for his grant of corporation, and the Company may have what of 
 right belongs to them. 
 
 Cabota, who was probably a protestant, detesting the horrid butcheries com- 
 mitted by the Spaniards and Portuguese in their pretended zeal for the con- 
 version of savage nations, directed that no contempt should be shown to the 
 religious rites of the nations they should discover, and that no attempt should 
 be made to induce them to change their religion. 
 
 All affairs respecting the voyage, merchandize, <?cc. were to be managed by 
 a council of twelve, whereof the first in rank was the Admiral, the next Captain 
 Chancellor, then George Burton Cape merchant, next to whom was the 
 minister or chaplain, &c. 
 
 On the ioth day of May the Company dispatched their squadron, con- 
 sisting of 
 
 the Bona Speranza, of 1 20 tuns, Sir Hugh Willoughby, Admiral, 
 
 the Edward Bonaventure 160 Richard Chancellor, 
 
 the Bona Confidentia 90 Cornelius Durfoorth. 
 
 Sir Hugh Willoughby, with his whole ship's company, was frozen to death 
 in the Northern Ocean near the coast of Lapland *. Captain Chancellor got 
 into the harbour of Saint Nicolas at the mouth of the River Dwina, where 
 Archangel was afterwards built. Thence he traveled to the court of Ivan 
 Basilowitz, the Grand Duke, Czar, or Emperor, of Russia, who, being desirous, 
 for many reasons, of promoting a direct friendly intercourse with England, 
 received him very favourably, and granted many commercial privileges to the 
 English, which encouraged the Company to continue the trade. This was the 
 origin of the Russia Company, who remain to the present day, as a 
 regulated Company. 
 
 * When the weather became moderate, the found beside him, showed that he was alive in 
 
 fishermen of the country found the body of January 1553-4. His journal is published by 
 
 Sir Hugh, sitting in his cabin as he was writ- Hakluyt. 
 ing his journal, which, with his will, also 
 
 A great
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 75 
 
 A great number of other voyages for the discovery of the supposed passage 
 to India by the northern parts of the world were afterwards made, partly by 
 the same Company, partly by other societies of adventurers, and partly by Go- 
 vernment. Nor was the impracticability of it ever demonstrated, nil the late 
 journies of Hearne and Mackenzie by land, through the very space, which the 
 supposed open sea was believed to occupy, have unquestionably proved that 
 no such passage can be made in any climate, wherein the sea can be free from 
 ice. The expeditions for the discovery of a north-west passage gave' rise to the 
 Hudson's-Bay Company, who still carry on a prosperous trade. 
 
 Why the English merchants, who, as protestants, surely did not acquiesce 
 in the Pope's donation of all the unchristian parts of the world to Spain and 
 Portugal, when they found that a northern passage, if at all practicable, must 
 be exceedingly precarious and dangerous, did not at once send their ships to 
 India by the Cape of Good Hope, does not appear. But we find that Thomas 
 Smith and Richard Staper, merchants in London, and the principal members 
 of the Turkey Company, established by charter in the year 1581, wishing 
 to engage in the trade to India, and apparently resigning the passage by the 
 Cape as the property of the Portuguese, attempted to participate in the over- 
 land trade with the Venetians, who, notwithstanding the superior advantages 
 enjoyed by the Portuguese, still kept up factories in many parts of Persia and 
 India. With this view these gentlemen engaged M r Newbery, who had already 
 made some journies into the East, M r Fitch a merchant of London, M r Leedes 
 a jeweler, and M r Storie a painter, to undertake a journey of commercial and 
 scientific discovery, who, being provided with letters from Queen Elizabeth to 
 several of the Oriental Princes, sailed in the year 1583 from London for Tripoli 
 in Syria. From Tripoli our travelers proceeded to Bagdad, and thence down 
 the River Tigris and the Persian Gulf to Ormus, where they embarked for 
 Goa. Thence they traveled to Agra, then the residence of the Great Mogul, 
 who detained Leedes in his service; Newbery died in India; and Fitch proceeded 
 to Bengal, Pegu, Ceylon, and Cochin, then efteemed the principal country 
 for pepper ; and thence he returned by Goa, Ormus, and Aleppo, and arrived 
 in London in April 1591 *. 
 
 * Minute accounts of Newbery's and Fitch's pointment of a painter, apparently for the 
 
 travels and observations may be found in Hak- purpose of bringing home representations of 
 
 luyt's and Purchas's collections. In those interesting objects of nature and art, justifies 
 
 days pretious stones were in higher estimation me in calling this a journey of scientific, as well 
 
 than they are at present, and therefor a jeweler as commercial, discovery, which certainly does 
 
 was necessarily one of the party. The ap- great honour to all concerned in it. 
 
 l 2 About
 
 7 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 About the same time that this spirited effort was made for obtaining the 
 knowlege necessary for engaging in the India trade, some information was ac- 
 quired, and even an actual commencement of trade made upon a small scale, 
 by Sir Francis Drake and Captain Candish, the two first English circum- 
 navigators of the Globe, in expeditions undertaken merely for warlike pur- 
 poses *. A good deal of knowlege was also obtained from the accounts and 
 documents found onboard the Saint Philip, a Portuguese carrak, taken on her 
 passage from India by Sir Francis Drake in the year 1587. 
 
 In consequence of the information now acquired respecting the Oriental trade, 
 three ships, under the command of Captain Raymond as Admiral, were fitted 
 out for India by the chief members of the Turkey Company, and sailed in 
 April 1 59 1. But, England being then at war with Spain, the voyage de- 
 generated into a privateering adventure, mostly against the Portuguese, then 
 subjects of Spain. One ship returned home without passing the Cape of Good 
 Hope : the Admiral ship disappeared in a storm near Cape Corientes, and was 
 never more heard of: Captain Lancaster in the remaining ship reached India, 
 and got a cargo of pepper, and other spiceries at Sumatra and Ceylon. On 
 his return he sailed for the West Indies, in hopes to get a supply of provisions; 
 and, after suffering many hardships, he entirely lost his ship, which was blown 
 from her anchor at the island of Mona near Flispaniola with only six men on- 
 board, while he, his lieutenant, and seventeen men, were in search of pro- 
 visions in the island. They got passages to Europe in several French vessels ; 
 and Captain Lancaster, with his lieutenant, arrived in England in May 1594. 
 [Hakluyt, V.m, part ii, p. 102. See also part i, p. 571.] 
 
 On the 7th of January 1592-3, on a renewal of the Turkey Company's 
 charter, the Queen granted them, along with their other privileges, the ex- 
 clusive trade over-land between England and India. [Chart, ap. Hakluyt, V. ii, 
 f. 295.] 
 
 In the year 1 596 Sir Robert Dudly and some other gentlemen fitted out 
 three ships for China ; and Queen Elizabeth sent a letter with them to the 
 Sovereign of that country. This expedition was even more unfortunate than 
 the preceding one. After taking three Portuguese ships, they were so dread- 
 fully reduced by sickness, that out of their three ships' companies there 
 remained only four men alive, who were cast on shore on a small island near 
 Puerto-Rico, where three of them were murdered by a party of Spaniards for 
 the sake of the treasure they had with them ; and only one survived to relate 
 
 * Drake returned to England in the year 1580, and Candish in 1588. 
 
 the
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 77 
 
 the melancholy tale to the Spanish officers of justice, soon after which he was 
 poisoned by the same robbers who had murdered his shipmates. [_Hakluyt, 
 V. iii, p. 852. — Purcbas, L. hi, c. 1, § 2.] 
 
 Since the commencement of the navigation to India by the Cape of Good 
 Hope, the English had received India goods chiefly from the Portuguese, and a 
 few, by means of the Turkey Company, from the ports at the east end of the 
 Mediterranean sea. But the war with Spain, which began in the year 1587, 
 prevented all intercourse with Portugal, then a part of the Spanish dominions, 
 and rendered the navigation of the Mediterranean dangerous and intolerably 
 expensive. Of these circumstances the Dutch, who had gone into the India 
 trade in the year 1595, soon took the advantage, and on the arrival of their 
 first fleet from India in the year 1 597 raised the price of pepper, which used 
 to be at 3/ a pound, to 8/, and the prices of other articles in proportion. 
 
 The merchants of London, if they were discouraged by the disastrous fate 
 of the first attempts to make commercial voyages to India, had now recovered 
 from that impression ; and, being provoked by the monopolizing avarice of the 
 Dutch, they resolved to renew their endeavours to obtain a share of the rich 
 trade of India. With this view M r Staper and his associates about the be- 
 ginning of the year 1599, engaged M r Mildenhall, a merchant of London, to 
 go to the Court of the Great Mogul. He did not reach Agra, the residence 
 of that Monarch, till the year 1 603 : and, after a prodigious waste of time 
 and money, occasioned by the machinations of some Jesuits residing in Agra, 
 and two Italian merchants (most probably Venetians), who were not pleased at 
 seeing an English merchant in that part of the world, he obtained from the 
 Mogul an ample grant of commercial privileges for the English in the year 
 1606. 
 
 In the mean time the merchants were assiduously employed in concerting 
 measures for the establishment of a Company for the East-India trade, in- 
 dependent of the Turkey trade: and on the 22d day of September 1599 the 
 Lord Mayor of London, most of the Aldermen, and other principal merchants 
 of the city, to the number of one hundred and one, assembled at Founder's 
 hall, and formed an association for trading to India, for which they subscribed 
 a capital of ^30,133 6 8. 
 
 An antient historian begins his work by observing that the Roman empire, 
 which in its progress became the greatest in the world, was the smallest in its 
 commencement. Here we see the original members of the present great and 
 illustrious East-India Company of England, who now possess territories more 
 extensive and populous than all the British dominions in Europe, laying the 
 
 foundation
 
 7 8 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 foundation of a trade, which has become the wonder and envy of all nations, 
 with a capital, which in the present day is barely sufficient to carry on a respect- 
 able business in the hands of a single merchant. 
 
 At a subsequent meeting the subscribers drew up a petition to the Privy 
 Council, representing, that ' Sumulated by the success which had attended the 
 ' voyage to the East Indies by the Dutch, and finding that the Dutch are 
 ' fitting out another voyage, for which they have bought ships in England *, 
 ■ the merchants, having the same regard to the welfare of this kingdom that 
 ' the Dutch have to their commonwealth, have resolved upon making a voyage 
 ' of adventure, and for this purpose entreat her Majesty will grant them letters 
 ' patent of incorporadon, succession, &c. for that the trade, being so remote 
 ' from hence, cannot be managed but by a joint and united stock.' They 
 proceed to request, ' that the ships, when prepared, may not be stayed upon 
 ' any pretence of service, as the delay of a month may lose the opportunity of 
 ' a whole year's voyage f. — That the adventurers may be allowed to send out 
 ' foreign coin ; and, if there should be a want of foreign coin to furnish the 
 ' present voyage, there may be coined in her Majesty's mint so much foreign 
 
 * coin, as shall supply the want, out of such bullion, as shall be brought in by 
 ' the adventurers or by their means. — That freedom of customs be allowed for 
 ' six voyages outward, in regard that many experiments must be made before 
 ' it will be known what commodities are best suited to the Indian market, as 
 ' also in regard that the Dutch, for their encouragement, are freed from the 
 
 * customs for divers years both outward and inward.' 
 
 On the 1 6th of October the business was so far advanced, that the Queen's 
 approbation of the proposal was reported to the subscribers. Some of them, 
 however, entertained an apprehension that the trade, notwithstanding this fair 
 prospect, would be strangled in the birth : and their apprehension was not 
 groundless. The King of France had proposed that a treaty should be set on 
 foot, in order to negodate a peace between England and Spain ; and there was 
 some reason to believe that the Queen would not obstruct the negodation by 
 refusing to gratify the Spaniard in his demand for excluding her subjects from 
 India. They therefor petitioned the Privy Council for a warrant, ' that the 
 ' voyage might be proceeded upon without any impeachment [hinderance] 
 
 * notwithstanding the treaty, and that by reason thereof they should not be 
 
 * This seems a very honourable testimony + In those days merchant ships were still 
 
 of the superiority of the English shipbuilders liable to be pressed into the service of the So~ 
 in the later end of the reign of Elizabeth. vereign, as in former ages. 
 
 ' stayed,
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 79 
 
 ■ stayed, when the shipping was prepared.' But the Privy Council ' declined 
 ' granting such warrant, as deeming it more beneficial for the general state of 
 * merchandize to entertain a peace, than that the same should be hindered by 
 ' the standing with the Spanish Commissioners for the maintenance of this trade, 
 ' and thereby forego the opportunity of concluding the peace.' 
 
 The subscribers, on receiving this answer, determined to do nothing further, 
 till they should see what would be the event of the conference, appointed to be 
 held at Boulogne in May 1600. 
 
 A dispute between the English and Spanish Commissioners upon the very 
 important business of precedency prevented the negotiation from proceeding. 
 The apprehended impediment being thereby removed, the consideration of the 
 India trade was resumed in the city, and also at court. 
 
 On the 31st day of December 1600 Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to a 
 great number of gentlemen therein named *, constituting them ' one bodie 
 ' corporate and politique indeed, by the name of The Governour and Com- 
 ' pany of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies,' 
 with succession, the power to purchase lands (without any limitation), to sue 
 and be sued, and to have a common seal. — The direction of the voyages, the 
 provision of shipping and merchandize, the sales of the goods imported, and 
 all other business belonging to the Company, shall be managed by a Governor 
 and twenty-four Committees, named in the charter, who shall be succeeded by 
 others to be elected by the Company on the first day of July, or within six 
 days thereafter, every year f. — They shall have the exclusive privilege of 
 trading during fifteen years, reckoning from Christmass 1600, to all parts of 
 Asia, Africa, and America, beyond the Cape of Good Hope, eastward to the 
 Straits of Magellan, except such countries or ports as may be in the actual 
 possesson of any Christian Prince in amity with the Queen. — The sons of 
 members, not being under twenty-one years of age, and also their apprentices, 
 their factors, and others employed by them in the India trade, may freely use 
 
 * Among the names appear Thomas Smith, f The charter also directs the election of a 
 
 Alderman of London, and Richard Staper, Deputy-governor, without determining whe- 
 
 two of the original members of the Turkey ther he shall be one of the Committees or not. 
 
 Company, distinguished by their zeal for pro- The twenty-four Gentlemen who now conduct 
 
 moting the East- India trade. In the charter the affairs of the Company, are called Di- 
 
 M r Smith is declared the first Governor of the rectors, instead of Committees, and out of 
 
 Company, and M r Staper one of the first their body two are annually chosen to be Chair- 
 
 Committees. man and Deputy-chairman. 
 
 the
 
 5o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 the trade. — The Company may assemble at any place and time convenient, and 
 make bye laws for the regulation of their business, and of the people in their 
 employment, and may order offenders to be punished by imprisonment or fines, 
 consistently with the laws of the realm. — The Queen, considering that, in a 
 new and unknown trade, many articles may be exported, which will be found 
 unfit for sale in India, grants a total exemption from duties for the outw-ird 
 cargoes in the four first voyages ; and for the customs upon their homeward 
 cargoes they may give two bonds payable in six and twelve months. — Alter 
 the four first voyages, if any goods shall be lost on the passage outward, the 
 duties paid upon them shall be deducted from those payable on the goods to be 
 next shipped. — The India goods imported by the Company, for which the 
 duties have been duely paid, may be exported within thirteen months after their 
 arrival, by English merchants and in English vessels, without paying any fur- 
 ther customs *. — The Company may export in the ships, now preparing for their 
 first voyage, silver coin, not exceeding the value of thirty thousand pounds, 
 consisting of Spanish or other foreign coin, or of money coined in the mint to 
 the amount of at least six thousand pounds. — It being nesessary that the Com- 
 pany's ships sail at a particular season of the year, they shall ' in any time of 
 
 * restraint' be empowered to send six good ships, and six good pinnaces, well 
 armed, and manned with five hundred English seamen, who shall at all times 
 be permitted to go on their voyages ' without any stay or contradiction,' unless 
 notice shall be given in due time to the Company that the Queen ' may not 
 ' spare the said sixe ships and sixe pinnaces and the mariners requisite for 
 
 * them' from her own service. — All the Queen's subjects are strictly prohibited 
 from trading to the countries comprehended in the Company's privilege, on 
 penalty of forfeiture of ship and cargo, imprisonment, and other punishment, 
 unless they have licences in writing under the seal of the Company, who are 
 empowered to grant such licences. — The Company are bound to import within 
 six months after the return of every voyage, except the first one, as much gold 
 or silver as shall be equal to the value of the silver exported by them. — If 
 the Company's privilege be found by experience to be prejudicial to the realm, 
 the Queen may revoke it, upon giving two years' notice : and, if the trade 
 shall be found beneficial to the realm after the trial of fifteen years, new letters- 
 patent shall be granted for other fifteen years. 
 
 * In tlie mcuern commercial and financial policy, they ought to draw back the greatest part 
 of the customs they paid on importation. 
 
 Th*
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 81 
 
 The Company, now duely authorized to proceed in their patriotic and laud- 
 able undertaking, immediately raised a capital of . ^57,543 6 8 
 to which they soon afterwards added 20 per cent , 1 1,548 o o 
 
 making in all ..... ^69,091 6 8 
 
 They expended for the outfit of the first voyage in 
 
 merchandize for the outward cargo . . ,^6,860 o o 
 
 bullion ...... 21,742 o 
 
 B 
 
 O 
 
 28,602 o o 
 ships, stores, provisions, &c. . . . 2>9>77 l o o 
 
 Total . . . .^68,373 ° ° 
 
 Their four ships, the best that could be found in England, were 
 the Dragon, 600 tuns, 202 men, Captain James Lancaster f, 
 the Hector, 300 . . 108 . . . John Middleton, 
 
 the Ascension, 260 . . 82 . . . William Brand, 
 
 the Susan, 240 . . 88 . . . John Heyward, 
 
 1400J 480 
 
 To these was added the Guest, to serve as a victualer to the fleet. 
 
 In each of the four ships three merchants embarked, in order to transact the 
 business in India. Captain Lancaster was appointed Admiral of the fleet, and 
 invested by the Queen with the power of exercising martial law. She also 
 gave him letters of introduction to the Kings of Acheen and Bantam. 
 
 On the 13th of February the ships dropped down from Woolwich ; and on 
 the 22d of April ;6oi they took their departure from Torbay. After a te- 
 dious passage, owing chiefly to their want of experience of the proper seasons 
 and courses, they arrived at Acheen in the great island of Sumatra on the 5 th 
 of June 1602. 
 
 The Admiral was graciously and pompously received by the King of the 
 country, and delivered to him the Queen's letter, accompanied by presents, 
 
 * The Company's original capital is general- f The name of James Lancaster appears in 
 
 ly stated at ^72,000. Perhaps it was thought the charter as one of the original Committees, 
 
 for the honour of the Company to make some \ The tunnage of the four ships scarcely 
 
 addition to the real amount. In like manner exceeded that of some single ships in the 
 
 the bullion exported is said to have been Company's service in the present day : and yet 
 
 4^27,000. But true honour admits of no fals- they were the best, and probably also the 
 
 ifications. largest, that" could be found in all the kingdom. 
 
 m without
 
 n THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 without which there is no access to the great in the East. A treaty of amity 
 and commerce was concluded, and all the privileges which Lancaster asked 
 were granted by the King. But the crop of pepper having failed in the pre- 
 ceding season, a sufficient quantity could not be obtained in that port. 
 
 The Admiral, knowing how much the future vigorous prosecution of the 
 trade must depend upon the success of the first voyage, was very uneasy at the 
 prospect of returning- without a sufficient cargo, and making a losing voyage 
 to his employers. Whether he had any instructions from the Company for 
 acting offensively against the nation with whom his Sovereign was then at war, 
 or he conceived the idea of it in the dilemma to which he was reduced by the 
 deficient crop of pepper, does not appear. But he concerted with the com- 
 mander of a Dutch ship, then at Acheen, to join with him in an attack upon 
 the Portuguese settlement at Malacca. Having heard that pepper was to be had 
 at Priaman, a port on the south-west coast of Sumatra, he sent the Susan 
 thither to trade ; and then, leaving two merchants at Acheen to conduct the 
 business till his return, he sailed with the three remaining ships and the Dutch 
 ship on his intended expedition against the Portuguese. On their way to 
 Malacca they fell in with a Portuguese carrack of 900 tuns, which they took. 
 Her cargo, consisting of calicoes and other manufactures of India, was shifted 
 onboard their own ships : and then the prisoners were allowed to return on- 
 board the carrack, and left in possession of her. 
 
 Lancaster, having now obtained by war, if not by trade, a cargo sufficient 
 to make a profitable voyage, gave up his original intention of proceeding to 
 Malacca, and returned to Acheen. There he put what pepper, cinnamon, and 
 cloves, the merchants had procured, onboard the Ascension, and sent her 
 home, though not fully loaded ; and with the other two ships he proceeded to 
 Priaman, where the Susan had been taking in pepper and cloves ; and having 
 there got enough of pepper, he also sent her home. Thence he sailed with 
 his remaining two ships to Bantam in the island of Java, where, he understood, 
 he should be able to purchase pepper cheaper than in Sumatra. 
 
 On the 5th of December 1602 he arrived at Bantam, where he met with 
 as agreeable a reception as he had found at Acheen, and delivered the Queen's 
 letter, together with presents, to the King, then a child about ten years of age. 
 There he found a brisk demand for his goods, and bought pepper at 5* 
 Spanish dollars (4/6 sterling each) for a bag of 62 pounds, with one dollar, 
 custom on every bag, besides the charge of anchorage, which amounted to 
 1500 dollars for the two ships. 
 
 From 
 
 ..
 
 : ENGLISH-WITH INDIA. 83 
 
 From Bantam he sent a pinnace of 40 tuns and 1 2 men, with some of the 
 merchants, to establish a factory in the Molucco islands : and. hiving completed 
 the cargoes of his ships, he settled three factors, with eight men to assist and 
 attend them, in Bantam, to sell the remaining part of the European merchand- 
 ize, and procure a cargo for the ships, when they should return. Having 
 finished all his business, and taken leave of the young King, he sailed for 
 England on the 20th of February 1602-3. After encountering dreadful storms, 
 in which the Dragon lost her rudder, and refreshing at S' Helena, then unin- 
 habited, but well stocked with useful animals and fruits by the Portuguese 
 navigators, the two ships arrived in the Downs on the nth of September 
 1603. 
 
 At home a proposal was made for following up the first adventure by a 
 second voyage, to be begun in the year 1602, upon a new subscription. The 
 proposal was strongly recommended, or rather urged, by the Ministry, and 
 even by the Queen, who went so far as to upbraid the Company for not pro- 
 secuting the business with spirit, as the Dutch did, and for showing so little 
 regard to her honour and the honour of their country. It does not appear, 
 however, that any of those dignified advisers offered to put a penny of their 
 own property in the rifk they wished the merchants to engage in : and at that 
 time people were so cautious of going too deep into untried speculations, that 
 subscribers could not be found for a capital equal to the disbursements of a 
 6econd voyage, till the success of the first one should be known. 
 
 Unfortunately for the Company, when their ships arrived, London was af- 
 flicted with the plague, and every person, who could leave it, had flown to 
 the country. In this state of general distress no money could be raised, either 
 by borrowing or by sales of merchandize ; and the sum of ^35,000 was im- 
 mediately required to pay the seamen's wages and the King's duties *, besides 
 funds for a second voyage. 
 
 The Company resolved, as a matter of necessity, that every subscriber of 
 ^250 in the original stock should be required to advance ^200 in addition 
 thereto, in consideration of which he should receive pepper, at a settled price, 
 to the amount of ^500, which he should dispose of at his own discretion f. 
 Having settled this plan, and paid in ^60,450 in pursuance of it, they thought 
 
 * The demand of ready money in payment andize, which could not fail to be productive 
 
 of the duties was a deviation from the terms of of much loss and inconvenience, was usual with 
 
 the charter. the Dutch East-India Company between the 
 
 f This way of making dividends in merch- years 1610 and 1644. 
 
 m 2 they
 
 3+ THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 they had nothing to do but to proceed in their business, and particularly in pre- 
 paring their ships, and merchandize, &c. for a second voyage. But they had 
 to encounter many unexpected difficulties and obstructions in the sale of their 
 pepper, which rendered it impossible to bring the accounts of their first voyage 
 to a final settlement till the year 1 609. 
 
 In the mean time the four ships, which had made the first voyage, being 
 again equipped and loaded, sailed from Gravesend on the 25th of March 1604, 
 under the command of Sir Henry Middleton. Two of the ships were loaded 
 with pepper at Bantam ; and the other two took in mace and nutmegs at 
 Banda, and completed their cargoes with cloves at Amboyna. On their return 
 the Susan, one of the ships loaded with pepper at Bantam, was lost. The 
 others arrived in England in May 1 606. 
 
 Sir Edward Michelborne, and some others associated with him, obtained 
 from King James a licence to send out ships to discover, and trade with Cathaia, 
 China, Japan, Corea, Cambaya, and other places not already frequented by 
 the English, any charter to the contrary notwithstanding. \Fadera, V. xvi, 
 p. 582.3 Under this licence, which, it must be acknowleged, was a direct 
 violation of the Company's charter, they equipped a ship and a pinnace, with 
 which Sir Edward sailed for China in December 1604. He never reached 
 China ; but, after losing some of his cables and anchors among the Oriental 
 islands, he returned home, having got nothing by his voyage but some petty 
 plunder, taken from small Chinese and Indian vessels, which was certainly no 
 very favourable introduction of himself or his countrymen to an acquaintance 
 with the people of that quarter of the world *. He arrived in England in 
 July 1606. 
 
 After the return of the Company's ships from the second voyage, most of 
 the members were inclined to wind up their affairs, and drop the business. Six 
 years had elapsed since they had advanced their capital : many of them had 
 not received any returns : and those who had got dividends in pepper, were 
 rather encumbered than benefited by the possession of a commodity which, by 
 a combination of causes, which cannot be detailed in this work, was rendered 
 unsaleable. The infringement of their privilege in favour of Michelborne de- 
 stroyed their confidence in the royal favour and support, promised by their 
 charter ; and the piratical exploits of that commander in the Indian seas had 
 brought disgrace upon the English name, and given great offence to the King 
 
 * Michelborne's guilt was aggravated (if that be possible) by the circumstance of his being 
 one of the original partners of the East-India Company, as appears by the charter. 
 
 of
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 85 
 
 of Bantam, who could not easily be brought to comprehend, that the English 
 freebooters, who had injured him, had no connection with the English East- 
 India Company. 
 
 The Company were further discouraged by the very great mortality of their 
 seamen, of which, though it was not likely that it would continue, when expe- 
 rience should point out to them the proper courses and seasons, and proper diet 
 and regimen, their enemies took advantage by representing the voyage and the 
 climate of India as peculiarly destructive of men's lives. This and the other 
 common-place arguments, such as the evil of exporting silver, the waste of 
 ships, &c. though fallacious in themselves, and evidently adduced for malevol- 
 ent purposes, had considerable influence at the time in rendering the East- 
 India trade unpopular. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the difficulties and discouragements thrown in their way, 
 some of the members of the Company possessed sufficient courage and per- 
 severance to propose adventuring in a third voyage, provided they could have 
 assurance of the support from Government, which their charter entitled them 
 to expect. Upon this subject they got such promises * as induced them to open 
 a subscription for a new stock, which produced ^53,500. They immediately 
 fitted out their ships, the Dragon and the Hector, to which they added another, 
 called the Consent, being of the burthen of 1 1 5 tuns. This small vessel, com- 
 manded by Captain David Middleton f, sailed from the Thames in March 
 1606-7, ana " m J an u ar y 1607-8 arrived at the Moluccos, where a cargo of 
 spices was procured, but not without considerable difficulty, occasioned by the 
 malevolence of the Dutch, who were already beginning to act upon their sys- 
 tem of engrossing the trade of spiceries into their own hands, which they 
 afterwards carried so completely into effect as to exclude all other nations from 
 obtaining any other kind than pepper, till the present war has deprived them of 
 the monopoly. 
 
 The Dragon and the Hector sailed from the Downs in April 1607 under the 
 command of Captain Keeling. In the Indian Ocean Captain Hawkins in the 
 Hector parted company with the Admiral, and proceeded to Surat, having 
 charge of a letter from King James to the Great Mogul. After surmounting 
 
 e 
 
 * Notwithstanding these promises, the King therefor I have not thought it necessary to tak 
 
 in the year 1607 chartered Penkevell and his any further notice of it. 
 
 associates to sail to China and the Moluccos by f This gentleman was a brother of Sir 
 
 a northern passage. [Fadera, F.xvi, p. 660.'] Henry Middleton, the commander of the se- 
 
 It does not, however, appear that any thing cond voyage, 
 was done in consequence of the charter, and 
 
 many
 
 b6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 manv obstacles, thrown in his way by the malice of the Portuguese Jesuits,- 
 who even bribed his own servants to murder him, he penetrated to the Imperial 
 residence at Agra, where he arrived on the 1 6th of April 1 609. The Mogul 
 received him kindly, and granted him permission to establish an English factory 
 at Surat. But, by the machinations of the Portuguese, and the perfidy of the 
 Governor of Surat, the grant was revoked. Hawkins, who was a man of 
 great courage and judgement, succeeded in convincing the Emperor of the 
 malicious designs of his enemies, and got him to renew the grant. But the 
 Mogul so little knew his own mind, that he was again persuaded to rescind it ; 
 whereupon Hawkins, after losing two years and a half in this kind of tantal- 
 izing attendance at the Mogul court, left Agra in disgust, and, getting on- 
 board one of the Company's ships, arrived in England in the year 1613. 
 
 The Dragon got a load of pepper at Bantam : and the Hector, after landing 
 Captain Hawkins at Surat, proceeded to Bantam, and thence to Banda and 
 the other Spice islands, where, in spite of the malice and opposition of the 
 Dutch, Captain Keeling, after having dispatched the Dragon for England, 
 loaded his other ship with spices, with which he arrived in England in May 
 1610, having not lost a single man in his voyage. 
 
 In March 1608 several members of the Company subscribed a capital of 
 ^33,000 for a fourth voyage. In former voyages every subscriber had had 
 an equal voice in the deliberations upon the joint concerns, whereby it 
 sometimes happened that a greater number possessing a small portion of the 
 stock carried the question against the proprietors of greater value, who were 
 fewer in number. To guard against that inconvenience, it was determined 
 that no subscription for the intended fourth voyage should be under ^500. 
 But, as it was not intended that smaller subscribers should be excluded from 
 the benefits of the trade, they were allowed to join their stocks together under 
 the name of one person, who should have the right to vote *. 
 
 The fourth voyage was most unfortunate. The Ascension and Union sailed 
 from Woolwich on the 14th of March 1607-8 under the command of Captain 
 Sharpley. The Ascension, after trading at Aden on the south coast of Arabia, 
 and going up the Red Sea as far as Mocha, sailed for the coast of Cambaya, 
 and was wrecked near Surat, the men saving themselves in the boats. The 
 Union, having parted company with the Ascension near the Cape of Good 
 
 * There were 237 subscribers to the first there were 205 subscribers, of whom 108 
 ' and. second voyages; and of them 212 were were for sums under £100, and 36 others were 
 for sums under £300. For the third voyage under £300. 
 
 Hope,
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. * 7 
 
 Hope, arrived at Acheen, where the supercargo, finding the King's mind 
 alienated from him by the intrigues of the Dutch, made a bartering trade with 
 some vessels from Guzerat, and proceeded to Priaman, where he got pepper 
 to fill his ship. On the return home she was wrecked on the coast of France j 
 and only a small part of the cargo, consisting of pepper, benjamin wood, and 
 silk goods, were saved. 
 
 It was not till the year 1609 that the proprietors of the first and second 
 voyages were able to bring their accounts to a close ; and then it was only 
 accomplished by making over their remaining joint property to the proprietors 
 of the third voyage. On winding up the concern, they found the whole profit 
 amount to ninety-five per cent, which would have been a great object, if they 
 could have realized it in a reasonable time after the arrival of their ships. 
 
 Upon the arrival of the Consent, belonging to the third voyage, in the 
 beginning of the year 1609, the gentlemen concerned in that voyage agreed to 
 add twenty-five per cent to their capital, and to send out Captain Middleton 
 again to the Moluccos. In April 1 609 he sailed in the Expedition, and by his 
 prudence and intrepidity surmounted all the dangers and hardships to which he 
 was exposed by the enmity of the Dutch, and obtained a full cargo of nutmegs 
 and mace at Pulo Way, besides a considerable quantity, which he left behind 
 him in the care of a factor. He arrived in England in about two years after his 
 departure : and upon this voyage the partners divided a profit of two hundred 
 and eleven per cent, it being the only voyage that could hitherto be called 
 really beneficial. 
 
 So large a profit revived the reputation of the East-India trade, not only with 
 the proprietors, but also with the Public in general. Though the term of the 
 privilege was not near expired, the Company were encouraged to apply for a 
 renewal of it ; and the King was now so well disposed to them, that on the 
 31st of May 1609 he gave them a new charter, whereby, in consideration of 
 the honour and advantage conferred upon the nation by the East-India trade, he 
 grants the Company a perpetual continuation of their privileges, with all the 
 powers, &c. contained in the original charter. 
 
 The Company, encouraged by so favourable a charter, built the greatest 
 ship that had ever been constructed in England for the merchant service, being 
 of the burthen of a thousand tuns *. The King, attended by his nobles, 
 witnessed the launch, and gave her the name of the Trade's increase. When 
 
 . * Some accounts make her uoo tuns, and some even 1200. I have followed Purchas, the 
 earliest author by whom she is mentioned. 
 
 she
 
 88 THECOMMERCEOFTHE 
 
 she was afloat, the King and his retinue were entertained onboard her with a 
 magnificent dinner, provided by the Company, and served in dishes and plates 
 of China ware, which was then quite new in England. 
 
 The Company, having raised a capital of ^80,163 for the sixth voyage, 
 dispatched their fleet in the spring of the year 1 6 1 o, consisting of the Trade's 
 increase, the Peppercorn, and the Darling, together with a bark to attend them 
 as a victualer as long as should be necessary, the whole being under the com- 
 mand of Sir Henry Middleton. The principal object of this voyage was to 
 establish an advantageous trade in the Red Sea, where, it was said, woolen 
 goods, metals, and other British merchandize, might be sold with good profit, 
 or exchanged for India goods with merchants from various parts of India. At 
 Mocha, a port in the Red Sea, Sir Henry and a number of his people were 
 treacherously seized by the Aga, or Governor, of the town, and sent up the 
 country to the Pacha as prisoners. Sir Henry, being remanded by the Pacha 
 to Mocha, recovered his own and his people's liberty by a stratagem, and then 
 compelled the Aga to make compensation for his damages under the penalty of 
 having his town battered about his ears. 
 
 He next proceeded to Surat, where he found a strong fleet of the Portuguese, 
 whose hostilities obliged him to use force to obtain a trifling trade with the 
 natives. He afterwards returned to the Red Sea, where he seized several of 
 the country vessels, and obliged them to indemnify him for the disappointment 
 of his voyage ; a mode of proceeding then thought allowable by the laws of 
 war. Thence he again steered eastward for Tecoa in Sumatra, at which place, 
 and at Bantam, he loaded the Peppercorn with pepper, and dispatched her for 
 London, where she arrived on the 20th of October 16 14. Sir Henry remained 
 with the Trade's increase to repair the damage she had suffered by getting upon 
 a rock : but that noble ship oversetting, when on the careen in Bantam road, 
 was totally destroyed * in the year 1613, and Sir Henry soon after died of 
 grief f. 
 
 The partners in this voyage, notwithstanding the grievous delays and losses 
 it was subjected to, received a profit of ^121 13 4 upon every ^100 of 
 their capital. 
 
 The seventh voyage was undertaken with a capital of only ^15,364, with 
 a single ship called the Globe, under the direction of two merchants, who had 
 
 * In Captain Peyton's Journal she is said to are here noticed in order to connect the eventi 
 
 have been burnt by the people of Java. [Pur- of the sixth voyage, though they will neces- 
 
 chai, L. iiii, c. 15, § 2.] sarily appear again in the account of the eighth 
 
 f The loss of the ship and Sir Henry's death voyage. 
 
 been
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 89 
 
 been in India in the Dutch service. The intention of this voyage was to 
 establish a trade on the coast of Coromandel for calicoes, which were to be 
 carried to the Oriental islands, where they are much in request ; and it was 
 also proposed to bring home a few of them for a trial. On the 5th of January 
 1 6 1 o- 1 1 they sailed from Gravesend. Finding the Dutch in possession of a 
 grant of exclusive trade at Pulicat, the first port they made, they sailed for 
 Pettapole and Masulipatnam, where they were treacherously used by the Gov- 
 ernor. Thence they proceeded to Bantam, Siam, and some other countries ; 
 and, after several trips, they returned to Bantam, where they took in a cargo, 
 and sailing thence, arrived in England in the summer of the year 161 5. 
 
 This voyage produced a profit of 2 1 8 per cent to the proprietors. 
 
 The capital subscribed for the eighth voyage was ^55,947. The ships 
 employed were the Clove, the Hector, and the Thomas, which sailed in April 
 161 1, under the command of Captain Saris. They were provided with a pass, 
 or safe-conduct, from the Turkish Emperor, ordering all his Governors to 
 receive them in a friendly manner, and to allow them to have freedom of trade. 
 Being thus, as they imagined, insured of a kind reception, they arrived at 
 Mocha, and had a prospect of friendship and trade, when the second arrival 
 of Sir Henry Middleton in the Red Sea, as already noticed in the account of 
 the sixth voyage, interrupted the amicable intercourse. 
 
 Sir Henry being determined to be revenged of the Turks, there could be no 
 trade with the shore. The two chief commanders therefor agreed to act with 
 united counsels and united force, their purpose being to stop all the vessels 
 arriving from India, and to oblige them to barter their Indian commodities in 
 exchange for English merchandize, transacting the whole business upon the 
 water : and, as their ships belonged to separate voyages, it was agreed, that 
 Sir Henry for the sixth voyage should be concerned for two thirds, and 
 Captain Saris for the eighth for one third, of all their conjunct forced trade. 
 
 After having done as much business as they thought proper in this manner, 
 they sailed for Bantam, where two of the ships were loaded with pepper, with 
 which they returned to England. 
 
 Captain Saris proceeded in the Clove to Japan, with a view to open a trade 
 with that country. Touching at the Moluccos on his way, he found the natives 
 desirous of selling their cloves to him ; but they were prevented by the Dutch, 
 who asserted that the islands belonged to them by right of conquest, and that 
 the natives were bound to sell all their produce to them. He arrived in Japan 
 in June 161 3, and was very kindly received by the Emperor and several inferior 
 
 n Kings
 
 9 o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Kings and Viceroys. The Emperor gave him a charter, granting the Company 
 every privilege they could wish with respect to trade, such as exemption from 
 custom duties, the liberty of establishing a factory, assistance in case of ship- 
 wreck, and preservation of the property of any of the English merchants, who 
 might die in his dominions *. Captain Saris, having completed his business, 
 and settled a factory, returned to Bantam, and loaded his ship with pepper for 
 England, where he arrived in September 1 6 1 4. 
 
 The gentlemen concerned in this voyage cleared a profit of 2 1 1 per cent. 
 
 The Company's factors, settled in Japan, endeavoured to open a trade with 
 Corea and China, but without success, though the English were highly extolled 
 in all the Oriental countries for their victories in the war against the Spaniards, 
 whose cruelties had rendered them universally odious. 
 
 The capital employed in the ninth voyage was only ^19,164 ; and there was 
 dispatched only a single ship, the James, Captain Marlow, who sailed in 
 February 1611-12 for Bantam, and, after making several country voyages, 
 arrived in England in August 161 5, having made a profit of 160 per cent for 
 the proprietors. 
 
 While some of the members of the Company were dispatching the James, 
 some others entered into a subscription for another voyage, which is reckoned 
 the tenth. The capital engaged in this adventure was ^46,092, with which 
 they fitted out two ships, the Dragon and the Hosiander, under the command 
 of Captain Best, a brave and prudent ofEcer. A principal object of this voyage 
 was to remove the bad impression made upon the mind of the Great Mogul by 
 Sir Henry Middleton's treatment of his subjects in the Red Sea. 
 
 Captain Best with great address accomplished the object of his mission in 
 obtaining the good will of the Great Mogul, who granted him a firmaun 
 (charter), whereby — Middleton's transactions were consigned to oblivion. — The 
 Mogul agreed to receive an English Ambassador to reside at his Court. — On the 
 arrival of any English subjects at Surat, notice shall be given to the people of 
 the country, who shall have full liberty to come to trade with them. — English 
 merchandize shall pay custom at the rate of three and a half per cent on the 
 value. — The property of Englishmen dying in the country shall be faith- 
 fully preserved for those who have a right to it. — The persons and property of 
 Englishmen shall be warranted against the hostility of the Portuguese, failing 
 
 * The charter in the original language and character, with an English translation, may be seen 
 in Purcbat's Pilgrimes, Z-.iiii, c. I, § 7. 
 
 which,
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 91 
 
 which, compensation shall be made by the country. — The Company's people 
 or property shall not be made answerable for any acts of piracy committed by 
 lawless English seamen, with whom they have no connection. 
 
 The Portuguese, in support of their pretensions to the sole empire of the 
 Indian seas, attacked Captain Best's two ships with a fleet of four galleons and 
 twenty-six smaller vessels, called frigates. In repeated engagements, during 
 several days, the Portuguese were constantly defeated, to the great joy and 
 utter astonishment of the people of India, who had till now thought the Port- 
 uguese invincible. 
 
 From Surat Captain Best proceeded to Acheen, where he also obtained the 
 favour of the King of the country, who confirmed all the privileges formerly 
 granted to Captain Lancaster. After trading in several ports of Sumatra, he 
 completed his cargo with pepper, &c. and arrived in the Thames on the 1 5th of 
 June 1 6 14. 
 
 This voyage afforded the gentlemen concerned in it a profit of 148 
 per cent. 
 
 A party of the Company made a stock of ^10,669 for sending a ship to 
 bring home the remaining property of the adventurers in the third and fifth 
 voyages. The ship sailed from the Thames along with those of the ninth and 
 tenth voyages, which, being all on separate accounts, are so numbered, this 
 being reckoned the eleventh. This voyage, being made direct, both outward 
 and homeward, was completed in twenty months, and afforded a profit of 
 340 per cent. 
 
 The twelfth voyage was undertaken chiefly for the purpose of carrying out 
 Sir Robert Shirley, who had been sent as Ambassador to King James from the 
 King, or Sophi, of Persia. The stock employed was only ^7,142 ; and there 
 was only one ship, the Expedition of 260 tuns, commanded by Captain New- 
 port, which sailed in January 1612-13. Having landed Sir Robert and his 
 retinue at Diu in Guzerat, they had to encounter the malice of the Portuguese, 
 who impudently asserted that Sir Robert was a pirate, and that the passport, 
 which had been obtained for him from the King of Spain, was forged. As no 
 liberty of trade could be obtained at Diu, Captain Newport sailed for Sumatra 
 and Bantam, at which places he loaded pepper, and returned to England in 
 July 16 14. 
 
 The members of the Company engaged in this voyage, which was the last 
 one that was conducted as a separate concern, had a profit of ^133 18 4 
 on every ^ 1 00 of their capital. 
 
 n 2 The
 
 92 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 The whole of the capitals employed in all the twelve voyages amounted only 
 to .€464,284, which sum was laid out as follows. 
 In merchandize £ 62,41 1, being in each voyage on an average . £ 5,201 
 
 bullion . . 138,127 ...... . 11,510 
 
 ships, stores, ? 2 g 6 2I , 979 
 
 provisions, &c. 3 J/ 
 
 €464,284 .€38,690 
 
 The average profit of the whole voyages was 138 per cent. But, in order 
 to guard against any erroneous idea, which might be conceived of that profit, 
 compared with what can be made in the present day, it is necessary that the 
 reader should bear in mind, that the voyages were never made in less than 
 twenty months, and were oftener extended to three or four years ; that in the 
 profits of each voyage there were included all the accumulated profits of numer- 
 ous barters and sales in a great variety of trips from one part of India to another, 
 which were very considerable ; that the Company built their own ships, made 
 their own masts, sails, and cordage, killed and salted their own meat, and 
 thereby kept within themselves all the profits, which, on the enlarged scale of 
 their commerce, they now find it more prudent to relinquish to people who 
 exercise those various branches of business ; that, after the arrival of the goods 
 from India, they were sold at long credits of eighteen months and two years ; 
 and that, owing to the irregularity of the factors in keeping and transmitting 
 their accounts, the concerns of a voyage could not be finally adjusted sooner 
 than in six or eight years. Taking the duration of the concern at a medium 
 of seven years, the profit appears to be somewhat under twenty per cent per 
 annum, which, when the current rate of interest was eight per cent, was 
 scarcely an adequate premium for the risk the adventurers ran in establishing 
 a new trade in unknown countries, and would perhaps be reduced to a level 
 with the common interest of the time, if the expense of insurance were 
 deducted. 
 
 Hitherto the East-India trade had scarcely deserved to be considered as a 
 national object. But the importance of it began now to be better understood ; 
 and proper measures were concerted for conducting it on a more extended 
 scale. The erroneous policy of making every voyage a separate concern, in 
 which each individual partner of the Company might subscribe as much or as 
 little as he pleased, or nothing at all, was now apparent. The Dutch, with 
 that keen perception of their interest, which forms the most prominent trait of 
 
 their
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 93 
 
 their national character, having soon become sensible of this inconvenience, 
 had united their interests in one common stock, and conducted their business 
 as a single concern ; while the various factories of the English Company were 
 pursuing their separate interests in India with all the eagerness of rivalship 
 which might be expected in the agents of different nations ; and the natives of 
 the country, with great astonishment and satisfaction, saw Englishmen under- 
 selling and overbuying each-other in the same market, a circumstance, which 
 they could not be so blind as to neglect turning to their own advantage, as they 
 had not the same urgent motives to be in haste, either to buy or sell, that the 
 English had, when their ships were lying at a heavy expense. 
 
 At home similar inconveniencies were felt in the competition of the sales 
 of East-India goods. The evil of competition was further increased by a 
 custom of sometimes dividing the merchandize imported among the several 
 individual proprietors : and, as the dividends were made either in that manner, 
 or by sharing the money arising from public sales, it might sometimes happen, 
 that the private emolument of some leading person concerned prevailed over 
 the general interest of the community in determining which mode of division 
 should be adopted. 
 
 The Company having come to a resolution to have no more concern in 
 separate voyages, they opened a subscription in the year 1613 for conducting 
 the trade upon a joint stock, all the voyages being henceforth for account 
 of the whole Company as one united body : and, that they might have the 
 opportunity of regulating their subsequent conduct as circumstances should 
 direct, they agreed to limit the duration of the joint capital to four years. The 
 stock thus subscribed amounted to ^418,691, to be paid in by equal install- 
 ments in each of the four years. 
 
 The first fleet equipped upon the joint-stock account, consisting of four good 
 ships under the command of Captain Downton, sailed in March 161 3-14. 
 When they arrived in India, the Great Mogul and the Princes of the Deccan 
 had united their forces in order to expell the Portuguese from the country ; and 
 the Mogul's General requested of Captain Downton to assist him with his ships. 
 But, as the King of Great Britain was at peace with the King of Spain, who 
 was also the Sovereign of Portugal, he refused to act offensively against them. 
 The Portuguese, in return for a conduct so favourable to themselves, found 
 means to make the Mogul General believe that the English had promised to 
 join them in an attack upon Surat. But their acdons very soon undeceived 
 him ; for, when the English were beginning to trade with the natives, they 
 
 were
 
 g+ THECOMMERCEOFTHE 
 
 were attacked by the Portuguese Viceroy with six galleons, three ships, and 
 sixty frigates, which were all repeatedly beat off by the small English squadron 
 of four ships *. This splendid victory was of great service to the Company's 
 interest in subsequent transactions with the Mogul. 
 
 Captain Downton, having taken onboard a parcel of goods belonging to the 
 twelfth voyage on separate account, and a considerable quantity of indigo in 
 return for goods carried out by himself, departed from Guzerat ; and, sending 
 one of his ships home, proceeded with the others for Bantam, where he pro- 
 cured mace, and also silk and porcelain, which he sent in one of the ships, 
 with six merchants, to establish a factory at Masulipatnam. 
 
 In their transactions among the Oriental islands the Company's commanders 
 and factors found the Dutch as hostile to their interest as the Portuguese. 
 Those people, though they owed their existence as an independent nation to 
 the English, and though they were very happy to join their forces in India 
 with those of the English Company in curbing the domineering power of the 
 Portuguese in that quarter of the world, having now obtained settlements in 
 some of the islands, were no less eager to exclude the English from India than 
 the Portuguese were for excluding both English and Dutch. 
 
 The Company had to defend themselves against the attacks of enemies at 
 home as well as in India. A pamphlet, published in the very infancy of the 
 trade, had charged them with draining the country of silver, destroying the 
 lives of seamen, &c. It was immediately replied to, and its arguments com- 
 pletely confuted, by Sir William Monson, a veteran officer of approved knowlege 
 and experience in maritime affairs. 
 
 In the year 1 6 1 5 the same charges were re-iterated in another pamphlet, 
 written with such virulence, that the Attorney-general pronounced it a most 
 scandalous libel, full of dangerous and treasonable doctrines, for which, he 
 said, it ought to be suppressed by authority, and the author prosecuted. This 
 attack was also ably repelled by Sir Dudley Digges, one of the Committees of 
 the Company, in a treatise called ' The Defence of trade,' wherein he showed 
 that the exports of India goods from England in one year exceeded the value of 
 bullion exported to India in many years, and that the nation saved ^70,000 
 annually in the price of pepper and other spices, and was moreover greatly 
 benefited by the increase of the customs, and the employment of large ships and 
 
 * I relate this wonderful victory from Captain Downton's own journal, as published by 
 Purchas. 
 
 great
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 95 
 
 great numbers of seamen. He stated the cost of the investment for the year 
 
 1614 as follows. 
 
 Woolen goods, dyed and completely finished .... ^14,000 
 Lead, iron, and foreign merchandize ..... 1 0,000 
 
 24,000 
 Bullion, being much less than is allowed by the charter . . 12,000 
 
 Ships and stores ...... ^34,000 
 
 Victuals and other charges . L . . 30,000 
 
 36,000 
 64,000 
 
 ^100,000 
 Nor was it only by the pen that the Company's interest was attacked. Some 
 unworthy Englishmen were preparing to fit out two ships from Brest for India, 
 under a commission from the King of France ; but by the vigilance of the Court 
 of Committees, and the assistance of Government, they were prevented.— 
 A voyage from Ireland to India was also projected, which, being supposed to 
 be intended for a piratical cruise against the vessels of the natives, was re- 
 monstrated against by the Court of Committees, as injurious to the Company, 
 and disgraceful to the English character. — Sir John Fern and others were also 
 suspected of intending a similar piratical expedition into the Red Sea. 
 
 The Company had for several years appointed some of their own merchants 
 to reside as their representatives at the Court of the Great Mogul : but thinking 
 that an Ambassador from the King would be more favourably received by that 
 Monarch, they requested his Majesty to appoint one, offering themselves to pay 
 all the charges. The King commissioned Sir Thomas Roe for the embassy, 
 who embarked in January 1 614-15 with the second fleet, which sailed on the 
 joint-stock account. In September they arrived at Surat, and landed the Am- 
 bassador and his suite, who proceeded thence to the Imperial Court, where Sir 
 Thomas did essential service to the Company by obtaining favourable grants for 
 the establishment of factories at Surat, Cambay, and other places, and a general 
 firmaun for free trade in every part of the Mogul's dominions. The Company 
 were so well satisfied with the services done to them during his residence of 
 several years at the Mogul Court, that, on his return home in the year 1 6 1 9, they 
 complimented him with an honourary seat in the Court of Committees, and more- 
 over settled an allowance of ^200 a-year * upon him as a token of their esteem, 
 
 * This allowance must not be appretiated by the value of ^200 in the nineteenth century. 
 
 From
 
 96 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 From Surat the fleet sailed south to Calicut, where Captain Keeling, the 
 commander in chief, in March 1 615-16 entered into a treaty with the Sovereign, 
 called the Zamorin, for delivering the fort of Cranganore to the Company as 
 soon as he should take it from the Portuguese, and also the fort and town of 
 Cochin, when he should recover it by the assistance of the English, and for 
 liberty of trade without paying any customs *. 
 
 The Company now possessed factories at 
 Bantam -\ 
 
 > in Java. 
 
 
 Jacatra, afterwards called Batavia 
 
 Japara 
 
 Acheen 
 
 Jambee 
 
 Tecoa 
 
 Banda .... 
 
 Benjarmassing 
 
 Socodania 
 
 Firando .... 
 
 Surat 
 
 Amadavad 
 
 Agra 
 
 Azmere, or Agimere 
 
 Brampore, or Burampore 
 
 Calicut .... 
 
 Masulipatnam 
 
 Petapoli 
 
 Siam .... 
 
 Patan .... 
 
 Macassar .... 
 
 }■ 
 
 in Sumatra. 
 
 in the Banda islands, 
 in Borneo, 
 in Japan. 
 
 1. 
 
 r" in the Mogul's dominions. 
 
 J 
 } 
 
 on the Malabar coast, 
 on the Coromandel coast. 
 
 the capital of the kingdom of Siam. 
 
 in Malacca. 
 
 in the island of Celebes. 
 
 The quarrels between the English and Dutch in India had now gone to 
 such an excess as to demand the attention and interposition of the respective 
 Governments in Europe. Commissioners were accordingly appointed on both 
 sides to endeavour to settle all differences, and concert a plan for the future 
 
 regulation of the trade. 
 
 * It is worthy of remark, that Captain Pey- 
 ton, who commanded one of the ships in this 
 yoyage, advift d that the rudders of ships going 
 to India should be sheathed with thin copper to 
 
 prevent the worms from eating off the edges, 
 which injures the ship's steering. [See bis Journal 
 in Purchas, Z.iiii, c. 15, § 2.] So copper sheath- 
 ing was thought of about two centuries ago. 
 
 The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 9T 
 
 The Dutch Commissioners proposed that the two East-India Companies 
 should be united, in order to carry on the trade in India as a joint concern. 
 By means of such an union they alleged that a stock of about one hundred 
 and twenty thousand pounds would be sufficient to make a yearly return in the 
 article of spices only to the amount of five or six hundred thousand pounds ; 
 and proper care could be taken to proportion the importation to the demand, 
 in order to prevent an undue depression of the prices in Europe. — Unanimity and 
 concert between the English and Dutch would effect a reduction of the customs 
 and other imposts payable in India, and might abolish the very chargeable 
 practice of giving presents to the Princes and courtiers. — It would facilitate the 
 establishment of a factory in China. — It would keep the factors and seamen 
 of both nations in better subordination. — And it would enable them to subdue 
 the Portuguese, the common enemy, and to exclude all others from getting 
 any footing in India. 
 
 Such were the specious and narrow-minded arguments adduced by the 
 Dutch : but the English Company could not be persuaded to approve of the 
 proposed union. They observed that the Molucco islands, producing the 
 spices, which are the chief object of the Dutch trade, could never yield ad- 
 vantages equal to the charge of maintaining them. — That the trade of the spice 
 islands, of which the Dutch offered them a participation, was not equally va- 
 luable with that of the Malabar coast, in which the Dutch, in the event of 
 the proposed union, must be admitted to participate. — That the Dutch were 
 very desirous to have their assistance to drive the Spaniards, and their subjects 
 the Portuguese, out of the Indian seas : but that the English Company did con- 
 sider warlike operations, unless in self-defence, not to be the business of 
 merchants. —And they thought the scheme of the two nations joining their 
 forces to monopolize the trade of India, to the exclusion of all others, neither 
 honest nor practicable. 
 
 During the four years of the Company's joint-stock trade, their affairs were 
 in such a prosperous state, that in the year 1617 their stock was currently sold 
 at 203 per cent. But a great deal of the property belonging to this concern 
 was not yet brought home ; and, before that could be accomplished, they were 
 subjected to a variety of distresses by the monopolizing spirit and enmity of the 
 Dutch, which obliged them, in order to bring their concerns to some kind of 
 a close, to make over their outstanding stock, at a low valuation, to the pro- 
 prietors of the second joint stock in the year 1621 : and then, on makin^ up 
 their accounts, they found that their whole profits in the eight years amounted 
 only to 874 per cent. 
 
 Before
 
 9 g THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Before I proceed to give an account of the second joint stock, it is proper 
 to observe that the Company resolved to engage in the whale-fishery in the 
 Greenland seas, having, perhaps, some expectation that their whalers might 
 light upon a navigable channel by the northern parts of the world to India ; 
 an expectation that has been kept alive during almost three centuries, and has 
 only lately been demonstrated to be utterly fallacious by the journies of Hearne 
 and Mackenzie across those parts of America in which such a passage was 
 supposed possible. For this purpose they procured some experienced fisher- 
 men from Biscay, the people of that country being, next to the Norwegians, 
 the oldest whale-fishers in Europe. They continued the Greenland whale-fish- 
 ing as a branch of their trade, though I have not learned with what success, 
 nor any particulars of it, till the year 1619, when they agreed with the Russian 
 Company to make a joint concern of it with them. The two Companies sent 
 out nine ships and two pinnaces : but, after carrying on their conjunct fishery 
 for two years, and finding it very unfortunate, they agreed to give it up. 
 
 In the year 16 16, as soon as it was known that the Company proposed to 
 raise a new capital, the flattering prospect of their affairs induced people of all 
 ranks to crowd into the subscription, which, at the time prefixed for closing it, 
 amounted to ^1,629,040, being the largest capital that ever had been hitherto 
 subscribed for a joint-stock trade in any part of the world *. 
 
 It was determined that the duration of this stock, as that of the preceding 
 one, should be limited to four years ; or, to speak more correctly, that the 
 Company should send ships to India during four years, and should bring the 
 accounts to a close as soon as possible after the arrival of the last of them in 
 England. 
 
 The Dutch Company now renewed their proposal for an union, hoping it 
 might be more favourably received by an association containing many new 
 
 * There were nine hundred and fifty-four subscribers, viz. 
 
 15 Dukes and Earls, 
 
 82 Knights, including Judges, Privy counselors, &c. 
 
 1 3 Countesses and other titled ladies, 
 
 18 widows and maiden ladies, 
 
 26 clergymen and physicians, 
 313 merchants, 
 214 tradesmen, 
 
 25 merchant strangers, and 
 248 without any designation. 
 
 954- 
 
 members.
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 99 
 
 members, especially as the King of France had recently united the adventurers 
 of Rouen with the dormant French East-India Company, and the King of Den- 
 mark was also going to establish an East-India Company in his dominions. 
 But the Company, still comprehending the greatest part of the old proprietors, 
 would not listen to it. 
 
 The Dutch Company, highly incensed by the repeated refusal of a connec- 
 tion with them, sent orders to their servants in India to do every thing in then- 
 power to get into their own hands the whole of the pepper of Bantam and 
 Jacatra (afterwards famous by the name of Batavia), at each of which places 
 the English then had a considerable trade with the natives. They also resolved 
 to undersell the English Company in the European markets, regardless of the 
 damage they themselves fhould thereby suffer, which, they trusted, would be 
 only temporary, and be soon repaid with interest, when their rivals should be 
 driven out of the trade. These angry resolutions had no other effect upon 
 the English Company than to render them more vigilant in counteracting the 
 measures of their malicious neighbours. 
 
 The Company, in order to protect their trade against the malevolence of the 
 Dutch, and also to defeat the enterprises of the English interlopers who had 
 now got into the trade, and not only injured the Company in their commercial 
 interests, but also brought disgrace upon the national character by their piratical 
 depredations *, resolved to send out a respectable squadron of six large ships: 
 and they obtained from the King a very ample commission for Sir Thomas 
 Dale, whom they appointed commander in chief, and also for Captain William 
 Parker, whom they destined to succeed to the command in case of the death 
 of Sir Thomas. The King therein empowers the commander to execute martial 
 law in the fleet.— He strictly charges him never to be the aggressor in hostilities 
 against the subjects of any Christian Prince : but he authorizes him to take the 
 persons, ships, and goods, of any who may presume to disturb or hinder the 
 quiet course of the Company's trade, and also to retake the vessels and goods 
 of English subjects seized by foreigners. — As he had, by his letters patent to 
 the Company, strictly prohibited all his other subjects from sailing to the East 
 Indies, he desires Sir Thomas to seize any English ships not belonging to the 
 
 * In September 1617 a large and very rich bery. But providentially their wicked in- 
 
 ship, belonging to the mother of the Great tentions were frustrated, and themselves taken 
 
 Mogul, was chased by two English pirate by some of the Company's ships. This af- 
 
 ships. If they had taken her, the English in- fair was, however, productive of much trouble 
 
 terest in the Mogul's dominions would have to the Company, 
 been utterly ruined by such an atrocious rob- 
 
 » 2 Company,
 
 ioo THECO M M E RC E OF T H E 
 
 Company, which he may meet with in the Indian seas. \_Fadera, V. xvii, 
 p. 5 6.1 
 
 At this time preparations were making tor the establishment of an Indian 
 trade in Scotland, the subjects of which, being totally unconnected with Eng- 
 land in government, were by no means excluded from the trade by the charter 
 granted by their King, as King of England, to the merchants of London, The 
 scheme was so far advanced, that Sir James Cuningham had obtained a patent 
 from the King on the iSth of March 1618. But on the London Company 
 representing to the King, that the patent would be very prejudicial to their trade, 
 he promised to withdraw it on their paying Sir James the expenses he had 
 incurred. 
 
 Several attempts had been made to accommodate the differences and mis- 
 understandings subsisting between the English and Dutch East-India Com- 
 panies ; and a treaty was at length concluded at London on the 7 th of July 
 1 61 9 by eighteen gentlemen commissioned by the King, including several 
 members of the Privy Council and principal members of the English Com- 
 pany on the one part, and ten deputies from the States General * on the other 
 part, whereby it was agreed, — That all bypast offences in the East Indies shall 
 be consigned to oblivion : and all persons, ships, and merchandize, seized by 
 either party, shall be restored. — The servants of both Companies shall be mu- 
 tually aiding and assisting to each-other as good neighbours. — The trade shall 
 be carried on by both Companies with perfect freedom, and with such capital as 
 each shall think proper. — The two Companies shall unite their endeavours to re- 
 duce the custom duties in India, and also to abolish the practice of giving 
 presents. — The Companies shall unite their efforts to reduce the prices of India 
 goods in India, and shall also agree upon the prices, under which they shall 
 not be sold in Europe. — The pepper purchased in Java shall be equally divided 
 between both Companies. — The English Company shall freely enjoy the trade 
 of Pulicate, and shall pay half the expense of the fort and garrison of that 
 place. — In the Molucco islands, Banda, and Amboyna, - the English Company 
 shall have one third of the trade of importation, and they shall also purchase 
 one third of the produce of the islands, the other two thirds being reserved for 
 the Dutch Company. — Each Company shall maintain ten ships of war, from 
 six to eight hundred tuns burthen, each of them carrying one hundred and 
 fifty men, and thirty guns with shot from eight to eighteen pounds, besides 
 
 * Three of the Dutch negotiators were knighted by King James immediately after the ratific- 
 ation of the treaty. [Fadcra, V. xvii, p 175.J 
 
 such
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 101 
 
 such gallies, frigates, and other small vessels, as the Council of defence shall 
 think necessary, the whole to act in conjunction for the protection of the trade 
 of both Companies, to remain in India, and never to be employed in carrying 
 merchandize, unless upon particular emergencies.— The Council of defence 
 shall determine the duties to be paid on the exportation of the produce of the 
 Moluccos, Banda, and Amboyna, for maintaining the forts and garrisons. — 
 The Council of defence shall consist of eight members, being four of the prin- 
 cipal persons in the service of each Company, who shall preside by turns. — 
 All forts shall remain in the hands of their present possessors. — The erection 
 of some forts, proposed by the English Company, fhall be postponed for two 
 or three years, to the end that the number and situation of them may be 
 maturely considered, and determined for the benefit of both Companies. — 
 The forts which shall be acquired in the Moluccos, or any other part of India, 
 shall either be garrisoned by equal numbers of the forces of the two Compa- 
 nies, or they shall be equally divided between the two Companies, as the Coun- 
 cil of defence shall determine. — The Companies shall unite their endeavours to 
 open a trade with China and other places in India by such ways and means as 
 the Council of defence shall direct. — Both Companies shall unite in suppressing 
 all intruders upon the privileges of either, whether English or Dutch ; and the 
 King and the States-General are entreated not to erect any other Companies to 
 interfere in the trade and navigation of India during the term of this treaty. — 
 In case of the death of any of the factors, where there are no other servants 
 of the Company they belong to, their effects shall be carefully preserved by 
 the servants of the other Company for the rightful proprietors. — This treaty 
 shall continue in force twenty years : and in case of any dispute arising, which 
 cannot be determined by the Council in India, the King of Great Britain and 
 the States-General will be pleased to settle it. 
 
 On the 1 6th of July the ratification of the treaty, together with a clause con- 
 taining a promise to erect no other Company for the India trade during the 
 term of it, was signed by King James. [_F<zdera, V. xvii, p. 170.] 
 
 When the news of this agreement, or union, arrived in India in April 1 620, 
 it was received with great rejoicings by the Company's people there. But it did 
 not continue unbroken near as long as it was in making. Indeed, it is very 
 surprising, that thinking people should have expected that such an union could 
 be permanent. 
 
 In December 1620 John Peterson Koen, the Dutch Governor-general, having 
 prepared sixteen ships at Jacatra (now Batavia), where the English at that time 
 had no forces., informed the President of the English factory, that he proposed 
 
 an
 
 ioa THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 an expedition for the advantage of both Companies (but without explaining his 
 design) adding that, as the English had no forces to join with his, he would 
 undertake it with his own. He accordingly proceeded with his fleet to the 
 islands of Lantore and Pulo Roon, both which, as the English Company's 
 servants asserted, had been surrendered by the inhabitants to the King of Great 
 Britain, and took possession of them, treating the few Englishmen they found 
 in them, and also the natives, with the most savage cruelty. 
 
 The Dutch attempted to justify this glaring violation of the recent treaty by 
 alleging that the islands had been surrendered to them in the year 1609 by the 
 natives, who then became bound to sell all their spices to them at a fixed price; 
 that the natives, encouraged by the English, had rebelled against them, and 
 that in subduing the rebels they only vindicated their just rights *. 
 
 Their conduct upon this occasion may be called mild and gentle, if compared 
 with the diabolical massacre at Amboyna. In February 1622-23, on a most 
 improbable pretence, that the English, consisting of about twenty men, had 
 conspired to take the island from the Dutch, who possessed four strong forts, 
 garrisoned by two hundred Dutch soldiers, besides three or four hundred 
 soldiers of the natives, they seized all the Englishmen in Amboyna and the 
 adjacent islands, and murdered the most of them with the mest excruciating 
 tortures that the most infernal malice could devise +• Having accomplished 
 this sacrifice to their thirst of gold, they next insulted the God of mercy and 
 truth by ordering a general thanks- giving to him for their deliverance from a 
 conspiracy, which, they were very conscious, had never existed. 
 
 * The instruments of the surrender of Pulo f The shocking particulars of this infernal 
 Way, Pulo Roon, Wayre, Rosinging, and transaction have been often enough detailed. 
 Lantore, to the King of England may be seen It maybe asked, how they could be known, as 
 in Purchas's Pilgrimes, L. v, c. 14. Without the actors and spectators of the horrid scene 
 inquiring whether such instruments, executed did not give the world an account of it to 
 by people, who most probably had no correct hold themselves up to the detestation of man- 
 idea of the meaning of the transaction, could kind. But, by some unaccountable deviation 
 convey any just right of sovereignty, we may from the system of extirpation, Beaumont, 
 be allowed to observe, that the English had a Collins, and Webber, three of the members of 
 right to the occupancy, which they enjoyed in the English factory, were permitted to survive 
 conjunction with the natives, and with their their tortures ; and by their report, and the 
 good will ; whereas the Dutch had no such written declarations left by some of the suf- 
 right : and, notwithstanding the specious ferers, the infamous story has been recorded, 
 apology they published, it seems impossible The guilt of the Dutch is moreover sufficient- 
 to vindicate them from the charge of most ly apparent from the inconsistencies and sub- 
 atrocious perfidy. terfuges of their own apologies. 
 
 The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 
 
 103 
 
 The Dutch soon after found means to drive the English Company's people 
 out of all the other Spice islands, and plunder all the property found in the 
 factories established in them. The reduced state of the English Company, and 
 the distracted state of the nation during the subsequent reign of King Charles I, 
 prevented any efforts being made to reinstate them in their possessions, which 
 have ever since remained in the hands of the Dutch, till the present universal 
 war has nearly annihilated their power and their commerce in the East. 
 
 These facts may warrant a belief that the Dutch never intended to adhere 
 to the treaty of 1 6 1 9, and that they scarcely ever neglected to make a savage 
 and sanguinary use of their power, wherever they found that they possessed a 
 great superiority of force *. 
 
 In the year 1621 M r Munn, an eminent merchant, and Deputy-Governor 
 of the Company, published, ' A Discourse of trade from England to the 
 ' East Indies,' wherein he gives a particular statement of the annual consump- 
 tion of the following articles in Europe, viz. 
 
 Pepper . . . 6,000,000 pounds, 
 
 450,000, 
 
 Cloves 
 
 Mace 
 
 Nutmegs f 
 
 Indigo 
 
 Raw silk of Persia 
 
 150,000, 
 
 . 400,000., 
 
 350,000, 
 
 1,000,000, 
 
 which, by the old conveyance, partly over land to Aleppo, and thence by sea, 
 would have cost ..... ^1,465,000 
 
 but, when brought by the Cape of Good Hope, cost only . 511,458 
 
 and, when landed in England, they cost only about half the sum they used to 
 cost by the old conveyance : and, moreover, almost the whole price of the 
 goods, and the entire cost of the ships, wages, provisions, insurance, &c. is 
 paid to our own people. 
 
 * I purposely avoid going into any detail 
 of the many bloody battles which were fought 
 about this time between the English and the 
 Dutch. Those who desire to have particular 
 accounts of them may consult Purchas's Pil- 
 grimes — Collection of Voyages from the Harlt'tan 
 library — Lediard's Naval History — Harris's 
 Collection of Voyages — Dodsley's History of the 
 East Indies— Conquete des Isles Moluques, &c. 
 
 f In the infancy of the Ea6t-India trade in 
 England, and for some ages before it, prodi- 
 gious quantities of spices were consumed in 
 Europe in cookery and in preparing expensive 
 drinks, for which the merchants of Venice and 
 Genoa used to receive vast sums. By the 
 change and caprice of fashion the consumption 
 of those luxuries has decreased since the acqui- 
 sition of them has become less chargeable. 
 
 He
 
 ,o 4 THECOMMERCEOFTHE 
 
 He states the value of the Company's joint property at ^400.000. Their 
 trade gives employment to 
 
 10,000 tuns of shipping, 
 2,500 seamen, 
 500 ship-carpenters, caulkers, joiners, &c. 
 and about - 1 20 factors in India. 
 
 The Company expend large sums in relieving the widows of seamen, who 
 have been in their service, and breeding up their children to be useful members 
 of society. 
 
 Such was the state of the India trade and the Company about one hundred 
 and ninety years ago, as represented by M r Munn. 
 
 In the end of the same year the Parliament required the Company to lay 
 
 before them an account of the East-India trade since the commencement of it. 
 
 It appeared from that account that, in twenty-one years preceding the 29th 
 
 of November 1621, the Company had sent eighty-six ships to India; whereof 
 
 there were returned home with cargoes .... 36 
 
 lost ....... 9 
 
 worn out by long service, going from port to port in India 5 
 
 surprised and seized by the Dutch . . . 1 1 
 
 remaining in India, or on their homeward passage . 25 
 
 86 
 
 The Company stated to Parliament that, instead of exporting all the silver 
 
 authorized by their charter, which in the twenty-one years would have 
 
 amounted to ..... ^910,000 
 
 they had sent only ..... 613,681 
 
 and they had exported woolen goods, lead, iron, tin, and other ? 
 
 merchandize, to the amount of . . . . 3 
 
 The cargoes of the 36 ships returned cost in India . . 375,288 
 
 and the proceeds of them in England amounted to . . 2,004,600 
 
 The difference between these two last sums goes for the expanse of ships, 
 
 provisions, and stores, wages of captains, officers, and seamen, rmd of factors, 
 
 payment of his Majefhy's customs and imposts, with a variety of other charges, 
 
 and for the Company's profit ; all the sums so paid being expended within the 
 
 country, which is further greatly enriched by the exportation of India goods, 
 
 whereby more money is returned to England from foreign countries than the 
 
 prime cost of all the India goods imported for the consumption of England and 
 
 the exportation taken together. 
 
 These
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 105 
 
 These two views of the state of the India trade and of the Company, about 
 a hundred and ninety years ago, as given to the Public by an eminent member 
 of the Company, and to the Parliament by the Company officially, are useful 
 and interesting, when compared with similar accounts in the present times, the 
 sales of one year amounting now to about five times as much as those of all 
 the twenty-one years, the increase of shipping, &c. being in proportion. But 
 every thing must have a beginning ; and it is pleasing to contemplate the pro- 
 gress from a small plant to a great and flourishing tree. 
 
 The ready condescension of King James in complying with the requests of 
 his courtiers was frequently productive of uneasiness and damage to the Com- 
 pany. On the 1 4th of September he gave a charter to Sir William Heydon 
 and Charles Glemham, whom he calls servants of the Prince, as being singu- 
 larly qualified to satisfy the desire of the Great Mogul, who had moved him by 
 sundry letters to gratify him with some choise arts and rarities unknown in his 
 own country, as possessing laudable, industrious, and hopeful, means of ac- 
 quiring riches by sea and land, * without giveing just offence to any,' by re- 
 covery of wrecked treasure, pearls, and other riches, in the seas, &c. &c. and 
 they being ready and willing to advance the trade in India, ' as their own oc- 
 ' casions shall permit, or as they shall be desired by our marchants of London 
 * tradeing into the East Indies, their factors or ministers,' they are authorized to 
 send out two ships to the countries between the Cape of Good Hope and the 
 southern extremity of America, and there to sell their goods, and in return 
 to import gold, silver, pearls, jewels, or what they shall think fit, for behoof 
 of themselves and their associates. — They are required, however, not to import 
 certain articles of merchandize, of which they are to get a list from the Privy 
 Council. \_Fadera, V. xvii, p. 407.] 
 
 I do not know, whether this new East-India Company, who were authorized 
 to invade the Company's privilege, and at the same time directed to regulate 
 their conduct as they should be desired by the Company, ever fitted out any 
 vessel for India, their charter, or commisson, being the only notice I have found 
 of their existence. 
 
 The principal object of the Company in establishing a factory in Japan • 
 was to form a commercial intercourse with China, and to carry on a general 
 trade between India, China, and Japan. But, being disappointed in their en- 
 deavours, and finding the trade of Japan not near adequate to the expense at- 
 tending it, they resolved in the year 1623 to withdraw the factory, notwith- 
 
 * See above, p. 90. 
 
 p standing
 
 ,06 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 standing the kind reception given to their people by the Emperor, who in the 
 year 1616 had granted them a second charter, containing privileges for a 
 general trade. 
 
 The Dutch have been accused of attempting about this rime to make a 
 general massacre of the Englishmen at Firando in Japan, who were preserved 
 from their treachery by the friendly interposition of the Japanese. 
 
 The Dutch were not the only enemies the Company's servants had to en- 
 counter in India. The Portuguese, in virtue of having made the first voyage 
 to India by the Cape of Good Hope, pretended to have a right to exclude all 
 other nations from navigating the Indian seas : and, in maintenance of their 
 pretensions, they seized all the English and Dutch vessels they were able to 
 overpower, though the King of Spain, then their Sovereign, was at peace with 
 Great Britain and Holland. In the course of their Indian w.u-fare the Port- 
 uguese suffered many ignominious defeats from the interior forces of the 
 English East-India Company, who always took care to allow them to be the 
 aggressors, agreeable to the terms of their commissions, which enjoined them 
 never to fight, except in their own defence, King James being at peace with all 
 the Christian Princes in Europe. 
 
 The Portuguese, having fortified the island of Ormus, which is situated in 
 the entrance of the Persian Gulf, and commands the navigation of that sea, 
 plundered all vessels belonging to the English or any other nation, who pre- 
 sumed to sail without having their licence. Shah Abbas, the Emperor of Persia, 
 resenting a conduct so insulting and injurious to himself and his subjects, partlv 
 invited, and partly, by having their property within the grasp of his power, 
 compelled, the commanders of the English ships then in the Gulf, and the 
 merchants settled in his dominions, to join his forces in an attack upon Ormus ; 
 and he promised, that, in case of success, the place should be put into the 
 Company's hands, and that they should receive one half of the customs of the 
 port, on condition that they should keep the Gulf clear from pirates. The 
 island was taken in May 1622 ; and it was reported, though erroneously, that 
 the Company's share of the booty amounted to a large sum *. After the cap- 
 ture of Ormus the seat of the trade was removed to Gombroon on the main 
 land of Persia ; and the Company enjoyed the revenue of the customs, agree- 
 able to the stipulation, till a war broke out between the Emperor of Persia and 
 
 * Purchas, in a marginal note on p. 1805, V. i, p. 104] and others make the plunder so 
 
 tays, 4 I have heard that the English had for prodigiously great, that, they say, the money 
 
 * this service of the King of Persia 20,000 was not counted, but measured out by boat- 
 
 ' pounds.' But Hamilton [Hut. of India, loads. 
 
 the
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 107 
 
 the Great Mogul, when the customs were resigned to the Emperor for an 
 annual payment of ^3,000 sterling. 
 
 In the year 1624 the Company, understanding that the Portuguese were pre- 
 paring a fleet for the purpose of taking revenge for the loss of Ormus, ordered 
 a respectable fleet to be fitted out for India, which might be able to maintain 
 their conquest. But when the ships were ready to sail, the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham, Lord High Admiral of England, obtained an order of Parliament to 
 lay an embargo upon them, whereby he compelled the Company to pay him 
 ^10,000, before they could get leave to dispatch their fleet*. 
 
 About the same time the Company were attacked in Parliament, chiefly upon 
 the charge of draining the country of money to the amount, as was alleged, of 
 ^80,000 yearly f. On this occasion a paper was printed and circulated among 
 the members, wherein the charges against the Company were stated and an- 
 swered with briefness and perspicuity. 
 
 The following are the charges. 
 
 I) The Company export the treasure of the kingdom, whereby it is im- 
 poverished. 
 
 II) They destroy the timber of the country by building exceeding great 
 ships. 
 
 III) There is a decay of mariners by means of their voyages. 
 
 To these charges the author of the paper made the following answers. 
 
 I) The Company export no other money than foreign silver, procured 
 from other countries, agreeable to their charter, which expressly prohibits them 
 from exporting the coin of this kingdom. If they did not purchase the 
 Spanish coins, the merchants, who import them, would find another market for 
 them. If the Government shall think proper to dissolve the Company, the 
 Dutch will immediately get possession of their trade, and will purchase all the 
 foreign money now procured by the Company, whereby our nation will forego 
 the honour and advantage flowing from the trade. The silver exported by 
 them is not near so much as their charter authorizes them to carry out : and it 
 is expected that the quantity of it will be still less in future, partly owing to the 
 united efforts of the English and Dutch Companies to reduce the prices of 
 
 * When Buckingham was impeached in the f This sum, alleged to be annually exported 
 
 year 1626, this was one of the charges brought by the Company, is equal to about two thirds 
 
 against him. His answer was, that much of the whole bullion really exported by them 
 
 more was due to him, and that he had expend- in all their twelve first voyages, and about 
 
 ed the whole sum, except SS200, upon the seven times as much as was exported in theyear 
 
 King's navy. 1614. See above, pp. 92, 95. 
 
 p 2 ludia
 
 k>8 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 India goods, rmd partly to an agreement made by the factors with the Persians, 
 that they shall receive one third in money and two thirds in English or India 
 merchandize in exchange for their commodities. Neither is the money export- 
 ed by the Company sunk without a return ; for much more money is brought 
 into the country for the surplus of the India goods imported, which can be 
 spared after supplying the consumption of the kingdom, than the original cost 
 of the whole. And when the importation of Persian raw silk, indigo, and cal- 
 ico, shall be enlarged, of which there is a good prospect, vast sums will be 
 saved to the country, which are now sent to France and Italy for silk only *. 
 
 II) Timber cannot possibly be employed in any nobler service than in build- 
 ing ships. . Wherever timber is cut down, new trees arise ; but the demand for 
 timber has made no advance in the price during fifteen years past. Besides, if 
 timber is not cut down when it has attained its full growth, it afterwards decays. 
 The larger the ships are which the Company build, the more capable they 
 are of being serviceable to the state upon any emergency : and, in answer to 
 the objection that the Company's ships are not at hand when they may be 
 wanted, it is to be remembered, that the only use of ships is to move from port 
 to port ; that no enemy can ever carry on his designs so secretly as to prevent 
 intelligence of his preparations from transpiring, and the Company's ships, 
 which commonly require four months to get them ready for sailing, can be 
 stayed, if they are wanted for the service of the state. Moreover, for the use 
 of their ships they constantly keep in readiness a magazine of stores suitable for 
 ships of war, to the value of ^30,000, of which the state can have the use in 
 case of any sudden necessity. 
 
 * From the general diffusion of a more en- gold and silver, which Spain and Portugal 
 
 lightened system of political econonw in the have drawn from their American mines, could 
 
 present day, it may be thought that the soli- have been retained by the operation of their 
 
 citude of the Company to repell the charge of injudicious laws within their own peninsula, 
 
 draining the country of the pretious metals What would be the consequence ? — A loaf of 
 
 was superfluous. But in the middle ages, and bread would cost a hundred dollars on the south 
 
 even down to our own younger days, gold aud side of the Pyrenean mountains, and less than 
 
 silver, jewels and pearls, were supposed the the tenth part of one dollar on the north side 
 
 most valuable things in the world, and the of them. — Whoever does not know that the 
 
 legislators of almost every part of Europe pretious metals, like water, must and will find 
 
 made laws to force them into their own coun- their natural level, knows nothing of political 
 
 try, and to confine them within it ; whereas, in economy, and is utterly unqualified to form an 
 
 reality, they are of themselves among the least opinion upon the national advantages or disad- 
 
 valuable of our possessions. Let us for a vantages attending the possession of gold and 
 
 moment suppose (though it is an absolute im- silver, 
 possibility) that all the innumerable millions of 
 
 III) The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 109 
 
 III) The trade of the Company greatly increases the number of mariners ; 
 and their navigators are eminent for the superiority of their skill and experience, 
 in consequence of the greater length of their voyage, and the greater variety 
 of climates, currents, and periodical winds, which their business has rendered 
 familiar to them. The Dutch East-India ships carry out many more men than 
 the Company's ships. Moreover, the Company take landsmen for a third, some- 
 times a half, of the complement of every ship, and these in time become sea- 
 men, whereby the number of English seamen is not decreased, as is alleged, 
 but on the contrary augmented, not merely by the number of landsmen con- 
 verted into seamen, but by the whole number of men employed in the India 
 trade, which is a new, and additional, fund of employment for them. Neither 
 are these the only means by which the East-India trade has augmented the na- 
 tional stock of seamen : the exportation of the surplus merchandize of India to 
 various parts of Europe gives employment to many vessels and seamen, 
 and thereby makes a further important addition to the commerce and naval 
 strength of the kingdom. 
 
 In Parliament it was stated, that the consumption of the country requires only 
 one quarter of the goods imported from India, and that the raw silk, dye-stuffs, 
 and other raw materials, which constitute a considerable part of that quarter, 
 give employment to our own people ; that the remaining three quarters are ex- 
 ported, and more India goods are now carried from England to the Mediterra- 
 nean than used to be brought from it to England, whereby, besides employing 
 shipping and seamen, great benefits accrue to the merchants and to the 
 country in general. — That, instead of paying ^500,000 annually to. Holland 
 and France for linens *, lawns, and cambrics, half the consumption of those 
 articles is now superseded by the use of India calicoes ; and foreigners now pay 
 us money for the cloths they formerly received in payment for those goods. — 
 It is alleged that a great deal of money is thrown away for Indian spices : but 
 Indian spices were bought before we imported them ; and, if we shall cease 
 from importing them, they will still be bought ; but then they will cost the 
 nation five times as much as they now cost, and that mostly in ready money. — 
 Lastly, his Majesty's customs are very much augmented by the India trade and 
 the other branches of trade connected with it, or dependent upon it, whereby 
 the nation at large is benefited, even when the Company themselves happen to 
 be losers. 
 
 * It was not till many years after the time now under our consideration, that the Irish and Scots 
 were persuaded to consider the linen manufacture as their national staple. 
 
 At
 
 no THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 At the same time there was laid before the House of Commons the 
 following 
 
 Abstract of the trade with the East Indies from the 25th of March 1620 to the 
 
 2 5th of March 1 624. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 10 
 
 Value of Export*. 
 
 Bullion £ 62,490 
 
 Merchandize 28,508 
 
 90,998 
 
 Bullion . . 
 Merchandize 
 
 12,900 
 6,523 
 
 I9>4 2 3 
 
 Bullion . . 61,600 
 Merchandize 6,430 
 
 68,030 
 
 Bullion . . 
 Merchandize 
 
 68,720 
 17.345 
 
 86,065 
 
 £264,516 
 
 Years. 
 
 162O 
 
 1621 
 
 1622 
 
 1623 
 
 Value of Imporu. 
 
 All the ships detained in India to 
 defend the Company's property 
 against the Dutch, except one, 
 which brought home indigo, cal- 
 icoes, drugs, &c. to the value of £ 108,887 
 
 The money being wasted in the quar- 
 rel with the Dutch, only one ship 
 returned, loaded with pepper, 
 cloves, and China raw silk, value 
 
 Cargoes of 5 ships, consisting of 
 
 pepper, cloves, mace, nutmegs, 
 
 gum-lack, indigo, calicoes, &c. 
 
 £ 296,500 
 
 Persian raw silk . . 93,000 
 
 944.64 
 
 389,500 
 
 Pepper, cloves, mace, nutmegs, in- 
 digo, calicoes, &c. brought in 5 
 ships . . . £485,593 
 
 Persian raw silk . . 97,000 
 
 582»593 
 Received from the Dutch } 
 
 for property plundered \ 80,000 
 
 by them in India J 
 
 662,593 
 
 * 1,255,444 
 
 Returns expected to arrive in the 
 
 years 1624 to the amount of - £500,000 
 
 If the Company had been able to carry on their trade unmolested by the Dutch, the return! 
 in these four year would have been £600,000 more. 
 
 In India the Dutch still availed themselves of their superior power to oppress 
 and insult the servants of the English Company, who, having received little or 
 no support from Government, suffered damage from the hostility of their worthy 
 
 Dutch
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. mi 
 
 Dutch allies to the amount of about two millions. In consequence of this 
 unfavourable state of their affairs, they found themselves indebted at home to 
 the amount of ^200,000, and had serious thoughts of calling home their 
 property from India, and bringing their affairs to a final close. 
 
 These thoughts were suspended by the circumstance of three Dutch ships 
 from India, having onboard some of the perpetrators of the massacre of 
 Amboyna, being seized at Portsmouth in September 1627. The Company 
 requested an order from the Privy Council for apprehending the murderers, 
 which was granted by the Council, but kept back by their secretary till two of 
 the criminals made their escape. The Company, being discouraged by this man- 
 agement, and unable to come to any determination respecting the continuance 
 or discontinuance of their trade, in the mean time gave permission to such of 
 their members, as chose to adventure, to ship cloth and tin for Persia on their 
 own separate account. 
 
 The time limited for the duration of the second joint stock having expired at 
 Christmass 1627, a motion was made on the 21st of January following for 
 raising a new stock ; but the proposal was not sufficiently supported to be carried 
 into effect. 
 
 The Company, having been much aspersed about this time by injurious 
 representations of the nature and tendency of their trade, endeavoured to bring 
 the matter to a crisis by a petition to Parliament, wherein they prayed, that, 
 if the House should find the trade detrimental to the kingdom in general, it 
 might be abolished ; but, if it should appear to be advantageous, it might be 
 supported and encouraged by a declaration of Parliament in its favour *. Un- 
 fortunately the consideration of the petition was prevented by a sudden dissol- 
 ution of Parliament. 
 
 The threatening aspect of public affairs, and the unpromising appearance of 
 the Company's trade, reduced the price of their stock in May 1628 so low as 
 eighty per cent. 
 
 The attempt for raising a third general joint stock having failed, a subscrip- 
 tion was opened in December 1628 for a particular voyage to Persia and India, 
 the accounts of which were to be kept distinct from all others. A small capital 
 
 * From this petition we learn, that in the thought to merit the thanks of the nation for 
 year 1626 the Company had erected mills and establishing the manufacture, 
 housesfor making gun-powder from the saltpetre The petition, which was drawn up by M' 
 
 imported by them, agreeable to a license from Munn in April 1628, being esteemed a masterly 
 the King ; that thirty barrels were made weekly composition, was reprinted in the year 1641, 
 at those mills ; and that the Company were on occasion of a fresh attack being then made 
 
 upon the Company. 
 
 Of
 
 112 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 of ^40,000 was raised by thirty subscribers, eight of whom were assumed into 
 the court of Committees. Two more such subscriptions for particular voyages 
 were afterwards made: and in May 1631 a fourth subscription was opened; 
 but, only j£i 1,000 being subscribed, it was dropt. 
 
 After several unavailing attempts to raise a third stock, it was at length 
 accomplished in the year 1 63 1 ; or, more correctly speaking, the subscribers 
 then resolved to go on as well as they could, rather than allow the trade to be 
 lost to the nation, though the sum subscribed amounted only to ^420,000. 
 The subscribers purchased the outstanding concerns of the proprietors of the 
 second stock in India and England at a valuation of twelve and a half per cent. 
 This bargain exhausted nearly one half of their capital ; and they saw no very 
 encouraging prospect of the employment of the remainder of it, as the powef 
 and insolence of the Dutch were still increasing in India, and nothing was done 
 in Europe or India, either by negotiation or by force, to curb their malevolence, 
 except by the Company's own forces, who were no match for the Dutch in the 
 Oriental seas. But they suffered no less severely by the machination of their 
 opponents at home. 
 
 On the 1 2th of December 1635 King Charles granted a charter to Sir 
 William Courten and his associates, authorizing them to send six ships, under 
 the command of Captain Weddell, to Goa, Malabar, China, and Japan, and 
 to trade during five years to the best advantage of themselves and all his other 
 subjects, alleging, as a reason for establishing this new Company, that the 
 old Company had neglected planting, settling colonies, and making fortifications 
 for securing their trade, as the Portuguese and Dutch had done ; whereby the 
 trade had decayed, and he was disappointed of the advantages which he ought 
 to derive from it. He directed them to send one of their ships from the Sea of 
 Japan, in order to search for a passage home by the northern parts of the world ; 
 in consideration of which they should have half the customs and other benefits 
 accruing from the countries to be discovered by them. \_Fxdera, V. xx, p. 146.] 
 
 When the Company remonstrated against the invasion of their right by the 
 establishment of a new Company, the King made a declaration to them, that, 
 though the ships were to be employed upon a secret enterprise, which could 
 not then be revealed, they might rest assured that nothing disadvantageous to 
 them was intended. But, when it was known that the new Company's ships 
 were taking in goods proper for India, and that several factors, officers, and 
 seamen, formerly in the Company's own service, were engaged to go out with 
 them, they could not help allowing their confidence in the royal promise to be 
 somewhat shaken. 
 
 They
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 113 
 
 They then presented a petition to the King, wherein they stated, that they 
 had in India fourteen returnable ships, besides three going out, many of which 
 were actually lying by and rotting by reason of the unusual scarcity of Indian 
 merchandize, occasioned by a famine and pestilence, though they had large 
 stocks in India and Persia ready to purchase homeward cargoes as soon as they 
 could be obtained. But that, if others were to be allowed to go out to buy 
 against them, the competition, in such a state of the market, could not fail to 
 prove ruinous to both parties. They prayed, that if his Majesty was at all 
 events determined to permit the ships to sail, he would at least debar them from 
 importing spices, indigo, calicoes, silk, and other commodities imported by the 
 Company, it being impossible for both to trade without the one Company 
 ruining the other, or, indeed, without both being ruined. And, whereas his 
 Majesty had laid his express commands on the petitioners to do their best for 
 the continuance of the trade, in which they had laboured by their councils and 
 the risk of their estates, they entreated him not to impute the desertion of it 
 to them, they having, in that case, only to request to have three years allowed, 
 agreeable to their charter, for calling home their ships and other property. 
 
 In April 1635 the new Company dispatched two ships, called the Roebuck 
 and the Samaritan, without any cargoes, having received from the King a com- 
 mission, which was not to be opened till they reached the latitude of the Canary 
 islands. They proceeded to the Red Sea ; and truth obliges me to relate, that 
 there they plundered a vessel belonging to India. The consequence of this act 
 of piracy was, that the Mogul Governor of Surat made reprisals upon the 
 property of the original English East-India Company, wherever he could find 
 it within his reach. 
 
 The other ships belonging to the new Company sailed to Macao, with a view 
 to avail themselves of a treaty between the original Company and the Portuguese 
 Viceroy of Goa, by which the English were to have free trade with all the 
 Portuguese settlements in India, and also with their town of Macao, situated 
 on an island in the Gulf of Canton, where they carried on a trade with China, 
 a country to which the English East-India Company do not appear to have sent 
 any ships till near half a century alter this time. But the English adventurers 
 were completely disappointed in their expectations of friendship and assistance 
 from the Portuguese, who, as it afterwards appeared, availed themselves of the 
 small intercourse they were permitted to have with the Chinese to make them 
 believe, that all the English were ' rogues, thieves, beggars, and what not.' 
 
 The English adventurers, finding that there was no good to be done at 
 Macao, sent a barge and a pinnace with fifty men up the bay towards Canton, 
 
 Q *e
 
 n 4 - THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 the principal commercial city on the south coast of China. Near the entrance 
 of the river, upon which that city is situated, they met a Chinese fleet, the 
 commander of which desired them to anchor, and appointed one of his own 
 vessels to carry Captain Carter, the commander of the party, and two other 
 officers, up to Canton : but, before they reached the city, they were desired to 
 return to Macao, and thence to send up their petition for licence to trade. 
 They thereupon returned to their ships, having made a chart of the river and 
 bay. In a consultation, held onboard the Admiral ship, it was resolved that 
 the whole fleet should sail up to the river. On their arrival in it they were 
 accosted by some Chinese officers or magistrates (called mandarins * by 
 Europeans) who promised to promote their solicitation for freedom of trade, 
 and to obtain an answer for them in six days. But the Chinese, instead of 
 fulfilling their promise, employed the time in carrying cannon into a fort 
 situated on the side of the river near the ships, from which they fired upon an 
 English barge. The insult was immediately revenged by the ships, from which 
 were landed a hundred men, who drove the Chinese garrison out of the fort, 
 planted their own colours upon the wall, and carried the cannon onboard their 
 own ships. The English boats also seized some Chinese vessels, by one of 
 which they sent a letter to the chief magistrates of Canton, expostulating upon 
 their breach of faith, and again requesting liberty of trade, which was at last 
 granted by Champin, stiled by the English the Admiral-general, who threw 
 the blame of the ill treatment they had met with upon the misrepresentations 
 of the Portuguese ; whereupon the Chinese vessels and cannon were restored. 
 But, notwithstanding this appearance of reconciliation, the English were de- 
 clared to be the enemies of the empire, and it was decreed that they should for 
 ever be excluded from its ports f. Such was the inauspicious commencement 
 of the intercourse of the English with China. 
 
 In December 1636 the original Company, on receiving the news of their 
 property at Surat being seized on account of the depredations committed by 
 
 * The genuine name is louthia, lothya, or to in that empire. Indeed, there can be little 
 
 loutea. See Purchas's Pilgrimes, V. iii, pp. 183, doubt that this unfortunate intrusion was the 
 
 200. original cause, that ' of all foreigners frequent- 
 
 f The notice of the resolution to exclude « ing the port of Canton, the English were 
 
 the English from the ports of China is found in ' certainly depicted in the most unfavourable 
 
 the account of the Dutch embassy to the Em- « colours to the government of the country, 
 
 peror in the year 1656, published by Thevenot. « and probably treated with the greatest rigour 
 
 \_Voyages curieuses, V. ii, p. 54.] : and the ver- « upon the spot.' [Staunton's Embassy, V.\, 
 
 acity of it seems to be supported by the bad * jr 8 vo «/.] 
 treatment our countrymen were long subjected 
 
 Courten's
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 115 
 
 Courren's ships, laid the affair before the Privy Council, who promised them 
 redress. They also commenced a prosecution against the parties concerned, 
 which was interrupted in February by a message from the King, desiring that 
 ' Sir William Courten may not be troubled on the subject of his ships.' Never- 
 theless, in May 1637 the Company petitioned the King, that the gold and 
 silver, brought home in one of Courten's ships should be sequestered, in 
 order to indemnify them for the injury they had sustained in consequence of 
 the piracy. 
 
 Their applications for redress seem to have had little attention paid to them : 
 for on the 1st of June 1637 the King confirmed the privileges granted to the 
 new Company by a fresh charter, authorizing William Courten (son of Sir 
 William, who was now dead) and his partners to trade to all parts of India, 
 not resorted to by the old Company previous to the 12th of December 1635, 
 but not to do any thing prejudicial to them in any other respect, with liberty to 
 carry gold and silver bullion to India, not exceeding ^40,000 annually, on 
 paying a duty of one and a half per cent. \_Fcedera, V. xx, p. 146.] 
 
 I shall here lay before the reader a brief account of some of the other trans- 
 actions of this pernicious and ill-fated Company. — In their first voyage they 
 made a small settlement on the Island of Madagascar, which was afterwards 
 demolished by the original Company. — They afterwards established a factory at 
 Rajapore, in evident contradiction to that article in their own charter, which 
 enjoined them to abstain from trading to those parts of India, to which the 
 original Company's ships resorted. — Their factors at Rajapore having incurred 
 heavy debts in the country, the money onboard one of their ships was seized 
 for the benefit of their creditors. — In every part of India they had to struggle 
 against the competition and opposition of the established Company, whose 
 privileges they were invading, and also against the Dutch, the bitter and de- 
 termined enemies of all Englishmen in the Oriental seas, by whom their factories 
 were destroyed and two of their ships were taken. — In short, this Company, 
 set up in direct violation of the dear-bought rights of an older Company, though 
 they never did any good to themselves during the short period of their existence, 
 by their interference in the trade, and the consequences of their piratical ex- 
 ploits, injured the original Company to the amount of ^100,000, as it was 
 estimated by the General Court of the Company in the year 1646. Many 
 hundreds of their creditors in England were utterly ruined, or most grievously 
 injured, by their failure : and they themselves stated their own loss at ^15 1,61 2. 
 It is a miserable trade, by which all parties are injured, and nobody gains any 
 thing. 
 
 q t King
 
 ,,6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 King Charles having engaged in a kind of holy war against his subjects of 
 Scotland, and not being willing to have recourse to the only constitutional 
 means of raising money by the authority of Parliament, was often reduced 
 to great difficulties, and driven to many extraordinary shifts and contrivances 
 to obtain money. In such a state of his affairs the East-India Company could 
 not expect to escape. On the 2 2d of August 1640 Lord Cottington informed 
 the Court of Committees, that his Majesty, being in urgent want of money for 
 carrying on his war against the Scots, proposed to purchase the whole of the 
 Company's pepper at their own price, and would give ample security for the 
 payment. The matter was referred to a General Court, at which the Lord 
 Treasurer and Lord Cottington presented themselves. After some debate the 
 Court submitted to the demand : and Lord Cottington, Sir Paul Pindar *, and 
 nine other gentlemen, became sureties for the payment. The pepper amounted 
 to ^50,314 10 8. 
 
 In order to connect the whole of this pepper transaction, I shall here 
 observe that in the year 1642 a payment of ^9,413 14 7 was made, out 
 of the money arising from tunnage and poundage, ' to the East-India Com- 
 ' pany, in part of a debt owing to them by his Majesty for pepper bought 
 ' by my Lord Cottington.' — In 1649, in consequence of the Company pro- 
 posing to sue the sureties, some small payments were received. — In 1654 a 
 proposal was made for selling the King's forest lands at twelve years' pur- 
 chase, whereupon the Company agreed to subscribe ^25,000 of the debt ; 
 but nothing further was done till 1663, when a composition was made for 
 the balance at twenty-five per cent. By this business the Company sustained 
 a loss of ^31,500 f. 
 
 The proprietors of the third joint stock, besides taking into their hands 
 the remaining property of the second, as already observed, also took the 
 concerns of the particular voyages to Persia off the hands of the proprietors, 
 at the rate of 160 per cent for the first, 180 for the second, and 140 for 
 the third. 
 
 On the 17th of April 1640 the Governor of the Company proposed a 
 subscription for a fourth joint stock : and, finding his proposal coldly received 
 by the members (which is not to be wondered at, considering the multiplied 
 hardships they had to struggle with) he told them that the King was very desirous 
 
 * Sir Paul Pindar was one of the principal the Company ever received payment of the 
 
 partners of the new East-India Company, set .£30,000 borrowed from them by the King in 
 
 up against the original Company, the year 1627. [Baker's Chronicle, p. 440, 
 
 f It does not appear, as far as I know, that id. 1 679. 
 
 that
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 117 
 
 that they should make up a new stock. He afterwards waited on his Ma- 
 jesty, and represented to him the reasons of the Company's backwardness, 
 which were — The want of satisfaction for the wrongs done by the Dutch — 
 The imposition of new duties on India Commodities * — The depredations of 
 Courten's ships commanded by Cobb and Ayres in the Red Sea — The oblig- 
 ation upon the Company to sell their saltpetre to the King only, and at his 
 own price. 
 
 Though the Governor repeated the proposal in June, when some prospect 
 of a more favourable state of the Company's affairs was held out to the mem- 
 bers, yet none of them could then be prevailed upon to adventure any further. 
 In this unpromising state of their affairs their stock was sold so low as sixty 
 per cent. 
 
 As the Company were unwilling to venture a fourth joint stock, a capital 
 of ^80,450 was raised for a single voyage, to be called the particular voyage. 
 The gentlemen concerned in it agreed to pay to those interested in the third 
 joint stock six per cent on their invoice prices for factorage, storage, &c. in 
 India, and one per cent for management at home. 
 
 In the year 1643 the subscription for a fourth joint stock, which had long 
 been in agitation, was brought to ^105,000. The subscribers consisted of 
 such of the proprietors of the third stock as chose to bring in the remainder 
 of their property in that stock, which had been previously valued at twenty-five 
 per cent, together with what they chose to subscribe anew. With so small 
 a capital little could be accomplished ; and very little was attempted in the 
 convulsed state of public affairs, the nation being then afflicted by a civil war 
 between the King and the Parliament. 
 
 One of the baneful consequences of the distraction of the times was, that 
 Mucknel, the commander of one of the Company's ships, in order to display 
 his attachment to the King at the expense of his duty to his employers, carried 
 the ship confided to him into Bristol, and made a present of her and her cargo 
 
 * On constructing a new table of rates for and only fourpence after deducting the duty of 
 
 the customs, the rateable price of pepper (an art- threepence, which thus appears to have been 
 
 icle seemingly destined to be a continual source seventy-five per cent on the real price. It was 
 
 of uneasiness and distress to the Company) was alleged that the rates were raised so high in 
 
 advanced from r/8 to 5/ a pound, whereby the order to prevent the people from wasting their 
 
 duty, being charged -ad valorem, was raised money in the purchase of foreign luxuries. It 
 
 from one penny to threepence; while the selling maybe doubted, however, whether the people 
 
 price had fallen from 2/6 to i/i, from which were sufficiently thankful for such kind and 
 
 deducting sixpence for freight and charges, zealous attention to the preservation of their 
 
 there lemained only sevenpence as the net price, money. 
 
 to
 
 lit THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 to the King, in order to support his war against the Parliament. By this act of 
 infidelity the Company lost ^£20,000 : and their little stock was further dimin- 
 ished about this time by the wreck of another ship, valued at ^'30,000. By 
 these and other disasters the Company were reduced to the greatest distress, and 
 to the necessity of borrowing at home, and making use of their credit in India, 
 where it was undoubted. 
 
 Such events would scarcely be worthy of being recorded, if the Company 
 had never emerged from the state of depression, approaching almost to an- 
 nihilation, to which they were reduced during the sanguinary war between the 
 King and the Parliament, when science, commerce, and humanity, were laid 
 prostrate at the feet of political and fanatical fury. 
 
 The Company had for some time possessed a factory at Armegon (or 
 Durasapatnam) on the coast of the Carnatic. But, having obtained a grant, 
 on the 1 5th of November 1 643, from the Sovereign of the country, by which 
 he ceded to them the town of Madraspatnam, about sixty miles south from 
 Armegon, with the liberty of carrying on their own trade without paying any 
 customs, and dividing the customs paid by other traders equally between them- 
 selves and the Prince, they removed the factory to their new acquisition, and 
 immediately built Fort Saint George for the security of the settlement, which 
 has become very extensive, populous, and flourishing, in consequence of the 
 superior encouragement and tranquillity, enjoyed by the native manufacturers 
 and by traders of various nations, under the protection of the Company's 
 government. The city, better known by the shortened name of Madras, was 
 long the seat of the Company's supreme government in India. 
 
 During the existence of the fourth joint stock the Company were kept in 
 continual expectation of a parliamentary confirmation and protection of then- 
 trade, which were, however, put off from time to time during six years, the 
 only fruit of their solicitation in all that time being an assurance, given them 
 in September 1 646, that M r Courten and his partners should not be permitted 
 to send any more ships to India, and should be obliged to make an end of their 
 trade after being allowed three years to bring home their property. 
 
 The following is a state of the affairs of the fourth joint stock on the 4th of 
 September 1646. 
 
 Lost in the John by the treachery of the commander in taking ~) „ 
 
 , . . * i ° C jc 20,000 
 
 her into Bristol 5 
 
 Lost by the wreck of the Discovery . 30,000 
 
 Paid in Interest . ... 35?ooo 
 
 ^85,000 
 Debts
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 119 
 
 Debts due by the Company in England .... £ 122,000 
 
 The Company's effects consisted of 
 
 Quick stock at Surat ....... ^83,600 
 
 Ditto . . at Bantam ....... 60,731 
 
 Shipping . . . . . . . . . 31,180 
 
 Customs at Gombroon ....... 5,000 
 
 £ 180,51 1 
 
 It was estimated that the profits of the quick stock would be sufficient to 
 discharge the debt, and leave a clear capital of ^'180,000 in money, merch- 
 andize, and outstanding debts in England and India, independent of the sum 
 owing by the King for pepper. 
 
 On the 27th of September 1649 a subscription for a new stock was opened. 
 It was proposed that the duration of it should be limited to five years, and that 
 no vessel should be sent to India after the 1st of May 1653. The proprietors 
 were, as in former cases, to take the remains of the preceding joint stock into 
 their own stock. 
 
 The progress of the subscription was suspended, in consequence of an ap- 
 plication being made to Parliament by some persons for an act to enable them 
 to settle a colony upon Assada, which being apprehended to be injurious to the 
 Company, they petitioned Parliament on the 30th of September to prevent the 
 intended colony, or to oblige the conductors of it to give security to indemnify 
 them for the damages they might suffer by it. At the same time they again 
 prayed that an act might be passed for the encouragement of their trade. 
 
 On the 31st of January 1649-50 the Parliament, who now governed the 
 country without allowing the King to have any authority, voted that the trade to 
 India should be carried on by a joint stock, to be named The United Stock. 
 Copies of the votes were sent to all parts of the kingdom in order to encourage 
 subscriptions; and subscription books were sent to the Parliament, and the 
 Council of State : but no member of either of these bodies subscribed any 
 thing. On the 13th of March the amount of the subscriptions was only 
 ^191,700. 
 
 The Dutch having abandoned a settlement they had formed on Saint Helena, 
 the English Company took possession of it in the year 1651. This small island, 
 which in remote ages has been raised from the bottom of the Ocean by a vol- 
 cano, is blessed with a salubrious air and many rivulets of excellent water ; and 
 its little vallies feed considerable numbers of cattle, and produce tropical fruits 
 
 and
 
 ,20 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 and other vegetables in abundance. By these accommodations it is rendered a 
 comfortable resting place for the homeward-bound India ships : and for that 
 purpose (for it is productive of no other benefit or profit) the Company have 
 ever since * kept up a competent civil and military establishment, with a suf- 
 ficient population of planters, whose provision of refreshment for the ships 
 calling there forms the whole trade of the island. 
 
 The same year the Parliament gave the Company a charter for the trade of 
 Guinea during five years, whereupon they established factors in the forts erected 
 by the African Company, where their goods were exchanged with the Negroes 
 for gold, which about this time their ships carried to India instead of silver, 
 which was not then to be got. They even erected two new forts, though, it is 
 said, the stock they allotted to their African business did not exceed the small 
 sum of ^17,400. They also compounded with the separate African traders 
 by giving them licences, for which they received an acknowlegement of ten 
 per cent on the value of the cargoes, or three pounds for every tun of the 
 burthen of their vessels. 
 
 After the expiration of their short term of five years, the Company kept up 
 their African concern for a few more years, by agreeing with the African Com- 
 pany, who had long been quite inefficient, to pay them a sum of money for 
 the small remainder of their charter, which would terminate in the year 1662. 
 
 In February 1652-3 the Company agreed with some persons, who were 
 preparing for a voyage to India in violation of their charter, to take their ship 
 and goods off their hands : but afterwards, finding the adventurers determined 
 to proceed upon the voyage, they obliged them to find security to do nothing 
 to their prejudice. 
 
 In December 1653 some of the members of the Company, considering the 
 doubtful state of their affairs, proposed a question to the General Court, 
 whether, if no more ships were to be sent out on the general account of the 
 Company, the individual members might not send out ships on their own 
 account as freely as the private interlopers. It was answered, that they might 
 send vessels to India on giving security to respect the privileges and immunities 
 of the Company. But in January following the Court, having reconsidered the 
 affair, were of opinion that they were not empowered to authorize such voyages, 
 seeing the Parliament had ordered that the trade should be carried on upon a 
 joint stock. 
 
 * It wa.; taken by the Dutch in the year Except thesi few months, it has never been 
 1672, and in May 1673 it was retaken, and out of the Company's hands since their first 
 three Dutch East- India jhijpa along with it. settlement upon it. 
 
 The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. xei 
 
 The animosity, which had long subsisted between England and Holland, was 
 carried to an extremity by the English Parliament passing an act in the year 
 1651 For the encouragement of navigation, and prohibiting the importation of 
 any foreign commodities, except in English bottoms, or those of the countries wherein 
 they are produced. The Dutch, who felt themselves much aggrieved by this 
 act, their principal support being derived from the carrying trade, sent over 
 Ambassadors to solicit a repeal of it. But, as they were the very people, 
 against whom it was intended chiefly to operate, the Ambassadors, instead of 
 obtaining any redress, found several demands made upon them, among which 
 was satisfaction for the massacre of Amboyna, and for the many outrages and 
 depredations committed upon the English East-India Company. A sanguinary 
 war between the potent rival republics ensued, in which the Dutch suffered so 
 severely in their ships of war and mercantile shipping, that they were glad to 
 entreat peace upon any terms, which Oliver Cromwell, recently exalted to the 
 office of Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
 would please to prescribe. 
 
 On the 5th of April 1 654 a treaty of peace was concluded, by one of the 
 articles of which the Dutch became bound to execute justice upon those con- 
 cerned in the massacre of the English at Amboyna, if any of "them were remain- 
 ing alive. And it was agreed that four Commissioners from the Dutch East- 
 India Company should be sent to London to meet with four Commissioners 
 deputed by the English Company, in order to adjust all claims of either party 
 for injuries and damages suffered in the East Indies, Greenland, Muscovy, 
 Brazil, or elsewhere. 
 
 The English Company thereupon made up an account of the damages 
 
 sustained by the treachery and depredations of the Dutch, amounting 
 
 to ......... ^2,695,999 19 o 
 
 besides the interest, which would amount to more than 
 
 the principal, and also 
 
 for four ships taken in the Gulf of Persia . . 100,000 o o 
 
 •^ 2 >795>999 l 9 o 
 and they moreover demanded restitution of the islands of Pulo Roon and Lantore. 
 
 The Dutch Company's deputies afterwards presented their accounts, which 
 they made amount to ..... . ^2,069,861 3 6 
 
 to which they added, in order to make the balance appear 
 
 due to them, 
 
 for the English Company's third part of the expense of? 
 
 the siege of Bantam . . . .. • 5 8 5°> 000 ° ° 
 
 ^2,919,861 3 6 
 R The
 
 I2Z THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 The Commissioners, having considered all the claims on both sides, ordered, 
 by their award dated on the 30th of August 1654, — That all offences and con- 
 troversies should thenceforth be consigned to oblivion on both sides. — That all 
 pretensions to restorations or redress of injuries should be cancelled ; only that, 
 the Dutch Company should restore to the English Company the island of Pulo 
 Roon in its present condition, the Dutch having liberty to carry away all their 
 moveable property of every kind. — That the Dutch Company should pay to the 
 English Company the sum of ^85,000 in two payments, to be made in London 
 before the 31st of January and 31st of March next following. — They also 
 decreed, that the Dutch Company should pay several small sums, amounting 
 in all to ^3,615, to the heirs of twelve of the sufferers at Amboyna. 
 
 It appears that this award was not thought sufficiently conclusive ; for in 
 May 1655 the Protector and the States-General agreed that the consideration of 
 many complaints, which had been passed over, should be resumed. But I have 
 not learned what was the decision of the second session of the Commissioners, 
 or if it ever took place. 
 
 Pulo Roon was, indeed, restored to the English Company, but in a condition 
 to be of very little use to the possessors ; for the Dutch, before they left it, 
 grubbed up every one of the spice trees in the island ; and, fearing that the 
 English Company might effect a new plantation of those valuable plants, they 
 again took it from them in the year 1664. 
 
 In October 1654 the Company presented a petition to the Protector, praying 
 that he would grant them a confirmation of their privileges, and strictly pro- 
 hibit unlicenced individuals from sending ships to India, which he promised to 
 take into consideration : and in January following he gave them an intimation 
 that he was disposed to support them in their rights. This was followed in July 
 by a request that they would lend him the ^85,000, they had lately received 
 from the Dutch, for the service of the Commonwealth. The Court of pro- 
 prietors thought it expedient to let him have ^50,000 of the money, if it could 
 be done legally. That sum was accordingly lent ; and it was paid back on the 
 10th of the ensuing month *. 
 
 Notwithstanding the favourable countenance the Protector had shown to the 
 Company, he allowed the representations of their enemies so far to prevail with 
 him, that he virtually abolished their privilege by withholding his protection, 
 and by conniving at the violation of it by every adventurer, who chose to fit out 
 
 * The loan and the repayment are vouched by the warrant for repayment, noted by Russell in 
 his Collection of statutes, concerning the East-India Company, p. lvii. 
 
 ships
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 123 
 
 ships for India. But it does not appear that there was any formal abrogation 
 of the privileges of the Company in the year 1655, as has been asserted, or any 
 formal grant to the interlopers, such as King Charles had given to Courten 
 and his partners. The most successful of the private adventurers were some of 
 the chief members of the Company, who made use of the permission given 
 them in December 1653, an ^ some of their principal servants, who availed them- 
 selves of the knowlege they had acquired in the service of the Company, 
 whose interests were entrusted to their care and fidelity, to undermine their 
 employers. 
 
 In this state of affairs the Company had no encouragement to prosecute their 
 trade with vigour or great advance of capital : and what trade they did carry 
 on was engaged in merely for the sake of preventing their privilege from 
 expiring for want of using it, in hopes that they might afterwards be enabled to 
 resume the trade with effect. 
 
 The consequences of the scramble for the trade of India, which had now 
 gone on several years, were — That English commodities bore no price in India, 
 and the prices of Indian produce and manufactures were raised enormously upon 
 the rival English adventurers, who were also prodigiously imposed upon in the 
 article of presents, a branch of expenditure, sanctioned by andent custom in all, 
 Oriental countries, which requires the support of a large capital, and yet waa 
 increased upon the multitude of petty capitals. — They were also subjected to 
 many insults and indignities by the governing powers in India, as soon as they 
 discovered that the people they were dealing with did not belong to the great 
 Company, whom they had learned to respect. — When the adventurers got their 
 India goods safely landed in England, and the dudes paid for them, they felt 
 themselves again exposed to all the evils of inordinate competition. The demand 
 in England was not sufficient to take off the quarter of their goods, however low 
 the prices might be * ; and they were obliged to export them to all parts of 
 Europe, even to Amsterdam, in such excessive abundance, that they depressed 
 the value of the capital of the Dutch East-India Company, who are said to have 
 made interest with Cromwell to restrain the unlimited resort of adventurers to 
 India. At last those of the separate adventurers, who had still some part of 
 their capital remaining, became themselves the most earnest suitors for the 
 
 * Some people will say, that the glut, which was but a trifling benefit to the individual 
 
 enabled the buyers to get their goods very consumer : but the ruin of the adventurers and 
 
 cheap, was not a loss, but an advantage, to the their creditors, and all their families, was a 
 
 country at large. Those people do not con- most grievous and extensive evil. Est modus 
 
 sider, that the saving made by getting spices in rebus, 
 and muslins at half price, or even for nothing, 
 
 R 2 restoration
 
 i2+ THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 restoration of the trade to an exclusive Company with a joint stock, of which 
 they might become members. 
 
 In the mean time the Company, in a General Court held in October 1656, 
 had actually proposed to offer their privilege and fixed property to sale, if they 
 should not succeed in an applicadon to the Protector for an effectual confirm- 
 ation of their charter. The Protector referred the consideration of their petition, 
 to his Council, who, after much argument for and against it, seemed rather 
 favourably disposed to the establishment of a joint-stock Company. But the 
 Company, having been very often put off from day to day for a definitive 
 answer, and apprehensive that, after all, nothing would be done, determined 
 on the 14th of January 1656-7 to put up bills in the Royal Exchange, offering 
 their privilege and dead stock in India to sale. 
 
 Their determination probably was the means of bringing forward the linger- 
 ing decision of the Council, who in February passed a vote for carrying on the 
 trade with India by an exclusive joint-stock Company, and laid a draught of the 
 proposed charter before the Protector for his consideration. The Company 
 were thereby encouraged to withdraw the notice for the sale of their privilege 
 and stock. The charter, however, did not receive the confirmation of the 
 broad seal till October 1657. 
 
 The capital of the Company, now established by authority of the existing 
 Government, was ^y^g,y82 10 o ; but only one half of the sum subscribed 
 was called for, so that the real efficient capital was no more than ^369,89 1 5 o, 
 with which they agreed to trade for a term of seven years certain. Seeing 
 their privilege now sanctioned by the supreme power, they resumed their com- 
 mercial operations with a spirit and energy, which for many years they had 
 been obliged to repress. 
 
 There was, however, one branch of their trade in which they were obliged 
 to make a considerable reduction. Since the first introduction of India calicoes, 
 they had been found so beneficial in lessening the demand for foreign linens and 
 keeping down their price, that great quantities of them were imported by the 
 Company. But the demand for them, though very great, could not be ex- 
 pected to take off the prodigious quantity, wherewith the separate traders had 
 overwhelmed the market, and which was sufficient for the consumption of several 
 years to come ; and therefor the Company sent orders to their factors in India to 
 ship only one quarter of the quantity of that species of goods, which they form- 
 erly used to send *. 
 
 During 
 
 * At this time the quantity of linen man- as not to be equal to, perhaps, the thousandth 
 ufactured in the British dominions was so trifling part of the consumption ; and thence it was 
 
 evidently
 
 . ENGLISH WITH INDIA. -,25 
 
 During the interruption of the trade, many of the Company's ships were 
 worn out, and they had desisted from building. The private traders would 
 gladly have sold their ships to the Company, but they were not either suf- 
 ficiently large or substantial for such voyages : and thus they were much at a 
 loss for proper vessels, till the activity of their own builders again supplied them 
 with ships adapted to their service. 
 
 In the infancy of the Company's commerce Bantam was the chief factory, to 
 which all the others were subordinate ; and so they continued till the year 1638 or 
 1639, when Surat became the chief establishment, and the factories of Bantam, 
 Fort Saint George (or Madras), Hooghly in Bengal, and those in Persia, were 
 made subordinate to it. In the year 1 660 the Company sent out orders to give up 
 the inland factories of Agra and Amadavad, as also Mocha in the Red Sea and 
 Bussorah at the head of the Persian Gulf. Their port of Gombroon being of 
 doubtful utility, it was referred to further consideration, whether it should be 
 kept up or abandoned. It was determined to retain Carwar, Calavella, Raja- 
 pore, and Scindy as long as the customs in Persia should continue to be paid ; 
 and these factories were made subordinate to Surat. The factories on the coast of 
 Coromandel and in the Bay of Bengal were put under one agent at Fort Saint 
 George (or Madras), who was directed to use his best endeavours to obtain a 
 settlement in Ceylon. 
 
 When the Company presented their congratulatory address to King 
 Charles II upon his restoration, they accompanied it with a service of plate 
 of the value of #3,000; and they presented another worth ^1,000 to his 
 brother, the Duke of York. 
 
 On the 3d of April 1661 the King granted the Company a new charter, the 
 principal motive for which was probably the opportunity of cancelling the one 
 they had lately obtained from Oliver Cromwell. The name of The Company of 
 Merchants of London trading into the East Indies, was still retained, as were also the 
 regulations for the government of the Company, the admission of the sons and 
 apprentices of the members, and of the factors employed by the Company ; and 
 most of the other articles of (^ueen Elizabeth's original charter were repeated. 
 The quantity of money they were licenced to export annually was now enlarged 
 to .#50,000. It was determined by the charter, that every proprietor of #500 
 in the stock should have a right to a vote, and that the proprietors of smaller 
 
 evidently good national economy to encourage ient to make the linen manufacture the staple 
 tlieuseofIndiacalicoes,whichwere muchcheaper of Ireland and Scotland; and then the same 
 than bnen. Afterwards it was thought exped- policy discouraged the use of calicoes. 
 
 portions
 
 ti6 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 portions might unite their stocks to make up a vote. — The Company may 
 freely enjoy all plantations, forts, factories, &c. made or acquired by them in 
 India, and may erect new forts in India and Saint Helena, and appoint Govern- 
 ors and other officers, and also Judges, who shall try civil and criminal causes 
 within their jurisdictions. — The Company are authorized to make war and peace 
 with any people, not being Christians, within the limits of their trade, and to 
 carry out to their settlements as many men as they think proper, who are willing 
 
 to go. They are also authorized to seize all English subjects sailing in any 
 
 English or Indian vessels, or residing in India without their permission, and to 
 send them to England. 
 
 The seven years, to which the Company had limited the duration of their 
 trade, being expired in the year 1664, the members were informed, that any 
 of them who wished to draw out their capitals, might now do it : but no one 
 chose to avail himself of that permission, though the arts of their opponents 
 had so far prevailed with the Public in depressing the reputation of the trade 
 that their stock had fallen to seventy per cent. Although none of the part- 
 ners chose to go out, it was nevertheless necessary and proper to make up the 
 accounts of the transactions of the seven years, upon the balance of which it 
 appeared, that they possessed 
 
 in India in quick and dead stock 
 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 -435»7i3 
 
 in England in Cash and bullion 
 
 
 
 <v-,6~5~3 
 
 
 Drugs 
 
 
 
 3*«5 
 
 
 Pepper, &c. . . 
 
 
 
 822 
 
 
 Piece goods 
 
 
 
 IJ >375 
 
 
 Saltpetre, &c. . 
 
 
 
 J 2,393 
 
 
 Advances for exports 
 
 
 
 9,227 
 
 
 Household furniture 
 
 
 
 1 12 
 
 
 Lease of house in Leade 
 
 nhall street 
 
 1,000 
 
 
 
 76,477 
 
 
 Owing for goods sold 
 
 • • 
 
 J 27>935 
 
 
 Other debts 
 
 • • 
 
 • 21,316 
 
 225,728 
 
 
 
 
 The Company owed . 
 
 ^165,807 
 
 
 
 Their net estate was .... 
 
 495> 6 34 
 
 
 
 Total .... 
 
 ^661 
 
 ,44i 
 
 .§£661,441 
 
 The Company's clear stock thus appearing to be 30 per cent above the real 
 original capital of ^369,891, it was agreed that books should be opened for a 
 
 new
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. ,a 7 
 
 new subscription at ^'130 for every ^100 of capital. But nobody came in, 
 and every thing respecting the stock stood as it was before. 
 
 In the year 1662 King Charles II married a Princess of Portugal. By the 
 contract of marriage he was to receive, besides a portion of ^500,000 in 
 money, the town of Tangier in Africa, and the island of Bombay with its de- 
 pendencies in India, and also a permission for his subjects to carry on a free 
 trade with all the Portuguese settlements in India and Brazil. The King sent 
 the Earl of Marlburgh with a proper force to receive his island of Bombay, 
 which he proposed to reserve to himself as part of his own demesne. But the 
 Viceroy of Goa, at the instigation of the priests, who could not endure the 
 thought of surrendering their possessions to heretics, made pretences for 
 evading the delivery till two years after the arrival of Marlburgh. It was soon 
 discovered that the King had made a very unprofitable acquisition, and that the 
 East-India Company were much injured by the trade carried on by the people 
 in the King's service, who sold European goods, for which they paid no freight, 
 much lower than the Company's factors could sell theirs. For these reasons 
 on the 27th of March 1669 the King made over his port and island of Bombay 
 to the East-India Company, as absolute lords and proprietors thereof, on their 
 repaying him his expenses upon it, and paying a fee-farm rent of ten pounds 
 at the custom-house on the 30th of September in all time coming. 
 
 About this time the Company agreed with the King of the Deccan to pay 
 him duties on their merchandize at the rate of one and a half per cent. They 
 also established a factory at Biliapatan, with the approbation of the King of 
 Cananore. In the year 1670 they settled a factory at Tywan, on the west side 
 of the island of Tywan, or Formosa, in consequence of a grant from the King 
 of that part of the island, hoping by means of it to restore the commercial in- 
 tercourse with Japan *. 
 
 At the time when the Protector's Council had come to the resolution of re- 
 storing and confirming to the Company the enjoyment of their privilege, 
 Thomas Skinner, a merchant of London, fitted out a ship, in which he arrived 
 in India in the year 1658, and purchased a small island, called Barella, from 
 the King of Jambee in Sumatra, where he established himself. The Com- 
 pany's agents, in virtue of their charter, seized his ship, his island, and his 
 goods ; and he was obliged to find his way, mostly over land, to England. On 
 his arrival he presented petitions for redress to the King and to the House of 
 
 * Some of the attempts made by the Company to establish a commercial intercourse with 
 Japan have been already related, and others will be noticed in due time. 
 
 Peers.
 
 ,2»- THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Peers. The Peers listened to his complaint, and desired the Company to put 
 in their answer. The Company demurred to the legality of their Lordships' 
 proceeding, as the cause had not come before them by appeal from an inferior 
 court, and urged their privilege as a sufficient warrant for what was done by 
 their agents in India. The Lords, however, in the year 1666 ordered that the 
 cause should be tried before them : but the trial was put off till the year fol- 
 lowing ; and then the Company complained to the House of Commons of what 
 they conceived to be an illegal proceeding in the House of Lords. Their 
 Lordships, highly offended at the attempt to evade their jurisdiction, imme- 
 diately passed a decree in favour of Skinner, and ordered the Company to pay 
 him damages to the amount of ^5,000. The Commons, not less tenacious of 
 their privileges, which, they said, the Lords had infringed in assuming the 
 cognizance of a question of property in the first instance, passed a vote, de- 
 claring such conduct unprecedented and dangerous, and at the same rime 
 ordered Skinner into the custody of the sergeant at arms. The contest was new 
 not so much between the Company and Skinner as between the two Houses of 
 Parliament. The Lords resented the interference of the Commons ; and 
 the Commons resolved, that whoever should presume to carry their Lord- 
 ships' decree against the Company into execution should be deemed a betrayer 
 of the rights and liberties of the Commons of England, and guilty of a breach 
 of privilege. The controversy was kept up with unremitting animosity till 
 the year 1670, when the King persuaded both Houses to erase the whole of the 
 proceedings upon the affair from their Journals. It is believed that Skinner 
 never obtained any redress. 
 
 In the year 1669 the Company received from Bantam two canisters, con- 
 taining I43f pounds of tea: and this is believed to have been their first im- 
 portation of that article from any part of the Indies ; for it does not appear 
 that they had as yet any direct intercourse with China, the native country of 
 tea. This trifling quantity was partly given away in presents, and partly ex- 
 pended in the house for the refreshment of the Committees. 
 
 As tea has become a most important object in the foreign and home trade of 
 Great Britain, and also in the domestic economy of every family in the king- 
 dom, it is presumed, that a very brief sketch of the earliest knowlege of it, 
 and the introduction of it, in the western parts of the world, will not be 
 deemed superfluous. 
 
 Tea (' sah ') is mentioned as the usual beverage of the Chinese by Soliman, 
 an Arabian merchant, who wrote an account of his travels' in the East about 
 the year 850. But we know of no further notice of it being conveyed to the 
 
 western
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. it 9 
 
 western parts of the world during many succeeding ages * : nor is there, I 
 believe, the slightest mention of it to be found in the works of any European 
 author earlier than the sixteenth century. 
 
 When the Portuguese were permitted by the Chinese Government in the 
 early part of that century to trade at Sancian, we may believe, that tea was 
 one of the articles they purchased from the Chinese. But, if they brought 
 any of it to Europe, it was most probably in so small a quantity as not to be 
 considered as an article of trade : and no person of observation, who had 
 been in the East, as far as I can find, has made any mention of it, or given 
 any account of the manner of preparing and drinking it, in the eastern coun- 
 tries, prior to the Jesuit missionaries, who entered China and Japan, for the 
 purpose of converting the natives, a little before the middle of the sixteenth 
 century, and in some of their letters have described the productions of those 
 countries, and the manners and customs of the people. 
 
 One of the most useful productions of China and Japan, they say, is a 
 shrub called cha, cia, tchia, or thee, of the leaves of which the natives make 
 their favourite drink. The leaves are gathered in the spring, and, after being 
 dried in the shade, are preserved for dayly use. In China the drink is made by 
 infusing the leaves in hot water, which imbibes the strength-of them, and they 
 always drink, or rather sip, it warm, even in the hottest weather. It is some- 
 what bitter to the taste, but very salutary, preventing several diseases, and fa- 
 vourable to longevity. They use cia not only at meals, but also whenever any 
 visitor, whom they chuse to treat respectfully, enters their house ; and if the 
 visitor stays any time, the cia is brought a second, or even a third, time. The 
 Japanese differ from the Chinese in their manner of preparing it : they put as 
 much as a walnut shell would hold of the powder of the leaves into a gilded 
 porcelain cup filled with hot water, and drink it warm, taking the powder as 
 well as the liquor, whereas the Chinese throw away the leaves after extracting 
 the strength of them. People of the highest rank prepare the liquor with their 
 own hands, in order to do honour to their guests. They are very extravagant 
 in their expenses for the utensils used in preparing and drinking their cia, and 
 
 * In the year (487 the Sultan of Egypt seems either not to have known any thing of, 
 
 sent a present of the most rare and valuable or not to have thought worthy of being sent :\n 
 
 articles of Oriental merchandize to the illus- a present to Lorenzo. M r Rcscoe has pub- 
 
 tnous Florentine merchant, Lorenzo de Medici, lished an original letter, giving a particular ac- 
 
 aniong which there were some large porcelain count of the presents, in the Appendix to his 
 
 vases, undoubtedly the manufacture of China Life of Lorenzo de Medici. 
 or Japan ; but no tea, which that Monarch 
 
 S the
 
 i 3 o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 the apartment, allotted for entertaining visitors with it, is kept in the nicest 
 order *. The cia is of various qualities, being sold from one to three pieces 
 of gold for a pound in China, and in Japan there is some that is sold so high as 
 ten or twelve pieces f. 
 
 It is probable that the Portuguese never imported any considerable quantity 
 of tea. But the Dutch East-India Company paid some attention to it, as an 
 object of commerce, soon after the commencement of their trade ; and they 
 probably supplied most of the very small demand of Europe during the greatest 
 part of the seventeenth century. In the year 1641 we find the virtues of 
 ' thee ' celebrated by Tulpius J, an eminent physician and consul of Amster- 
 dam, who was followed by several other physicians, among whom the most 
 famous was Cornelius Bontekoe, who wrote in the year 1673. But, notwith- 
 standing all their commendations, tea came so very slowly into request in Hol- 
 land, that in the year 1670 the use of it was unknown in Dort, as we are told 
 by Franz Valentyn, a native of that town, in his History of the East Indies. 
 
 The first authentic notice of tea, as an article of consumption in England, 
 appears in an act of Parliament [12 Car. II, c. 23] passed in the year 1660, 
 whereby a duty of eightpence is charged on every gallon of chocolate, sherbet, 
 and tea, made for sale ; while coffee, and even foreign spiritous liquors, are 
 charged only fourpence. Thus it is certain that tea was then used in England. 
 But, that the use of it was new, and far from being general, or even generally 
 known, appears from the following curious memorandum in the diary of 
 M r Pepys, the secretary of the Admiralty §. 
 
 * There is no mention of sugar or milk in books. But was he permitted, or was he qual- 
 
 these descriptions of tea-drinking, which in ified, to examine those books ? Though his 
 
 most other respects, except the Japanese fashion suspicion might be allowed to derive some de- 
 
 of drinking the powder, agrees pretty well gree of support from tea not being mentioned 
 
 with the management of it by the ladies of this in the accounts of the travels of Sharok's Am- 
 
 country. bassadors to China, and also the silence of 
 
 -J- The pieces of gold must have been very Marco Polo, all these negative presumptions 
 
 small ; or the Jesuits were very much imposed must give way to the positive and unquestion- 
 
 upon. able evidence of Soliman, which carries the 
 
 The account here given is extracted from the use of tea back at least to the ninth centurv. 
 epistles and works of — Saint Francis Xavier — \ The ' Observations medicae ' of Tulpius 
 
 Ludovic. Frois — Ludovic. Almeyda — Mat. consist of essays upon various diseases, and at 
 
 Ricius — Trigautius — Linschoten — MaffeiHist. the end of the work comes a chapter, rather 
 
 Indie. — Jarrig, &c. — I do not quote their nu- unconnected with the rest, upon the herb 
 
 merous copiers. ' Thee.' 
 
 Ricius suspects, that tea has not been used $ M r Pepys's curious and valuable manu- 
 
 in remote ages in China, because he found no scripts are preserved in the Pepysian library in 
 
 hieroglyphic for the name of it in their antient Cambridge. 
 
 « Sept.
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 131 
 
 ' Sept. 25, 1 66 1, I sent for a cup of tea (a Chinese drink) of which I had 
 
 ' never drank before.' 
 
 In the year 1662 King Charles II married a Princess of Portugal. It may 
 be presumed that the new Queen was fond of tea, and rendered it more fa- 
 shionable in England than it had ever been before, as the poet, Waller, in a 
 panegyrical ode on her birth-day, seems to suppose, that she introduced the 
 use of tea in this country. He says, 
 
 ' The best of Queens, and best of herbs * we owe 
 
 ' To that bold nation, who the way did show 
 
 ' To the fair region, where the Sun doth rise, 
 
 ' Whose rich productions we so justly prize.' 
 He also supposed it endowed with the power of inspiration ; for he says, 
 
 ' The Muse's friend, Tea, does our fancy aid.' 
 It is evident that tea long continued to be brought to Europe in very small 
 quantities ; for in the year 1664, the East-India Company, being desirous of 
 procuring some rarities for presents to the King, made a purchase of two pounds 
 and two ounces of ' thea,' (apparently all that could be got) which cost them 
 forty shillings a pound. In the year 1666 they made his Majesty a more ample 
 present of thea, consisting of 22A pounds, for which they paid fifty shillings 
 a pound. 
 
 The duties, laid upon tea, &c. in the year 1 660, were augmented by subse- 
 quent acts ; and they continued to be rated upon the quantity of liquor made 
 from them till the year 1689, when, upon the visitations of the excise officers 
 in the coffee-houses being complained of as vexatious and troublesome to the 
 retailers, and their being also found too chargeable to the revenue, that mode 
 of taxation was given up ; and instead of it a custom duty of five shillings on 
 the pound of tea, besides the old subsidy of five per cent on the value, was 
 substituted for it by the acl: 1 Gul. & Mar. sess. 2, c. 6. The duty was soon 
 after lowered in order to prevent smuggling : but it was not long ere it was 
 raised again, and came in time to be so high as to make tea the staple article 
 of the smuggling trade. 
 
 In the year 1678 the Company imported 4,713 pounds of tea, which was 
 then for the first time thought worth their attention as a branch of their trade. 
 But it appears that so large a quantity glutted the market ; for the imports of 
 tea in the six subsequent years amounted in all only to 410 pounds. The de- 
 mand increased afterwards, though slowly ; and the tea was generally purchased 
 
 * For some time after tea became known in Europe, it was universally called an herb. 
 
 S 2 at
 
 , 3 , THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 at the second hand in Madras and Surat, and only once in China, at the port of 
 Amoy. 
 
 In the years 1697, 1698, and 1699, the average annual quantity of tea, im- 
 ported by the Company, was under 20,000 pounds ; and in the eight following 
 years it rose to an annual average of above 60,000 pounds, the average price 
 being above sixteen shillings a pound. From that rime the Company enlarged 
 their importation from India ; and they also still continued to import some 
 from Holland till the year 1724, when the importation from that quarter was 
 reduced to four pounds. In 1721 the quantity of tea imported for the first time 
 exceeded a million of pounds : and ever since, the importation, and the con- 
 sumption, of tea in this country have been increasing *. 
 
 * Some who thought themselves philosoph- 
 ers and philanthropists, and others who sup- 
 posed themselves patriots and political econom- 
 ists, have exclaimed against the use of tea, as 
 pernicious to the health of the people, and at 
 best an useless foreign luxury, for the acquis- 
 ition of which the country is drained of its 
 treasure. But, during the thousands of years 
 that tea has been the general drink of the 
 Chinese, it does not appear that they have found 
 it pernicious to their health : nor is any such con- 
 clusion to be drawn from the experience of 
 almost a century, during which it has been in 
 common, and more lately in universal, use in 
 this country. On the first introduction of it, 
 the high price certainly rendered it a luxury, 
 attainable only by the most opulent classes : 
 but afterwards, and especially since the reduc- 
 tion of the duty in the year 1784, tea has be- 
 come an econim'ual substitute, to the middle and 
 lower classes of society, for malt liquor, the 
 price of which renders it impossible for them 
 to procure the quantity sufficient for them as 
 their only drink, though there were land 
 enough to raise the quantity of barley neces- 
 sary for such an increased demand, as assuredly 
 there is not. Those who say that we may take 
 milk for breakfast, as our ancestors did, before 
 the luxury of tea was known in the country, 
 have not considered the increased population of 
 the country. So great an expenditure of milk, 
 as they propose, can scarcely be supplied to 
 
 large towns, from any part of the neighbour- 
 ing country, near enough to admit of carrying 
 it in a fresh state ; and in London, where the 
 present supply is with difficulty procured, and 
 at an enormous price, an augmentation to the 
 extent of five or six times the present quantity- 
 is an utter impossibity. Others thoughtlessly 
 quote the story of Oueen Elizabeth's maids 
 of honour eating beef steaks to breakfast. 
 Those very people probably think their beef 
 dear enough already, and are not aware that 
 they are advising a duplication of the price of 
 it, or a duplication of the price of bread corn, 
 supposing as much corn land turned into pas- 
 ture as would produce the required additional 
 quantity of beef at the present price : for, in 
 such speculations, it is necessary to remember, 
 that the same land cannot at once produce corn 
 and cattle. In short, we are so situated in our 
 commercial and financial system, that tea, 
 brought from the eastern extremity of the 
 world, and sugar, brought from the West Ind- 
 ies, and both loaded with the expenses of war 
 freight and insurance, and charged with duties 
 equal to, or exceeding, the whole value of the 
 articles, compose a drink cheaper than beer, 
 made oi barley and hops growing in our own 
 fields. The declaimers .-.gainst the export- 
 ation of treasure, it is hoped, will be satisfied 
 with the arguments to be found in some late 
 publications, proving that metallic money is 
 a burthen upon the commerce of the country. 
 
 On
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 133 
 
 On the 31st of January 167 1-2 the Nabob of the Carnatic made over to the 
 Company his remaining moiety of the customs of Madras for a fixed annual 
 rent of 1,200 pagodas. The increase of the commerce of the place has ren- 
 dered this a beneficial bargain for the Company. It was not long after this that 
 the neighbouring King of Golconda released the Company entirely from paying 
 any customs in his dominions. 
 
 King Charles having declared war against the Dutch in the year 1672, the 
 Company were obliged in the following year to send out six thousand men to 
 defend their island of Bombay. 
 
 The Company's trade having been very successful for some time bypast, the 
 members agreed in the year 1 6j6 to add as much of their accumulated profit to 
 the capital as would double it ; and thus their capital stock was immediately raised 
 from ^'369,891 5 o to ^739,782 10 o ; whereupon the market price of the 
 stock, which had lately been much under par, immediately rose to 245 per cent. 
 
 Notwithstanding the recent experience of the distress brought upon indi- 
 viduals and the community by the uncontrouled licence of private trade with 
 India, a fresh clamour was raised against the exclusive privilege and joint stock 
 of the Company. In answer to a pamphlet written against the Company, 
 which attracted much of the public attention, a vindication of their trade was 
 published in the year 1677 (supposed by Sir Josiah Child), which gave the 
 following view of their affairs at this time. 
 
 The Company employ from thirty to thirty-five ships, of from 300 to 600 
 tuns burthen, and carrying from 40 to 70 guns *, which are a great addition 
 to the maritime power of the country. 
 
 Their imports in the season 1674-5 were 
 Calico, pepper, saltpetre, indigo, raw silks, wrought silks, drugs, &c. 
 
 to the value of . . . . . . . . ^860,000 
 
 from which deduct for factors f , forts, and other expenses ~) ( - 
 
 in India ........ 3 
 
 800,000 
 The goods imported in private trade by the officers and seamen. -\ 
 
 consisting of diamonds, pearls, musk, ambergris, &c. amount- > 250,000 
 
 ed at least to . . . . . . . . . J — . 
 
 Total Imports ........ ^1,050,000 
 
 * The guns must have been very light, if a many as 70 guns, though they are of near twice 
 
 ship of 600 tuns could carry 70 of them. In asmuch burthen as the largest in the year 1677. 
 
 the present day none of the ships built for the -(-The factors brought home what they could 
 
 Company's regular service are so small as 600 save of their salaries, and other earnings, which 
 
 tuns, and the largest of them do not carry so was also an audition to the wealth of the country. 
 
 Imports
 
 '34 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 • • 
 
 Imports brought over 
 
 Their exports consisted of 
 Bullion ........ ^320,000 
 
 Woolen goods and other merchandize ... 11 0,000 
 
 e£i, 050,000 
 
 And in private trade 
 Bullion about 
 Goods about 
 
 • • 
 
 j£8o,ooo 
 40,000 
 
 430,000 
 
 120,000 
 
 Total Exports ........ 
 
 Thus there was an addition made to the national wealth by one 
 year's trade of ........ 
 
 550,000 
 
 500,000 
 
 The exports of the Company's India goods amounted to about ^630,000 
 and the whole, or nearly the whole, of the goods imported in priv- 
 ate trade were exported, but say only ..... 
 
 200,000 
 
 making an addition to the national exports of . . . * ^830,000 
 
 the returns for which were nearly equal to twice the amount of the prime cost 
 of the whole year's trade ; and the trade moreover gave employment to about 
 5,000 tuns of shipping with a suitable number of seamen, and produced a 
 profit, or two profits, to the exporting merchants, thereby further augmenting 
 the wealth and maritime strength of the nation. 
 
 The amount of India commodides used for home consumpdon at this time is 
 thus estimated. 
 
 Pepper, 180,000 pounds at 8 d. . . . .^6,000 
 
 Saltpetre 
 
 Raw silk and wrought silks 
 
 Calicoes 
 
 Indigo and drugs 
 
 30,000 
 
 30,000 
 
 160,000 
 
 1 5,000 
 
 ^241,000 
 The pepper formerly cost 3/4, and, as it comes only from India, if we were 
 not to import it, but buy it from the Dutch, it would be raised as high as the 
 spices, which they have monopolized. Saltpetre, so essentially necessary for 
 
 * Sir William Petty, who wrote about the same time, estimated the exports of India goods 
 
 at a£8co,COO, \_Polit. arithmetic, /. S-f ] which agrees pretty well. 
 
 the
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 13? 
 
 the defence of the country, would be at a monstrous price, or perhaps unat- 
 tainable at any price in time of war, if we were to depend upon any country in 
 Europe for the supply of it : and the many attempts made to procure it at 
 home have produced only disappointment to the projectors, and vexatious op- 
 pression to individuals*. The importation of raw silk, which is supplied 
 cheaper from India than from Europe, for the support of our manufactures, is 
 surely beneficial. Wrought silks must be imported, till we can make them in 
 sufficient quantity at home ; and those of India cost not above a third of the 
 price of Italian and French silks. The same may be said of calicoes, as they 
 serve instead of foreign linens, which would cost thrice as much. Indigo 
 being a material for manufacture, it is unquestionably desirable to obtain it at 
 the lowest price ; and the same may be said of drugs, the amount of which, 
 however, is not very great. 
 
 Having thus demonstrated the national advantages accruing from the India 
 trade, the author proceeds to consider the questions started upon the best 
 method of conducting it. — Some insist on laying it entirely open ; and others 
 propose that the India trade shall be conducted by a regulated Company, as the 
 Turkey trade is. — To the advocates for open trade he answers by recalling to 
 their remembrance the distresses produced by it between the years 1653 and 
 1657, whereby the proposal evidently appears as pernicious to the nation and 
 the individuals, whom it professes to favour, as it is unjust in proposing to rob 
 the present Company of their forts and establishments in India, and of their 
 privilege, which have cost them prodigious sums, and cannot be taken from 
 them without a shameful violation of public justice, and of the royal charters, 
 on the faith of which the expense of acquiring them was incurred. — To the 
 other proposal he answers, that Turkey is a great empire, subject to one Sove- 
 reign, where by one Ambassador residing at the metropolis, and a few Consuls 
 in the trading ports to correspond with him, redress can be obtained for any ag- 
 gression of the natives. But in India the case is totally different. The country 
 is subject 10 a great number of Princes, independent of each-other, to every 
 one of whom application must be made for commercial treaties by those who 
 desire to trade in the country. Presents must be made to those Princes and their 
 courtiers, the expense of which can only be born by a great joint stock ; and 
 
 * Repeated attempts had been made to ob- to destroy their floors whenever they thought 
 
 tain saltpetre by digging up the floors of proper. Other projects were set on foot : but 
 
 houses, stables, and pigeon-houses ; and the they were all equally unavailing, 
 people were obliged to admit the saltpetre men 
 
 they
 
 , 3 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 they must sometimes be compelled to fulfill their treaties, which requires a 
 ' force, that cannot be supported by the detached members of a regulated Com- 
 pany. 
 
 The fashion of wearing East-India muslins had now become pretty general 
 among the ladies of this country ; and they in a great measure supplanted the 
 French cambrics, French and Silesia lawns, and other flaxen fabrics of Flan- 
 ders and Germany, the prices of all which they also reduced very con- 
 siderably. 
 
 About the same time the Company's trade gave birth to the business of 
 printing India calicoes in England, in imitation of the painted chintses of India, 
 another article of general use in female dress. This branch of manufacture 
 soon rose to such a height, as to render unnecessary the India painted stuffs, 
 the use of which, for the encouragement of British industry, has been prohib- 
 ited in this country since the year 1700. Still the calicoes to be printed were 
 imported by the Company, till of late years, that the printers have been sup- 
 plied with their white calicoes from the British loom, working upon cotton yarn, 
 spun by means of machinery invented by the heaven-taught genius, Arkwright, 
 which enables the high-prkdd labour of Britain almost to compete in that branch 
 of manufacture with the very cheap labour of India. 
 
 On the 5th of October 1677 the King granted the Company a new charter, 
 containing a confirmation of their privileges, together with a power to recover 
 damages for breach of contract from their servants and ship-owners *, and au- 
 thority to coin money (not resembling British money) at Bombay and other 
 places in India. 
 
 In the year 1680 we find the first notice of a ship sent by the East-India 
 Company to China, the trade of which had been entirely monopolized by the 
 Portuguese till lately, that the Butch had got into a share of it by means of 
 their settlement at Formosa. 
 
 The Company were scarcely ever at rest from the machinations of enemies. 
 The calico-printers very soon began to raise a clamour against them for import- 
 ing India chintses (or painted stuffs). The silk-weavers of London were spurred 
 on in the year t 68 1 to complain to Parliament of the damage they sustained by 
 the Company's importation of India wrought silks, though the manufacture of 
 silk good; in England was very far from being sufficient, either in quantity or 
 
 * At tlie commencement of the trade, and ering ships, the property of individuals, which 
 long after it, the Company built their own ships. has for a long time past been their constant 
 This is, perhaps, the first notice of their chart- practice. 
 
 quality,
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. i J7 
 
 quality, to answer the demand, and therefor large quantities of wrought silks 
 were imported from France and Italy. They also reproached the Company 
 for sending some dyers to Bengal, in order to instruct the native manufacturers 
 in the art of finishing black silks agreeable to the taste of the English ladies ; a 
 conduct, they said, utterly destructive of British industry. It cannot, however, 
 be pretended, that either of these manufactures was yet in a condition to supply 
 the twentieth part of the demand of the country : for, we must observe, 
 that these complaints were made, before Louis XIV compelled vast numbers of 
 his ingenious and industrious manufacturers to leave their country by his 
 memorable revocation of the edict of Nantes ; an act by which he proved him- 
 self no less an enemy to the commercial prosperity of his subjects than to 
 their liberty of conscience, and, as succeeding events have proved, to his own 
 posterity *. 
 
 At this time the East-India Company were also attacked by the Turkey 
 Company on account of their importation of raw silk ; a business which that 
 Company claimed as their exclusive right, and as being the principal branch of 
 their trade, conducted by them entirely by receiving silk, and other raw mater- 
 ials, in exchange for English manufactures, and chiefly woolen goods, the 
 favourite manufacture of England, without any exportation of bullion. They 
 presented a long and elaborate memorial to the Privy Council, which they con- 
 cluded by requesting that, as the countries on both sides of the Red Sea are 
 subject to the Sultan of Turkey, they might be permitted to send ships into 
 that Sea by the most convenient passage, which is by the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 The India Company gave in an answer, in which there are several notices 
 illustrative of their history. — At this time the Company consisted of six hun- 
 dred members. — Every member paid ^5 on his admission into the Company. 
 — Every member was entitled to a number of votes proportioned to his stock, 
 whence it happened that some had near sixty votes. — Every member had liberty 
 to carry on a trade with India on his own separate account, to the extent of 
 
 * Perhaps it may be doubted even now whe. imported from countries, where both the ma- 
 
 ther the silk manufacture, the raw material of terial and labour are cheap, as is, for example, 
 
 which must be imported, and makes so great a eminently the case in India. Though the home 
 
 part of the price of the finished work, can be manufacture of silk is in some degree guarded 
 
 a desirable object of the industry of a country, by heavy duties on foreign wrought silks, it 
 
 wherein the price of manufacturing labour is does not seem to have ever been considered 
 
 higher than in any other part of the globe, and as a national object by the Legislature, seeing 
 
 where it is consequently impossible to make that a considerable duty is levied on the raw 
 
 the goods at a price near so low as they can be material in its rudest state. 
 
 t one
 
 , 3 8 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 one fifth of his stock in the Company's capital. — Within nine years more great 
 ships were built by the Company than had been built in thirty years before, and 
 more woolen goods were exported. — His Majesty's customs have also been more 
 than doubled by means of the East-India trade. — The stock now employed in 
 the Company's trade, clear of all debts, amounted to ^1,700,000. — The 
 Company owed ^550,000, for which they paid interest ; and though the 
 interest had by various reductions been lowered from six to three per cent, their 
 creditors were unwilling to receive back their money. — The silk manufacture of 
 England had been increased fourfold since the Company began to import raw 
 silk from India *. 
 
 The defence of the East-India Company was deemed satisfactory by the Lords 
 of the Privy Council ; and the complaints of their opponents were dismissed. 
 
 The East-India Company took this opportunity to represent to the Privy 
 Council, that they were at an annual expense of ^100,000 for the maintenance 
 of their forts and garrisons in India, which were absolutely necessary for the 
 support of their commerce : but that, if the interlopers were not effectually 
 prevented from interfering with their trade, they should not be able to continue 
 the expense of their forts and soldiers, without which there would be no English 
 trade in India. 
 
 The private traders, encouraged by their lawyers, who asserted that no royal 
 charter, unconfirmed by Parliament, could support a monopoly, still continued 
 to send ships to India. The King, probably piqued by the bold assertion of 
 the lawyers, which, he might think, trenched upon his prerogative, laid an 
 embargo, at the Company's request, on a ship ready to proceed to India, with 
 a cargo amounting to ^50,000 under the command of Thomas Sands. A long 
 and interesting trial ensued ; and the Company obtained a verdict, in con- 
 sequence of which, after a year of suspense, the ship and cargo were sold, to 
 the great loss of the adventurer. As it was found, however, that the private 
 traders were not deterred by this example from persisting in their trade, the 
 King sent a ship of war to India with orders to seize all interlopers and 
 pirates. 
 
 In the year 1682 there fell out a quarrel between the King of Bantam and his 
 son, in which the English and Dutch took opposite sides. The King and his 
 
 * The reader, who desires to have more contain many curious and interesting particulars 
 
 ample information upon the claims and pre- of the general commerce of the country at the 
 
 tensions of the two Companies than the limits time, as well as illustrations of the state of the 
 
 of this work can admit, may consult the orig- two Companies. 
 
 inal papers published on both sides, which 
 
 English
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. ij 9 
 
 English allies were overpowered by his son and his Dutch allies, who improved 
 their victory by depriving their rivals of their factory at Bantam, one of their 
 oldest and best establishments in India, which has ever since remained in the 
 hands of the Dutch : and they obliged the new King to expell the Portuguese, 
 the French, and the Danes, though they had all remained neutral in the contest 
 between him and his father. 
 
 The English Company, deprived of Bantam, obtained a settlement at 
 Bencoolen, near the south end of Sumatra ; and, in order to guard against a 
 similar disaster, they fortified the place at an expense, which in a few years 
 amounted to ^250,000 : and they have thereby preserved the pepper trade, 
 which must otherways have been entirely monopolized by the Dutch. 
 
 On the 9th of August 1683 King Charles gave the Company another new 
 charter, confirming all former ones, and giving them additional powers to seize 
 all vessels trespassing upon their privilege, to exercise martial law in their 
 garrisons in India, and to establish courts for the trial of crimes committed upon 
 the seas, questions of insurance, disputes concerning bargains, &c. in then- 
 territories. 
 
 The inhabitants of the Company's island of Saint Helena gave them the first 
 occasion to exercise their new powers. Many of them had refused to pay the 
 usual taxes levied for the support of the government, set the Company's 
 authority at defiance, and even proceeded to make an attack upon the fort. 
 Some of the ringleaders of the disturbance were tried, found guilty, and 
 executed. In the year 1685 the House of Commons, upon a complaint made 
 by some persons connected with the sufferers, voted the conduct of the Com- 
 pany arbitrary and illegal ; and the parliamentary disapprobation threw a tem- 
 porary cloud of unpopularity upon them, which did not, however, prevent 
 their stock from rising to the high price of 500 per cent, their net annual 
 profits being above ^100,000 on the average of nine years from 1676 to 
 1685. 
 
 The interlopers were indefatigable in their opposition to the Company, though 
 the consequences of their intrigues were often as injurious to themselves as to 
 the community against whom they were directed. In India they gave out that 
 the Company were lying under the King's displeasure, and that they were now 
 the real Company. Many of the Company's servants in Bombay, whom they 
 found means to corrupt, set up for themselves. The Princes of India and their 
 officers, seeing Englishmen opposed to Englishmen, and not knowing, or pretend- 
 ing not to know, which party ought to enjoy the benefits of the treaties and 
 
 T t agreements
 
 , 40 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 agreements made with the Company, extorted extravagant presents, and with- 
 held the stipulated privileges, from both. 
 
 Hitherto the warlike operations of the Company had been entirely confined 
 to conflicts against the Portuguese and the Dutch in their own defence : but 
 now they found themselves under a necessity of engaging in hostilities with 
 Aurengzebe, the Great Mogul, one of the ablest of the Monarchs who have 
 borne that high-sounding title, and, indeed, the last of them who possessed 
 energy of mind, and was really a Sovereign. The events which gave rise to 
 this war, and the importance to which the province of Bengal has arisen in the 
 scale of British and Indian commerce and politics, require a brief retrospect of 
 the transactions of about half a century. 
 
 In the year 1636 M r Boughton, an English surgeon, had the good fortune 
 to cure a dangerous disorder, which afflicted a daughter of the Emperor Shah 
 Jehan, who gave him, as a part of his reward, a patent to trade throughout all 
 his dominions without paying any custom. Thus favoured, he resolved to 
 engage in trade, and went to Bengal in order to purchase goods proper for Surat, 
 the place at which he had previously been settled. In Bengal he was also 
 fortunate in effecting a cure upon another lady, a favourite of Mohamed Islam, 
 the Nabob, who prevailed with him to remain in the country, and promised to 
 extend the privilege of trade he had obtained from the Mogul to all Englishmen, 
 who should come to Bengal. 
 
 The Company, whom he took care to acquaint with this favourable disposition 
 of the Nabob, in the year 1 640 sent two ships to Bengal, the supercargoes of 
 which were introduced to the Nabob by M r Boughton, and for his sake favour- 
 ably treated in all their transactions. 
 
 The Company soon after established a factory at Hooghly, a town situated on 
 the west branch of the Ganges, and the chief port of the province. This 
 factory in a short time became the center of an extensive business, spread over 
 a fertile and populous country, which consisted, not so much in selling British 
 goods, for which the natives have little need or desire, as in purchasing the 
 produce and manufactures of the country, for which a considerable part of the 
 payment must be put into the hands of the contractors upon giving the orders. 
 In this manner of conducting the trade (and there cannot possibly be any other) 
 great sums of the Company's money were necessarily scattered over all parts of 
 the country ; and it was also necessary to erect houses and stores for lodging 
 their servants and keeping their goods, which were quite defenceless, nothing 
 that had die slightest appearance of fortification being allowed. The Nabob 
 
 (but
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 141 
 
 (but whether the same person, who had been so kind to Boughton, I have not 
 learned) seeing the Company's servants so chained to his territory, that they 
 could not withdraw without a ruinous abandonment of property, and utterly 
 unable to resist his power, began to treat them with all the cruelty, oppression, 
 and extorsion, which the Mohamedan despots are accustomed to exercise upon 
 such of their subjects as are not of their own religion. 
 
 The great advantages, which usually attend a new trade, after the pre- 
 paratory expenses are got over, induced the Company to submit for about forty 
 years to the extorsions and oppressions of the Nabobs, who, encouraged by 
 such patient endurance, had increased their impositions to a pitch, which at last 
 left no other choice than, either to withdraw the factory, or maintain it by force 
 of arms. The Company's servants on the west side of Hindoostan having also 
 got themselves embroiled with the Mogul, chiefly (it is believed) owing to the 
 misconduct of Sir John Child, the Governor of Bombay, and the intrigues of 
 the interlopers, pretending to be the true Company, the Company determined 
 to have recourse to hostilities ; and, with the approbation of the King, James 
 the Second, they fitted out a strong fleet for Bengal, and another for Surat, 
 which last, accompanied by one of the King's frigates, soon seized a great 
 number of Indian vessels, mostly belonging to the Mohamedan merchants of 
 Surat, which, with their cargoes, were said to be worth a million sterling *. 
 
 The Company proposed to remove their factory from Hooghly to Chitagong, 
 a town, situated on the east side of the Bay of Bengal, where it receives the 
 united waters of the Burampooter and the main stream of the Ganges, which 
 the Nabob of Bengal had taken from the Rajah of Aracan, and there by force 
 to establish a respectable fortified residence : and they directed the commander 
 of the Bengal fleet, which carried out 600 soldiers, to assist and protect the 
 removal. The fleet arrived at the west mouth of the Ganges in October 1686, 
 and preparations were immediately made for removing. But the Company's 
 people soon found they should be obliged to fight for leave to retire ; for the 
 Nabob, enraged at the thought of losing the great revenue he drew from them, 
 immediately marched to Hooghly, and surrounded the factory with his army. 
 The troops were therefor landed, and several skirmishes ensued, in which the 
 Nabob generally experienced the superiority of European military science and 
 discipline, and was taught to respect the power of those whom he had hitherto 
 considered as his slaves or his property. 
 
 * Davenant, a contemporary writer, says pirates, who fitted out in the West Indies, 
 that the depredations on the property of the [Discourses on Revenue, &c. part ii, /. 88. J 
 India merchants were mostly committed by 
 
 The
 
 i+t THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 The complaints of the merchants of Surat, suffering by the capture of their 
 vessels and the loss of their trade, together with the diminution of the revenue 
 occasioned by the total suspension of trade, induced the Emperor to send orders 
 to his Governor of Surat, and also to the Nabob of Bengal, to redress the 
 grievances of the English. In Bengal a treaty of peace was signed on the 
 1 6th of August 1687 ; and the English factory soon after settled at Soota-nutty, 
 a place twenty-three miles lower than Hooghly, and on the east bank of the 
 same river. The treaty did not, however, prevent the Company's servants 
 from being involved in some further squabbles with the Nabob ; till at length in 
 the year 1690 the Emperor interposed his authority, and sent a firmaun 
 (or charter) to the Company's agents, granting them entire freedom of trade, 
 in consideration of an annual payment of 3,000 rupees as a full compensation 
 for all duties. But still they were not permitted to make their factory defensible ; 
 and the favour of the distant Emperor would have been of little advantage to 
 them, while the Nabob, their neighbour, continued unfriendly, if what could 
 not be obtained from him, either by entreaties and offers of money, or the 
 respect due to the orders of his Sovereign, had not been brought about by 
 means of events in which the Company had no concern. 
 
 In the year 1696 the Rajahs, or native petty Princes, of the country near 
 the Hooghly River revolted against the Mogul government, and took and 
 plundered several towns belonging to the Nabob, while his army was at a 
 considerable distance. On this occasion the English factory, now settled at 
 Calcutta, a village adjacent to Soota-nutty, the French at Chandernagore, and 
 the Dutch at Chinsurah near the south end of Hooghly, all situated on the 
 Hooghly River, augmented their small military forces, and declared in favour 
 of the Nabob, who now found himself obliged to desire them to defend them- 
 selves against the common enemy. All the three nations immediately fortified 
 their settlements : and these were the first European settlements that were 
 fortified in any part of the Great Mogul's dominions ; for the Portuguese forts 
 were all situated in places, not conquered by the Mogul at the time of their 
 erection. 
 
 Aurengzebe sent one of his grandsons to suppress the rebellion, and super- 
 intend the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. The English factory, 
 finding this Prince fond of money, by means of presents obtained his per- 
 mission, in the year 1698, to purchase from the Indian proprietors the villages 
 of Soota-nutty, Calcutta, and Govindpore, extending in all about three miles 
 along the east bank of the river, and about one mile back from it, for which 
 they agreed to pay annually to the Nabob 1 1 95 rupees, being the rent he 
 
 received
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 143 
 
 received for them from the former proprietors. Such was the commencement 
 of the Company's territorial possessions in Bengal *. 
 
 We now return to the Company's transactions at home. 
 
 King James the Second, who had lately succeeded to his brother, King 
 Charles the Second, however erroneous he may have been in his religious and 
 polidcal doctrines, was a friend and encourager of commerce, the principles of 
 which he had studied with the application of a man of business. Apprehending 
 that a total loss of the India trade to the nadon must inevitably be the con- 
 sequence of the disordered state of affairs in India, he ordered the commander 
 of the frigate, which he sent out with the Company's ships, to seize every 
 interloper he could find, and to publish a proclamadon commanding all his 
 subjects in India to submit themselves to the Company's jurisdiction. 
 
 On the 1 2th of April 1686 the King gave the Company a new charter, wherein 
 he says, that ' being fully sadsfied that the same [the trade with India] cannot 
 ' be maintained, and carried on to nadonal advantage, but by one general 
 ' joint stock, and that a loose and general trade will be the ruin of the whole,' 
 therefor, in order to support the Company's exertions in establishing a difficult, 
 and hazardous trade, to the honour and advantage of the nation, he grants 
 them full power to appoint Admirals and other officers to command their ships, 
 which may be employed, when necessary, in compelling the Princes of India 
 to adhere to their engagements, or in seizing English vessels encroaching upon 
 their trade, and also to use mardal law in their ships and settlements beyond 
 the Cape of Good Hope and in their island of Saint Helena. They are more- 
 over authorized to coin money similar to that of the Princes, in whose countries 
 their settlements are established. 
 
 We have already seen the Company's early endeavours to establish a trade in 
 Japan, and their being obliged to withdraw the factory in the year 1623 f : and 
 I have now to relate the subsequent attempts made to obtain a commercial 
 intercourse with that empire, and the final resoludon to give it up. 
 
 In the year 1 67 1 King Charles II wrote a letter to the Emperor of Japan, 
 requesting him to authorize a free trade between the subjects of the two 
 countries : and the letter was accompanied with presents supplied by the Com- 
 pany. But the Emperor was not to be moved from a resolution he had formed 
 of permitting no Europeans, except the Dutch, to have access to his dominions. 
 It is said, that he declared, he would have no connection of any kind with 
 
 * The ground, on which these villages stood, is now covered by the buildings of the flourishing 
 city of Calcutta. f See above pp. 90, 105. 
 
 King
 
 I4+ THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 King Charles, who had married a daughter of the King of Portugal, his in- 
 veterate enemy. Whether this silly objection, which may have been suggested 
 by the Dutch, or the equally-silly observance of an antient prophecy, alluded to 
 in some of the papers of those times, was the real cause which influenced the 
 councils of the Japanese Sovereign, it was impossible to prevail with him to alter 
 his resolution. ; 
 
 In the year 1681, and again in 1683, other attempts were made to obtain 
 permission to open a commercial intercourse. But so far was the Emperor from 
 agreeing to the proposals made to him, that he even prohibited his own subjects 
 from importing British woolen goods from Bantam or other places, though the 
 climate of his country requires the use of woolen clothing. 
 
 In September 1689 the Company, still not discouraged after so many dis- 
 appointments, wrote to their presidency at Madras, directing a voyage to be 
 fitted out there for Japan. But the Japanese Emperor remained inflexible. 
 After this attempt, the Company, finding that they had expended ^50,000 in 
 their repeated exertions for establishing a trading intercourse with Japan, 
 resolved to abandon any further thoughts of it *. 
 
 From a view of the Company's affairs, published in the year 1 689 it appears — 
 That in seven years they had built sixteen ships of from 900 to 1300 tuns 
 burthen. — That, after the loss of Bantam, they had erected and maintained 
 three other forts for the protection of the pepper trade. —That they had, in 
 India and on their homeward passage, eleven ships and four permission ships, 
 the cargoes of which were worth above .... ^360,000 
 
 They had, going out to Coast and Bay, seven large -\ 
 
 ships and six permission ones, with cargoes valued > ^570,000 
 
 about ....... ^ 
 
 going to China and the southern islands, seven ~) 
 
 . ° . \ 100,000 
 
 ships with cargoes worth about . 3 
 
 670,000 
 
 Goods in their warehouses ....... 700,000 
 
 Total value of their quick stock ..... ^1,730,000 
 besides the value of their ships and stores, about thirty small armed vessels 
 constantly employed in India, and all their forts, houses, arms, ammunition, 
 &c. in India. 
 
 * Notwithstanding this resolution, the Com. trade with Japan in the year 1699, which 
 pany, or, perhaps, rather the New Company, will be noticed in its proper place, 
 appear to have made another attempt for a 
 
 The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. i 4 y 
 
 The Company also stated, that their settlement at Bombay, by the strength 
 of the forts, the excellence of the harbour, and the great improvement in the 
 salubrity of the air, effected by clearing the woods and draining the stagnant 
 marshes, had increased the population of the island from four thousand to fifty 
 thousand families, all living under the laws and protection of the Company, 
 by which means that settlement had now obtained much of the trade of 
 Surat. 
 
 To this account of the Company's trade, as stated by themselves, I here 
 subjoin the following statement of the annual national benefit derived from 
 it about this time, as made up by Davenant, who was soon after appointed 
 inspector-general of the customs, and published in his Discourses on Revenue 
 and Trade, part ii, p. 377. 
 
 Annual amount of exports to India in bullion and ? ^ 
 
 r > .£500,000 
 
 merchandize .... . . J 
 
 Annual imports 
 
 for home consumption . . . . . . ^500,000 
 
 and for exportation ....... 500,000 
 
 There remain for freight and charges, custom duties, 1 
 &c. and the Company's profit . . . J 
 
 Annual amount of the Company's sales. . . ^1,000,000 j^i, 000,000 
 
 The .^500,000, stated as freight, &c. he considers as clear gain to the 
 nation: and he adds j^i 80,000 as the profit upon the exports; which sum, 
 if he means it for net profit upon the exports of goods bought from the 
 Company, seems much exaggerated ; and, at any rate, a great part of it must 
 have belonged to the merchants of the continent of Europe. He estimates the 
 goods destined for home consumption, when they have passed through the 
 hands of the first and subsequent buyers and the retailers, and when their 
 value has been substantially improved by the industry of ' painters, stainers, 
 ' printers, embroiderers, fiourishers, raisers, and stitchers,' to cost the con- 
 sumers k j£ 1, 300,000, 
 
 thus giving emoluments to those classes of people to the 
 
 amount of ......... 800,000 
 
 He thus states the national benefit gained from the continent of Enrope 
 by the India trade. 
 
 u Profit
 
 , 4 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 ' Profit upon goods exported . . . . . ^180,000 
 
 Saved by a reduction of 25 per cent in the prices of foreign "\ 
 
 silks and linens, effected by the use of East-India silks > 200,000 
 
 and calicoes . . . . . . J 
 
 Saved in the cost of other foreign goods, for which East- 1 
 
 • -i , • f 200,000 
 
 India goods of similar quality are substituted . '. J 
 
 Saved in the consumption of home materials by similar India ~\ 
 
 materials, whereby the exports from England are en- > 1 00,000 
 
 larged ......... J 
 
 Total of annual profit and saving ..... 680,000 
 
 to which add 
 
 Profit of freight, &c. as above ...... 500,000 
 
 Profits of the various traders in England, as above . ... 800,000 
 
 The total annual benefit to all people concerned, as estimated ? _# o 
 
 r r ' > ^1,980,000 
 
 by Davenant *, thus amounts to . . . . .3 
 
 The private traders, exceedingly irritated by the royal support which the 
 Company now enjoyed, became more and more pertinacious in their efforts 
 to prejudice the Public against them : and they succeeded so far, that they 
 persuaded the House of Commons in January 169 1-2 to address King William 
 to dissolve them, and incorporate a new Company ; for it was now generally 
 admitted, as well by those who wished to participate in the trade as by the 
 Company authorized to possess it, that the trade with India could not be con- 
 ducted with advantage to the nation but by a joint stock under the manage- 
 nient of a Company acting with united counsels for the benefit of all concerned. 
 The King referred the consideration of the affair to a committee of the Privy 
 Council, who proposed that the Company's present capital, which they (the 
 Privy Council) valued at only ^740,000, should be made up to at least 
 ^1,500,000, but not to exceed ^2,000,000, and that the new subscribers of 
 the additional capital, together with the present members, should be incorpor- 
 ated for twenty-one years. They also drew up a scheme containing two 
 and thirty propositions for the management of the affairs of the proposed new 
 Company. 
 
 * Such a statement of the Company's trade this exposition of the advantages of the India 
 and the beneficial effects of it in the last fifty trade was thought very splendid by Dave- 
 years would make a very different figure. Yet nant. 
 
 The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. i 4? 
 
 The Company, in their answer to the proposal of the Privy Council, averred 
 that their present stock was worth much more than j^i, 500,000, the sum they 
 had proposed that it should be made up to : they asserted that their forts and 
 territories in India, which had cost them above jfi, 000,000, were their pro- 
 perty for ever : and they affirmed that the intended regulations were better 
 provided for by their present charter, and their own practice, than by the new 
 propositions. 
 
 There was now scarcely one person in the kingdom who did not take an in- 
 terest in the contest between the Company and their opponents, who, having 
 entered into an association and subscribed sums of money, and acting in an 
 united body, might in some degree be considered as another Company. The 
 new Company, if we may so call them, found means to persuade the woolen 
 manufacturers of Gloucester-shire to give in a complaint against the Company 
 for exporting fewer pieces of cloth than, they thought, they ought to do ; and 
 the linen-drapers also complained that the Company did not import a sufficient 
 quantity of calicoes for the use of the country. 
 
 To these complaints the Company answered, that, on account of the 
 state of public affairs in the year 1689 and 1690, they had been allowed to 
 send out only four ships, which of necessity carried fewer cloths than were 
 usually exported ; that the loss of three homeward-bound ships had occasioned 
 a deficiency of calicoes ; and that both these complaints, arising from temp- 
 orary and accidental causes, were already obviated by an increased exportation 
 of woolen goods, and the arrival of other ships with a sufficient stock of 
 calicoes. 
 
 On the 1 4th of November the King sent Sir Edward Seymour to lay before 
 the House of Commons the propositions of the Privy Council and the Com- 
 pany's answers to them, together with the opinion of the Judges, which was, 
 that the Company could not legally be dissolved without three years' notice, 
 and that no other Company could begin their operations before the expiration 
 of those three years. The House, after many warm debates upon the subject, 
 at last presented an address of the whole House to the King, (25th February 
 1692-3) praying that he would dissolve the Company upon three years' nodce; 
 to which his Majesty answered on the 2d of March, that he would consider 
 their address. In a few days after giving this answer he prorogued the Par- 
 liament. 
 
 In the session, which was now closed, an act was passed for laying a tax upon 
 the capital of the East-India, the Royal African, and the Hudson's-Bay, Com- 
 panies, the only joint-stock Companies of any importance then existing in 
 
 u 2 England,
 
 i 4 8 THECOMMERCEOFTHE 
 
 England, which they were required to pay in four quarterly installments, com- 
 mencing on the 25th day of March 1693, on P^ n °* forking tne ' r charters. 
 The proportion assessed upon the East-India Company was five per cent upon 
 their capital, which was stated in the act to be ^744,000. £4, 5 Gul. et Mar. 
 t. 15.] 
 
 Owing to some cause, which has never been accounted for, the East-India 
 Company neglected to make their payment in the office hours on the day ap- 
 pointed, but paid it in a day or two after. Their neglect surely could not proceed 
 from any idea of saving their money, as they must have well known the impossi- 
 bility of evading such a positive law, and they well knew that a much greater 
 expenditure would be incurred in getting clear of the forfeiture, as their ene- 
 mies surely would not overlook such an advantage against them as they thereby 
 put into their hands. 
 
 Notwithstanding the very awkward situation in which the Company were 
 now placed, they found means to obtain a renewal of their charter on the 7th 
 of October 1693, with a full restoration of all the powers and privileges con- 
 ferred on them by former charters, subject to some subsequent regulations, to 
 be made by the King, for the management of their affairs. 
 
 By the King's regulations, dated nth November 1693 — The capital stock 
 of the Company was declared to be ^744,000. — No member was allowed to 
 hold above ^10,000 of the capital. — The privilege of voting in General Courts' 
 was restricted to the proprietors of ^1,000 stock ; and no person should have 
 above ten votes. — Every purchaser of stock must pay ^"5, and take the pre- 
 scribed oaths. The Governor and Deputy-governor must possess stock to 
 the amount of ^4,000 each, and each Committee-man ^ 5 i,ooo *. — The Com- 
 pany were prohibited from granting any permissions for private ships to sail to 
 India, under the penalty of forfeiting the charter. — All the Company's goods, 
 except saltpetre for his Majesty's service, should be sold by public sale, and 
 all, except jewels, in lots not exceeding ^500 in value. — The Company were 
 bound to export English merchandize to the annual amount of ^100,000 f. — 
 They must annually supply the King with 500 tuns of saltpetre, at ^38 100 
 
 * By this constitution every person qualified great damage of themselves and also of the 
 to give a single vote, was also qualified to be a Levant, or Turkey, Company : and they re- 
 Committee-man. commended that they should be obliged to ex- 
 
 ■j- In August 1698 the Lords of Trade ad- port manufactures only to the amount of one 
 
 vised a repeal of this obligation, which forced tenth part of their trade. This advice appear? 
 
 the Company to push their goods at a losing to have been acted upon in the year 1702. 
 price into Persia and other countries, to the 
 
 in
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA- ,49 
 
 in time of peace, and ^45 in time of war. — The dividends must be paid in 
 money only. — Books must be kept of the value of stock, mortgages, &c. to 
 be inspected by the members. — The continuance of the Company's joint stock 
 was determined to be twenty-one years. 
 
 On the 28th of September 1694 the King gave the Company his second 
 supplementary charter of regulations, whereby — The Company are empowered 
 to licence the commanders and mariners of their ships to trade for their own 
 private account, the value and quantity of the goods to be determined by the 
 General Court *, and the goods shipped on their account to be fairly entered. 
 — The Company's money must not be lent without the authority of a General 
 Court. — In case of the Company's charters being found unprofitable to the 
 Crown or the realm, they may be revoked at any time on three years' notice. 
 
 These charters, and the transactions connected with them, became the subject 
 of parliamentary investigation in the year 1695. The Company's books were 
 inspected, and an account was demanded of the disposal of the prodigious 
 sums paid for special services in the year 1693 f. Sir Thomas Cooke, the 
 Governor of the Company, and some of the other principal members, were 
 called before the House of Commons, but they refused to account for the 
 money. Cooke was thereupon sent to the Tower ; and a bill was passed for 
 compelling him to make a discovery. In the House of Lords Cooke was 
 most zealously defended by the Duke of Leeds, President of the Privy Council. 
 The Duke himself was impeached. But the absence of a material witness, and 
 a speedy prorogation of Parliament put an end to the business. 
 
 A second attempt was now made for obtaining an India trade for Scotland J. 
 King William, in return for the liberal supplies of men and money voted by 
 the Scottish Parliament, and anxious to efface the remembrance of the massacre 
 of Glen-Co, had lately directed his Commissioner in Scotland to inform the 
 Parliament of that kingdom, that, if they found it would tend to the advance- 
 ment of trade, that an act should be passed for the encouragement of such as 
 should acquire and establish a plantation in Africa, America, or any other part 
 of the world, where plantations might be lawfully acquired, he would grant 
 them such rights and privileges as he granted in like cases to the subjects of his 
 other dominions. 
 
 * The amount of this kind of private trade year, and had increased gradually since the re- 
 has since been regulated by the bulk, and not volution, amounted to near ^90,000 in the 
 by the value. year 1693. [Journals, 26 March 1695.] 
 
 f The sums expended by the Company for % For a former abortive attempt, see above, 
 
 special services, which during the reign of King p. 1 00. 
 James the Second had been about ^1,200 a- 
 
 In
 
 I JO 
 
 TH E COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 In consequence of this royal encouragement and invitation, a scheme of trade 
 and colonization was digested, chieflv by M r Paterson, the gentleman who had 
 projected the Bank of England, of which he was one of the original Directors, 
 and also the Bank of Scotland *. This most extensive commercial enterprise 
 was intended to combine the trade of Africa with those of America and India, by 
 establishing a colony on the narrow part of the Isthmus of Darien, then unoccu- 
 pied by the Spaniards, and by having a good port on each side of the Isthmus, 
 by means of which, with the river navigation and a short land carriage, the pro- 
 duce of all the four quarters of the globe could be dispersed with case and 
 dispatch over the whole world with comparatively little expense. 
 ' On the 26th of June 1695 an act °f tne Scottish Parliament was passed for 
 incorporating ' The Company of Scotland trading to Africa and 
 * the Indies,' with the usual powers and privileges of joint-stock Companies, 
 and also the power of erecting forts and planting colonies in places not possessed 
 by any European power, with a perpetual trade to Asia and Africa exclusive 
 
 * M r Paterson has been called, even in 
 modern times, ' an obscure Scotchman,' who 
 was ' originally a buccaneer.' I am not so well 
 acquainted with the particular events of his life 
 as to know with certainty, whether he ever was 
 onboard a buccaneer ship or not. But we may 
 be allowed to doubt, whether the education, 
 to be acquired in such a seminary, could form 
 the comprehensive and enlightened mind, cap- 
 able of planning and regulating such magnific- 
 ent and beneficial commercial establishments 
 as the national Banks of England and Scotland, 
 and the Darien colony, which was unquestion- 
 ably the grandest idea of colonization that ever 
 was conceived in any age or country. Ander- 
 son, the late historian of commerce, who lived 
 to a great age, and probably was acquainted 
 with Paterson, speaks of him in the most re- 
 spectful manner, and quotes his writings with 
 approbation In a pamphlet, written against 
 the Scottish Company by a discontented officer 
 of one of their ships, who is said to have been 
 turned out of a King's ship for his misdeeds, 
 Paterson, though treated with abundance of 
 scurrility, is not said to have been a buccaneer, 
 but to have imbibed romantic ideas from con- 
 versing with Dampier, a celebrated circumnav- 
 
 igator. The silence of that reviler may be 
 admitted as prettv good proof, that he was not 
 a buccaneer. To revert to the first part of the 
 charge, that he was obscure and a Scotchman 
 — It may be asked, what is the meaning of the 
 word obscure, as here applied ? Is it intended 
 to make us believe that Paterson could not ex* 
 hibit a long pedigree of the names of his an- 
 cestors ? Whether he could, or could not, is a 
 question not worth the investigation ; for men 
 of real merit do not derive honour from their fa- 
 milies, but confer it upon them. An obscure or 
 disrespectable character could not have been 
 an original Director of the Bank of England, 
 nor could he have obtained a vote of Parliament 
 in the first session of King George the First 
 for £18,241 10 10 (a great sum in those 
 days) with interest from the 25th of March 
 1713, to be paid to him as a compensation for 
 his losses in the Darien expedition : neither 
 could an obscure man have possessed such a 
 capital. The other part of the charge, his 
 being a Scottishman, is true. He was born 
 near the town of Dunfries, which had the 
 honour of being repeatedly represented by him 
 in some of the last sessions of the separate Par- 
 liament of Scotland. 
 
 of
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 151 
 
 of all other subjects of Scotland, and an exclusive trade to Darien for thirty-one 
 years, together with an exemption for their ships and merchandize from all re- 
 straints, prohibitions, customs, and taxes, for twenty-one years. And, if any 
 damage be done to the Company, his Majesty promises to interpose, at the public 
 charge, for justice and restitution. The Company were authorized to take sub- 
 scriptions to the amount of the half of their capital in foreign countries. 
 
 The Company proposed that their capital stock should be ^1,000,000 
 sterling, of which the inhabitants of Scotland subscribed ^400,000. The 
 merchants of England, probably consisting of those who were disappointed by 
 the East-India Company's charter, privately subscribed ^300,000 ; and those 
 of Hamburgh engaged for ^£200,000. But both these classes of subscribers 
 afterwards drew back, in consequence of opposition in the quarter from which the 
 Company had been made to expect encouragement and protection. The Scottish 
 subscribers, now left to depend upon their own resources, proceeded to fit out 
 their ships, which sailed from Leith in July 1698, having onboard 1,200 ve- 
 teran soldiers, intended to garrison the fort or forts to be erected ; and they 
 arrived at Darien in November. 
 
 The Scottish colonists began to build a fort and a town at the mouth of an 
 excellent harbour in a part of the country possessed by the aboriginal Ameri- 
 cans, who received them very cordially. Other ships with more settlers ar- 
 rived soon after ; several vessels from North America and Jamaica resorted to 
 their port for the benefit of their trade ; and the settlement seemed in a fair way 
 of prospering. But, unfortunately for the Company, William III, King of 
 England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, was also Stadtholder of Holland. 
 The Dutch apprehended the loss of their lucrative trade with the Spaniards in 
 the West Indies ; their East-India Company were jealous of a new rival, and 
 on this occasion they joined with the English East-India Company, who had 
 lately found means to render the King and his Ministers more propitious than 
 they used to be, in representing to the King that the Scottish Company would 
 ruin both . the English and Dutch Companies : a danger which surely need not 
 have been apprehended from a capital of only ^400,000. 
 
 It being resolved to suppress the Scottish Company, the Spanish Ambas- 
 sador's complaint of their encroachment upon the territory of his Sovereign 
 was favourably listened to, though his pretension to the country, in which they 
 had settled, rests upon no better right than that by which he claims the whole 
 continent of America and the islands, in virtue of Christopher Colon's dis- 
 covery
 
 «5* 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 covery and the Pope's donation *. The King, being in friendship with th« 
 King of Spain, sent proclamations in January 1698-9 to all the English colonies 
 in America and the West Indies, ordering them to have no intercourse what- 
 ever with the Scottish colony, who, finding the whole world combined against 
 them f, were obliged, after encountering innumerable hardships, to abandon 
 their settlement, and one of the best-concerted commercial undertakings that 
 ever was devised \. 
 
 The people of Scotland so warmly resented the cruel disappointment of their 
 swelling hopes, that it was judged necessary to endeavour to soothe them by an 
 act, passed in September 1703, confirming the Company's patent, and authorizing 
 them to licence foreigners to trade under their seal to Asia, Africa, or America, 
 with a participation of their privileges, such foreigners being obliged to bring 
 their cargoes into Scottish ports. Finally at the union of the kingdoms it was 
 stipulated, that the Company's capital, together with interest at five per cent, 
 
 * The Spaniards acted in direct opposition 
 to the Pope's famous donation, and the subse- 
 quent treaty with the Portuguese, sanctioned 
 by another Pope, by which the unchristian part 
 of the world was divided between those two 
 nations, according to limits then agreed upon, 
 when they took possession of the Philippine 
 islands in the East Indies, which by that divi- 
 sion belonged to the Portuguese. 
 
 ■f The French also were alarmed for the 
 trade of their West-India colonies, and kindly 
 offered their assistance to the King of Spain to 
 expell the Scots from Darien, at the very time 
 when they themselves were forming settlements, 
 not only on the American continent at the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, in a country to which 
 the King of Spain had precisely the same title 
 that he had to Darien, but also in the island of 
 Hispaniola, which was actually occupied by 
 Spanish subjects. Neither ought it to be for- 
 gotten that King William, who was so anxious 
 to prevent his Scottish subjects from encroach- 
 ing upon his good brother of Spain, proposed, 
 in conjunction with the Dutch, to take posses- 
 sion of Golden island, situated near the Gulf 
 of Darien, to which he was advised by the 
 newly-erected Board of Trade, because it had 
 a good harbour, and in order to prevent the 
 
 Scottish Company from occupying it. The 
 scheme was, however, dropt, probably in con- 
 sequence of the ruin of the Scottish settlement. 
 :f Though the excellence of the plan of the 
 Darien colony was attested by the opinion of the 
 Board of trade, and their advice, that ' notvjith- 
 ' standing seme doubts as to the leg ality, 'the Scottish 
 adventurers should be treated with all possible 
 rigour, and also by the jealousy of both Houses 
 of the English Parliament, and of the English 
 and Dutch East-India Companies, some people 
 have affected to decry it as a ' Scots folly,' ' a 
 ' premature attempt,' &c. &c. Just such a 
 folly was the establishment of a port near, not 
 on, the Isthmus of Suez, for the purpose of 
 connecting the eastern and western parts of the 
 world by the mutual benefits of commerce, for 
 which the wisdom and discernment of AleK- 
 ander have been extolled, not only by his 
 panegyrists, but by all writers, who have had 
 occasion to mention it. — But Alexandria pro- 
 spered, and Darien was ruined : and the opi- 
 nion of the bulk of mankind, when not in- 
 fluenced by party or interest, is oftener deter- 
 mined by the success than by the merit of an 
 undertaking, 
 
 ' And prosp'rous actions always pass for wise.' 
 
 should
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 153 
 
 should be.refuaded to them out of the equivalent money, after the payment 
 of which their privilege should cease.. But it required the lapse of many years, 
 after all the partners of the Company were in their graves, to wear out the 
 strong remembrance of this insulting and oppressive stretch of power. 
 
 From this digression to the unfortunate Scottish Company, I now return to 
 the English East-India Company, whose enemies omitted no opportunity of 
 distressing them. In the year 1697 the silk-weavers, in the belief that the im- 
 portation of India silks and calicoes was the cause of rendering their business 
 less beneficial than it might othervvays be, became outrageous, assaulted the 
 East-India house, and were near getting possession of the Company's treasure, 
 before they were dispersed by the assistance of the civil power. This disturb- 
 ance occasioned a kind of paper war upon the advantage or disadvantage of 
 importing the fabrics of Indian manufacture, on which it is sufficient in the 
 present day to observe, that the manufactures of goods, fit to be used instead 
 of India silks and calicoes, were not then brought to such a maturity in Eng- 
 land, though they were rapidly advancing by the exertions and example of the 
 refugees, lately driven out of France by the revocation of the edict of Nantes, 
 as to render it prudent in the Legislature to exclude the Indian fabrics, as such 
 an exclusion would chiefly have operated in favour of the much more costly 
 ones of the continent of Europe ; and that as soon as the native fabrics ac- 
 quired the proper degree of maturity, the use of India silks and printed calicoes 
 was prohibited by law. 
 
 The bloody war occasioned by the revoludon was terminated by several 
 treaties concluded at Riswick in September 1697. In the eight years, during 
 which it convulsed the whole of Europe, the French ships of war and priva- 
 teers were so exceedingly vigilant in distressing the trade of Great Britain, that 
 no. fewer than four thou/and two hundred British merchant vessels fell into their 
 hands, among which were several of the East-India Company's homeward- 
 bound ships. These heavy losses, and the interference of the separate traders, 
 which still continued, in defiance of the renewed charter, disabled the Company 
 from making any dividends for some years, whereby the people in general 
 were put very much out of humour with the East-India trade ; and the Com- 
 pany, who had reason to think they stood upon sure ground after obtaining a 
 charter, which was supposed to recdfy every imaginable defect in their pre- 
 ceding ones, seeing their severe losses aggravated by the indulgence of the 
 Ministry to the private traders, to whom they granted licences as unreservedly 
 as if they were desirous of shewing a contempt of the charter, were quite dis- 
 couraged at the ruinous prospect of their affairs. ' 
 
 x In
 
 JJ4 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 In the beginning of the year 1698 the Government, being in want of money, 
 sounded the Company to know whether they would advance a large sum 
 for the public service in consideration of a parliamentary confirmation of their 
 privileges. After several debates upon the subject, the General Court of the 
 Company, knowing that their opponents, the separate traders, would also be 
 applied to, and considering the difficult situation in which they were placed, 
 proposed to advance ^700,000 at an interest of four per cent, provided then- 
 charter should be fully confirmed to them by Parliament. While this negoti- 
 ation was going forward, the separate traders, among whom there were some very 
 capital merchants, being supported and directed by M r Montague, the Chancel- 
 lor of the exchequer, offered to advance ^2,000,000 at eight per cent, on con- 
 dition that they should be invested by Parliament with all the privileges for the 
 India trade, which had been conferred by the King's charter on the present 
 Company, and also with the liberty of trading separately, if they should chuse 
 to do so. The want of money (for the art of instantaneously raising large 
 sums appears not to have been so well understood then as in the present day) 
 induced the Legislature to accept the offer of the largest sum, though at 
 double interest ; and a bill for incorporating the subscribers was ordered to be 
 prepared. 
 
 The Company were heard by their counsel, Sir Thomas Powis and Sir Bar- 
 tholomew Shower, against the bill. These gentlemen in their pleadings set 
 forth, that the Company had at a vast expense acquired many emoluments and 
 territories in India, viz. revenues arising from Fort Saint George at Madras, 
 Fort Saint David, Bombay, and some stations in Persia and elsewhere, amount- 
 ing annually to about ^44,000, and likely to increase ; several forts and settle- 
 ments, established in Sumatra and on the coast of Malabar for securing the 
 pepper trade of those countries ; Fort William at Calcutta in Bengal ; and 
 many factories and settlements in various places ; and also many immunities 
 and privileges purchased from the native Princes, in the confidence that their 
 rights would be protected by Government ; and that they were absolute pro- 
 prietors of Bombay and Saint Helena. 
 
 In another hearing they endeavoured to point out to Parliament the confusion, 
 which must ensue from two rival Companies trading in competition, the bill 
 proposing that the intended Company should be permitted to begin their oper- 
 ations immediately, though the present Company were unquestionably entitled 
 to a continuance of their exclusive privilege for three years after notice given to 
 dissolve them. They requested the House to consider that they had the burthen 
 of supporting the forts and factories ; they called their attention to the severe 
 
 lqsses
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 155 
 
 losses they had suffered by the war and by shipwreck, particularly of twelve 
 great ships, which, with their cargoes, were worth j£i, 500,000, notwithstanding 
 which they had paid to the revenue since the year 1693 the sum of ^295,000 
 in customs, besides ^85,000 in other taxes : and they had supplied the King 
 with 6,000 barrels of gun-powder on a pressing occasion, and subscribed 
 j^8o,ooo for circulating exchequer bills. They also endeavoured to interest 
 the feelings of the House by representing that many families, whose all was 
 invested in the stock of the present Company, must be ruined by their dissol- 
 ution. 
 
 The counsel for the new subscribers exerted themselves to repell the argu- 
 ments of the Company ; but they rested the merits of their cause chiefly on 
 the insufficiency of the King's charter, when not confirmed by an aft of Par- 
 liament. 
 
 The Company, finding no expectation of a favourable decision from then- 
 arguments, resolved, as a more effectual means of success, and in order not to 
 be out-done by their competitors, to subscribe ^2,000,000 for a loan to Go- 
 vernment, and immediately presented a proposal to that effect to the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 The offer availed them nothing : the interest of their opponents, who had 
 found means to ingratiate themselves with the leading members of Administra- 
 tion, prevailed : and on the 5th day of July 1698 the royal assent was given 
 to an act [9, 10 Gul.III, c. 44] whereby — It is declared to be lawful for hi* 
 Majesty to incorporate the subscribers to a loan, not exceeding j^2,ooo,ooo> 
 for which they are to receive interest at eight per cent, and to be a body politic 
 by the name of The General Society intituled to the advantages 
 
 GIVEN BY AN ACT OF PARLIAMENT FOR ADVANCING A SUM NOT EXCEED- 
 ING TWO MILLIONS FOR THE SERVICE OF THE CROWN OF ENGLAND, with 
 
 perpetual succession, a common seal, a legal capacity of possessing lands, and 
 of suing and being sued. — The subscribers of sums not under ^500 are directed 
 to elect by ballot twenty-four Trustees, being subscribers of at least ^2,000 
 each, who shall manage the affairs of the Society. — In case of a sum, not less 
 than half of the two millions, being subscribed, before the 29th of September 
 1698, by any persons, natives or foreigners, or by bodies corporate, excepting 
 the Bank of England, the persons or bodies politic, so subscribing, are em- 
 powered for ever to trade, personally or by their agents, in all parts of Asia, 
 Africa, and America, beyond the Cape of Good Hope eastward as far as the 
 Straits of Magellan, each on his own separate account, and to an amount not 
 exceeding in any one year the total of the stock held by him. — But any 
 number of the members may unite their capitals in a joint stock, and carry on 
 
 x 2 the
 
 , 5 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 the trade to the East Indies together, still not exceeding the amount of their 
 conjunct capital ; and his Majesty may incorporate them as a joint-stock Com- 
 pany, with perpetual succession, a common seal, power of making bye laws, 
 &c. — All merchandize, shipped in India, must be landed in some port of Eng- 
 land or Wales, unless prevented by the danger of the seas, enemies, pirates, 
 restraints of Princes, or barratry of seamen, and must be sold publicly by inch 
 of candle. — The Society's stock is declared to be a personal estate ; and the 
 interest payable to the partners by Government, and also the profits of their 
 trade, are exempted from all taxes and impositions. — No member of the Society 
 can be adjudged a bankrupt in respect of his stock, which shall not be liable 
 to any foreign attachment by the custom of the city of London. — The Society 
 are prohibited from borrowing money for any shorter time than six months, or 
 for any other purpose than carrying on their trade. — An additional duty of five 
 per cent, rated on the real value, is laid on all goods imported from India, to be 
 paid to the Society, or Company, as a fund for defraying the expenses of Am- 
 bassadors to the Princes within their limits, who shall be appointed by the King, 
 ' at the nomination of the Trustees, Directors, or Managers of or for the 
 1 General Society aforesaid, or of such Company so to be empowered to 
 ' trade with a joint stock as aforesaid.' — On three years' notice after the 
 ac;th of September 171 1, and repayment of the capital, the interest payable 
 to .the Society, together with all other benefits hereby granted to them, 
 shall be at an end. — All vessels' trading to the East Indies, not being in the 
 service of any of the members of this Society, shall be seized and confiscated 
 together with their cargoes, except the vessels belonging to the Company of 
 the merchants of London trading into the East Indies, who have a right to trade 
 to the East Indies till the 29th of September 1701, and except all ships cleared 
 out from England before the 1st of July 1698, so as they return, without 
 breaking bulk in any part of Europe, into some port of England. — The pre- 
 sent Company of merchants of London trading into the East Indies are re- 
 strained from making any dividends, till they shall have paid off all their just 
 debts. 
 
 So great was the expectation of the advantages, to be derived from an East- 
 India trade, sanctioned by parliamentary authority, that the subscription for two 
 millions was filled up in three days after the books were opened. The greatest 
 part of the money was subscribed by foreigners *, and the King himself was a 
 
 subscriber for ten thousand pounds. 
 
 By 
 
 * It was believed by many that the separate blishing a second Company projected, by the 
 traders were supported, and the scheme of e6ta- Dutch, who hoped thereby to destroy the Eng- 
 lish
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. i 57 
 
 By the act, now passed, every one of the subscribers was at liberty to trade to 
 India upon his own separate account. But it would have been as imprac- 
 ticable, as it must have been unprofitable, for any other than the large sub- 
 scribers to carry on the trade, and the smaller subscribers must either have fore- 
 gone their privilege, or employed their stocks under the management of some 
 of the greater traders, and thence there would have arisen a multitude of Com- 
 panies undermining and destroying one another. The consequences of such a 
 state of the trade were undoubtedly foreseen by the principal subscribers : but, 
 as they had been the foremost in the clamour against a monopoly of the trade 
 with India, it was necessary, not only for the sake of preserving an appearance 
 of consistency, but also in order to avoid giving offence to some people in 
 power, who had been persuaded to concur with them in disseminating the 
 doctrine of universal freedom of trade, to get a licence of separate trade in- 
 serted in the act, taking care, however, to have a liberty of uniting, at their 
 own option, also put in : and it was most probably preconcerted among them, 
 that they should immediately apply for a charter to incorporate themselves, and 
 as many more as they might chuse to unite with them, into a joint-stock 
 Company. 
 
 Accordingly we find, that on the 5th day of September (some weeks before 
 the day limited by the act for at least half the money being subscribed) every 
 thing preparatory to the constitution of a new joint-stock Company was in such 
 a state of forwardness, that the King then signed a charter, incorporating a 
 number of the subscribers to the loan of two millions by the name of ' The 
 '■ English Company trading to the East Indies *,' with perpetual 
 succession, power to purchase lands, &c. — All persons and corporations en- 
 titled to any share of the stock, or persons deriving right from them, are es- 
 teemed members of the Company. — Other members of the General Society 
 may also unite with them. — They may enlarge their capital, so as not to exceed 
 the whole sum limited by the act. — Their exports in goods and bullion must 
 net in any one year exceed their capital ; and one tenth part of the value must 
 be in English merchandize. — Every member must take an oath, that he will 
 not trade to India on his own private account. — All the Company's goods must 
 
 lish East-India trade entirely ; and certainly * The King had signed a charter for incor- 
 
 the option left to every one of the subscribers porating the General Society two days before : 
 to trade upon his own separate account was but, as it was immediately almost entirely super- 
 exceedingly well calculated to produce such an seded by this charter for the joint-stock Corn- 
 effect, pany, it is not necessary to take any further 
 
 notice of it. 
 
 be
 
 158 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 be brought to England, and be sold by public sale ; and none of the lots, 
 except jewels, shall exceed ^1,000 in value. — The Company must furnish 
 500 tuns of saltpetre every year to Government. — They are required to support 
 a minister and a schoolmaster at Saint Helena, and also a minister and a school- 
 master in every garrison and superior factory in India ; and the ministers are to 
 learn the Portuguese and Hindoo languages, that they may be enabled to in- 
 struct the natives in the Christian religion. Every ship, not being under the 
 burthen of 500 tuns, must also have a chaplain. — Twenty-four Directors *, each 
 possessing ^a,ooo in the Company's stock, are to be chosen on the 25th of 
 March every year. — Every member possessing .^500 stock has a right to 
 rote; and no person or corporation can have more than one vote. — A General 
 Court of Proprietors is to be held once a-quarter, and also occasionally, when 
 required by nine proprietors qualified to vote. They are to make bye laws and 
 ordinances for regulating the Company's affairs, raising additional 6tock, and 
 declaring dividends of profits. — The receiver-general of the customs is directed 
 to pay the duty of five per cent, appropriated for the maintenance of Ambas- 
 sadors, to the Company's treasurer. — The Company are invested with the privi- 
 lege of trading to the East Indies for ever, in exclusion of all other persons, 
 saving the right of the old Company to continue their trade till the 29th of 
 September 1701 : and the Company are empowered to seize all persons, who 
 shall presume to invade their privilege, and also their vessels and goods. But 
 the Company may grant licences to trade, under certain restrictions. — The 
 Company are empowered to appoint Governors and other officers to all their 
 forts, factories, and plantations, and to raise forces for their defence ; and also 
 to establish courts of justice, as directed in the charter of King Charles II, in 
 proper places. — All Admirals, Generals, revenue officers, and magistrates, are 
 required to be assisting to the Company and their servants. 
 
 The net capital of the new Company was , . . ^1,992,800 
 The remaining sum of ...... 7,200 
 
 belonged to a few subscribers, who preferred trading on their own account, and 
 therefor refused to come into the joint stock. 
 
 Hitherto the New Company had carried every thing triumphantly before 
 them. But they had still many difficulties to encounter. The forts, factories, 
 and privileges, acquired by the Old Company in India, were their undoubted 
 property : and there was not one word in the act of Parliament respecting any 
 
 • I believe this is the first direct notice of the modern name of the executive managers of the 
 Company's affairs. It occurs in the act for the establishment of this Company as an explanation. 
 
 sale
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. i W 
 
 sale or conveyance of them, or requiring them to indulge the New Company 
 with the accommodation of them. They might dispose of them at their 
 pleasure to any foreign Company. They had also an undoubted right, confirmed 
 by the new act, to enjoy the trade during three years ; and at the expiration of 
 that term, if any of their debts were remaining unpaid, they were obliged still 
 to remain in a corporate capacity for the purpose of collecting their funds, and 
 winding up their affairs. 
 
 The Old Company, as a more effectual means of securing a continuance of 
 their India trade, had directed M r Dubois, their treasurer, to subscribe 
 j^3 1 5,000 in the new stock, whereby they had a larger interest in it than any 
 other subscriber, whether a body corporate or an individual : and, for further 
 security, they obtained an act of Parliament in the year 1701, whereby they 
 were authorized to continue a body corporate and polidc, under their old name 
 of The Merchants of London trading into the East Indies, till Government should 
 redeem the new capital stock of two millions. [Private acts, 1 2 Gul. Ill, 
 n" 28.] 
 
 There were now three, or rather four, sets of English merchants, with con- 
 tending and interfering interests, all authorized by law to trade to India. 
 
 I) The Old Company, who had an unquesdonable right to the trade for 
 three years ; and, after the expiration of that term, they might continue to 
 trade, as a separate division of the New Company, upon their own capital of 
 ^315,000. 
 
 II) The New Company, who, whether by a strange oversight, or intendonal 
 inconsistency, were authorized to begin their trade immediately, notwithstanding 
 the exclusive privilege for a term of years, belonging to the Old Company, and 
 though they possessed no forts, factories, or other accommodations, necessary 
 for carrying on their trade. 
 
 III) A few subscribers of the General Society, who chose to trade, each for 
 himself. 
 
 IV) The separate traders, who were so far legalized, that all the ships they 
 had sent out before the 1st of July 1698 had a right to prosecute the trade 
 during the continuance of one voyage, which might be made to include many 
 trading voyages in India, and to return to England at such dme as should be 
 most convenient for themselves. 
 
 As no fewer than sixty ships are said to have been employed by all these 
 rivals, the irregular state of the trade, which immediately ensued, could not fail 
 to occasion an excessive exportation of bullion, and also of merchandize ; and 
 the inevitable consequences of the violent collision of the jarring interests 
 
 in
 
 ,6o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 in India were a depredation of European goods and an enhancement of the 
 prices of India goods, and extorsions of the Princes and their Ministers, as on 
 former similar occasions. In England the prodigious glut, and unreasonable 
 cheapness, of India goods were ruinous, not only to the importers, but also to 
 the English manufacturers of London, Norwich, Coventry, &c. whose fabrics 
 were almost universally superseded by the wrought silks, bengals, mixed stuffs, 
 and figured calicoes of India, China, and Persia. The general distress was pe- 
 culiarly severe upon a new class of English subjects, the French protestants, 
 whom the blind bigotry of Louis XIV had driven out of his own dominions to 
 enrich the protestant states of Europe. They had by this time effected very 
 great and extensive improvements in many of the English manufactures, par- 
 ticularly in all the branches of the silk and linen manufactures, which, in con- 
 sequence of the commanding cheapness of India silks and piece goods, were 
 now universally neglected. The buyers at India sales, and even the retail 
 traders in every part of the country, however much they might at first be 
 pleased with the opportunity of getting India goods cheaper than formerly, 
 were soon overwhelmed by the inundation of goods flowing in upon them from 
 the contending sales, which were conducted without any regulation, or affording 
 any hope of being secured against a sudden repetition of them ; for when a 
 dealer had purchased a stock of India goods sufficient for his demand, he had 
 the mortification to see his neighbours' warehouses or shops afterwards stocked 
 with goods of the same qualifies, bought at much lower prices at subsequent 
 sales, and himself reduced to the cruel necessity of either selling nothing, or 
 selling on a par with his neighbours, and in either case sinking a part of his 
 capital, perhaps being completely ruined. In short, all the miseries of the open 
 trade in the later part of Cromwell's government were renewed upon a more 
 extensive scale, and with increased virulence. 
 
 In the spring of the year 1700 the Parliament endeavoured to relieve the 
 general distress of the manufacturers by passing an act [1 1, 12 Gul. Ill, c. 10], 
 which after premising, that ' It is most evident, that the continuance of the 
 ' trade to the East Indies, in the same manner and proportions as it hath been 
 ' for two years last past, must inevitably be to the great detriment of this 
 ' kingdom, by exhausting the treasure thereof, and melting down the coin, 
 *. and taking away the labour of the people, whereby very many of the manu- 
 ' factorers of this nation are become excessively burdensom and chargeable to 
 ' their respective parishes, and others are thereby compelled to seek for em- 
 {,* ployment in foreign parts,' proceeds to ordain, that, after the 29th of Sep- 
 tember 1701 no wrought silks, bengals, nor stuffs mixed with silk and herba, 
 
 of
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 161 
 
 of the manufacture of Persia, China, or East India, nor calicoes, painted, dyed, 
 printed, or stained, in those countries, should be worn or used in England, 
 Wales, or Berwick upon Tweed, except such as are made into apparel or fur- 
 niture before that day. — All such goods, imported after that day, must be ware- 
 housed and exported. — In order to prevent clandestine importation, all such 
 goods shall be imported into London, and no other port ; and they shall pay 
 no duty, except the half subsidy. 
 
 This prohibition, which appeared so necessary for the preservation of the 
 great body of the manufacturers, still further aggravated the distress of the 
 vast numbers of people concerned in the India trade through all its ramific- 
 ations, and completed the ruin of such of the members of the Old Company 
 as were obliged to sell out their stock, which the arts of the stock-jobbers re- 
 duced so low as thirty-seven per cent. 
 
 The unhappy state of their affairs seems to have rendered the two Companies 
 keener than ever in their exertions for their mutual destruction. Their ani- 
 mosities divided the whole kingdom into two parties, who are supposed to have 
 coalesced with the two political factions, who then distracted the nation, the 
 Old Company being supported by the Tories, and the New by the Whigs. 
 Upon the dissolution of the Parliament in April 1700 both Companies exerted 
 themselves to get their friends elected. The whole nation was in a ferment ; 
 and there was no possibility of terminating the contest, unless the two Com- 
 panies could be induced to unite their stocks and their interests. 
 
 After obviating many difficulties, an union was at length effected, which was 
 confirmed on the 22d of July 1702 by a tripartite indenture, wherein Queen 
 Anne, the Old Company, and the New Company, were the parties. By this 
 famous instrument it was determined, that 
 
 The Old Company, in addition to their subscription of . ^"315,000 
 
 shall purchase stock at par from the New Company to the ? g 
 
 amount of . . . . . .5 
 
 making their part of the joint stock «... 988,500 
 
 equal to the New Company's remaining part . , . 988,500 
 which, with 
 
 the stock of the separate traders * .... 23,000 
 
 make up the total capital of . , . . . ^2,000,000 
 
 * The stock of those subscribers to the loan, found to amount to ^23,000. I have not 
 who chose to trade on their own separate ac- discovered how the difference of these state- 
 sounts, hitherto 8tated at ^7,200, was now ments is to be accounted for. 
 
 y The
 
 i6i THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 The forts, factories, buildings, and other fixed property, called ~> * 
 dead stock, of the Old Company in India are valued at . 5 
 
 and those of the New Company at 70,000 
 
 therefor the New Company shall pay to the Old Company £\ 30,000 
 which, with the value of their own forts, &c. . 70,000 
 
 make up the sum of . • • <^2 00,000 
 
 being the equal half of the whole value . . . ^400,000 
 
 During the next seven years the Old Company shall keep their stock in the 
 capital of the United Company in their corporate capacity, without transferring 
 it to their particular members. — The Old Company reserve to themselves the 
 use of their office and warehouses in Leadenhall street, and other dead stock 
 in England, during the ensuing seven years. — During those seven years each 
 Company shall have their own Directors, and hold distinct Courts for the man- 
 agement of their own separate affairs. — Both Companies lhall forthwith bring 
 home their own effects, and divide them among their members. But all ships 
 and merchandize to be henceforth sent to India shall be on the joint account, 
 under the management of twelve Directors deputed from each Company. — The 
 United Company bind themselves to her Majesty to have at least one tenth of 
 their exports consisting of English produce or manufactures, and to deliver 
 annually at the office of ordnance 4944 tuns of saltpetre, at ^45 per tun in 
 time of peace, and ^53 in time of war. — The Queen agrees to take the 
 Company's bonds for the customs on all their merchandize, except muslins. — 
 The Company have the power of governing their forts, and coining money, in 
 India. — The Old Company are empowered to convey the property of Bombay 
 and Saint Helena to the United Company. — Before the expiration of the seven 
 years the Old Company shall assign all the debts due to them to her Majesty, 
 who will re-assign them to trustees for the purpose of paying off the debts due by 
 them, and for the benefit of the members. — After the expiration of the seven 
 years, the Company are to be called, ' The United Company or Merch- 
 * ants of England trading to the East Indies.' 
 
 On the same day the Old Company executed a deed of conveyance to the 
 New Company (or rather to the United Company, as they themselves were 
 now an equal half of the whole) whereby they made over to them 
 
 The ports and islands of 
 
 Bombay and Saint Helena, 
 
 granted to them by King Charles II ; 
 
 the
 
 ENGLISH WITH 
 
 INDIA. i« 
 
 the forts of 
 
 
 
 Maga^om, 
 
 
 Syere, 
 
 Mahim, 
 
 
 and 
 
 Syon, 
 
 
 Worle ; 
 
 the factories of 
 
 
 
 Surat, 
 
 
 Amadavad, 
 
 Swally, 
 
 
 Agra, and 
 
 Broach, 
 
 
 Lucknow ; 
 
 the forts of 
 
 
 
 Carwar, 
 
 
 Anjengo, and 
 
 Tellichery, 
 
 
 Calicut ; 
 
 the factories in Persia at 
 
 
 
 Gombroon, 
 
 
 and 
 
 Shyraz, 
 
 
 Ispahaun, 
 
 h the yearly rent of ^3,333 6 8, granted 
 
 to them by the Sophi of Persia 
 
 also on the coast of Coromandel 
 
 
 
 Chingu, 
 
 the factories of Cuddalore, 
 
 Orissa, 
 
 
 Porto Novo, 
 
 Fort Saint George at Madras, with 
 
 
 Pettipolee, 
 
 the city and dependencies, 
 
 
 Metchelepatnam, 
 
 Fort Saint David, and its terri- 
 
 
 Madapollam, 
 
 tory of three miles, containing 
 
 
 and 
 
 several towns and villages. 
 
 the fort and factory of Vizagapatnam 
 
 in the island of Sumatra 
 
 
 
 York fort and factory, with the dependent factories of 
 
 Indrapore, 
 
 
 Sillebar, 
 
 Tryamong, 
 
 
 &c. 
 
 in Cochin China, 
 
 
 
 the factory of Tonquuv; 
 
 
 
 in Bengal 
 
 
 
 Fort William at Calcutta, 
 
 
 
 the factories of 
 
 
 
 Sutta-nutty, with its territory, 
 
 
 Hooghly, 
 
 Ballasore, 
 
 
 Maulda, 
 
 Cossimbazar, 
 
 
 Rajamaul, and 
 
 Dacca, 
 
 
 Patna; 
 
 Y 2 
 
 their
 
 ,64 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 their right to Bantam and any other settlements they ought to possess in 
 
 the South Sea ; 
 and all other castles, forts, lands, guns, ammunition, stores, eattle, ships or 
 
 vessels, plate, rents, customs, prerogatives, and privileges ; 
 and also 
 their warehouses and other tenements in Great Saint Helen's in London *. 
 
 The following is a view of the trade of the East-India Company (apparently 
 the New Company) from the 29th of September 1698 to the 29th of Septem- 
 ber 1701. 
 
 In the year ending on the 29th of September 1699 they sent one ship for 
 Coromandel, one for Bengal, one for Coromandel and Bengal, three for 
 Sural, one for China, and one for Borneo. The cargoes of the eight ships 
 consisted of 
 
 British produce and manufactures, which cost with 1 ^ 674. 1 1 c 
 
 customs and charges ....•-' 
 
 Foreign bullion (chiefly Spanish dollars at 5/ each) and -\ 
 
 some foreign goods, consisting of stationary ware, > 286,720 8 8 
 wine, and medicines J 
 
 Total cost of eight cargoes 37>394 1 9 8 
 
 The Company also shipped onboard his Majesty's ship n 
 
 Harwich money and goods, for the service of an> 5)559 '4 " 
 
 Ambassador and his retinue, to the amount of J 
 
 Total ^332,954 14 7 
 
 In the year ending on the 29th of September 1 700 they sent two ships to 
 Limpo in China, one to Limpo and Borneo, one to Coromandel, one to Coro- 
 mandel and Bengal, two to Borneo, two to Surat, and one to Bengal. The 
 cargoes of the ten ships consisted of 
 
 British goods, which cost with customs, &c. . . ^60,028 7 o 
 
 Foreign bullion and merchandize, as before . . 280,042 15 8 
 
 Total amount of exports in the ten ships . .. . 5^340,071 2 8 
 
 In the year ending on the 29th of September 1701 they sent one ship to 
 Moco (apparently Mocha in Arabia), three to Canton, one to Limpo, one to 
 
 * Thi9 enumeration is valuable, as showing their trade over the various coasts of the Indian 
 the state of the Old Company's possessions, Ocean, the east part of which they used to call 
 and the progress they had made in spreading the South Sea. 
 
 Amoy
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 165 
 
 Amoy (or Emouy), three to Coromandel, two to Surat, two to Bengal, and 
 one to Borneo, being in all fourteen ships, which carried 
 
 British goods, cost with customs .... ^75,527 19 9 
 
 Foreign bullion and merchandize, as before . . 438,610 4 o 
 
 Total amount of exports in the fourteen ships . . ^514,138 3 9 
 
 We here see three Chinese ports, Limpo, Canton, and Amoy, open for 
 the reception of English vessels, whereas the increased jealousy of the Chinese 
 policy in later times has restricted the admission of Europeans to the one port 
 of Canton. 
 
 In the year 1699 the Company (most probably the New Company) not- 
 withstanding the repeated disappointments of the Old Company, and their 
 consequent resolution to abandon all thoughts of trading to Japan, sent instruc- 
 tions to their factors in China to use every endeavour in their power to renew 
 a commercial intercourse with that empire, still hoping to make it an extensive 
 market for woolen goods and other English merchandize. But it does not 
 appear that the factors had any success : and the Company have not since made 
 any further attempt. Neither would a trade with the Japanese be so advant- 
 ageous as the reputed opulence of their country might lead one to suppose. 
 Their manner of living is very simple, and most of the articles they want can 
 be brought to them cheaper from various parts of Asia than from Europe ; and 
 copper, the chief article they could give in return, is found in sufficient 
 abundance in the British mines. 
 
 The separate traders were in no hurry to deprive themselves of the tem- 
 porary privilege, or toleration, granted to them in the late act of Parliament, 
 by returning to England. We may form some idea of their dilatoriness, and 
 also of the number of vessels employed by them, from Captain Hamilton, a 
 commander in that trade, and author of a History of the East Indies, who 
 says, that about the year 1706 he himself had three or four large ships at one 
 time in Bengal. 
 
 In the year 1 704, when the calamities of the war depressed the Government 
 funds, and obliged the Bank of England to issue bills to a large amount bear- 
 ing interest, the East-India Company had their share of the general distress, 
 and were obliged to borrow a large sum upon their bonds, in order to dispatch 
 their ships. 
 
 In the end of the year 1 707 the Parliament enacted, that the Company should 
 give bond to the amount of ^2,500 for every hundred tuns the ships in their 
 
 service
 
 166 THECOMMERCEOFTHE 
 
 service are let for *, in order to secure the landing of the whole of their home- 
 ward cargoes, with the sole exception of necessary stores for the consumption 
 of the inhabitants and garrison of Saint Helena, in some port of Great Britain, 
 unless prevented by the danger of the seas, enemies, &c. [Act 6 Ann. c. 3.] 
 
 In consequence of a new agreement made by the Company with the Ministry, 
 the Parliament passed an act in the same session, whereby the Company became 
 bound to pay into the Exchequer the sum of ^1,200,000, for which they were 
 to receive no interest, or, in other words, to accept Jive, instead of eight, per 
 cent on their capital, thereby augmented to ^3,200,000, the additional, as 
 well as the original, stock being exempted from all taxes. — For the purpose 
 of raising this sum, the two Companies (their stocks not being yet united) 
 were authorized either to borrow ^1,500,000 under their common seals, or to 
 make calls upon the proprietors. — In consideration of this additional payment, 
 and that the Company ' may have time to settle factories, and perform such 
 ' other matters and things as are necessary for carrying on the said trade to 
 ' their best advantage and profit,' their privilege of exclusive trade to India is 
 prolonged to the 25th day of March 1726, with three years' notice after that 
 day, when, upon repayment of the capital sum of ^3,200,000, it shall cease. — 
 The proprietors of the separate stocks, to the amount of ^7,200 t, are con- 
 firmed in the right of carrying on their separate trades till the 29 th of September 
 1 7 1 1 , after which the United Company may give them notice, that in three 
 years they will pay off their stock, which shall thenceforth be vested in the 
 Company. — In order to complete and perfect the union between the Company 
 of merchants of London trading into the East Indies and the English Company 
 trading to the East Indies, they agree to refer all matters in difference between 
 them to the arbitration of the Earl of Godolphin, whose award, to be given 
 before the 29th of September 1708, shall be binding and conclusive. After 
 the award the twelve Managers of the Company of the merchants of London, 
 and the twelve Managers of the English Company, shall be the Directors of the 
 Company, who shall then be called ' The United Company of Merch- 
 ' ants of England trading to the East Indies.' — The grant of the 
 duty of five per cent upon the imports from India, hitherto appropriated for 
 the support of Ambassadors, is now rescinded. — After the 25th of March 1708 
 
 * By this act, and the Company's 9th bye the system of carrying on their trade by chart- 
 law (see RussePs Collection of statutes) it ap- ered ships, as is done at present. 
 pears, that the Company had now given up f Here we again find the capital of these 
 
 kuilding and owning ships, and had established separate traders stated by Parliament at ^7,100, 
 
 oot ^23,000. See above, pp. 158, 161. 
 
 the
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 167 
 
 the officers of the customs shall receive the Company's bonds in payment of all 
 bondable duties on the merchandize imported by them. [Act 6 Ann. c. 17. ~\ 
 
 It is proper to observe, that, when the Company were obliged to raise, and 
 pay into the Exchequer, the sum of j^i, 200,000, the legal interest of money 
 in England was six per cent ; and that they paid that large sum merely for an 
 addition of not quite fifteen years to the term of their privilege. Of their capital 
 of ^3,200,000 they had not one penny to carry on their trade with, the whole 
 being lent to Government, and the last sum without any interest. The whole 
 benefit derived to their trade from their capital, so invested in the national debt, 
 was, that it served as a fund of credit, whereby they were perhaps the better 
 enabled to borrow the sums necessary for carrying on their trade, every penny 
 of which, we thus see, was necessarily borrowed money. Those therefor, who 
 consider the large bond debt, owing by the Company, as a proof of extra- 
 vagance or mismanagement, must evidently be very deficient in information, or 
 in candour. 
 
 The Old and New Companies having submitted the settlement of their 
 accounts to the Earl of Godolphin, agreeable to the act of Parliament, that 
 nobleman on the 29th of September 1708 gave his award, whereby the Old 
 Company were required to transfer the debts owing to them in Great Britain 
 to the Queen, that she might regrant them to the New (or United) Company, 
 who should thereby become liable to pay the debts owing by the Old Company. 
 — That, as the separate effects of the Old Company would not be sufficient to 
 pay their foreign debts, they should pay ^96,615 4 6 for the benefit of the 
 united trade : and they should also pay ^66,005 4 2 to the New Company, 
 for the use of their respective members, in consideration that the effects of the 
 New Company were estimated to exceed the debts due by them on their separate 
 account. — The Old Company were directed to transfer to their own members 
 their respective shares of stock, which they were to hold as members of the 
 United Company. 
 
 By this famous award, founded upon the above-mentioned act, an end was 
 legally put to all the jarring interests, which had hitherto distracted the English 
 trade with India, and the Company were placed nearly upon the same footing 
 upon which they have remained ever since. 
 
 In order to prevent any improper interference in the affairs of the East-India 
 Company and the Bank, it was enacted by Parliament, that no person should 
 ever be a Director of both at the same time. [Act 9 Ann. c. J.~\ 
 
 On the 25th of March 1709 the United Company made a dividend for one 
 quarter of a year, which was only at the rate of five per cent for the year. It 
 
 is
 
 ,6J THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 is probable that the expenses of their new arrangements made that dividend 
 unusually low ; as we find that on the 29th of September in the same year the 
 proprietors received their half-year's dividend at the rate of eight per cent ; after 
 which it was paid at the rate of nine per cent till the 29th of September 1 7 1 1 ; 
 and, notwithstanding so good a dividend, the price of the Company's stock in 
 November 171 1 was only i24f per cent. After September 171 1 the dividend 
 was raised to ten per eent t at which rate it continued till the 24th of June 
 
 1722. 
 
 In the year 171 2, on the humble petition of the United Company, the Parlia- 
 ment, in order to enable them the better to proceed in their trade, and to make 
 lasting settlements for the support of it, and for the benefit of the British nation, 
 enacted, that the Company should enjoy their privileges agreeable to former 
 acts and charters till the 25th of March 1733, and three years' notice after 
 that day, when upon repayment of their capital of ^3,200,000, with the 
 interest due on it, their annual payment of ^160,000 should cease and de- 
 termine. [Act 10 Ann. c. 28.] 
 
 This prolongation of the privilege was, for ought that appears, a gratuitous 
 favour on the part of Government to the Company. 
 
 At this time the Company, in a petition which they presented to Parliament 
 against a bill for imposing additional duties upon calicoes, tea, coffee, drugs, &c. 
 stated the amount of their annual exports of woolen goods and other British 
 merchandize at ^150,000. 
 
 The original Company's acquisition of some villages, upon the ground of 
 which the chief part of the great and populous city of Calcutta has been built* 
 has already been related. The growing prosperity of the settlement was some- 
 what interrupted by the rivalship of the New Company, who settled a factory 
 at Hooghly ; but this evil was soon removed by the union of the two Com- 
 panies : and the United Company, sensible of the increasing value of the com- 
 merce of Bengal, and of the importance of Calcutta, now become their principal 
 establishment in that province, improved the fortifications, and augmented the 
 garrison. In the year 1707 the factory at Calcutta, which had hitherto been 
 subordinate to Madras, was declared by the Company an independent 
 presidency. 
 
 Jaffier Khan, the Nabob of Bengal, viewed with an evil eye the tranquillity 
 and prosperity of Calcutta ; and that prosperity was with him a sufficient reason 
 for renewing the oppressions of his predecessors, as the Company would now be 
 much better worth the trouble of fleecing them. With that intent he removed 
 his residence from Dacca, which lies between the Ganges and the Burampooter, 
 
 to
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. . 169 
 
 to Muxadabad, situated on the Hooghly River, that he might be more at 
 hand to controul and harass the Company's servants. There he soon began 
 to show his disregard to the Emperor's grant of privileges, and practised every 
 possible extorsion upon all the European factories indiscriminately, and also 
 upon his own subjects, whereby he rendered himself the object of universal 
 dread and detestation. 
 
 The Company, when they were informed of the Nabob's proceedings, sent 
 orders to the presidencies of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, to join in a repre- 
 sentation of their grievances, and a petition for redress, to be presented, 
 together with a splendid present, to Furrukshir, the Great Mogul, by Am- 
 bassadors to be deputed by the Governor of Calcutta. Messieurs Surman and 
 Stephenson, the Ambassadors, and Serhaud, a great Armenian merchant, who 
 was joined with them, attended by a suitable retinue, and carrying a very 
 magnificent present, arrived at Delhi, the Imperial residence, in July 171 5*, 
 and were obliged to wait for the lingering determination of the Emperor, or 
 rather of his Ministers, till July 17 17, when advices from Surat of the English 
 factory being withdrawn from that place on account of the impositions upon 
 the trade, together with the expectation of a strong British fleet in the Indian 
 seas, and the apprehension of a repetition of the distress brought upon the 
 trade of that place by a fleet in the year 1687, determined the Court to grant 
 every one of their requests, which were written at large in mandates addressed 
 to the Nabobs of Bengal and Guzerat and the Subahdar of the Deccan f, and 
 sealed with the Emperor's seal. 
 
 By the Imperial mandates and patents, in all thirty-four, now obtained — 
 The cargoes of English ships, which might be wrecked, were exempted from 
 plunder. — In consideration of a fixed sum to be paid to the Mogul's Governor 
 at Surat, the Company's trade should be exempted from duties, and from the 
 
 * It has been noticed that the first privileges the Emperor promised to grant the Ambas- 
 
 granted to the Company in Bengal were pro- sadors every thing they should ask, consistent 
 
 cured for them by a medical gentleman : and with his dignity. The tedious delay which 
 
 on this occasion their interest was again ac- ensued, notwithstanding this favourable dis- 
 
 cidentally promoted by a professor of the heal- position in the Sovereign, was occasioned by 
 
 ing art. On the arrival of the Ambassadors at the jarring interests of the courtiers, and the 
 
 Delhi the Emperor was in a condition, from intrigues of the agents of the Nabob of Bengal, 
 
 which, it might be supposed, the rigorous f The terms, Subahdar and Nabob, are often 
 
 restraints of an Imperial seraglio ought to have promiscuously used by Europeans : but they 
 
 exempted him. His own medical men being are by no means synonymous, the Subahdar 
 
 unable to relieve him, he applied to M r Hamil- being immediately under the Great Mogul, and 
 
 ton, the surgeon of the embassy, who in a few having sometimes several Nabobs under his 
 
 weeks effected a cure, in gratitude for which command. 
 
 • z visitations
 
 , 7 o THE COMMERCE O F THE 
 
 visitations and extorsions of officers. — The rupees, coined at Bombay and 
 Madras, should be received in payment of the Mogul's revenue. — Three 
 villages, contiguous to Madras, taken from the Company by the Nabob of 
 Arcot, should be restored. — The island of Diu, or Divi, near Masulipatnam, 
 should be made over to the Company for an annual rent of 7,000 pagodas. — 
 All persons indebted to the Company in Bengal, whether Europeans or natives, 
 should be delivered to the presidency at Calcutta. — Three days in the week 
 should be allowed for the coinage of the Company's money in the mint at 
 Muxadabad. — A dustuck (passport) from the President at Calcutta should 
 exempt the goods specified in it from being searched by the revenue officers. — 
 The Company were authorized to purchase thirty-seven towns, situated on both 
 sides of the Hooghly River, on terms similar to those, on which they had 
 purchased Calcutta and the two adjacent villages. 
 
 This extensive grant of privileges and accommodations was considered as the 
 Company's commercial charter, as long as they stood in need of protection from 
 the Princes of the country. The orders addressed to the Nabob of Guzerat 
 and the Subahdar of the Deccan were duely respected by them. But Jaffier 
 Khan, who perceived that the possession of the towns upon the banks of the 
 Hooghly would enable the Company to command the navigation of the river 
 bv erecting batteries on both sides of it, completely frustrated the Emperor's 
 grant for the purchase of them by threatening the proprietors with his vengeance, 
 if they accepted any proposal made to them by the Company's servants for the 
 purchase of them. 
 
 Charles VI, Emperor of Germany, and Sovereign of the Austrian Nether- 
 lands, for whose sake Great Britain had supported a war of unprecedented 
 expenditure of blood and treasure, the consequence of which is felt to the 
 present day, set up an East-India trade at Ostend, to be conducted under 
 the sanction of his passports *. But, it being soon discovered, that the capital 
 of this nominally Netherland trade was almost entirely the property of English 
 and Dutch merchants, and that even the ships were chiefly navigated by British 
 seamen, a proclamation was issued on the 1 8th of October 1 7 1 6 strictly pro- 
 hibiting all British subjects from being concerned in the stock of foreign 
 Companies trading to the East Indies, or sailing onboard their ships. But 
 this proclamation not being duely attended to, the prohibition was further 
 enforced in the year 1718 by an act of Parliament [5 Geo. I, c. 21.], which 
 
 * The history of the Ostend East-India trade will be found in the subsequent part of 
 this work. 
 
 inflicted
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 171 
 
 inflicted a penalty of ^500 upon every person acting under a foreign com- 
 mission for trading to the East Indies after the 5th of February 17 18-19, aiw 
 empowered the officers of the East-India Company to seize all such persons 
 found in India, and send them home to be tried in England. This act, 
 being temporary, has been frequently renewed, but has never completely 
 effected the purpose, for which it was enacted. 
 
 In the year 1720, famous, or rather infamous, for the delusion of the 
 South-Sea scheme in England, and the Mississippi system in France, the stock 
 of the East-India Company was raised, by the frantic blowing up of the South- 
 Sea stock, to the price of four hundred and forty-five per cent, though the divid- 
 end was only ten per cent, and the illicit practices of the adventurers in the 
 Ostend East-India trade made it more probable that the dividend should be 
 lowered than that it should be raised. It is proper to observe, that the 
 stupendous financial speculations and professions of the South-Sea Company 
 ended in complete disappointment, and, instead of discharging the national 
 debts, as the projectors of it wildly promised, left the nation deeper in debt 
 than before, and ruined thousands of families. In order to give some relief 
 to this unfortunate Company, oppressed by the enormous weight of their 
 capital, the Parliament in the year 1721 authorized them to ingraft eighteen 
 millions of it into the capitals of the Bank and the East-India Company at the 
 rate of ^120 for jfioo of Bank or East-India stock. But the Parliament did 
 not propose to compell those Companies to accede to the measure proposed $ 
 and the act had no effect whatever. The Bank, it is true, purchased four 
 millions of the South-Sea stock, which, as soon as it was transplanted into 
 their more productive soil, they transferred to individuals at the rate of 1 18 per 
 cent. The East-India Company, who do not appear to have ever had any 
 connection with the South-Sea Company, or to have imitated any of their wild 
 schemes, purchased no part of their stock. 
 
 They found their attention sufficiently taken up by the embarrassment 
 brought upon their commerce in consequence of the continued invasion of 
 their privilege by British subjects, acting in India as subjects of the Emperor, 
 in the service of the Ostend East-India Company, who, though not yet 
 formally chartered, enjoyed all the privileges of a chartered Company. This 
 interference, concurring with some other distressing circumstances, obliged 
 our East-India Company at Midsummer 1722 to reduce the annual rate of 
 their dividend from ten to eight per cent. 
 
 On the 24th of September 1726 the King granted a charter, authorizing 
 the establishment of a Court, consisting of a Mayor and nine Aldermen, in 
 
 z 2 each
 
 r7 a THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 each of the Company's principal settlements of Madras, Bombay, and Cal- 
 cutta, for trying all causes, civil or criminal, except high treason. The 
 powers, conferred by this charter, were enlarged, and more accurately de- 
 fined, by a subsequent charter in January 1753. 
 
 When the Company's privilege wanted six years of being fully expired, 
 a very powerful effort was made by numerous associations of merchants and 
 others in London, Bristol, and Liverpool, to get the joint-stock trade abolished, 
 and a regulated Company established, the partners of which, they alleged, 
 would export a much larger quantity of British merchandize to India, and 
 would serve the British consumers, and also foreign merchants, with India 
 goods on much lower terms than the present Company did, whereby the trade 
 would be greatly extended, more ships and seamen would be employed, and 
 the revenue would consequently be much improved. In order to induce the 
 Parliament to sancdon their scheme, they presented a proposal in February 
 1729-30 to advance ^3,200,000 for the purpose of paying oft* the debt owing 
 to the present Company by the Public, for which they should accept interest 
 at four per cent till the 25th of March 1733, and thereafter only two per cent, 
 whereby the Nation would have an annual saving of ^92,000 ; in consider- 
 ation of which they petitioned to be incorporated as a regulated Company for 
 thirty-one years, with three years notice after that term. They requested a 
 power to levy a duty of one per cent on exports, and five per cent on imports, 
 in order to defray the expense of forts and settlements in India ; and upon these 
 terms they proposed that all British subjects should be freely admitted to trade 
 in India under their licence, and that the trade should be confined to the port 
 of London. 
 
 It was necessary also to show some prospect of advantage to induce people 
 to become subscribers to the intended new Company ; and they held out the 
 following. — A certain interest of two per cent upon the capital *. — One per 
 cent on the exports. — Five per cent on the imports, which, supposing them not 
 to go beyond the present annual amount of ^3,000,000, would produce 
 ^150,000 a-year, which, as the present Company's forts support their own 
 * expenses, will be all clear profit : and even, if they should be obliged to pay 
 the present Company for their forts and settlements, the expense would soon 
 be reimbursed by the increase of the trade. — From these premises they con- 
 cluded, that they should be able to make dividends oifive or six per cent upon 
 their capital. 
 
 * A roost tempting certainty, to-be-sure ! 
 
 The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 173 
 
 The Company, on the other hand, represented, that their annual sales,, 
 which amounted to ^3,000,000, yielded a revenue to Government of 
 ^300,000 clear of all deductions of drawbacks, &c. — The support of their forts 
 and factories required an annual expense of ^300,000. — It was not probable, 
 that a trade, which every man might take up, or lay down, at his pleasure, 
 would be able to produce so much revenue, and bear the expense of forts, and 
 factories. — The uncontrouled separate traders would infallibly renew the dis- 
 tress,, which nearly effected the ruin of the trade, when the two rival Com-, 
 panies and the separate traders were all trading in competition. 
 
 It does not appear whether the projectors of the new scheme obtained a sub- 
 scription to the extent they required. But surely the prospect of emolument, 
 when they dressed it out to the best advantage, was not very alluring. Five or 
 six per cent for the advance and risk of an undertaking, on which there might 
 perhaps be no profit, or even a total loss, for they must have incurred their 
 expenses, whether there should be trade to support them or not, was certainly 
 no inducement for any man of common prudence to venture his capital. The 
 scheme, indeed, seems to have been calculated (one might suppose, under the 
 influence of Dutch or Netherland politics) not only to annihilate the joint- 
 stock Company, and deprive the members of it of a great part of their pro- 
 perty *, but also to destroy the British commerce in India, and to ruin the 
 projectors themselves. The only real effect, which it produced, was obliging 
 the Company to pay with large interest for the prolongation, which they seem 
 to have obtained gratuitously in the year 171 2. 
 
 Agreeable to the offers, apparently, extorted from the Company, the Parlia- 
 ment passed an act [3 Geo. II, c. 14], whereby the Company became bound to 
 pay j£ j 2oo,ooo into the Exchequer on the 24th of December 1730, and not 
 only to receive neither interest nor reimbursement of that sum, but also to give 
 up, after the 20th of September 1730, one per cent of the interest already se- 
 cured to be paid to them till the 25th of March 1736, their yearly fund of in- 
 terest on the old capital of ^3,200,000 being thereby reduced from ^160,000 
 to j£ j i 28,000. — On one year's notice after the 25th of March 1736 the Par- 
 liament might pay off the whole capital of ^3,200,000, or any part of it in 
 sums not under ^500,000 at a time, and cut off a proportional part of the 
 interest at four per cent. — Notwithstanding the repayment of the whole or a 
 
 * They proposed to pay off the Company's and they seem to have proposed to take the 
 capital at the rate of 100 per cent, though it forts and other property of the Company in 
 was worth, and had actually cost many of those, India from them without any compensation 
 who were then proprietors, a vast deal more : whatever. 
 
 part
 
 i 74 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 part of the capital, the Company have a right to continue a body corporate and 
 politic under their present name, with perpetual succession, and to enjoy all the 
 privileges and benefits conferred by former acts and charters, and to possess the 
 exclusive trade within the limits assigned by former acts and charters, and with 
 all their former privileges and powers, till the 25th of March 1766, with three 
 years after that day, when, upon full repayment of their capital of ^3,200,000, 
 with the interest due upon it, their exclusive privilege may be withdrawn ; after 
 which they have still a right to trade to India in a corporate capacity with the 
 whole or any part of their joint stock. 
 
 By this act thirty-three years were added to the term of the Company's ex- 
 clusive trade, for which they paid in ready money . . ^200,000 
 
 and a reduction of the interest on their capital from five to four ? > 
 
 * u- u .k C 6 40,000 
 
 per cent, which was worth . . . . . . j 
 
 In consequence of this heavy payment, and the defalcation of their interest, 
 they were obliged to reduce their annual dividend at Christmass 1732 to seven 
 per cent, at which rate it continued till Midsummer 1743, when it again got up 
 to eight per cent. 
 
 Nothing memorable occurs besides the commercial transactions of the Com- 
 pany, which having been for many years conducted in the regular routine of an 
 established system, furnish no materials for history, till the year 1 744, when, 
 though the term of their privilege wanted no less than twenty-Jive years (includ- 
 ing the three years of notice) of being expired, they agreed to advance Go- 
 vernment, then much in want of money to carry on a war against France and 
 Spain, the sum of one million at an interest of three per cent, in consideration 
 of which the term of their exclusive privilege was prolonged to the 25th of 
 March 1780, with the usual addition of three years after that day, and with a 
 right, as in the act for the last prolongation, to continue a corporate body, and 
 to trade to India, after the expiration of the exclusive privilege. The debt 
 owing to the Company, now amounting to ^4,200,000 (for, notwithstanding 
 the stipulations formerly enacted, no part of it had been discharged) may be 
 paid to them, either in whole or in sums not under ^500,000 at a time, upon 
 a year's notice at any time after the 25th of March 1745 : and, in order to 
 enable the Company to make the payment now agreed for, they are authorized 
 to borrow any sum not exceeding a million. [_Act 17 Geo. II, c. 17.]] 
 
 As the additional annuity of ^30,000, now acquired by the Company, was 
 worth only ^600,000, reckoning five per cent the fair value of interest, it fol- 
 lows that they paid ^400,000, with twenty-two years' interest on that sum, 
 for the premature extension of the term of their privilege. 
 
 The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 17* 
 
 The peace, concluded in the year 1748, having put a stop to annual loans, 
 and the punctuality, with which the dividends, or interest, on the national debt 
 were paid, having rendered this country the depository of much of the spare 
 cash of different parts of Europe, there was such a glut in the money market, 
 as enabled the Minister, in the beginning of the year 1750, to make a loan for 
 one 7iiillion (the sum then required for winding up the accounts of a war) at an 
 interest of three per cent. 
 
 The Ministry were encouraged by this redundance of money to attempt a 
 general reduction of the interest on the national debt, '' with a strict regard to 
 * public faith and private property,' for which purpose an act [23 Geo. II, c. \\ 
 was passed in the end of the year 1 749, requiring all the proprietors of the national 
 debt, which amounted in the whole to ^57,703,475 6 44, who were willing to 
 have their interest reduced, after the 25th of December 1750, to three and a half 
 per cent, at which rate it should continue till the 25th of December 1757, and 
 thereafter to three per cent, to signify their consent by subscribing their names 
 in books to be opened at the Exchequer, Bank, &c. before the end of February 
 1 749-50. But the East-India Company and many other proprietors of the na- 
 tional debt being found very unwilling to surrender so great a part of their in- 
 come, the Parliament, in order to punish their backwardness, passed another act 
 [c. 223 in the same session, whereby the time, allowed to the outstanding cred- 
 itors for signifying their consent to the proposed reductions, was extended 
 to the 30th of May 1750 : but, as a penalty for their delay, they were 
 to be reduced from three and a half to three per cent two years sooner than 
 those who had yielded obedience to the first act. Those, who should still 
 refuse to subscribe, were to be paid off on the 25th of March and the 24th of 
 June 1751 with money to be borrowed for that purpose. If the East-India 
 Company should persist in refusing the offered conditions, not only the sum of 
 ^3,200,000 bearing interest at four per cent, but also the ^1,000,000 bearing 
 interest at three per cent, should be paid oft", by four payments to be made in 
 the course of the year 1751. In case of their compliance within the prescribed 
 time, they were empowered to borrow money to the extent of ^4,200,000, at 
 the same rates of interest which they were to receive, for the purpose of dis- 
 charging their bond debt. 
 
 The Company, as well as most of the other creditors, found it necessary and 
 prudent to submit, whereby their annuity, or interest, on their original property 
 of ^2,000,000 in the public funds, which at first was at the rate of eight per 
 cent, was reduced to three, making, first and l?st, a diminution of ^100,000 
 in the annual income arising from that branch of their capital : and this 
 
 reduction
 
 i 7 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 reduction of the expenditure of the nation, and consequently of the income 
 and expenditure of a prodigious number of individuals, has been called by 
 some political writers ' one of the most beneficial schemes that has for a long 
 ' time been set on foot in this country.' 
 
 The Company made use of the power, conferred upon them by the act, so 
 far as to borrow ^2,992,440 5 o ; and it is said that they obtained the loan 
 at an interest of three per cent, or in other words they received that sum by the 
 sale of annuities to the amount of ^89,773 4 o payable at the India house. 
 That a Company, possessing no power of compulsion, should be able to raise 
 money at little more than half the legal rate of interest, was a very strong proof 
 of the confidence of the Public in their stability and prosperity, as well as of the 
 great abundance of money in the country. 
 
 Though the Company's commercial concerns were in the most flourishing 
 state, the defalcation of ^32,000, now struck off from their annual income, 
 together with the pressure of some extraordinary expenses in India, obliged 
 them to reduce their annual dividend at Christmass 1755 from eight to six per 
 cent. 
 
 It now becomes necessary to take a rapid glance of the revolutions in India, 
 which, by obliging the Company to act as a warlike, as well as a commercial, 
 community, have, by a succession of extraordinary and unexpected events, 
 thrown into their hands such a large portion of the territory of the country, 
 as places them at least on a level, in respect to the number and opulence of 
 the people living under their government, with the greatest Sovereigns of Asia, 
 the Emperor of China only excepted. 
 
 For above two centuries after the commencement of the European inter- 
 course with India, the Great Mogul was universally considered as the most 
 powerful and most opulent Sovereign in the world. Reigning over a vast ex- 
 tent of fertile country, filled with an industrious and gentle race of people, who 
 quietly submitted to the dominion of a Prince of a foreign lineage and adverse 
 religion, supported by a comparatively small number of his countrymen and 
 other foreigners *, he delegated the government of his numerous provinces to 
 officers called Subahdars and Nabobs, who were invested with such portions of 
 the sovereign power, and the command of such armies, as encouraged them, 
 when the sceptre passed into the hands of weak and voluptuous Princes, to 
 make great encroachments upon the power, while they professedly respected the 
 
 f Mr. Orme, in his ' History of the military ulation at near ten millions, and that of the 
 ' transactions of the British nation in Indostan' original natives at ten times as many. 
 \_V. i, p. 24], calculates the Mohamedan pop- 
 prerogative,
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 177 
 
 prerogative, of the Emperor. These great officers, though there were, accord- 
 ing to the constitution of the empire, sufficient checks upon their conduct to 
 keep them within the line of their duty, under the government of a vigorous 
 Sovereign, found means, during relaxed reigns, to render themselves nearly- 
 independent of the Imperial throne, and to make the revenue of the Sovereign 
 just what they thought proper to allow him : and in process of time they easily 
 persuaded him to commute a fluctuating and uncertain income for a fixed an- 
 nual payment, whereby the whole remaining revenue of the provinces became 
 legally appropriated to themselves. This was the state of the empire, when it 
 Was invaded by Thamas Kouli Khan, the usurper of the throne of Persia, who, 
 after pillaging the capital, desolating many of the provinces, and compelling 
 the unfortunate Mogul to cede to him the territories situated on the west side 
 of the River Indus, returned to Persia in the year 1739 with plunder to the 
 amount, it is said, of above seventy millions sterling *. The provincial Govern- 
 ors, seeing their unhappy Sovereign thus humbled by a bold usurper, were 
 encouraged to withold the payment of the stipulated tribute, which, they knew, 
 he was not in a condition to enforce, and assumed independent power in their 
 own territories, and also a right, in violation of the constitution of the empire, 
 of transmitting their governments to their heirs, though they still acknowleged 
 the nominal supremacy of the Mogul. Their independence was soon followed 
 by quarrels among themselves ; and the miserable people were exhausted, and 
 literally starved, by taxes extorted from them for the support of armies, by 
 whom the fruits of the earth were devoured. 
 
 In the year 1 746 the French forces from Pondichery took Madras, which 
 had been for a century the principal settlement of the English Company on the 
 coast of Coromandel. It remained, however, but a short time in their pos- 
 session, being restored to its former proprietors by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 
 in the year 1748. 
 
 During the war, which was now terminated, the English and French Com- 
 panies had become military powers in India, and their forces were so much 
 augmented, as to place them on a level, in point of political importance, with 
 the greatest of the Princes, among whom the country was now divided. Before 
 the commencement of this war, those Princes, whose ignorance of history pre- 
 vented them from knowing that the predecessors of some of them had been 
 
 * Some accounts make the amount of theplun- stated by M* Orme, seems to be fully as mucli 
 der ^123,000,000, and others, ^231,000,000 as can be reconciled to any idea of cred- 
 sterling. But the smaller" sum, which is that ability. 
 
 a a kept
 
 , 7 8 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 kept in subjection by a handful of Portuguese soldiers, had been accustomed to 
 consider the English and French factors and agents merely as their dependents 
 or subjects. But late events having made them sensible of the vast superiority 
 of the Europeans in the art of war, they began to entertain a more respectful 
 opinion of them, and even to court their alliance in their wars with their neigh- 
 bours. 
 
 Saujohee, a deposed King of Tanjore, applied in the year 1 749 to the Eng- 
 lish Presidency at Fort Saint David * for their assistance to reinstate him in the 
 dominions, from which he was ejected by his half-brother Pratop-Sing, offer- 
 ing to cede to them the town and district of Devicotah, and to pay the expenses 
 of the war, when he should obtain possession of his dominions. The members 
 of the Presidency, without sufficiently considering, whether, as servants of a 
 commercial Company in England, they had any right to interfere in adjusting 
 disputes among the Princes of India, thought proper to engage in his cause. 
 They did not succeed in restoring Saujohee ; but they obliged Pratop-Sing to 
 allow him a pension, to pay the expense of the expedition, and to cede Devi- 
 cotah, with a district of the annual value of 9,000 pagodas, to the Company. 
 
 Upon the death of Nizam-al-muluk, the Subahdar of the Deccan, in the 
 year 1 748, his second son Nazir-Jing, and his grandson Murzafa-Jing, disputed 
 the succession, which by hereditary right (if there had been any hereditary 
 right) belonged to Ghazi-o-din Khan, the oldest son of the Nizam, then re- 
 siding at Delhi as Captain-general of the Mogul's army. At the same time 
 Chunda-Saheb, who adhered to Murzafa-Jing, claimed the nabobship of Arcot, 
 or the Carnatic, then possessed by Anwarodean-Khan. These two pretenders 
 applied to M r Dupleix, the French Governor of Pondichery, and promised 
 such advantages to himself and the French East-India Company, if they should 
 by his assistance obtain the objects of their ambition, as induced him to espouse 
 their cause. Anwarodean-Khan was defeated and slain in a decisive battle, 
 which established Chunda-Saheb as Nabob of Arcot, the formal patent for his 
 exaltation being granted to him by his friend Murzafa-Jing, in the quality of 
 Subahdar of the Deccan. Mohamed-Ally, a son of Anwarodean-Khan, who 
 had escaped from the battle, observing that his enemies owed their success en- 
 tirely to the superior military knowlege and discipline of their French allies, 
 endeavoured, as his only chance of retrieving his fortune, to counteract that advant- 
 age by obtaining similar assistance from the English. Nazir-Jing also petitioned 
 
 * Madras, the proper seat of the Presidency, was not yet delivered to the Company by the 
 French. 
 
 for
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. i 79 
 
 for their assistance at the same time ; and the greatness of his army, consisting 
 of 300,000 men, with 1,300 elephants and 800 pieces of cannon, appeared to 
 the members of the Presidency a proof that he was the rightful Subahdar. 
 They accordingly sent some forces to his camp, who, however, soon returned 
 to Fort Saint David without having achieved any important advantage to then- 
 allies ; and, indeed, the Presidency were not very hearty in the cause, as they 
 were not warranted to engage in such affairs by their employers in London, nor 
 were they without apprehension of incurring the resentment of the Mogul 
 Government, which, though now reduced to a shadow, was still respected, if 
 they should act against the party favoured by the Imperial Court. 
 
 After several vicissitudes of the sudden revolutions, which are common in 
 India, Murzafa-Jing was established as Subahdar by the French forces, and re- 
 warded their important services by constituting M r Dupleix his Deputy-governor 
 of the whole country south of the river Kristnah, in extent not very much inferior 
 to the kingdom of France, comprehending several nabobships, and yielding a 
 vast revenue : and he also granted to the French East-India Company the pro- 
 perty of considerable territories adjacent to their settlements, and yielding large 
 revenues. 
 
 Murzafa-Jing, having now obtained the victory over his competitor, though at 
 the expense of cessions which left him a revenue little adequate to the splend- 
 our of his rank, set out upon a triumphant progress from Pondichery to Hy- 
 derabad, the capital of his dominions. On the way he was attacked by some 
 discontented Nabobs, and killed in a skirmish. The French forces, who were 
 escorting him, thereupon released three of his younger brothers, who were kept 
 in confinement, and proclaimed the oldest of them, called Salabat-Jing, the 
 Subahdar of the Deccan. 
 
 The English Presidency, agreeable to the cautious policy, which they had 
 proposed for the rule of their conduct, took little or no concern in the events of 
 this war, till the year 1751, when they were provoked by an arrogant display 
 of flags, set up by Dupleix in his new territory, and even upon the English 
 Company's lands contiguous to Fort Saint David. Considering this as an act 
 of hostility against themselves, they determined to support Mohamed-Ally 
 in his claim to the dominion of Arcot, and immediately sent him as large a 
 reinforcement as they could spare, under the command of Captain Gingen ; 
 and soon after another detachment followed, commanded by Captain Clive, a 
 self-taught warrior, who had originally been appointed to the civil service of 
 the Company. On the 1st of September Clive took the fort of Arcot, in 
 which he found effects' to the value of ^50,000, lodged there for security by 
 
 a a 2 the
 
 ,8o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 the merchants of the country, to whom he restored them without any ransom, 
 and thereby acquired the esteem and good will of the natives to himself, and 
 his nation. In a few days he was besieged by the increased forces of Chunda- 
 Saheb and his French auxiliaries ; and his defence of this Indian fort was 
 worthy to be compared, for military conduct and final success, with that of 
 Rome by the great Belisarius. It would be tedious and disgusting to narrate 
 all the battles, sieges, and assassinations, of this desolating warfare, in the 
 course of which scarcely any military conduct or fortitude was displayed, or 
 any acdon of consequence performed, on either side but by the European 
 auxiliaries, 
 
 In the year 1753 the Directors of the English East-India Company, alarmed 
 at the new and dangerous situadon of their affairs in India, solicited the British 
 Government to assist them, either to finish or carry on the war, their own 
 forces being unable to contend with those of the French Company, supported 
 by their Government. A negotiadon was thereupon commenced with the Go- 
 vernment of France, who sent two Commissioners to London in order to ter- 
 minate the matter amicably. The British Ministry, thinking that the French 
 Commissioners were endeavouring to spin out the negotiation to an unnecessary 
 length, ordered a squadron of ships of war with a regiment of soldiers to sail 
 for India. The French Government thereupon agreed that all matters in dis- 
 pute should be adjusted in India by Commissioners deputed from the two Com- 
 panies, who should draw up a conditional treaty, subject to the revisal of both 
 Companies in Europe ; and, as it was apprehended that Dupleix would not be 
 very cordial in promoting pacific measures, M r Godeheu, a Director of the 
 French East-India Company, was appointed to supersede him in the Govern- 
 ment of Pondichery. 
 
 On the 2d of August 1754 M r Godeheu arrived at Pondichery. He im- 
 mediately opened a correspondence with M r Saunders, the English Governor of 
 Madras, and, as a mark of his desire to promote the object of his mission, he 
 restored a number of Swiss soldiers belonging to the English Company, who 
 had been made prisoners by a French ship of war. 
 
 By the end of the year M r Saunders and M r Godeheu had drawn up a 
 provisional treaty for restoring peace to the Carnatic, whereby it was agreed, 
 — That both Companies should renounce Mogul governments and dignities, 
 and all interference in India politics. — The English Company should retain 
 Madras, Fort Saint David, and Devicotah, with their districts, and some other 
 places of inferior importance ; the French Company should possess Pondichery 
 and Karical with their districts, and some other places respecting which future 
 
 arrangements
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 1S1 
 
 arrangements should be concerted for the purpose of bringing the possessions 
 of the two Companies to an equality, and no new forts should be built by 
 either party. — The prisoners should be exchanged as far as the French could 
 deliver English prisoners *. — Both parties should unite, if necessary, to com- 
 pell their Indian allies to keep the peace, or rather truce ; for the articles now 
 drawn up were not to be valid, unless they should be ratified by the two Com- 
 panies in Europe. 
 
 The presence of a squadron of ships under the command of Admiral Wat- 
 son, sent by the British Government to the coast of Coromandel, is supposed 
 to have considerably promoted the conclusion of the treaty. That object being 
 accomplished, and there being a prospect of tranquillity, the ships made several 
 trips previous to the month of February 1756, when they were employed in 
 an enterprise, undertaken for the relief of the ships of all nations having occa* 
 sion to sail near the west coast of Hindoostan. 
 
 A tract of the coast between Bombay and Goa, extending about 120 miles 
 from north to south, was occupied by a formidable nation of pirates, governed 
 by chiefs, who successively took the name, or title, of Angria. They possessed 
 many fortified posts, reckoned impregnable by the warriors of India ; and their 
 fleet was not only sufficiently strong to overpower merchant vessels, however 
 well armed, but had also taken and destroyed many Dutch and French ships 
 of war. In the year 1722 they had baffled the attempt of a squadron of three 
 British ships of the line and a Portuguese army to take one of their forts ; and 
 in the year 1724 a Dutch fleet of seven ships of the line, two bomb ketches, 
 and some land forces, were also repulsed by them. The English East-India 
 Company were put to an expense of ^50,000 annually in keeping up a 
 squadron of armed vessels to protect their trade, and, nevertheless, their ships 
 were sometimes taken. In short, so great was the renown of the desperate 
 valour of Angria's subjects, that it was thought to be in vain to make any 
 attempt upon them, till Commodore James, the commander of the Company's 
 ships of war, attacked them, in the year 1755, with a ship of forty-four guns, 
 a vessel of sixteen guns, and two bomb ketches, put their fleet to flight, and in 
 one day took their strong fort of Severndroog, situated on a small rocky 
 island, and also two forts upon the main land, all which he put into the hands 
 of the Mahrattas, to whom they had formerly belonged. 
 
 The Presidency of Bombay, encouraged by the success of Commodore 
 James, proposed to follow it up by a decisive blow at Gheria, the capital station 
 
 * The English Company's army had taken 900 prisoners from the French, who had only 250 
 prisoners to give in exchange j so that 650 French prisoners still remained in captivity. 
 
 of
 
 ,8* THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 of Angria, which stands on a peninsular rock, somewhat like Gibraltar ; and 
 x\dmiral Watson agreed to co-operate with all the ships under his command. 
 In February 1756 the fleet, consisting of seven of his Majesty's ships carrying 
 from twelve to seventy guns, and five bomb ketches, accompanied by Com- 
 modore James with the Company's two ships of war, and having onboard, 
 besides the men belonging to the ships, 800 European soldiers and 1000 
 sepoys, commanded by Clive, lately arrived from England with the rank of 
 Lieutenant-Colonel, stood into the river, which serves as a harbour to the fort, 
 burnt the whole pirate fleet, and compelled the garrison to surrender. In the 
 fort they found 200 cannon and abundance of military stores, together with 
 money and effects to the value of ^50,000, which were all shared among the 
 captors. The rest of the pirate forts, terrified by the fate of Gheria, after- 
 wards yielded to the Mahratta army, who had attended on the land to co-operate 
 with the fleet. And thus was an end put to a pernicious community of rob- 
 bers, who had reigned above seventy years, the tremendous and invincible 
 scourge of the navigators of all nations, who ventured to approach the coast of 
 Malabar. 
 
 Salabat-Jing was now pretty generally acknowleged as Subahdar of the Dec- 
 can ; and Mohamed-Ally was in possession of most of the territories subject 
 to his predecessors, the Nabobs of Arcot, all the competitors of both these 
 Princes having fallen in battle, been murdered, or rendered unable to assert 
 their pretensions. Nevertheless, both of them were too much taken up with 
 compelling their feudatary Fousdars and Polygars * to make payment of their 
 tributes, or rents, which they are accustomed to withhold till they are forced 
 from them by military execution, to be able to act vigorously in the contest be- 
 tween themselves. 
 
 The Nabob had given the Presidency of Madras assignments upon the revenue 
 of a district, amounting to about ^80,000 annually, to which he afterwards 
 made some addition, which was, however, far from being a compensation for 
 the heavy expense of the war undertaken upon his account, which had very 
 much impaired the Company's commercial funds. The Subahdar had put his 
 French allies in possession of a rich tract of country, yielding a revenue of 
 above ^300,000, on condition that they should assist him against all enemies 
 
 * Fousdars are Governors of districts under times they frequently usurp the title of Nabob. 
 
 a Nabob, who receive the rents from the Ze- Polygars are chiefs of smaller districts, gener- 
 
 meendars (or land-holders), and account for ally in mountainous or woodland countries, 
 them to the Government. In troublesome 
 
 whatsoever.
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 183 
 
 whatsoever. But by one of those sudden revolutions of politics, which are 
 not entirely confined to the Courts of the Princes of India, he became desirous 
 of getting rid of his French friends, and sent an agent to the Presidency of 
 Madras, requesting them to send forces to assist him to drive the French out 
 of his dominions. 
 
 The Presidency were prevented from doing any thing in consequence of the 
 Subahdar's request by letters received in July 1756, which obliged them to 
 send all the assistance they could to their friends in Bengal, who were almost 
 destroyed by Surajah-Dowlah, the Subahdar of that country. 
 
 In the year 1741 SufFraze Khan, the grandson of Jaffier*, who had been 
 appointed Subahdar of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, by the Emperor in the year 
 17 1 8, was deposed by Allaverdy, an adventurer originally from Tartary. 
 Allaverdy enjoyed the dominions he had usurped, during a turbulent reign of 
 fifteen years, and died a natural death in April 1756. He had no son, and 
 only one daughter, whom he had married to Nowagis Mohamed, the oldest 
 son of his brother Hodgee ; but no children were born of that marriage. 
 Though Allaverdy had given his daughter to the oldest of his nephews, he 
 afterwards became more strongly attached to the second son of Hodgee, called 
 Zaindee Hamed, whom he adopted, and destined for his successor. In the 
 year 1 748 Zaindee was assassinated by a party of Pitans "f , whom he had 
 recently taken into his service. Mirza Mahmud, the oldest son of Zaindee, 
 was now destined for the succession by Allaverdy, who bred him up under his 
 own eye, and altered his name to Chiragee-al-Dowla (the lamp of riches), pro- 
 nounced by Europeans Surajah-Dowlah. In this youth a naturally-cruel dis- 
 position, meanness, stupidity, and habitual drunkenness, were joined with the 
 vices usual in the character of the most worthless of the Oriental Despots. 
 Immediately after his accession he began to harass and levy contributions upon 
 all the European settlements in his dominions, but was particularly exasperated 
 against the English Presidency of Calcutta, because one of his subjects, flying 
 from his tyranny, had been received into the town. 
 
 On the 1 8th of June 1J56 he besieged Calcutta, which had scarcely any 
 means of defence against an enemy, and on the 20th he got possession of it. 
 Enraged at finding only 50,000 rupees in the Company's treasury, and pre- 
 
 * For this Jaffier's hostile treatment of the situated in the north part of Hindoostan, and 
 
 Company see above, p. 1 6S. are of the Mohamedan re'-gion, though they 
 
 f The Pitans, Pattans, or Afghans, are a are believed to be of Indian origin, 
 nation of brave, or rather ferocious, soldiers, 
 
 tending
 
 184 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 tending that a much greater treasure was buried under ground *, as a punish- 
 ment for the concealment, he crammed one hundred and forty-six of the 
 principal inhabitants into an apartment, not twenty feet square, which, having 
 been used as the prison of the garrison, was therefor called the Black hole, 
 where the intolerable heat, the night being uncommonly sultry, killed them all, 
 except twenty-three, who were allowed next morning to come out. The 
 tyrant, after committing this atrocious massacre, went to sleep with as much 
 composure as if he had performed a meritorious action ; and no one durst pre- 
 sume to awake him to inform him of the miserable state of the dying prisoners. 
 After receiving the congratulations of his courtiers upon his glorious achieve- 
 ment, and leaving a garrison of 3,000 men in Calcutta, he returned to his 
 capita], very much elated with the belief that he had completely exterminated 
 the English. 
 
 The Company's affairs in Bengal seemed to be now quite desperate. But 
 Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive were soon at hand with relief. The di- 
 spersed members of the English settlements re-assembled, and recovered their 
 spirits. Calcutta was retaken, and fortified. Surajah-Dowlah was glad to 
 make peace, and on the 9th of February he swore upon the Koran to preserve 
 it inviolably. The articles were — That the Company should have the full 
 enjoyment of all the privileges granted to them by the Emperor Furrukshir. — 
 Their settlements, and the property plundered from them, should be restored. 
 —They should be at liberty to fortify Calcutta, and to establish a mint in it. 
 
 There was reason to hope that tranquillity would now be restored to the 
 settlement. But in a few days after signing the treaty, Surajah, with the most 
 infamous disregard to his oath, sent letters to Bussy, the French General in 
 the Deccan, inviting him to come to Bengal, and assist him in rooting out the 
 English Company, and also to Law, the commander of a small party of French 
 fugitives, who had been in his service, ordering him to return and join his 
 army f. 
 
 Surajah's delay in executing the articles of the peace, and his evasions, 
 proved that he had no intention to be in friendship with the Presidency ; and it 
 became necessary to consider of means to counteract his perfidy. Two of the 
 
 * His courtiers, knowing his ignorance, they made him believe that all Europe did not 
 animated him to the plunder of Calcutta, in contain above ten thousand men. 
 which they expected to share largely, by tell- f Copies of the letters were found in the 
 ing him that it was the richest city in the possession of his secretary, after he was de- 
 world ; and, to encourage him to the attempt posed, 
 by a prospect of the facility of the execution, 
 
 chief
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 185 
 
 chief men of his court, disgusted by his capricious tyranny, had, each separ- 
 ately for himself, made application for the assistance of the English forces to. 
 depose Surajah-Dowlah, and to set himself in his place. Of these the Governor 
 and Council gave the preference to Meer Jaffier, the brother-in-law of Allaverdy, 
 as the most powerful, and therefor the most likely to make good his engage- 
 ments, and to deliver them from the malice of an implacable enemy. 
 
 In the beginning of June 1757 a treaty was executed between the members 
 of the Presidency and Meer Jaffier, who solemnly engaged and swore, that, as 
 soon as he should be established as Subahdar of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, — 
 He would confirm the articles agreed to by Surajah-Dowlah. — The enemies of 
 either party, whether Indians or Europeans, should be the enemies of both. — 
 All the French factories should remain in possession of the English Company, 
 and the French should never more be permitted to settle in any part of his 
 dominions. — He should pay a crore of rupees, as a compensation for the damage 
 sustained by the Company when Calcutta was taken by Surajah-Dowlah ; he 
 should pay fifty lacks to the English inhabitants of Calcutta, seven lacks to the 
 Armenian merchants, and twenty lacks to the other inhabitants, as compens- 
 ations for their losses upon that occasion *. — The territory of the Company 
 contiguous to Calcutta should be enlarged, and particularly to the southward it 
 should be extended along the side of the River down to Culpee, they paying 
 the usual rent to the Government ; and he engaged to build no new forts on 
 the River lower than Hooghly. — The English forces, when in the service of the 
 Subahdar, should be maintained by him. In addition to these articles of the 
 treaty, he promised large donations to the soldiers and seamen. 
 
 Colonel Clive immediately put his little army, consisting of only 900 
 Europeans and 2,200 Indian soldiers, in motion ; and on the 23d of June 
 Surajah, with an army of 50,000 foot and 1 8,000 horse, with 50 pieces of 
 cannon, and assisted by 40 Frenchmen, who directed the management of the 
 artillery, was totally overthrown by Colonel Clive in the memorable battle of 
 Plassy, whence the conqueror proceeded to Muxadabab, then the capital of 
 Bengal, and invested Meer Jaffier in the dignity of Subahdar of Bengal, Bahar, 
 and Orissa. The wretched Surajah fled from his palace in a mean disguise 
 on the night after the battle, and being soon after discovered by means of a 
 poor man whom he had treated barbarously, he was ignominiously conveyed 
 back to the palace, in one of the most miserable apartments of which he was 
 
 * A lack is a hundred thousand, and a crore is a hundred lacks, or ten millions. 
 
 b 3 murdered
 
 186 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 murdered by order of Meeran, the son of Jaffier, a youth of a disposition nearly 
 as wicked as his own *. 
 
 This revolution, effected in one day by a mere handful of men, but more 
 important in its consequences than most of the protracted wars which have 
 convulsed Europe during some centuries bypast, immediately raised the condition 
 of the Company in Bengal, and of every individual in Calcutta, of whatever 
 nation, from the depth of misery to the highest state of prosperity : all the 
 subordinate factories were re-established, and commerce flourished in the country 
 more than ever. 
 
 Some individuals, abusing their good fortune, began to carry on an inland 
 trade in salt, betel-nut, and tobacco, contrary to the express and repeated 
 prohibition of the Court of Directors, for which they even claimed the exemp- 
 tion from duties, which by the Emperor's firrnaun was restricted to goods 
 imported and exported. Such conduct produced frequent remonstrances from 
 Meer JafEer, who found himself sufficiently distressed by the heavy payments 
 he had engaged to make, which obliged him to make extorsions upon his sub- 
 jects, and left him nothing wherewith to gratify his other friends, even without 
 the deductions now made from his revenue by the practices of the Company's 
 servants and others pretending to derive right from them. 
 
 During the alienation and mutual suspicions which ensued, Jaffier was attacked 
 by the Great Mogul, accompanied by a formidable army of Mahrattas. His 
 subjects were disaffected ; his army was mutinous for want of pay ; many of 
 his great officers, among whom was Mohamed Cossim Ally Khan, his own 
 son-in-law, were conspiring against him ; and he no longer had the friendship 
 of the English Presidency, now the arbiters of his destiny. Thus environed 
 with difficulties and distress, he retired to Calcutta, where he lived as a private 
 person, with an ample allowance for his support, under the protection of the 
 Company ; and Mohamed Cossim Ally Khan was set up in his place in Sep- 
 tember 1760. 
 
 The new Subahdar, as an indemnification for the expenses incurred by the 
 Company in his exaltation, and in maintaining forces for his protection, ceded 
 to them the districts of Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chitagong, and engaged to 
 pay up the balance of the sum stipulated with Meer Jaffier, and to fulfill all the 
 covenants entered into by that Prince. This was a happy change to the inhabit- 
 ants of Burdwan and Midnapore, countries situated on the west side of the 
 
 * Surajah-Dowlah was not quite twenty years of age, and had reigned only about fifteen 
 months, when he was put to death. 
 
 River
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 167 
 
 River Hooghly, who had long been harassed by the predatory Incursions of 
 the Mahratta freebooters, occupying the adjoining country, but have ever 
 since enjoyed tranquillity under the protection of the Company's government. 
 
 The exemption from customs in Bengal, to which the Company had a right 
 by virtue of the Great Mogul's firmauns and the treaties with Jaffier and 
 Cossim, was also claimed by every person in the Company's service, and even 
 by many who pretended to be employed by the Company's servants, so that 
 the Subahdar's revenue of customs was now reduced more than before, or 
 rather almost annihilated. Cossim resolved to restrict the exemption to the 
 goods actually belonging to the Company, though he was aware that such a 
 restriction must give great offence to the gentlemen in the Company's service, 
 and probably bring on an open rupture. But he was a man of more strength 
 of mind than Jaffier, and made his preparations for the impending contest with 
 such deliberation and prudence, and organized his army with such military 
 skill, that he rendered it much more formidable than those of Surajah-Dowlah 
 or Jaffier. But when the quarrel came at last to be decided by the force of 
 arms, the superiority of European knowlege and discipline finally prevailed ; 
 and in October 1763 Cossim was obliged to abandon his dominions, carrying 
 with him treasure and jewels to the amount of about six millions sterling, and 
 to implore the protection of the neighbouring Nabob of Oude. In the mean 
 time the members of the Presidency re-instated Meer Jaffier in the sovereignty 
 (in July 1763). 
 
 Sujah-Dovvlah, the Nabob of Oude, for some time confined his kindness for 
 Cossim to the protection of his person, refusing to admit into his territory any 
 armed force, which might involve him in a quarrel with the English. But he 
 was afterwards persuaded to depart from that cautious line of conduct, and 
 joined his forces with those of Cossim in hostilities against the Company. The 
 consequence was, that the allied army, though better provided and disciplined 
 than Indian armies usually are, was defeated at Buxar on the 2 2d of October 
 1 764 ; a part of Sujah's territory was thereupon occupied by the Company's 
 forces ; and on the 20th of May following he sustained a final defeat at Culpee, 
 after which he immediately came to a resolution of surrendering himself and all 
 his domim'ons to the disposal of Lord Give, then expected from England. 
 
 Lord Give and the other members of the Select Committee, to whom the 
 Company had committed the important charge of conducting their affairs in 
 this critical conjuncture, wisely considered how much more honourable, and 
 also how much better, it would be for the Company's interest to acquire 
 Sujah's friendship by treating him with a generosity and moderation unknown 
 
 b b 2 in
 
 l88 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 in the wars or politics of India, than, by exacting rigorous conditions, to drive 
 a man of his high spirit, and great reputation throughout the whole empire, 
 to desperation. Agreeable to instructions drawn up in this conciliatory spirit, 
 Lord Give and General Carnac concluded a treaty with Sujah-Dovlah, by 
 which they restored to him the whole of his dominions, except the provinces of 
 Corah and Allahabad ; and of these they did not seek to make any advantage, 
 either for themselves or for the Company. 
 
 Shah Aulum, though acknowleged as the Mogul Emperor, of whom all 
 the Trinces of Hindoostan professed to hold their dignities, territories, and 
 revenues, as his feudatary subjects, had hitherto had neither territories nor 
 revenue at his own command. Sujah-Dowlah, the nominal Vizir, or Prime 
 Minister, of the nominal Emperor, had undertaken to recover some of the 
 provinces for him : but the events of the war having disappointed the Emperor's 
 hopes, he separated himself from Sujah after the battle of Buxar, and put 
 himself under the protection of the Company. 
 
 Meer Jaffier, the Subahdar of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, on the death of 
 Meeran, his son by the sister of Allaverdy, had appointed Nujum-Dowlah, his 
 natural son, to be his successor, in preference to the son of Meeran, then a 
 child of seven years of age. In the beginning of the year 1765 Meer Jaffier 
 died, whereupon a party immediately declared in favour of his infant grandson. 
 The competition threw the decision into the hands of the Presidency of Cal- 
 cutta, who resolved to support the nomination of the deceased Subahdar. On 
 this occasion they entered into a treaty with Nujum, dated on the 20th of 
 February 1 J65, whereby — They engaged to secure him in the subahdary, and 
 also to keep up such a force as should be necessary to support him in it. — The 
 Subahdar on his part bound himself to fulfill all the agreements entered into by 
 his father. — To receive a resident from Calcutta to be constantly with him, and 
 to keep one from himself constantly at Calcutta, and also to put the chief 
 management of his affairs into the hands of Mohamed Reza Khan, a person 
 recommended by the Governor and Council. — To keep no greater military 
 force on foot than should be required for the support of his dignity and the 
 collection of the revenue, 'and to admit no Europeans into his service. — And not 
 to permit the French Company to erect any fortifications in his country. 
 
 The favourable opportunity, afforded by the present state of affairs, for 
 malting a provision, in a manner the most honourable to the Company, for 
 the unfortunate Emperor, who was now living under their protection at Cal- 
 cutta, was embraced by the Select Committee. They put him in possession of 
 the provinces of Corah and Allahabad, yielding an annual revenue of twenty- 
 seven
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. jg 9 
 
 seven lacks of rupees, to which they added a settled revenue of twenty-six 
 lacks, to be derived, in consequence of a new arrangement, from the provinces 
 of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, the payment of which should be secured to him 
 by the Company. 
 
 In gratitude for this important acquisition of real dominion and assured 
 income, the Emperor gave the Company five firmauns, all dated on the 1 2th of 
 August 1765, whereby he formally made over to them for ever the dewannee*, 
 or right of collecting for their own use the revenues, of Bengal, Bahar, and 
 Orissa, subject to the payment of an income of twenty-six lacks of rupees to 
 himself, and a provision for the proper support of the Subahdar's court, they 
 being also bound to keep up an army sufficient for the protection of the pro- 
 vinces. He at the same time confirmed to them the absolute property of the 
 districts of Burdwan, Midnapore, and Chitagong, and the lands adjacent to 
 Calcutta, formerly acquired from the Subahdars. 
 
 By this transaction Shah Aulum, the Great Mogul (if it be not a burlesque 
 to call him Great) acquired, for the first time, some portion of sovereign power, 
 together with a certain revenue amounting to about six hundred thousand pounds 
 sterling. The acquisition of the dewannee removed every source of contention 
 with the Subahdar, who retained all the civil administration, the distribution of 
 justice, the disposal of offices, and every advantage which constitutionally be- 
 longed to his predecessors. Instead of an uncertain revenue, extorted from the 
 subordinate Rajahs and Zemeendars, most frequently by force of arms, he 
 enjoyed a regular income of 5,386,131 rupees, for the support of his house- 
 hold and the few guards thought necessary for the purposes of ostentation, all 
 the charges of defending the country being defrayed by the Company. The 
 natives, exempted from the miseries of war, and, protected from the oppression 
 of avarice, could now enjoy their property, which was better secured to them 
 than ever it had been before, at least during the many ages the country had 
 been subject to the Mohamedan yoke. The Company were bound to pay two 
 fixed sums to the Emperor and the Subahdar, to support a military force ■ 
 
 * By the constitution of the Mogul empire, Notwithstanding this absolute property of the 
 
 which is still kept up in form, though virtually soil vested in the Sovereign, the right of the 
 
 abolished, the Sovereign is absolute proprietor cultivators to dispose of their land by sale or 
 
 of all the lands ; and for the collection of his bequest remains unviolated, while they pay the 
 
 rents, land tax, or revenue, he appoints officers, rent, which their predecessors have paid. In 
 
 called dewans, who' act entirely independent of the decline of the Imperial power, the Subah- 
 
 the Subahdars or Nabobs, and, after defraying dars and Nabobs united the office of dewan 
 
 the expenses of government and of the army, with their own, and withheld the revenue from 
 
 remit the remainder to the Imperial treasury. the Emperor. 
 
 sufficient
 
 , 9 o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 sufficient for the defence of the provinces, and defray the charge of collection 
 and other necessary expenses, after which the remaining revenue of a country, 
 equal in extent and population to Great Britain and Ireland, and very much 
 exceeding them in fertility, was their own property : and their trade, and also 
 that of the free British merchants, and of the natives, living under their pro- 
 tection, were secured against a repetition of the ravages and insults, to which 
 they had been frequently subjected by the avarice, the malevolence, and the 
 caprice, of former Subahdars. 
 
 From this view of the interests of the several parties connected with the 
 provinces, it appears, that, while the power of the Subahdar is really lessened, 
 or, more truely speaking, brought back to its original state, and that of the 
 Company is enlarged, by the transfer of the dewannee to the later, that event 
 has by no means made any violation, as some have alleged, upon the con- 
 stitution, but is, on the contrary, a restoration of the genuine constitution 
 of the Mogul empire. 
 
 The moderation of Lord Clive and General Carnac in their negotiation with 
 Sujah-Dowlah had a great effect in persuading the Princes of India, that it was 
 more for their interest to deserve the friendship of the Company than to be 
 jealous of their power ; while by the re-establishment of that Prince, nearly in 
 the full extent of his former power, the Company acquired a strong barrier 
 against the fierce nations of freebooters situated beyond his dominions. 
 
 Since the contests with the Nabob of Bengal and the Great Mogul in the 
 seventeenth century the Company's arms had never been opposed to those of 
 any of the Princes of India till the year 1 749, when the Presidency of Madras 
 entered, rather unwarrantably, into the war of Tanjore, which was followed 
 by that of Arcot. But the wars of Bengal, which, we hope, are now finally 
 terminated, were of a very different nature. The Company were at first forced 
 into hostilities by the tyranny and folly of Surajah-Dowlah, and were obliged to 
 go on, step by step, their establishments in the country being continually in the 
 utmost danger of total destruction, till a concurrence of unforeseen favourable 
 events, not the result of any combined plan, nor to be expected by any human 
 foresight, together with the extraordinary military talents of Clive, and the 
 prudence of that great officer and the other members of the Select Com- 
 mittee, gave strength, and, it is hoped, also permanency, to the political 
 government and commercial prosperity of the Company. 
 
 Before we take our leave of Bengal, Truth requires that it should be told, 
 that during the unsettled period, which preceded the acquisition of the 
 dewannee, many of the Company's servants, and also many British subjects 
 
 not
 
 ENGL I S H WITH I ND I A. i 9 j 
 
 not in their service, were guilty of acts of oppression, violence, and extorsion, 
 which must have brought an odium upon the national character, if subsequent 
 regulations, strictly enforced, had not convinced the natives, that such out- 
 rages were prohibited, and would in future be effectually prevented, by the 
 Company. 
 
 The great importance of the military and political transactions in Bengal and 
 the neighbouring countries having drawn out the narrative of them to a length 
 scarcely consistent with the limits intended for this work, it becomes necessary 
 to take only a rapid glance of the military events which affected the British 
 possessions in the other parts of India. 
 
 In the course of the war between Great Britain and France, which was ended 
 in February 1763, the French destroyed the Company's factory at Bender- 
 Abassi, or Gombroon, in the Persian Gulf; they surprised Fort Marlburgh near 
 Bencoolen in Sumatra, which they retained till the peace ; and they also took 
 Fort Saint David and some other places belonging to the Company. But, on 
 the other hand, the French were deprived of all their inferior settlements upon 
 the coast of India, and at last, in the year 1761, of Pondichery, the most 
 important and flourishing of the whole, to which the property of the French Com- 
 pany and individuals had been carried from the other settlements, as to a place 
 of security : and by the loss of that capital the commercial prosperity and power 
 of the French East-India Company, which had for some time been exceedingly 
 great and splendid, were nearly annihilated. The fortifications and houses of 
 Pondichery were destroyed soon after it was taken, as a retaliation for a similar 
 treatment of Fort Saint David upon the same coast, when it was taken by 
 General Lally : and at the peace it was restored in that desolate condition to 
 the French, as were also the other factories they possessed before the year 1 749 
 in Coromandel, Malabar, Orissa, and Bengal, in which later province they 
 were restricted by the treaty of peace concluded in Europe, as well as by 
 agreement with the Subahdar, from making any fortifications or having any 
 garrisons. 
 
 The Company, in consequence of their acquisitions in India, raised their 
 dividend in the year 1766 from six to ten per cent. This great and sudden 
 advance, and the prospect, held out by designing stock-jobbers, of still greater, 
 induced a number of people to become proprietors of India stock (many of 
 them by means of money borrowed at excessive interest) who had no other 
 object in view than to make great fortunes by stock-jobbing : and thus there 
 arose a set of proprietors, regardless of the permanent prosperity of the Com- 
 pany, and only anxious to obtain an immediate great increase of dividend, and 
 
 consequently
 
 191 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 consequently of the price of stock, that they might have an opportunity of 
 retiring with the spoils of the unwary. Those persons gave out that the Com- 
 pany's funds could very well afford a dividend of fourteen per cent to the pro- 
 prietors, and moreover pay the enormous sum of ^900,000 annually to 
 Government, as a participation of the territorial revenue of the newly acquired 
 provinces : and many of them even talked of ffty per cent, as the probable 
 amount of the future dividends. By such artifices they actually raised the price 
 of stock to 263, and, in the true spirit of the South-Sea projectors, comforted 
 their purchasers with confident assurances that it would soon be worth 900 
 or 1000. 
 
 The Directors more cautiously desired to appropriate the new revenue to the 
 payment of debts, and more especially of the debts incurred in making the 
 acquisition of the territorial revenue, as there could be no real advantage to the 
 proprietors (unless they separated their temporary individual interest from the 
 permanent general interest of the Company) in drawing large dividends, and at 
 the same time paying large sums for interest, which would be in reality making 
 the increase of the dividend with borrowed money. The arguments and 
 clamours of the new proprietors, however, so far prevailed, that in the General 
 Court, held on the 6th of May 1767, a proposal for making the next dividend 
 at the rate of twelve and a half per cent for the year was carried by a majority 
 of votes. 
 
 In the mean time the altercations of the proprietors, and the great degree of 
 public attention, which their disputes had attracted, were producing con- 
 sequences little expected by either party. The Ministry, who by a letter had 
 advised the Company not to make any increase of their dividend, gave notice, 
 that the condition of the Company, their charters, and their treaties and 
 transactions with the Princes of India, would probably be subjected to the 
 investigation of Parliament during the ensuing session : and a committee was 
 actually appointed in November 1766 to make a most rigorous and general 
 scrutiny into the state of their affairs. 
 
 The Ministry claimed the territorial revenues for the Crown, asserting that 
 
 all conquests made by subjects, though at their own expense and risk, must 
 
 belong to the Sovereign *. To this it was answered, that the Company had 
 
 repeatedly 
 
 * That this was a new and unheard of claim, territories taken from the French East-India 
 appears from the following fact. While the Company, to which the British Ministry gave 
 negotiations for peace were going forward in the following answer. 
 
 the year 1762, several requisitions were made ' Respecting those territorial acquisitions the 
 
 by the French Ministers for the restoration of ' English East-India Company have made in 
 
 Asia
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. i 9 . 
 
 repeatedly paid large sums to Government for the parliamentary renewal of 
 their charters *, and had an undoubted right to every possible advantage they 
 might obtain, consistent with the powers vested in them by those charters j 
 that they held their possessions in India, not as an absolute property, but as a 
 farm granted to them by the Great Mogul, and, according to the constitution 
 of the Empire, subject to an annual rent ; and that such a seizure as was 
 proposed would render insecure the possession of every kind of. property, 
 which might be of sufficient magnitude to attract the attention of Ministers. 
 
 It would far exceed the limits proposed for this work to enter into the vast 
 field of arguments brought forward on both sides of this important debate. 
 I shall therefor only briefly notice the acts of this session of Parliament, which 
 affected the interest of the Company. 
 
 The first was an act [7 Geo. HI, c. 48] prohibiting the practice of splitting 
 votes by collusive conveyances of the stock of any of the public Companies, 
 and requiring the proprietors to be in possession of their stock at least six 
 months before they should be entitled to vote, with an exception of those 
 who held their stock by inheritance, by marriage, or by the custom of London. 
 In order to prevent the mischiefs arising from sudden alterations of the dividends, 
 the Companies were required to declare their dividends in General Courts, held 
 at least five months after the declaration of a preceding dividend. 
 
 The very next act [c. 49] was more particularly directed to the regulation 
 of the dividends of the East-India Company. It directed that the dividends 
 should be made after the 24th of June 1767 by ballot, and by General Courts 
 summoned expressly for that purpose ; and that no dividend above ten per cent 
 for the year should be made before the next session of Parliament \ . 
 
 Thus was the Company's declaration of a dividend at twelve and a half per 
 cent rescinded ; and the visionary schemes of the speculators in India stock 
 vanished in the air. 
 
 The Parliament soon after passed an act fV. 57], whereby the Company, in 
 consideration of their territorial revenues being secured to them for the short 
 space of two years, became bound to pay ^400,000 in each of those two years 
 into the Exchequer. 
 
 ' Asia, every dispute relative thereto must be * An abstract of these sums will be given in 
 
 * settled by that Company, the Crown of Eng- one view in the Appendix, N°II. 
 
 ' land having nr> right to interfere in what is f This act was strenuously opposed in both 
 
 * allowed to be the legal and exclusive property Houses of Parliament ; and a very strong pro- 
 1 of a body corporate, belonging to. the English test was made against it by nineteen members 
 ' nation.' of the House of Lords. 
 
 c c The
 
 j 94 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 The long train of military and political transactions has made us almost lose 
 sight of the Company's commerce, the original and principal object of their 
 institution. At this time they had in their warehouses an unusually large 
 stock of tea, the sales of which, owing to the great extent of the smuggling 
 trade, encouraged by the high duty of ninety per cent upon the net cost, 
 bore no proportion to the quantity of tea actually consumed in the country. 
 In hopes to strike at the root of the evil by enabling the fair trader to supply 
 the consumer upon terms somewhat nearer to those of the smuggler than 
 he could possibly do before, the Company proposed, and the Parliament en- 
 acted, that the excise duty of one shilling a pound on tea should be abolished 
 on all black and singlo teas for five years, and the whole custom duty should 
 be drawn back on all teas exported to Ireland and America. But the Parlia- 
 ment, unwilling to risk any deficiency of the revenue, bound the Company to 
 indemnify the revenue for whatever deficiency might fall upon the amount of 
 the duty upon tea in the five ensuing years, compared with the five preceding 
 ones. \_Act 7 Geo. Ill, c. $&~\. But, though the Company's sales of tea were 
 nearly doubled, they found themselves in the longrun obliged to make good 
 a deficiency of ^483,049 to the revenue, besides ^203,350 paid to the buyers 
 on a similar account. It is probable that the smugglers, and perhaps also the 
 foreign Companies who supplied them with tea, had resolved to make a tem- 
 porary sacrifice of their own interests by countervailing reductions of then- 
 prices. 
 
 The Parliament seem to have now begun to think the affairs of the East- 
 India Company as much the object of their deliberation as the provision for the 
 national expenditure. The act for restricting the dividend having expired in 
 consequence of the commencement of the session in November 1767, a bill 
 was brought in for continuing the restriction. The repetition of such an act at 
 a time when there was no reason for apprehending any intention of making 
 extravagant dividends, was considered by the Company as a total subversion of 
 the article in their charter, by which they were entitled to regulate their affairs 
 according to their own judgement and their constitution, and even contradictory 
 to the very act of the last session, which, while it restricted the dividend to ten 
 per cent for a short limited time, regulated the conditions to be observed by the 
 Company in declaring the amount of their subsequent dividends. They asserted 
 that such a restriction, imposed merely because there was a possibility of the 
 Company abusing their right to regulate their own affairs, must alarm, not only 
 all public Companies, but also all the monied and commercial people in the 
 kingdom. Notwithstanding a petition from the Company, setting forth these 
 
 arguments*
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. , 9J 
 
 arguments, which were also ably supported by many members of both Houses, 
 an act was passed, and received the royal assent on the 23d of February 1768, 
 for extending the prohibition of dividends above ten per cent to the 1st day of 
 February 1769. 
 
 When the term of the compact with the Government, and the act, for re- 
 stricting the dividends, were both near expiring, the Company thought it 
 would be prudent to make a proposal to the Ministry for a new agreement, the 
 terms of which, they hoped, might be more favourable than those of the pre- 
 ceding one. Their request was for an addition of five years to the duration of 
 their privilege, which, they hoped, might be considered as a very moderate 
 compensation for the large sum annually paid by them to the revenue, which 
 was much more than the total amount of their own dividend. But their re- 
 quest was absolutely refused. 
 
 After a great deal of negotiation and correspondence between the Ministry 
 and the Directors, an act was passed, and received the royal assent on the 20th 
 of April 1769, whereby the Company became bound to make an annual pay- 
 ment of ^400,000 into the Exchequer for the five ensuing years ; in consider- 
 ation of which their territorial revenues in India were continued to them for the 
 same term : and they were authorized to increase their dividends to twelve and 
 a half per cent, by annual augmentations not exceeding one per cent in any one 
 year. If instead of increasing, they should be obliged to lessen, their dividends, 
 a proportional reduction should take place in their payments to the Exchequer, 
 which should cease entirely, if they should be obliged to reduce the dividend 
 so low as six per cent, and be enlarged again in proportion upon die dividends 
 being enlarged. The Company were obliged, during the same term of five 
 years, to export British merchandize to the annual amount of ^380,837, 
 exclusive of military and naval stores, that sum being the average amount of 
 their exports of such goods in the five preceding years. It was also stipulated, 
 that, if any money remains in the Company's treasury, after the payment of 
 their simple contract debts bearing interest, and reducing their bonded debt to 
 a par with the debt owing to them by the Public, the Company should lend 
 such surplus money to the Public at an interest of two per cent *. They were 
 also required to lay annual accounts of their exports and of the state of their 
 debts before the Lords of the Treasury. \_Acl 9 Geo. HI, c. 24.] 
 
 * By this bargain the Company must lend money at two per cent, while they themselves arc 
 compelled to remain indebted for a large sum, and pay the common interest for it. 
 
 c c 2 Agreeable
 
 , 9 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Agreeable to the permission now obtained, the Company raised their dividend, 
 payable at Midsummer andChristmass 1769, from ten to eleven per cent. 
 
 This year the Company appointed Messieurs Vansittart, Scrafton, and Ford, 
 to go to India as supervisors, with full power to correct the abuses, and redress 
 the grievances, which might have arisen from the errors or misconduct of their 
 servants in that part of the world. After some difficulties, started in Parliament 
 respecting the appointment of the supervisors, were got over, the gentlemen 
 embarked for India. But the frigate, which carried them, never reached her 
 port ; and it has never been known how or where they were lost. 
 
 In the year 1770 the Parliament passed an act [10 Geo. Ill, c. 47] for in- 
 creasing the penalty on British subjects trading to India under foreign commis- 
 sions, and for rendering the Company's servants amenable to trial in the Court 
 of King's Bench in England for offences committed in India. The prohibition of 
 illicit trade has been reinforced by many subsequent acts which go as far as 
 human wisdom can go to prevent the evil. 
 
 ■ In September 1770 the Company, finding themselves warranted by the situ- 
 adon of their affairs, increased their dividend to twelve per cent. After it had 
 stood a year at this rate, it was further raised to twelve and a half per cent, at 
 which rate it stood one year and a half, being the greatest dividend ever re- 
 ceived by the proprietors since the union of the two Companies, and also the 
 greatest they were now at liberty to make in terms of the late act of Parliament. 
 But in the year 1772 they were obliged to make a great and sudden reducdon 
 of the dividend to the low rate of six per cent by a combinadon of unfortunate 
 circumstances. 
 
 Though the Company had lately acquired a great territorial revenue, the 
 increasing expenses of their establishments in India, the mismanagement, pro- 
 fusion, and oppressive acts, of some of their servants, the great sums remitted 
 from Bengal to China, and the heavy annual drain of ^400,000 paid to the 
 Government, had hitherto rendered the acquisition beneficial only to the indi- 
 viduals in their service in India, and at home only to the Government. Though 
 their commerce had for many years been in a very flourishing condition, the 
 debt owing to Government for the deficiency of the duty upon tea, the great 
 amount of the bills drawn upon them from India, and their debts to the Bank 
 and the Custom-house, had not only obliged them to make a great and sudden 
 reducdon of their dividend, and rendered it impossible to make the stipulated 
 payment to Government, but also reduced them to the unfortunate necessity 
 of applying to Parliament for pecuniary assistance. 
 
 When
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. i$ 7 
 
 When the business was brought into Parliament in the Spring of The year 
 1773, a number of other propositions were combined with it, which were 
 thought to bear very hard upon the Company, and produced very warm de- 
 bates in both Houses. But, notwithstanding all the arguments adduced by the 
 friends of the Company, and those who thought the proposed measures cal- 
 culated to violate the rights, and invade the property, of every corporate body 
 in the kingdom as well as the East-India Company, notwithstanding two pet- 
 itions presented by the Company ; one from the proprietors of stock above 
 ^500 and under j£?i,ooo ; and one from the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and 
 Commons, of London ; as also two protests made by those Peers who were 
 most earnest in their opposition to the bills, the Minister's propositions were 
 carried by passing two acts, which received the Royal assent on the 2 1 st of 
 June and the 1st of July. 
 
 By the act [13 Geo. Ill, c.6^ for regulating the affairs of the East-India 
 Company, as well in India as in Europe — The Directors, hitherto chosen an- 
 nually, are henceforth to continue four years in office, six new ones being 
 elected every year — No person returned from India is eligible to the office of 
 Director till two years after his return. — No proprietor of less than one thousand 
 founds of the Company's stock, held for at least twelve months, is henceforth 
 permitted to vote *.■ — The government of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa is vested 
 in a Governor-general with a salary of ^25,000 a-year, and four Counselors 
 with salaries of £1 0,000 a-year each ; and Warren Hastings Esquire is ap- 
 pointed the first Governor-general. — The Presidencies of Madras, Bombay, 
 and Bencoolen, are rendered subordinate to that of Bengal. — A Supreme Court 
 of judicature is established at Calcutta, consisting of a Chief Justice with 
 ^8,000 a-year, and three other Judges with ^6,ooo a-year each, all appointed 
 by the Crown. — The salaries of the Governor-general, the Counselors, and 
 the Judges, are charged upon the territorial revenue. — No person in the King's 
 or the Company's service is permitted to accept any presents j but lawyers, 
 medical men, and clergymen, may receive their customary fees. — The Governor- 
 general, Counselors, and Judges, are prohibited from having any concern what- 
 soever in trade. — No person residing in the Company's settlements is allowed 
 to take more than twelve per cent for a year's interest of money. 
 
 * By this regulation 1246 British proprie- or more. The number of voters has since be- 
 
 tors of East-India stock were deprived of their come much larger, many proprietors under 
 
 privilege of voting, which was thereby re- ^1,000 having sold out, and few now chusing 
 
 Uricted to 487 proprietors possessing £1,000 to purchase less than j£i,ooo. 
 
 By
 
 , 9 3 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 By the other act [13 Geo. Ill, c. 64] the Parliament advanced the sum of 
 .^1,400,000 in Exchequer bills to the Company, at an interest of four per 
 cent, and agreed to forego the claim of ^400,000 a-year from the territorial 
 revenue till the debt should be discharged. — The Company were restricted 
 from making any dividends above six per cent, till the debt should be discharged, 
 after which they are allowed to divide seven per cent till their bond debt is 
 reduced to ^1,500,000. — They are required to present a state of their ac- 
 counts every half year to the Lords of the Treasury ; and they are restricted 
 from accepting bills from India to the amount of more than ^300,000 in a 
 year. — They are required to export the quantity of British merchandize direct- 
 ed in the act of 9 Geo. Ill, c. 24. 
 
 The Company having again a very heavy stock of tea upon hand, an act of 
 Parliament [13 Geo. Ill, c. 44] was passed (toth May 1773), licencing them 
 to export tea to the British colonies in America, and allowing the whole 
 custom duty to be drawn back on tea so exported, notwithstanding the law 
 obliging them to make all their sales in this kingdom ; provided that there 
 should be at least ten millions of pounds left in their warehouses for home con- 
 sumption. The purpose of this act was to get the Company to export a large 
 quantity of tea to America, where, owing to the ferment and disaffection then 
 prevailing in that country, it could not fail of proving the most obnoxious 
 species of merchandize that could be imported, being the one article on which 
 the Parliament had retained a duty as a mark of supremacy, when the duties 
 payable in America on other articles were repealed. That duty was therefor 
 considered by the colonists as a badge of slavery, and most strenuously opposed 
 by resolutions against the consumption of tea, almost universally entered into 
 throughout the whole country. Though the acquisition of a large sum of 
 money, then very much wanted by the Company, was held out by the pro- 
 jectors of the scheme, in order to sweeten it, many of the principal proprietors 
 strongly disapproved of exportation on the Company's own account, as a 
 measure contrary, not only to their constant practice, but also to the funda- 
 mental principle of their original establishment, which was expressly for the 
 purpose of trading to the East Indies only ; and they earnestly recommended a 
 steady perseverance in the regular and safe mode of conducting their sales in 
 preference to precarious adventure. These cautious members were, however, 
 outvoted ; and vessels were chartered for carrying tea, on the Company's ac- 
 count, to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Charlestown *. 
 
 When 
 
 * Every one, who know* any thing of the conducted, must know that, if the tea had been 
 nature of the American trade, as it was then landed aud sold, it would have been next to 
 
 impossible
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 199 
 
 When the ships destined for Boston arrived in that port, the people of the 
 town would not permit the tea to be landed ; and neither the Governor, the 
 officers of the customs, nor the merchant to whom the tea was consigned, 
 would agree to the proposal made by the commanders of the ships to carry 
 back their inauspicious cargoes to London. When the ships had lain some 
 time in a state of suspense, they were boarded one night (1 8th December 
 1773) by a party of men disguised like Mohawk Indians, who very expeditious- 
 ly unloaded them by throwing the whole of the tea into the sea, after which 
 they went on shore without doing any injury to the vessels or seamen. At 
 New York a small quantity of tea was landed under the guns of a ship of war, 
 but immediately locked up, so as not to be sold. At Philadelphia the pilots 
 were prohibited from bringing any tea ships up the river ; and at Charlestown 
 the tea was disposed of in the same manner as at Boston. Such was the event 
 of the Company's unfortunate consignment of tea to America, for which they 
 never received one farthing. 
 
 The Company's loss by their ill-fated adventure to America was by no means 
 compensated by their sales of tea at home. The increase of duties to above 
 cent per cent upon the cost, which operated as a high premium to the smug- 
 glers, reduced the sales in the year 1 773 and the four following years to the 
 annual average number of 5,559,007 pounds, instead of 8,075,794 pounds, 
 the average of the five preceding years. Moreover, by the existing law, the 
 Company were obliged to dispose of all their teas within three years at farthest 
 after their importation. But that being rendered impossible by the failure of 
 the demand, they were indulged with an act of Parliament £14 Geo. Ill, c. 34]} 
 prolonging the time to four years for bohea tea, and five years for singlo. In 
 case of the Company allowing the quantity to fall at any time too low for 
 supplying the consumption of the country, the Lords of the Treasury are em- 
 powered to licence others to import tea from any part of Europe. 
 
 The Company had established a factory in the year 1767 at Balambangan, 
 a small island adjacent to the great island of Borneo, which they had previously 
 purchased from the King of Sooloo, it being a convenient station for carrying 
 
 impossible to procure a remittance for the turpentine, and rice. They would have been 
 
 value in cash or bills of exchange. The great- an United Company of merchants trading to 
 
 est part of the returns must have been in pro- America, and would have been bitterly com- 
 
 duce, and the Company's sales might have plained of by the merchants established in the 
 
 been diversified by an assortment of furs and American trade for encroaching upon their 
 
 peltry, salt fish, train oil, spermaceti candles, province, 
 lumber, flour, flax seed, tobacco, tar, pitch, 
 
 on
 
 tea THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 on an extensive trade with Hindoostan, the Oriental islands, China, and perhaps 
 Japan. It is not easy to conceive what pretence for interfering with the affairs 
 of this settlement could be found by the Spanish Governor of Manila, who, 
 however, alleging orders from his Sovereign, took upon him to threaten to 
 expell the Company's servants : and, soon after, the factory was plundered by 
 the natives of Sooloo, who were supposed to have been instigated by the Span- 
 iards and Dutch. The Company's resident and other servants, after that 
 disaster, retired, with what effects they were able to save, to Laboan. 
 
 Upon the continent of Hindoostan the Company acquired the province of 
 Benares in the year 1775 by a treaty with Azuf-ul-Dowlah, the new Nabob of 
 Oude. In the following year they obtained a confirmation of the property of 
 Salsette, a fertile island adjacent to Bombay, which their troops had taken from 
 the Mahrattas in the year 1773. 
 
 In the year 1777, the debt owing to Government being completely paid, the 
 Company raised their dividend to seven per cent : and next year they raised it to 
 eight. 
 
 As soon as the British colonies in America began to make preparations for 
 hostilities against the mother country, the French showed such an inclination 
 to favour them, as made it evident that they would soon be openly engaged in 
 the war : and in February 1778 they put the finishing hand to a long-depending 
 treaty with the United States of America, whereby they in fact commenced 
 hostilities against Great Britain. As this event had been foreseen, the East- 
 India Company had sent directions to all their Presidencies to be prepared for 
 acting vigorously as soon as they should have notice of the commencement of 
 hostilities. It so happened, that the notice was conveyed to India so very speed- 
 ily, that in the month of July the French Company were deprived of all their 
 settlements in Bengal and Coromandel, except Pondichery, which, after a 
 gallant defence, also submitted to the British arms on the 16th of October. 
 Many French ships were also taken during this short, but very active, campaign, 
 the events of which totally extinguished the commerce and power of the French 
 East-India Company. 
 
 Indigo, an article with which India supplied the rest of the world in the 
 remotest ages of which we have any information, constituted a considerable 
 part of the Company's imports during the whole of the first century of their 
 existence : but they afterwards gave up the importation of it, in order to avoid 
 a competition with the British colonists in the West Indies and the southern 
 provinces of North America. About the year 1 747 most of the planters in the 
 West Indies, and particularly in Jamaica, gave up the cultivation of indigo, in 
 
 consequence
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. toi 
 
 consequence of a high duty imposed upon it ; and what has been imported 
 from the British West Indies since that time has been mostly furnished by clan- 
 destine importation from the Spanish and French colonies. But it was chiefly 
 by importation from foreign countries in Europe that the British manufacturers 
 were now supplied with that important dye-stuff; for the planters of Carolina 
 and Georgia were never able to bring their indigo to a quality equal to that of 
 Guatimala or Saint Domingo. 
 
 After the Company became proprietors of a great extent of country in India, 
 and when the continental Americans had declared that they were no longer 
 British subjects, and the West-India British subjects had abandoned the cultiv- 
 ation of indigo, the Company, acting upon principles similar to those upon 
 which they had formerly declined the importation of that article, thought it 
 incumbent upon them to promote the cultivation of it in their Indian territories, 
 for the purposes of encouraging the industry of their own vassals, and insuring 
 a regular supply of an article so essentially necessary to the most important of 
 the British manufactures, independent of foreigners. With this view, about 
 the year 1779, they entered into a contract with an enterprising individual in 
 Calcutta, at such prices as induced him to engage in the cultivation of it ; and 
 his example was soon followed by others. 
 
 The Company continued to cherish this revived branch of trade, at an ex- 
 pense to themselves above the proceeds of it, which in the course of a few 
 years amounted to eighty thousand pounds ; a sacrifice to the prosperity of 
 Indian cultivation and British commerce and manufactures. 
 
 When the cultivation appeared to be fairly established, the Company re- 
 signed the trade to the gentlemen employed in their civil service and the free 
 merchants residing in India under their protection, as a good means of accom- 
 modating them with a legal conveyance of their fortunes to this country, and af- 
 fording to the cultivators a sufficient demand for their produce. But the 
 event did not answer their expectations ; the planters got themselves involved 
 in distress ; and the Company thought it necessary and proper again to support 
 them, which they did by advancing money to them on the security of their 
 produce, to the extent of near a million sterling. By that relief they were 
 enabled to go on successfully ; and it will be well if their success does not 
 tempt too many adventurers to engage in that branch of industry, and conse- 
 quently to produce more indigo than all the world can find consumpt for *. 
 
 * The great extension of the indigo trade energy of individual industry, but without ac- 
 hy the exertions of private cultivators has knowleging the fostering hand of the Company- 
 been lately adduced as a proof of the superior which supported that industry. 
 
 d In
 
 aoa THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 In some years lately the. quantity of indigo imported from India has amounted 
 at the Company's sales to above a million sterling, besides which large quantities 
 have been exported in the country trade, and also by the American, Arabian, 
 and other foreign vessels ; so that the extension of this branch of trade be- 
 yond its former demand, when it was limited to the consumption of the Oriental 
 countries, has been a very great, and apparently a permanent, source of 
 opulence to the people of India *. 
 
 The Company having discharged the debt owing to the Public, and also re- 
 duced their bond debt to j^ 1,5 00,000, the Public again became endtled, by 
 the terms of the act 1 3 Geo. Ill, c. 64, to the stipulated participation of the 
 territorial revenue. But, as so large a defalcation of the Company's revenue 
 would necessarily have the same effect, that it had before, of plunging them 
 into pecuniary embarrassments, the Parliament resolved to leave it entire to 
 them dll the 5th day of April 1780, without any other restraint than that they 
 should not raise their dividend above eight per cent before that day. \_Act 
 19 Geo. Ill, c. 6i.~\ 
 
 What the Parliament did not demand, the Company voluntarily gave. In 
 the year 1779 they built, rigged, and armed, three capital ships of war of 
 seventy-four guns each, which they presented to Government, and they also 
 gave a large sum of money in bounties to six thousand seamen for the service of 
 the navy. Nor was it only by their own donations that the Company aug-- 
 mented the national force ; their patriotic example was followed by several 
 other societies, who also contributed ships and men upon scales proportioned to 
 their abilities. 
 
 Notwithstanding this noble exertion for his Majesty's service, made at a 
 time when the Company had but just recovered from a state of embarrassment, 
 the Minister gave them notice, that the debt of ^4,200,000, owing to them 
 by Government, should be paid off on the 5th of April 1783, agreeable to the 
 covenanted power of redemption, and their exclusive privilege should be 
 abolished ; unless they would agree to pay a million of money into the Exche- 
 quer, submit to a restriction of their dividends in all time coming to eight per 
 cent, and become bound to pay three fourths of the surplus profits over that 
 dividend into the Exchequer. The Minister's menace, however, was not fol- 
 lowed up. After the Company had absolutely refused to accede to the 
 Minister's demand, whicn he had reduced to ^600,000, for the renewal of 
 their charter, the business was at last settled, and ratified by an act of Parlia- 
 
 • See an account of the sales of indigo imported rom India in the Appendix, N° III. 
 
 ment
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA.' 20$ 
 
 ment [21 Geo. Ill, c. 6$], which received the royal assent on the 18th of July 
 1 78 1. The Company thereby became bound to pay into the Exchequer the 
 sum of ^400,000, in full of all claims of the Public upon them to the 1st of 
 March 1781 ; and their exclusive commercial privileges and territorial posses- 
 sions were continued to them till the 1st day of March 1791, with three years' 
 nodce after that day, when, upon payment of the debt of ^4,200,000 owing 
 by Government, their exclusive privilege may be terminated, notwithstanding 
 which they have a right to continue a corporation, and to carry on their trade 
 with their joint stock. — After payment of all charges, and of a dividend of 
 eight per cent, three fourths of the surplus profits shall be paid into the Ex- 
 chequer, and the remaining fourth may be employed in making an addition to 
 the dividend, not exceeding one per cent in any one year, nor ever to rise above 
 twelve and a half per cent upon the whole. — The act contains many other re- 
 gulations, most of which are repetitions of what were contained in former 
 acts. 
 
 In Bengal M r Hastings, the Governor-general, and the Supreme Council, 
 were embroiled with the Supreme Court, whose proceedings, instead of being 
 tempered with every possible degree of mildness on the introduction of new 
 laws among a people remarkable for an invincible attachment to the manners 
 and prejudices of their ancestors, were rigorous in the extreme, and tended to 
 drive them to desperation, and to ruin the British interest in India. In order to 
 put a stop to the miseries flowing from the contentions of the jarring author- 
 ities, and to protect the natives from the distresses flowing from the execudon 
 of laws unsuitable and inapplicable to their manners, religion, and way of life, 
 another act [21 Geo. Ill, c. 70] was passed, at the same time with the one 
 above-mentioned, for restricting the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court within 
 such bounds as, it was hoped, might prevent a repetidon of the anarchy and 
 oppression, which had lately raised such alarming disturbances in the country. 
 It was particularly provided, that the Mohamedans and Hindoos should have 
 the benefit of their own laws, which they knew and would willingly obey, and 
 that the authorities of fathers and masters of families should be preserved in- 
 violate, according to their usages and the rules of their casts. 
 
 The Company having found, upon an examination into the state of their 
 affairs, that, over and above the ^400,000 payable to Government, they 
 possessed a surplus of ^288,025 17 10, resolved, though they were by law 
 authorized to distribute that sum among themselves in dividends, rather to em- 
 ploy it in their trade : but, instead of adding it to their stock, as was done in the 
 
 d d 2 year
 
 ao+ THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 year 1676, they directed that a distinct account of it, under the title of The 
 Company's separate fund, should be kept in their books. 
 
 The Company's ally, the Nabob of Arcot, and also their own possessions 
 and commerce in the south parts of Hindoostan, had long been harassed by a 
 war with Hyder Ally, an enterprising adventurer, who, by the exertion of mil- 
 itary talents much superior to the usual standard of Mohamedan commanders in 
 India, and by judiciously abstaining from risking his undisciplined army in pitched 
 battles against European troops, had raised himself from a low station to the 
 sovereignty of Mysore and other extensive provinces. This redoubtable enemy 
 had formerly reduced the Presidency of Madras and the Nabob to the humili- 
 ating necessity of accepting a peace dictated by himself. But a continuance of 
 peace with the Company was not consistent with the ambitious politics of 
 Hyder. Having secured a powerful assistance from the Mahrattas and some 
 inferior Indian Princes, and attracted to his service a pretty considerable body 
 of French officers and soldiers, he renewed the war, defeated a British army, 
 took the city of Arcot, ravaged the country, and threw the Company's servants 
 and allies into the greatest distress, which continued till Admiral Sir Edward 
 Hughes and General Sir Eyre Coote arrived in India. These able commanders 
 turned the tide of victory in favour of the Company and the Nabob of Arcot, 
 whereby the harassed country obtained some respite from the miseries of 
 war. 
 
 In October 1781 the Berar Mahrattas were detached from their alliance with 
 Hyder Ally by the judicious management of M r Hastings: and in May 1782 
 the Poona Mahrattas entered into a friendly and liberal treaty with the 
 Company. Thus was the formidable confederacy of Princes, which threat- 
 ened the extinction of the British name in India, dissolved, and Hyder left 
 with scarcely any assistance, except what he obtained from the French, whose 
 fleet was repeatedly defeated by Sir Edward Hughes. The implacable enmity 
 against the Company, which influenced all the actions and policy of Hyder, 
 was not terminated, nor even suspended, by his death, which happened in the 
 end of the year 1782, but was inherited, along with his dominions, by his son 
 Tippoo Saib. 
 
 The state of the East-India Company was now almost as frequently, and as 
 much, the subject of debates in Parliament as in their own Courts in Leadenhall 
 street, and was declared by the highest authority to be an object of as much 
 delicacy and importance as could exercise the wisdom and justice of Parlia- 
 ment.
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA, 205 
 
 ment *. In November 1783 M r Fox, then one of the Secretaries of State, 
 brought into Parliament a bill for vesting the affairs of the East-India Company 
 in the hands of seven noblemen and gentlemen, as principal Directors f, as- 
 sisted by nine others, who should be proprietors of East-India stock, holding 
 not less than ,£'2,000 each. The plan of the bill preserved the Com- 
 pany's commercial privilege, and left untouched the question of the territorial 
 right : but it entirely divested their Directors, and also the General Courts of 
 proprietors, of the administration of their territorial, and even of their com- 
 mercial, affairs. It put into the hands of the new Directors the Company's 
 books, papers, and documents ; their ships, merchandize, and money ; their 
 house in Leadenhall street ; the whole management of their affairs ; the ap. 
 pointment of all their officers and servants ; the rights of peace and war ; and 
 the entire disposal of the revenue. The new Directors were named in the bill j 
 they were not to be removeable, except by an address to his Majesty from either 
 House of Parliament ; and their successors were to be named by the King. The 
 assistant Directors, who were also named in the bill, were to be removeable at 
 the pleasure of any five of the principal Directors ; and their successors were 
 to be appointed by the Company. They were to be disqualified from sitting in 
 Parliament. No person having mercantile connections with the Company ; no 
 person charged with corruption, peculation, or oppression in India, and unac- 
 quired ; no person whatever, returned from India, and not two years resident 
 at home ; nor any person holding any profitable employment under the Com- 
 pany or in his Majesty's service, was to be admissible to either branch of the 
 direction. The Directors were to give their votes openly, and to lay their ac- 
 counts before the Court of proprietors, and also before the Treasury and the 
 Parliament. 
 
 M r Fox at the same time proposed another bill for preventing arbitrary and 
 despotic proceedings in the administration of the territorial possessions. This 
 bill defined the powers of the Governor-general, Presidents, and Council, and 
 required their ordinances to be made public in the Persian and Hindoo lan- 
 guages in every proper place. The Company's Governments were to be pro- 
 hibited from making war, unless for self-defence ; from acquiring or exchang- 
 ing territory ; making treaties of partition ; hiring troops to the native Princes; 
 hiring any property to the civil servants of the Company, or establishing any 
 monopoly : and every illegal present was to be recoverable by any person for 
 
 * See his Majesty's answer to the address of the House of Commons on the 24th of December 
 1783. f In M r Fox's second bill the principal Directors are called Commissioners. 
 
 his
 
 20 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 his own sole benefit. The bill particularly guarded the property and the rights 
 of the Zemeendars, and other little dependent Princes from usurious and op- 
 pressive claims of every kind. It proposed a mode of terminating the disputes 
 between the Nabob of Arcot and the Rajah of Tanjore, and of adjusting the 
 claims of British subjects upon these Princes : and it declared, that no person 
 in the service of the Company, no person under prosecution for offences alleged 
 to have been committed while he was in the service of the Company, and no 
 agent of any protected Prince, should have a seat in Parliament. 
 
 Among the opponents to M r Fox's bills the most conspicuous was M r William 
 Pitt, not yet a Minister. He acknowleged the necessity of a reform in the 
 affairs of India ; but he deprecated such an attack upon the Company's charter 
 as violated the faith of Parliament, solemnly plighted to the Company, whose 
 rights were thereby fixed upon as firm a security as that ' by which our 
 ' gracious Sovereign holds the sceptre of these kingdoms.' He asked, if the 
 bills should be carried, what security the Bank of England, the national 
 creditors, or the public corporations, could have for their rights or properties, 
 which might as properly be confiscated as those of the East-India Company 
 would be by this bill, which was, moreover, ' calculated to increase the in- 
 ' fluence of the Crown, and that to a degree, beyond all precedent, enormous 
 ' and alarming.' 
 
 By some of the members the Company were reprobated as merciless tyrants 
 in India and bankrupts at home, who, though unable to pay the sums owing 
 for customs, and seeking to borrow money for answering the bills drawn by 
 their squandering servants in India, were proposing to make so ' enormous ' a 
 dividend as eight per cent- By others it was represented that great losses had 
 been brought upon the Company, and their resources had been absorbed by 
 the war in which the kingdom had been unfortunately engaged ; that, notwith- 
 standing a temporary embarrassment, the effect of those losses, their funds 
 were much more than equal to all the demands upon them, and therefor fully 
 justified the proposed dividend, which no one could grudge to the proprietors, 
 who would consider, that they did not get near so much emolument from the 
 trade, conducted by them upon their own capital, and at their own risk, as the 
 Public got, without taking any trouble, advancing any capital, or incurring 
 any risk. The advocates for the Company supported their arguments and 
 assertions by the accounts before the House, which showed, that the sums paid 
 to the revenue for customs and excise upon the Company's trade during the 
 last fifteen years amounted to ^19,889,673, besides the large sums paid as 
 participation of the territorial revenue, and the magnificent present of three 
 
 ships
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 207 
 
 ships of the line and six thousand seamen for the navy ; whereas the Company- 
 had suffered losses in consequence of the late war to the extent of ^3,856,666, 
 over and above the cost of the tea sent to America and the freight of the vessels 
 employed to carry it ; and during all those fifteen years the total of their 
 envied dividends amounted to the comparatively -insignificant sum of 
 ^3,738,644 *. 
 
 While the bill was in its progress in the House of Commons, a petition from 
 the proprietors of East-India stock, and another from the Directors, were pre- 
 sented, both complaining of it, as subversive of their charter, and as depriving 
 them of their property, without charging them with any delinquency, which 
 might subject them to such forfeiture ; and praying that the presumed delin- 
 quency might be fairly charged against them, that they might have an oppor- 
 tunity of answering it. The Lord Mayor and Council of London also 
 petitioned against the bill. But, notwithstanding these petitions, it was, after 
 a very warm contest, carried in the House of Commons. But on the 17th of 
 December, it was rejected in the House of Lords : and the business was got 
 rid of by a change of the Ministry f. 
 
 On the 14th of January 1784 Mr Pitt, now appointed First Lord of the 
 Treasury, brought in a bill for the better government of India, which, he 
 proposed, should be effected by a Board of Commissioners, to be appointed 
 from among the Ministers and other members of the Privy Council. But it 
 was argued against it, that it tended to no reformation at home, and no correc- 
 tion of abuses abroad. Finally this bill, notwithstanding the power and in- 
 fluence of the author of it, was rejected in the House of Commons by a 
 majority of eight. The rejection was followed by a dissolution of Parliament 
 on the 25 th of March. 
 
 Soon after the commencement of the ensuing session M r Pitt brought in his 
 secorfd, or improved, India bill. After much altercation in both Houses of 
 Parliament, an act [24 Geo. Ill, sess. 2, c. 25] was passed on the 13th of 
 August 1784, ' for the better regulation and management of the affairs of the 
 ' East-India Company, and of the British possessions in India, and for estab- 
 ' lishing a Court of judicature for the more speedy and effectual trial of per- 
 * sons accused of offences committed in the East-Indies.' — It established a Board 
 
 * I have here brought together extracts from attention than, perhaps, any bills ever did, 
 
 various debates about this time. which were not finally passed, besides their 
 
 f The notice taken of M r Fox's bills will occasioning a change of the Ministry, and a 
 
 not be thought superfluous, when it is con- dissolution of Parliament, 
 sidered, that they attracted more of the public 
 
 of
 
 80 8 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Commissioners for superintending and controuling the civil and military govern- 
 ment and revenues of the territorial possessions, and also the affairs of the East- 
 India Company. — The Governor-general and Council of Calcutta retain the 
 controuling power over the other Presidencies. — Persons going out to India in 
 the civil or military service of the Company must not be under fifteen, nor 
 above twenty-two years of age, with an exception for the military service in 
 favour of officers, who have served at least one year in the army or militia. — 
 Presents are prohibited as in former acts. — All persons returned from India are 
 required to give an inventory of their property into the Court of Exchequer *. 
 — The remaining sections of the act direct the method of proceeding against 
 British subjects, who may be accused of extorsion or other misdemeanors com- 
 mitted in India. 
 
 On the nth of March 1784 the fierce war, by which the Company's Pre- 
 sidency of Madras and the dominions of Tippoo Saib had long been distressed, 
 was terminated, chiefly by the secession of Tippoo's French auxiliaries, when 
 they were informed of the peace in Europe. Each party restored the forts 
 and territories taken from the other 5 Tippoo gave up all pretensions to the 
 Carnatic ; and he engaged to allow the Company all the commercial privileges 
 in his dominions, which had been promised by his father. 
 
 The high duty upon tea, which in the year 1722 amounted to 200 per cent 
 upon the sale price, and afterwards fluctuated between 64 and 128 percent, 
 held out an encouragement to illicit importation, which excited the most daring 
 enterprise of the smugglers, and was not neglected by the foreign East-India 
 Companies, who supplied them with tea, and also with wrought silks, nan- 
 keens, and other articles of less importance, which would not have been pur- 
 chased at all for the purpose of smuggling, unless for the sake of running 
 them in upon the British shores along with the tea, which was the main staple 
 and principal support of the pernicious trade of smuggling. 
 
 In the nine years preceding 1780 there were exported from China to 
 Europe 
 
 in 107 ships belonging to the continent of Europe . 1 18,783,81 1 
 
 in 79 ships of the British East-India Company . . 50,759,451 
 
 pounds of tea, being on an average 13,198,201 pounds imported annually by 
 the continental Companies, and 5,639,939 by the British Company. 
 
 From the best information attainable it appears, that the real consumption 
 was very near exactly the reverse of these quantities, that of the British 
 
 * This inquisitorial section was repealed by aD act 26 Geo. Ill, c. 57. 
 
 dominions
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 209 
 
 dominions being I 3>338> 1 4° 
 
 and that of the continent of Europe at most * 5,500,000, 
 
 Besides the above quantity of real tea, it was known that several millions of 
 pounds of the leaves of sloe, ash, and other trees, were sold for tea, whereby 
 the probable total amount of real and factitious tea consumed in the British 
 dominions was raised to about eighteen millions of pounds, whereof it appeared 
 that the enormous quantity of near thirteen millions must have consisted of 
 smuggled and counterfeit tea. By the long continuance of this state of the 
 supply of tea, the foreign Companies, and the maritime power of the European 
 continental states, were strengthened ; our own Company, our own seamen, 
 our own navy, and our own national revenue, were defrauded of the advant- 
 ages, which naturally belong to them ; and the baneful trades of smuggling 
 and manufacturing false tea were raised and supported upon the ruin of fair 
 trade, and the debilitation of the naval strength and resources of the country. 
 
 It was evident that the only efficacious remedy for the evil must be to lay the 
 axe to the root of it by reducing the duty, so as to render the smuggler's 
 trade not worth following, which would also annihilate, or at least very much 
 diminish, the trade of making false tea. Accordingly, on the 20th of August 
 1784, the Parliament, after obtaining all the necessary information, and con- 
 certing the proper measures with the Company, passed an act [24 Geo. HI, 
 sess. 2, c. 38], repealing all the existing duties on tea, and substituting instead 
 of them a duty of twelve and a half per cent on the price for which it sells at 
 the Company's sales, and also allowing tea to be delivered from the Company's 
 warehouses for exportation without paying any duty whatever. At the same 
 time the Parliament, in order to make up for the deficiency of revenue, which 
 might be occasioned by the reduction, laid an additional duty on windows, as 
 a commutation, which was calculated to produce ^600,000 annually. 
 
 The Company, wisely considering that the removal of the temptation would 
 be the gentlest, and also the most effectual, means of securing the beneficial 
 effects of the act, immediately sent orders to purchase the tea, which the 
 various European Companies had on hand; and in the years 1784, 1785, 
 and 1786, they imported 17,312,484 pounds of their tea, thus relieving them 
 
 * Raynal, having stated the quantity of tea tainable documents, to be only 5,400,000 
 
 exported from Canton in the year 1766 at pounds, and thence infers that the remaining 
 
 17,400,000 pounds, estimates the consumption 12,000,000 must be consumed in Great Britain, 
 
 of the continent of Europe, from the best at- [Hiit. phi/, et polit. V.\\, p. 139.] 
 
 £ S Of
 
 3io THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 of what must have been a dead weight upon their trade, and most probably 
 have urged them to attempt every method, however desperate, of getting it 
 smuggled into this country. 
 
 This judicious act, and the judicious conduct of the Company, were attend- 
 ed with the most complete success in the suppression of smuggling, and pro- 
 moting the prosperity of the Company, and of all the fair traders in tea through- 
 out the kingdom, and also in effecting a considerable increase of the revenue 
 arising from tea and sugar, besides the new commutation duty imposed upon 
 the windows. The quantity bought at the Company's sales, which in the 
 year 1783 was only 5,857,883 pounds, rose in the year 1785 to 16,307,433. 
 The quantity of tea imported into the continent of Europe from China, which 
 in the year 1784 was 19,072,300 pounds, continued decreasing every year, 
 and in 1 79 1 was only 2,291,560 pounds ; whereas the quantity imported by 
 our Company, which in the year 1783 was only 4,138,295 pounds, continued 
 increasing every year, and ever since the year 1786 has averaged considerably 
 above 20,000,000 of pounds. The new duty of twelve and a half per cent, 
 which in the year ending 1st September 1786 produced only ^285,460, rose 
 gradually, as smuggling wore out and the consumption extended, to .§£352,800, 
 the amount of it in the year ending 1st September 1794 *. 
 
 Such were the advantages flowing from the commutation act in Europe : 
 and in China its operation was not less beneficial to the interest of the Com- 
 pany and the manufacturers of this country. The Chinese merchants were 
 made to understand, that the purchases of tea would be very much enlarged, 
 if they would encourage the consumption of British merchandize, which would 
 be a source of additional profit to themselves. Thereupon the demand for 
 British goods, and particularly for woolens, soon increased in China, the 
 northern parts of which require warm clothing. 
 
 The Company, desirous of affording every assistance to this favourite 
 branch of English manufacture, directed their supercargoes in China to make 
 no advance on the prices, though they were not equal to the cost and charges. 
 By persevering in this patriotic self-denial the exports of the under-mentioned 
 articles to China were increased as follows. 
 
 * After the 16th of March 1795 the duty for a comparative view of the quantities im- 
 was increased, and has continned increasing. ported from China by foreign and British ships, 
 
 For the quantities of tea sold by the Company, fee the Appendix, N° IV and N° V 
 with the duties paid to the revenue, and also 
 
 1785
 
 
 ENGLISH WITH 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 HI 
 
 Years. 
 
 Tin, 
 
 
 Woolen goods. 
 
 
 
 tuns. 
 
 f 
 
 Cloth, 
 
 Long ells, 
 
 > 
 
 Camlets, * 
 
 
 
 pieces. 
 
 piece?. 
 
 pieces. 
 
 1785 . 
 
 none . 
 
 • 4,534 * • 
 
 60,000 
 
 • • 33 2 
 
 179I . 
 
 1,200 
 
 6,456 . , 
 
 150,000 
 
 , . 2,340 
 
 and the demand for woolen goods in Canton has continued to increase, so that 
 their value for some time past has been above a million sterling annually \. 
 
 In proportion to the increase of the exports of merchandize was the decrease 
 in the exports of bullion, which in 
 
 1785 was ^724,317, 
 
 and in 1 79 1 . . . . . . . . 422,098. 
 
 The Chinese merchants at Canton receive the goods upon the faith of the 
 invoice and the Company's mark, without opening the packages for examin- 
 ation ; and there is reason to believe that they are frequently sent unopened as 
 far as Pekin, a distance of 1,200 miles, and the property of them passed 
 through the hands of various successive purchasers, each of whom, in his turn, 
 receives them without examination, in a firm reliance on the good faith of the 
 Company \. 
 
 The Company's trade being enlarged in consequence of the commutation act 
 and the return of peace §, it became necessary to employ greater sums in 
 carrying it on. An act [26 Geo. Ill, c. 62] was therefor passed on the 5th of 
 July 1786, whereby they were enabled to sell, or mortgage, the whole, or any 
 part, of the annuity of ^36,226 160, remaining after the sale made in 
 
 * It must give pleasure to every friend of -j- For the value of woolen goods exported 
 
 British industry to observe the grer.t increase of to China, see the Appendix, N°VI. 
 
 exportation in this branch of the woolen manu- . mi. -c- 1 i j 
 
 1 \ 1 he Trench have sometimes procured, or 
 
 facture In all the years preceding: I7CO there . .. . , ' x, vi. 1 j u ^i • 1 ,1. 
 
 1 l ° < 3 imitated, English packages, and sold their cloths 
 
 were only eighty pieces of camlet exported by &t CantQn as £ngl]sh . but> when thg fraud 
 
 the Company ; and afterwards there were only ^ detected> they could sell no more wkh . 
 
 two years in which the export exceeded a , 
 
 ' r out submitting every piece to a rigorous exam- 
 
 thousand pieces, and some years in which not a . ... c , , , .,i ,• 
 
 r ' ination. borne lead, cased over with tin, was 
 
 single piece was exported, till 1789, when, the ^ ^ for & . ^ ^ ^^ rf ^ 
 
 manufacturers having; discovered an improved r , , . ,, ., , r .% 
 
 r fraud was noway detrimental to the sale 01 the 
 
 method of finishing their camlets, which the . , . , i_ r *.i_ t? r 1. *■« 
 
 _. , , , , • , . tin bearing the mark of the English Company, 
 
 .Dutch had hitherto exclusively possessed, the . , . . , , . , , . -i 
 
 _, ' r in whose integrity the merchants had an estab- 
 
 Lompany exported i,c6o pieces. In 1801 ,. . . ,., 
 
 , . r hshed confidence, 
 
 their exports of camlets were increased to 
 
 2 1,760 pieces, for which the manufacturers § See the -account of the Company's trade in 
 
 received ^145,278 ; and the quantity has since the Appendix N' VII. 
 
 continued increasing. 
 
 e e 2 virtue
 
 a, a THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 virtue of the act 23 Geo. II, c. 1, at such price as they could obtain * ; and by 
 the same act they were also authorized to add ^800,000 to their capital stock. 
 The additional stock is directed to be subscribed for at the rate of one hundred 
 and sixty per cent, or such other rate as the Directors may think proper, such 
 of the present proprietors as may chuse to subscribe having a preference of 
 subscription, so as not to exceed one half of their present property in the 
 stock ; a dividend to be paid on the new stock at the same rate as on the old 
 stock, and the new subscribers to be incorporated with the Company. The 
 new stock was subscribed at 155 per cent, which consequently produced in 
 money ^1,240,000; and the Company's capital joint stock was thus raised to 
 four millions. 
 
 M r Hastings, who had been nominated Governor-general by the act, which 
 raised the Government of Bengal to a supremacy over all the British posses- 
 sions in India, and had been repeatedly re-appointed to that highest office in 
 the Company's service, arrived in England on the 16th of June 1785, in con- 
 sequence of orders of recall. On the 26th of the same month M r Burke, 
 who in the preceding session of Parliament had brought heavy accusations 
 against him before the House of Commons, gave formal notice of his intention 
 of bringing forward a prosecution against him for crimes alleged to have been 
 committed many years before. After long and warm debates in successive 
 sessions, the prosecution was sanctioned by the House ; and on the 1 4th of May 
 1787 the articles of impeachment were sent to the House of Lords. The vast 
 extent of the charges, and the lengthened orations of the accusers, which were 
 esteemed the finest productions of eloquence ever delivered before a Court of 
 judicature in any age or country, protracted the trial to a duration utterly un- 
 precedented; and it was not till the 23th of April 1795 (exactly eight years 
 after the House of Commons ordered the prosecution) that the Lord Chan- 
 cellor delivered the decision of the Peers in the following words : ' M r Hastings, 
 ' the House of Lords, after a very minute investigation, have acquitted you 
 ' of all the charges of high crimes and misdemeanours preferred against you 
 ' by the Commons, and every article thereof ; and you and your bail are dis- 
 ' charged upon your paying your fees.' 
 
 Such was the event of this most important and most extraordinary trial, 
 conducted by some of the most distinguished members of the House of Com- 
 mons, in the name of the people of Great Britain, against a man, who had 
 presided over the British empire in India near thirteen years, with extraordinary 
 
 * For the preceding sale see above, p. 176. 
 
 talents,
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 213 
 
 talents, in a situation rendered peculiarly arduous by the recentness of the Brit- 
 ish superiority in the country, and with the general approbation of those who 
 had the best opportunity of judging of the rectitude of his administration. It 
 was surely a dreadful hardship upon a man, who is declared innocent, to be 
 kept in the torture of suspense through such a number of years. But it may be 
 productive of a good effect in showing to all Europe and Afia, that no person, 
 accused of public delinquency, can be skreened by his rank or station, however 
 exalted they may be, from the animadversion of British Justice. 
 
 The Company, in consideration of his long, faithful, and important, services, 
 discharged the expenses of his defence, amounting to upwards of ^70,000, 
 and settled upon him an annual income of ^5,000. 
 
 The British Government having made warlike preparations in consequence 
 of some commotions upon the Continent, proposed, in the beginning of the 
 year 1788, to augment the military force in the East Indies by sending out 
 four of his Majesty's regiments, to be transported in the Company's ships, and 
 paid out of their revenue : and it was moreover intended to render this aug- 
 mentation of the army in India permanent. The Company, wishing to prevent 
 a repetition of a misunderstanding, which had already happened between the 
 King's army and their own, and also unwilling to incur so great an expense, 
 represented to the Ministry, that there was no necessity for sending out any 
 additional military force ; and that, by the act 2 1 Geo. Ill, c. 65, they were 
 not liable to pay for any troops, unless they were sent at their own request. 
 This last objection was immediately repelled by a new act of Parliament 
 [28 Geo. Ill, c. 8], whereby the Commissioners for the affairs of India are 
 empowered to send out troops at their own discretion, not exceeding in number 
 8,045 men 5 w ho must be carried to India, and paid by the Company, out of 
 their territorial revenue. 
 
 In the year 1789 the Company revived the exportation of tin to China, 
 which had been hitherto, rather unaccountably, resigned to the Dutch, who 
 made a profitable trade of carrying it from a settlement they had on the east 
 side of Sumatra. The revival of this trade was very advantageous to the pro- 
 prietors of the tin mines in the west part of England, and made a saving in the 
 export of silver. In China the superior quality of the Cornish tin, together 
 with the superior demand of the Company for tea, soon gave it a decided 
 preference. 
 
 The Company's trade still continuing to increase, and their territorial 
 revenues being generally almost exhausted by the very heavy establishment 
 they were obliged to support, it was found necessary to make a further augment- 
 ation
 
 ai+ THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 ation of their capital, for which purpose an act of Parliament [29 Geo. Ill, c. 6$~] 
 was passed, empowering them to add one million to their capital joint stock, 
 by subscriptions to be confined to the present proprietors, unless the sums 
 subscribed by them should fall short of the proposed additional capital, in which 
 case other subscribers might be admitted. The new stock, being subscribed at 
 174. per cent, produced in money ^1,740,000 ; and the Company's capital 
 joint stock was now five millions. 
 
 The Company immediately resolved to increase their exports, and from this 
 year they have been constantly greater than ever they were before. They per- 
 mitted the commanders and officers of their ships to fill up all spare room in 
 the outward-bound ships with goods for their own account without paying any 
 freight ; and they also permitted their own servants, and the free merchants 
 residing by their permission in India, to load goods homeward at an easy freight 
 in ships not entirely filled up by their own goods and the privileged goods of 
 their commanders, officers, and seamen. In the following year (1791) the 
 privileged tunnage of the Company's commanders and officers was again 
 enlarged. 
 
 The Rajah of Travancore having got himself involved in hostilities with 
 Tippoo Saib, the Sultan of Mysore, the Presidency of Madras took up the 
 quarrel of their ally, the Rajah : and treaties being made with the Nizam of 
 the Deccan and the Poona Mahrattas for their co-operation, and the Bombay 
 Presidency being called upon for the assistance of their forces, all those allies, 
 under the immediate direction of Earl Cornwallis, the Governor-general of 
 India, marched in various directions against Tippoo, who resisted their attacks 
 with great judgement and valour. But, after defending himself almost two 
 years, he was compelled to sign a treaty on the 17th day of March 1792, 
 whereby he ceded about one . half of his dominions, to be divided among the 
 Company *, the Nizam, and the Mahrattas, became bound to pay all the ex- 
 penses of the war, and delivered two of his sons into the hands of Lord 
 Cornwallis as hostages for the faithful performance of his stipulations. By this 
 treaty the Company acquired an annual revenue of ^'240,000, and received 
 £ii 600,000 in money. 
 
 In the year 1792 some of the merchants of Liverpool, disregarding or for- 
 getting the disappointment of the proposal made by their predecessors in the 
 year 1730 for abolishing the East-India joint-stock Company, and throwing 
 
 * At the head of the list of districts allotted to the Company is Calicut, at the port of which 
 the first European vessels that ever sailed to India arrived iu the year 1498. 
 
 the
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 215 
 
 the trade into the hands of a regulated Company and private traders to be 
 licenced by them, took the opportunity of the approach of the expiration of 
 the Company's charter to endeavour to persuade the merchants of the chief 
 ports and manufacturing towns of England and Scotland to concur in an applic- 
 ation to Parliament for throwing the East-India trade entirely open, in such 
 manner as to their wisdom should appear consistent with justice and true policy. 
 They did not neglect to repeat the philippics, which had been so often repeated 
 for almost two centuries, against monopoly ; they observed that the trade was 
 carried on by the Portuguese, and lately by the Americans, without joint stocks 
 or exclusive charters ; they promised the manufacturers a prodigious exportation 
 of their fabrics, when their ships should penetrate into every port of the Oriental 
 Ocean ; and they were confident, that neither capital, nor enterprise, nor suf- 
 ficient nautical skill, would be wanting for conducting and greatly extending 
 the trade. The approach of war, which was expected in consequence of the 
 recent revolution in France, probably turned the attention of the projectors to 
 other objects. 
 
 Ever since the jealous policy of the Government of China restricted the 
 resort of foreigners to the one port of Canton, the European traders and 
 navigators have been exposed to the oppression and insults of the officers of 
 Government, without any opportunity of obtaining redress, as it was impossible 
 to convey any representation of their grievances to the Emperor *. The Com- 
 pany's sale of tea, an article procured only in China, having become vastly 
 more extensive since the commutation act was passed, it was thought necessary 
 to send a formal embassy, to the Emperor, in order to convince him, that the 
 agents of the East-India Company at Canton enjoyed the countenance and pro- 
 tection of their Sovereign, though their duty in the service of their employers 
 required their absence from their native country f. Lord Macartney, who was 
 chosen for this embassy, was attended by a numerous retinue, and carried a 
 
 * ' The Imperial officers, under whose im- ' in translating the papers, which contained 
 
 ' mediate inspection they [the foreign merch- ' them, into the language of the country.' 
 
 ' ants] were placed, were in little danger of [Staunton 1 s Account of an embassy to China, V.i, 
 
 ' reprehension for any ill treatment of their p. 15, 8™«/.] 
 
 'persons, or impositions upon their trade. f The Chinese, with all their boasted wisdom 
 
 ' Their complaints were considered as frivolous and policy, look upon commerce as a mean 
 
 1 or ill-founded ; and attributed to a restless and employment ; and they more particularly de- 
 
 ' unreasonable disposition. Effectual measures spise, and even punish with death, those, who 
 
 • were likewise taken to avoid a repetition of leave their native country for the sake of gain. 
 « their remonstrances by punishing such of the See above, : p. 65 — Purchas's Pi/grimes, L. iiii, 
 
 • natives as were suspected of having assisted /.36s — Staunton's Embassy, F.i, p. 299. 
 
 splendid
 
 316 THECOMMERCEOFTHE 
 
 splendid present for the Emperor, consisting of astronomical and mathematical 
 instruments, and the most elegant and superb productions of art, calculated to 
 impress the Chinese with a high idea of the state of the arts and sciences in this 
 country. A ship of sixty-four guns and a tender were furnished by Govern- 
 ment ; and the Company added one of the largest of the ships in their service, 
 for the accommodation of the Ambassador and his suite. In August 1793 they 
 arrived at the mouth of the River Pei-ho, the nearest port to Pekin, the capital 
 of China, and traveled to Zhe-hol, about 1 50 miles beyond Pekin, where the 
 Emperor then resided. He received the Ambassador very politely, and seemed 
 much pleased to see such attention paid to him, and such rare presents sent to 
 him, by the Sovereign of a country so far from his own ; and, in return, he 
 gave the Ambassador a letter and present for his Britannic Majesty. All that 
 the Chinese consider as belonging to an embassy being now accomplished, the 
 Ambassador was precluded from entering upon any business whatever by a 
 notification that preparations were made for conveying him and his suite to 
 Canton ; and this intimation was made in a manner which showed that com- 
 pliance would be unavoidable. The conveyance was, however, sufficiently 
 splendid, two great officers of the Court being appointed to accompany them in 
 a navigation upon the great canal, which lasted about seventy days, during 
 which Lord Macartney so far gained their friendship, that their letters to the 
 Emperor procured some favourable alterations in the conduct of the officers 
 of Government at Canton towards the British commerce in that port, and also 
 the removal of a Governor, or Viceroy, who had distinguished himself by 
 hostility to the gentlemen in the Company's service. Whatever other objects 
 Lord Macartney might have wished to accomplish were completely frustrated 
 by the peremptory conduct of the Emperor. In September 1794 he arrived 
 in England. 
 
 In June 1793 an act [33 Geo. Ill, c. 47] was passed, whereby the manage- 
 ment of the dividends upon the debt of ^4,200,000, owing by the Public to 
 the Company, was transferred from the Company to the Bank, the capital 
 being ingrafted in the fund called the Three-per-cent reduced annuities ; and 
 this ingraftment is declared to be a redemption of the debt, except that what- 
 ever part of the capital the Company may retain as their property in their 
 corporate capacity, though under the management of the Bank, must, in the 
 event of their privilege being terminated, be repaid to them at par. 
 
 By the same act the Company were authorized to add another million to 
 their capital by subscriptions, in which the present proprietors are entitled to a 
 preference, if they chuse it, as far as fifty per cent upon their present shares in 
 
 the
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 217 
 
 the capital, and if the subscription is not filled up by them, others may be admitted 
 to subscribe. The Company are directed by the act to employ a part of the 
 money to be received upon the new subscriptions in reducing their bonds to 
 the sum of ^1,500,000. This additional stock was subscribed at 200 per cent, 
 and consequently produced in money ^2,000,000 ; and the Company's capital 
 joint stock was now brought up to six millions, the present amount of it. 
 
 In a few days after this act was passed, it was succeeded by another one 
 [33 Geo. HI, c. 52] for renewing the Company's privilege. Their exclusive 
 privilege of trade, and their territorial possessions, are continued to them till 
 the 1 st day of March 1 8 1 4, on which day the privilege may be terminated on 
 paying whatever sum the Public may then owe to the Company, provided three 
 years' notice shall previously have been given. — His Majesty may appoint Com- 
 missioners for the affairs of India, who are to direct the administration of 
 the revenues, and the civil and military government, for which purpose the 
 Company's books and dispatches must be submitted to their inspection. — The 
 expense of this Board and their officers, limited to ^16,000 a-year, is to be 
 defrayed by the Company. — The Government of India is vested in a Governor 
 and three Counselors in each of the Presidencies of Bengal, Madras, and 
 Bombay, the two later Presidencies being subordinate to the former, the Gov- 
 ernor of which is Governor-general of the whole British territories in India. — 
 The Governors and Counselors are to be appointed by the Directors, and no 
 person is eligible to the Council till he has resided twelve years in India in the 
 Company's service. — The Directors may also appoint persons provisionally to 
 succeed to any of the above offices on the death or removal of the persons 
 possessing them ; and, in case of no such provisional appointment being made, 
 the office shall devolve upon the person next in rank at the time of the vacancy, 
 except the Commander of the forces, who shall not succeed to the government, 
 unless he be expressly appointed to the provisional succession. — His Majesty, 
 by his sign manual, countersigned by the President of the Board of Com- 
 missioners, may remove any of the Company's officers or servants in India. — 
 ' And forasmuch as to pursue schemes of conquest and extension of dominion 
 4 in India are measures repugnant to the wish, the honour, and policy, of this 
 1 nation,' the Governor-general is not authorized to make war without the 
 express order of the Court of Directors, or of the Secret Committee and the 
 Board of Commissioners, unless the Company or their allies are attacked, or 
 preparations are made by an enemy for attacking them. — In order to give 
 energy and dispatch to the measures of Government, the Governors are 
 empowered to act without the concurrence, or against the opinion, of their 
 
 F F Council,
 
 »,* THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Council, but In that case taking the whole responsibility upon themselves.— 
 The Directors must not send out more writers or cadets than are necessary to 
 supply the vacancies. — No person can be sent out to India, whose age is under 
 fifteen, or above twenty-two, years ; but commissioned officers, who have 
 been one year in actual service in his Majesty's army, the militia, or fencibles, 
 not older than twenty-five years, may go out as cadets. — No British subject in 
 his Majesty's or the Company's service in India is permitted to receive any 
 present whatever, either for himself or in the name of the Company : but 
 lawyers, medical men, and chaplains, may lawfully receive their professional 
 fees, as formerly. 
 
 In case of the Company's exclusive privilege being terminated, they may 
 still carry on a free trade in their corporate capacity, in common with other 
 British subjects. — In case of any territory being obtained from the Chinese 
 Government, and a settlement being established upon it by the Company, 
 all his Majesty's subjects may lawfully export British and Irish manufactures 
 to it in the Company's ships at a moderate rate of freight, the goods being 
 consigned to the Company's supercargoes, or free merchants licenced by the 
 Company, who shall pay the proceeds into the Company's treasury, and 
 receive bills payable in Great Britain. — Ships employed in the Southern whale 
 fishery and in the trade to the north-west coast of America, may navigate the 
 seas within the limits of the Company's privilege, under certain limitations, 
 on giving sufficient security that they shall not infringe the Company's com- 
 mercial privileges. Any of his Majesty's subjects, residing in any part of 
 his European dominions, may export to Bengal, Malabar, Coromandel, or 
 Sumatra, in the Company's ships, any article of the produce or manufacture 
 of the British European dominions, except military stores, ammunition, masts, 
 spars, cordage, anchors, pitch, tar, and copper : and in like manner the Com- 
 pany's civil servants in India, and the free merchants living in India under the 
 Company's protection, may ship on their own account and risk in the Com- 
 pany's ships all kinds of India goods, except calicoes, dimities, muslins, and 
 other piece goods, which they must not ship unless particularly licenced by the 
 Company. — If the Company shall not have purchased fifteen hundred tuns 
 of British copper before the 3 1 st day of August in each year, the proprietors 
 of British copper may export, on their own account and risk, as much as the 
 Company's export shall fall short of the quantity above-mentioned, in the Com- 
 pany's rhips, on giving notice to their secretary. — If the Company, and the 
 persons licenced by them, do not import a sufficient quantity of calicoes, 
 dimities, muslins, &c. for the consumption of Great Britain, as far as such 
 
 goods
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. ti 9 
 
 goods are permitted to be used for home consumption, and also of the piece 
 goods intended for exportation, the Board of Commissioners may authorize 
 individuals to import all, or any of the sorts, of the goods above-mentioned, 
 under such regulations as they shall think proper to prescribe, and agreeable 
 to the law prohibiting the consumption of certain species of goods in this king- 
 dom. — ' For insuring to private merchants and manufacturers the certain and 
 1 ample means of exporting their merchandize to the East Indies, and import- 
 * ing the returns for the same, and the other goods, wares and merchandize, 
 e allowed by this act, at reasonable rates of freight,' the Company must every 
 year appropriate at least three thousand tuns of shipping for carrying goods, 
 which may be lawfully exported or imported by individuals by virtue of this 
 act, which quantity of shipping may be augmented or diminished, as the Com- 
 missioners shall think proper. — The owners of the goods shipped shall pay to 
 the Company in time of peace five pounds outward, and fifteen pounds home, 
 ward, for every tun occupied by them in the Company's ships ; and in time of 
 war the freight shall be raised, with the approbation of the Commissioners, in 
 such proportion as the Company themselves pay for their freight. — The servants 
 of the Company, except those engaged in juridical or military duties, and those 
 prohibited by their covenants, may act as agents for the sale of goods lawfully 
 shipped by individuals, and for providing the goods allowed to be imported by 
 them in return : and the private merchants licenced by the Company have also 
 permission to act as agents. — British subjects in India must not reside in any 
 place more than ten miles distant from one of the principal settlements, unless 
 specially licenced by the Company, or by the Governor of a principal settle- 
 ment. — The duty of five per cent, formerly paid to the Company on the goods 
 imported in private trade, and the charge of two per cent for landing and 
 selling, are both abrogated ; and, instead of them, the Company are to charge 
 three per cent on the sale amount of all goods brought from India (but not 
 from China) as full compensation for the expenses of hoyage, landing, cartage, 
 storage, sorting, lotting, and selling, which, with the freight, constitute the 
 whole charge, payable to the Company, upon India goods so imported. The 
 goods imported from China in private trade are still liable to the former charges 
 of five and two percent; and the Company's engagements with their com- 
 manders, officers, and other servants, remain unaffected by this act. — In order 
 to encourage individuals to engage in the trade of importing raw materials for 
 manufactures from India, and to secure to manufacturers the means of furnish- 
 ing themselves therewith, the Company are required to make speedy and 
 frequent sales of raw silk, sugar, cotton, cotton yarn, wool, skins, dye-stuffs, 
 
 f f 2 drugs,
 
 220 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 druo-s, and other articles of raw material, whether imported in private trade or 
 on the Company's own account, in moderate lots, agreeable to regulations 
 framed by the Directors, and approved by the Commissioners.- — All goods 
 imported in private trade shall be secured in the Company's warehouses, and 
 sold by public auction, under the order of the Court of Directors, for account 
 of the proprietors. 
 
 The net produce of the territorial revenues shall be applied in the following 
 order of preference, and to no other purpose. — First, in supporting a sufficient 
 military and marine force in India, maintaining the forts, and supplying military 
 and naval stores. — Secondly, in paying the interest of the debt owing by the 
 Company in India. — Thirdly, in defraying the expenses of the civil and com- 
 mercial establishments of the several settlements. — Fourthly, a sum, not under 
 a crore of current rupees, shall be issued every year to the Commercial Boards, 
 to be applied to the purchase of the Company's investments in India and 
 China. — Fifthly, in case of any part of the India debt being discharged, or trans- 
 ferred to Great Britain, the sum allotted for the commercial investments may be 
 proportionally enlarged. — Lastly, whatever surplus there may be shall be 
 applied to the reduction of the Company's debt in India, or to such other 
 purposes, as the Court of Directors, with the approbation of the Commis- 
 sioners, shall direct. — The Governments in India may draw bills upon the 
 Company for the purpose of transferring the India debt to Great Britain, to 
 the extent of ^500,000 in a year, payable, either to the creditors, or to other 
 persons advancing money for the purpose of paying off the India debt. 
 
 The Company's profits in Europe, after paying interest and charges, shall 
 be applied as follows, and in the following order of preference. — First, in 
 paying a dividend of ten per cent upon the capital stock to the proprietors, the 
 first payment to be made at Midsummer 1793. — Secondly, in setting apart 
 ^500,000 annually for the payment of bills drawn for the purpose of trans- 
 ferring the India debt to Great Britain, till the debt in India shall be reduced to 
 ^,2,000,000. — Thirdly, in paying into the Exchequer a sum not exceeding 
 ^500,000 annually, to be applied as Parliament shall direct, except as in this 
 act is otherways specially provided. — Fourthly, till the India debt shall be 
 reduced to ^2,000,000, the ultimate surplus may be applied to the further 
 reduction of it, or in payment of debts at home, excepting India bonds to the 
 amount of ^ 1,500,000 ; or it may be invested in goods to be sent to India or 
 China, the proceeds of which shall be applied to the reduction of the debt in 
 India. — Lastly, when the India debt shall be reduced to ^2,000,000, and the 
 bond debt to ^1,500,000, one sixth part of the surplus, after the above- 
 mentioned
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 221 
 
 mentioned payments are made, shall be applied to augment the dividends on 
 the Company's capital stock ; and the other five sixths shall be paid into the 
 Bank, in the name of the Commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, 
 the account of which shall be kept under the title of The Guarantee fund of the 
 United Company of merchants of England trading to India, till the sums so paid, 
 with the growing interest upon them, shall amount to twelve millions ; after 
 which the surplus shall be paid into the Exchequer, as the property of the 
 Public in full right. But, if the India debt shall afterwards rise above 
 ^ 3 2,goo,ooo, or the bond debt rise above ^1,500,000, the above-men- 
 tioned applications for the reduction of them shall again take place, and con- 
 tinue so long as those debts exceed the prescribed limits. — When the Guarantee 
 fund shall have accumulated to i£' 12,000,000, the dividends growing upon it 
 shall be applied to make up the Company's dividend to ten per cent, if at any 
 time their funds appropriated to that purpose shall prove insufficient. — In case 
 of the Company's exclusive privilege being terminated, and their funds, after 
 discharging every claim upon them, not being sufficient to allow ^200 to the 
 proprietors for every i'loo of their capital stock, the Guarantee fund shall be 
 liable to make good whatever deficiency there may be ; and whatever surplus 
 there shall be, over making good such deficiency, shall belong to the Public. — 
 If the payments to the Exchequer and the Bank shall at any time be found 
 prejudicial to the affairs of the Company, they may be suspended by order of the 
 Lords of the Treasury. — If those payments shall be rendered impracticable by 
 the extraordinary expenses incurred by war, or preparations for war, the arrears 
 of them shall not be permitted to retard the accumulation of the Guarantee fund, 
 but shall be paid to the Public on the determination of the Company's exclusive 
 privilege, if the funds shall be sufficient, after paying off all debts, to allow 
 the proprietors ^200 for every j^ioo of their capital stock ; failing which, the 
 claim of the Public upon the Company for arrears shall drop *. — This act 
 shall not affect the right of the Public, or of the Company, to the territorial 
 possessions beyond the term now granted. — After the Company shall have 
 paid ^500,000 to the Public in January 1794, their separate fund maybe 
 applied in making an addition of one half per cent to the annual dividend of ten 
 per cent. — For the purpose of protecting the funds of the Company during the 
 term of their exclusive privilege from being burthened with improper charges, 
 
 * The orators, who have displayed their against this express and necessary stipulation, 
 
 eloquence in exclaiming against the Company by which it is evident that the participation 
 
 for letting the participation run into arrears, as cannot be in arrear, because it has not become 
 
 they chuse to state it, have shut their eyes due. 
 
 they
 
 „ e THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 they are restricted from granting any new salary or pension, or any augment- 
 ation of salary or pension, exceeding ^200 annually, without the approbation 
 of the Commissioners. — The Directors are required to lay a state of their 
 accounts of every kind before both Houses of Parliament in April ever)' year. — 
 There being many unsettled claims between the Public and the Company, all 
 such, which were prior to the 24th day of December 1792, are cancelled on 
 both sides ; and after that period the expenses of his Majesty's troops are at 
 the charge of the Company. 
 
 All his Majesty's subjects residing in Great Britain, the islands of Guernsey, 
 Jersey, Alderney, Sark, Mann, America, or the West Indies, are strictly pro- 
 hibited from trading to, or being in, India, unless licenced by the Company : 
 and the ships and cargoes of such illicit traders, and also their persons, shall 
 be seized by any of the Company's Governors or agents, and the illicit traders 
 shall be sent to England to answer for their offences. Persons discharged from 
 the Company's service or protection, and remaining in India after the proper 
 time allowed for their departure, are to be treated as illicit traders. — All 
 merchandize and bullion shipped for India, except the property of the Com- 
 pany and of persons authorized by this act, and all goods taken out of any 
 ship on her homeward-bound passage before her arrival in England, shall be 
 forfeited, together with double the value ; and the commander or officer, 
 knowingly permitting such unlawful loading or unloading, for every such 
 offence shall forfeit ^1,000, besides all the wages owing to him, and be 
 rendered incapable of serving the Company ever after. — British subjects, as 
 above described, trading to India under the authority of any foreign Prince or 
 State, shall forfeit ^500 for every such offence. — The Governors, and the 
 officers of the revenue and of justice, in India are prohibited from having any 
 concern in trade, except on the Company's account. — The Judges of the 
 Supreme Court shall not have any concern whatever in trade. No British 
 subject shall be concerned in the inland trade in salt, betel-nut, tobacco, or 
 rice, except on account of the Company, or by their licence. — No person shall 
 send East-India goods to Europe by the way of Suez in Egypt, or by any other 
 channel of conveyance than what is directed by this act. — But the servants of 
 the Company, who are not prohibited from trading on their own account, and 
 the free merchants, may sell goods in India to the subjects of any foreign state, 
 and may act as agents for sale and returns to any foreign Company or foreign 
 merchants. 
 
 Such were the chief of the multifarious provisions of the Charter act. 
 
 As
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 2*3 
 
 As soon as the commencement of the war was known in India, the French 
 were deprived of their settlements at Chandernagore, Pondichery, Karical, 
 Yanam, and Mahe, and their factory at Surat, whereby their India trade was 
 totally annihilated. 
 
 In the year 1794 the Company made an offer to his Majesty of raising and 
 clothing three regiments of one thousand men each, for his service during the 
 war. But on his Majesty signifying, that a bounty for seamen would be more 
 acceptable, they showed their ready zeal for his service by an immediate com- 
 pliance. 
 
 The Company, observing that the raw silks, imported from the continent of 
 Europe and the Levant, were preferred by the manufacturers, on account of 
 the superior method of winding, to those imported from Bengal, and desirous 
 of promoting the cultivation of silk in their Indian territories, and also of 
 affording to the British manufacturer a supply of silk, at least in competition 
 with, if not independent of, foreigners, got the Italian method of winding in- 
 troduced in India ; and the consequence was, that the demand for Bengal 
 silk was very much enlarged, to the great advantage of the Indian cultivator 
 and British manufacturer, though for many years to the pecuniary disadvantage 
 of the Company, who in the ten years from 1776 to 1785 inclusive lost 
 ^884,744 upon their sales of silk, which during that time amounted only to 
 
 ^3>449>757- 
 
 If the Company had considered themselves merely as a commercial associ- 
 ation, they ought in prudence to have abandoned a branch of trade so 
 injurious to their interest. But, as the guardians of the prosperity of millions 
 of people in India, and trustees for conducting a great and important branch 
 of the commerce of the British empire, they felt it their duty to persevere in 
 their system of disregarding present sacrifices of property, when laying the 
 foundation of future prosperity. 
 
 It was an unfortunate circumstance for the silk trade, that about the same 
 time that the natives of Bengal had increased their plantations of mulberries, 
 the food of the silk-worm, and acquired the Italian method, so as to be able 
 to carry on the business of producing silk with spirit and effect, if the demand 
 should be encouraging, the vast increase in the cotton manufacture, which 
 was produced by the most important abridgement of labour and improvement 
 in spinning, effected by Arkwright's machinery, almost entirely banished silk 
 from the drees of the British ladies, whereby about 18,000 people were de- 
 prived of their accustomed employment in and near Spitalfields in the year 
 1793, and the throw mills in this country were in a great measure rendered 
 
 useless.
 
 J2+ THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 useless. The Company thereupon, considering that the thrown (or organzine) 
 silk, made in this country, was but a very small part of the whole quantity 
 used by the manufacturers, resolved, in order to let them have a supply, inde- 
 pendent of foreign or hostile nations, and also for the sake of creating employ- 
 ment for the throw mills and for a number of the discarded work-people, to 
 set them to work upon organzining such parcels of their Bengal silk, as should 
 be found best adapted for that operation. 
 
 It was not long before the few individuals, concerned in the importation 
 of organzine silk, found means to raise a clamour against, what they called, 
 * The attempt of the East-India Company to become manufacturers in Great 
 ' Britain.' But the principal manufacturers of silk goods, who were undoubt- 
 edly the best judges, after having made a sufficient trial, addressed a letter to 
 the Directors on the 6th of February 1796, requesting them to persevere in 
 throwing their silk, which would lower the price of the raw material, and pro- 
 tect them against the alarming fluctuations of price, which are very frequent, 
 and very distressing, in the silk trade *. The Company, thus supported in 
 their opinion of the beneficial effects, to be derived from their plan of organ- 
 zining a part of their silk, sent orders to their agents in Bengal to pay the 
 utmost attention to the quality of the raw silk, and also to enlarge the annual 
 investments of it. 
 
 The duty of twelve and a half per cent upon the sale price of teas, as settled 
 by Parliament in the year 1784, was increased to twenty per cent in the year 
 1795 : and the precedent of increasing it has been repeatedly followed, till the 
 duty has now ( 1 809) risen to ninety-six per cent ; and this augmentation of duty, 
 with the advance consequently laid on by the retailers, has doubled the price 
 since the year 1 794 upon the consumers. 
 
 It may here be observed, once for all, that, notwithstanding the great rise 
 in the price, the demand for tea in this country has continued to increase grad- 
 ually to about twenty millions of pounds, which may be reckoned the full 
 quantity required for the consumption of England, Scotland, and Wales f. 
 And thus the Britifh fair trader in tea, the British manufacturer and miner who 
 supply the Company with goods for the augmented demand of the Chinese 
 
 * The truely-patriotic Society for the en- complishment of that important augmentation 
 
 couragement of arts and sciences, surely <m- of the prosperity of India and Great Britain. 
 
 partial judges, presented a gold medal to M r \ Ireland, Mann, and the islands in the 
 
 Wissett, the Company's principal clerk of the English Channel, are classed with foreign 
 
 warehouses, as a mark of their approbation of countries in the books of the custom-house 
 his laudable exertions in promoting the ac- 
 
 market,
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. zi 5 
 
 market, and the commercial and maritime interests of the British empire in 
 general, still continue to enjoy the important benefits wrought in their favour 
 by the commutation act, even after it has been virtually repealed by the succes- 
 sive augmentations of the duty *. The increase of demand, though directly 
 contrary to the usual maxim, that the increase of price makes a diminution of 
 consumption, is, however, easily accounted for. Those, who had not been 
 accustomed to drink tea before the commutation act, were now habituated to 
 it ; the duty was gradually augmented, and the articles, which might be used 
 instead of it, were raised nearly in the same proportion, and were not to be 
 obtained in sufficient quantities at. any price; therefor all classes of the people 
 found themselves obliged to continue the use of tea, and it is now universally 
 used in every village, and in every cottage, in every part of the kingdom. 
 
 In March 1797 an act [$j Geo. HI, £.31] was passed, the preamble of which 
 sets forth, that the East-India Company ' require a permanent advance of a 
 * considerable sum of money beyond what the said Company can raise under 
 ' the powers now vested in them by law, and it is expedient that such money 
 ' should be raised by an increase of their capital stock ;' and therefor they are 
 authorized to add two millions to it by subscriptions, to be filled up by the pre- 
 sent proprietors, if they chuse it, and, failing them, by others, as in the acts, 
 for the preceding augmentations. 
 
 The Company do not appear to have felt that need for a supply of money, 
 which the framers of the act supposed : Their affairs have never since been so 
 unprosperous, nor have they been so destitute of other resources, as to make 
 them think it expedient to have recourse to a method of raising money, which 
 would entail upon them the burthen of. an additional dividend, equal to one 
 third of the present income of all the proprietors, without producing a propor- 
 tionate additional revenue. 
 
 * Perhaps some sneering critic will here ex- able small streamlets imperceptibly flowing 
 
 claim, Is the national prosperity to depend from the consumption of the people at home ; 
 
 upon a fair or unfair trade in tea, a luxury un- and that every poor woman, who buys a quarter 
 
 known to our ancestors, and which we can of an ounce of tea and a quarter of a pound 
 
 very well do without ? But a well-informed pol- of sugar, fairly imported, contributes her mite 
 
 itical economist knows, that the commercial to the commercial prosperity of Great Britain 
 
 prosperity of the nation (and commerce is the and the West Indies, and to the revenue ,and 
 
 main spring of the prosperity of this nation ) power of the British empire : but if she buys 
 
 depends upon the confumption of goods raised, smuggled tea, she contributes to the support 
 
 manufactured, or imported, by fair and lawful of foreigners and smugglers, and undermine* 
 
 industry; that the vast ocean of British the commerce, the revenue, and the- power, of 
 
 commerce is kept full, not so much by the Great Britain. 
 
 demand of foreign nations, as by the innumer- 
 
 G G 
 
 For
 
 22 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 For some years bypast the vessels belonging to the United States of America 
 had been indulged with a friendly reception in the Company's ports in India ; 
 and in Canton they had enjoyed the advantage of having their business trans- 
 acted under the influence of European agency. In the year 1 794 the admis- 
 sion of their vessels into the ports of the Britilh territories in India was formally 
 confirmed to them in a commercial treaty, whereby the subjects of the United 
 States were allowed to trade in all articles not expressly prohibited, on paying 
 only the same duties which are paid by Bridsh vessels, and paying such port 
 charges as are paid in the ports of the United States by British vessels. It 
 was expressly stipulated that they should not interfere in the coasting or 
 carrying trade in India, — that their vessels should proceed from India to their 
 own ports in the territory of the United States, and deliver their cargoes of 
 Indian merchandize there, and in no other part of the world, — and that in time 
 of war they should not export from India any military or naval stores, or rice. 
 All these important concessions, which were to be in force for twelve years 
 after the ratification of the treaty, were ratified on the 4th of July 1797 by an 
 act [37 Geo. Ill, c. 97] of the British Parliament, notwithstanding the infrac- 
 tion of the Navigation act, contained in the privileges granted to the 
 Americans. 
 
 It being thought reasonable to extend the same indulgence to the subjects 
 of other friendly powers, another act [c. 117] was passed in a few days after, 
 permitting them to import into, and export from, the British possessions in 
 India all kinds of goods, not prohibited by the Directors of the Company, nor 
 by law or existing treaties j and the Directors are required to draw up a set 
 of regulations for conducting the trade. 
 
 Ever since the admission to the ports of British India has been conceded to 
 the Americans, they have been almost the only commercial nation in the world 
 exempted from the calamity of war : and they have not neglected to reap the 
 golden harvest resigned to them by the contending Powers of the continent of 
 Europe. In virtue of their neutrality they conduct their business with a degree 
 of dispatch, safety, and lightness of expense, in which no other nation can 
 rival them in the present state of the world ; and they have thereby been en- 
 abled to carry on a very extensive trade between India and their own country, 
 and also, though contrary to the terms of the treaty, with most of the nations 
 of Europe. 
 
 The great extension of the legitimate trade in tea, in consequence of the le- 
 duction of the duty, and the consequent extension of the sale of British goods 
 in China, having evidently demonstrated the beneficial effect of moderate du- 
 ties,
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. *»7 
 
 ties, the Directors, on the 3d of May 1797, presented to the Lords of the 
 Treasury a proposal for lowering the duties upon all the goods imported by 
 them, in order to prevent the British trade from suffering by the preference, 
 which the very light dudes laid upon similar goods in foreign ports must in- 
 fallibly give to the trade of the foreign Companies, and thereby to make 
 London the market of the world for Indian merchandize. In order to attain 
 these important advantages, and to exempt the buyers at their sales from the 
 heavy burthen of advancing large sums in duties, of which only a very small 
 part comes into the Treasury, they proposed, that instead of the heavy duties 
 now paid upon importation, which are nearly all drawn back upon export- 
 ation *, but with the hardship upon the merchants of locking up a. great part 
 of their capital without any benefit to the State, and putting them to great 
 trouble and expense in obtaining the drawback, there should be paid upon all 
 goods from India and China, except tea, a positive duty of two per cent upon 
 the sale price, of which no part should be drawn back upon exportation, and 
 that the goods should be allowed to remain in the warehouse a reasonable time 
 without paying any further duty, unless taken out for home consumption. 
 By such a plan, which would allow the merchants to trade to the full extent 
 of their capital, they expected that the sales of India goods to foreigners, as 
 well for account of the private merchants, licenced to import by the act of 
 1793, as for their own account, would be greatly augmented, and that, by 
 the great resort of foreign merchants, thereby attracted to London, a large 
 addition would also be made to the sales of Britifh manufactures of every kind, 
 and the pernicious practice of smuggling drawback goods into the country 
 would be entirely abolished. 
 
 Thirty-one mercantile houses, accustomed to buy at the Company's sales, pre- 
 sented a memorial to the Lords of the Treasury, expressing their entire approb- 
 ation of the measure proposed by the Directors. Another memorial was pre- 
 sented by the merchants acting as agents for persons residing in India, to the 
 number of twenty-two houses f, praying that raw materials might be wholely 
 exempted from duty, and, in all other respects, reatly approving of the 
 measure, which, they were confident, would bring to London three fourths of 
 the India trade, which goes to Europe and America. 
 
 Notwithstanding these representations it was not thought expedient to depart 
 so far as was proposed from the mode, which had hitherto been followed for 
 
 * The Company added to their memorial an age of the three preceding years,, amounted only 
 estimate of the net duty retained on the goods to ^86,360. 
 exported, excepting tea, which, on the aver- f Some of the houses signed both memorials. 
 
 002 securing
 
 2i8 the commerce of the 
 
 securing the duty, which should remain to the revenue, by making the buyers 
 pay down a large duty in the first instance. By the act 39 Geo. Ill, c. 59, 
 passed on the 13th of June 1799, India goods, intended for exportation, may 
 be warehoused on paying duties, which vary from 2 to jf per cent on the dif- 
 ferent species, calculated upon the sale prices, together with the convoy dudes, 
 and may be taken out for exportation, without any other trouble than giving 
 security against relanding them. Upon the goods intended for home con- 
 sumption the act imposed a new set of duties, considerably heavier than those 
 established by the Consolidation act in the year 1787, with an allowance of 
 drawback upon some of the articles in case of exportation. 
 
 Tippoo, the Sultan of Mysore, who, as I have already observed, inherited 
 his father's implacable resentment against the Company, hoping that the war 
 between Great Britain and France would afford him a favourable opportunity of 
 being revenged for his former losses and disasters, entered into engagements 
 with Zemaun Shah, King of Cabul, in the beginning of the year 1796, and 
 in 1797 he sent Ambassadors to the Governor of the Ifle of France. His ob- 
 ject in both negotiations was to obtain a powerful co-operation from different 
 quarters, in a war to be undertaken for the purpose of exterminating the Eng- 
 lish Company, and dividing their possessions between himself and his allies ; 
 or, in case of peace taking place in Europe, to get the French Government to 
 insist for the restitudon of the territory and treasure he was deprived of in the 
 preceding war by the Company and their allies. His Ambassadors obtained a 
 very small military force from the Isle of France : but the recepdon of French 
 officers and soldiers by Tippoo was deemed equivalent to a declaradon of war, 
 especially when with that conduct was combined the anxious attention he had 
 bestowed upon the augmentation and improvement of his military force ever 
 since the terminadon of the preceding war. 
 
 Lord Mornington, the Governor-general, as soon as he was apprised of 
 Tippoo's proceedings, strengthened the alliances with the Nizam of the Deccan 
 and the Mahrattas, and ordered the Coromandel and Bombay armies to as- 
 semble in force. After some correspondence with Tippoo, who endeavoured 
 to gain time, hosdlities were commenced : Tippoo's armies were repeatedly de- 
 feated ; and at last Seringapatam, his capital, was taken, on the 4th of May 
 1799, by an assault, in which the Sultan was slain. His dominions were 
 divided among the Company, the Nizam, the Mahrattas, and an infant repre- 
 sentative of the old Rajahs of Mysore, to whom the original territory of his 
 ancestors was allotted. A liberal provision was also made for the children, re- 
 lations, and dependents, of the fallen Prince. 
 
 It
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 329 
 
 It was hoped that the downfall of this formidable and inveterate enemy 
 would insure the safety and prosperity of the Company's possessions in the 
 south part of India. But, as they are thereby brought in contact with the 
 Mahrattas, a nation, whose valour, or rather ferocity, forms a striking con- 
 trast to the mild and submissive temper of the other Hindoos, whose chief 
 employment is warfare, whose warfare is plunder and desolation, and whom the 
 Great Moguls, when in the zenith of their power, were never able to subdue, 
 the advantage obtained by the change of neighbours may perhaps be doubtful. 
 
 In the mean time the French Government, who were as desirous as Tippoo 
 could be of destroying the British commerce and prosperity in India;, which 
 they conceived to be the chief source of the revenue, and support of the power, 
 of the British empire, sent a strong army under the command of General 
 Bonaparte, to conquer Egypt, where it was proposed to establish a colony, 
 sufficient to keep the country in subjection to France. It was believed by some, 
 that their intention was, after Egypt should be reduced, to detach a sufficient 
 force from it by the Red Sea to assist Tippoo in making an entire conquest of 
 all the British possessions in India, and then to restore the East-India trade to 
 its antient channel of conveyance by the Red Sea, and again make Alexandria 
 the commercial capital of the world. But, from the obvious impropriety and 
 heavy expense of substituting two navigations by sea, a long portage over an 
 inhospitable desert of sand, and an inland navigation, with the charges and 
 damages of repeatedly shifting the goods, to the simple operation of one voyage 
 round the Cape of Good Hope, we may venture to say, that this part of the 
 scheme was never seriously expected, or even proposed, to be executed *. 
 
 On the 1st of July 1798 the French landed at Alexandria, took possession 
 of that city, proceeded up the country, defeated the Beys of the Mameluks in 
 several battles, and established themselves in Cairo : and thus, in the short 
 space of twenty-six days, the subjugation of Egypt appeared to be completed. 
 But on the 1st day of August the French ships of war, which had convoyed 
 the army to Egypt, and were then lying in supposed security near Alexandria, 
 were attacked by Admiral Nelson, who destroyed or took almost every one of 
 them. This important victory was followed by the defeat of the French army 
 
 * The rulers of France surely could not be Portuguese, as soon as they found the way to 
 
 ignorant that the Venetians, who carried on India by the Cape of Good Hope. To maiu- 
 
 the East-India trade through Egypt with tain such a trade in defiance of the naval power 
 
 nearly as much advantage as the French of Great Britain, they must possess a naval 
 
 merchants could have, were immediately sup- superiority, 
 planted by the uncommercial and superstitious 
 
 by
 
 t 3 o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 by the gallant General Abercromby, who fell on the field of victory : and the in- 
 vasion of India from Egypt was no longer apprehended. The victorious British 
 Admiral was created a Peer, and pensions were assigned to him by the Parlia- 
 ments of Great Britain and Ireland. The East-India Company also bestowed 
 a splendid gift on the hero, whose decisive victory had relieved them from all 
 apprehension for the safety of their territories. 
 
 The Parliament had thought it necessary in the year 1793 to oblige the Com- 
 pany to export a large quantity of copper every year. But the prodigious demand 
 for it for the use of the navy during six years of war had now made such a 
 waste of it, that it was difficult to find the quantity necessary for the navy and 
 other usual purposes ; and therefor, in the beginning of the year 1 799 the Parlia- 
 ment directed that the East-India Company should desist from exporting copper. 
 
 The expenses of the government of Bencoolen having increased very much, 
 and the settlement having become of very little importance as a commercial 
 establishment, since pepper, the only produce of the adjacent country, could 
 be more advantageously supplied from Prince of Wales's Island * and Malabar, 
 it was thought improper to keep up the establishment as a regular govern- 
 ment ; and therefor, in August 1801, the Directors ordered that it should be 
 reduced to a residency, under the management of a resident and four assist- 
 ants, subject to the immediate direction of the government of Bengal. The 
 gentlemen whom the new arrangement rendered supernumeraries, were trans- 
 ferred to Madras : and this arrangement was authorized and confirmed by an 
 act of Parliament, 42 Geo. Ill, c. 29. 
 
 Before the Company became possessed of territory in India, the people re- 
 siding there in their service were few, their sole employment being the ad- 
 ministration of the Company's commercial affairs ; and the few moderate for- 
 tunes, acquired by the industry of many years, were remitted home in bills 
 drawn upon the Company. Immediately after the acquisition of the territorial 
 revenue, many new departments of office became necessary, and the number 
 of the Company's servants was consequently very much augmented. At that 
 time many of them became suddenly possessed of prodigious wealth ; and, the 
 Company's bills not being sufficient for the remittance of the whole of it, a 
 great deal of it was brought to Europe by foreign vessels. Hence originated 
 a clandestine connection with the foreign Companies, which has been kept up 
 ever since, the British residents in the Company's service, or persons carrying 
 on business under their licence and protection, being, it is believed, very often 
 
 * The settlement of this island will be more particularly noticed afterwards. 
 
 the
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. a 3 i 
 
 the freighters of the foreign ships in India *, though the cause, which produced 
 the connection, has long ago ceased. Thus was the property, acquired in the 
 Company's service, or under their indulgence, and by means of their establish- 
 ments, converted into an engine for the destruction of their own trade. 
 
 It was the professed intention of the act of 1793 to remedy this abuse by 
 opening a legitimate channel of conveyance for the property acquired by 
 British subjects in India, so that the whole of the trade, truely founded upon 
 British capital, might be brought to London, and also to open to the manu- 
 facturers of Great Britain an extended vent for their goods in India, where, it 
 was alleged, much larger quantities of them might be consumed than are 
 carried out by the Company. These purposes, it was conceived, might be 
 accomplished by allowing individuals in India to send Indian commodities to 
 London, and British manufacturers to send their fabrics to India, in the Com- 
 pany's ships, by which the manufacturers might also import the produce and 
 manufactures of India in return. As a necessary part of this plan, it was en- 
 acted, that the Company's civil servants in India, and also the free merchants 
 there, should be authorized to act as agents in this branch of trade. Thus 
 was the Company's monopoly laid open by law, to a certain extent, in favour 
 of the British residents in India, and the British manufacturers at home. 
 
 The manufacturers scarcely ever sought to avail themselves of their newly- 
 acquired privilege of becoming East-India merchants. But the merchants 
 residing in India, as soon as they understood that a legalized extension of their 
 trade was in the contemplation of the Legislature, and without waiting to know 
 the regulations of it, built a considerable number of ships, which they pro- 
 posed to employ in the trade between India and England, though Lord Corn- 
 wallis, then Governor-general, and Sir John Shore, his successor, both in- 
 formed them, that there could not be employment for their ships in the way 
 they expected. In the year 1795, when seven of the largest of the Company's 
 ships were taken into his Majesty's service, and the Company at the same time 
 ordered large quantities of rice to be brought from India in order to afford 
 relief to this country, then distressed by a scarcity of corn, twenty-seven of 
 those India-built ships were taken into the Company's service, at the rate of 
 ^£16 per tun for rice and heavy goods, and ^20 for fine goods. All of these 
 ships carried goods to London for account of the private merchants settled in 
 India, and also carried British goods to India for them. The owners of the 
 
 * That the existence of this kind of carrying trade was well known in France, will appear in 
 the History of the Commerce of the French with India. 
 
 India-
 
 , J2 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 India-built ships now thought that they had reason to believe them regularly 
 established in the trade. But, as the emergency which called them into em- 
 ployment, no longer existed, it was impossible to allow them to supersede the 
 ships, built and equipped in a superior manner expressly for the service of the 
 Company, which they were under engagements to employ for a stipulated 
 number of voyages. 
 
 The merchants, disappointed of getting their ships into the trade, made 
 grievous complaints of the heavy freight and many hardships put upon them 
 by the Company's regulations, such as — Not knowing the name of the vessel, 
 by which their goods should be conveyed, in such time as might allow them 
 to order insurance to be made in London : for, though there are seven in- 
 surance offices in Calcutta, and five in Bombay, where insurance can be made 
 on any particular ship previous to her sailing, whereby the ditference of pre- 
 mium between the risk on one particular ship, and on ship or ships generally, 
 might be saved, they prefer making their insurances in London, partly because 
 they can be effected at a lower rate than in India *, and partly, and apparently 
 chiefly, that, in case of loss, the policy of insurance may be a fund to meet 
 the bills, which they draw upon their agents in London as soon as their goods 
 are sent into the Company's warehouses in order to be shipped : and in time of 
 peace, when there is a regular over-land conveyance of letters between India 
 and London, even that may generally be effected. — Another grievance was the 
 high rate of the freight, which low-priced goods, such as sugar and cotton, 
 could not afford : but this is an evil inseparable from a state of warfare, and 
 must be borne by them as well as by all other British subjects, till the bless- 
 ing of peace shall be restored to the world : and, if ships provided by the 
 Company sail at higher freights than others of inferior appointment, the differ- 
 ence is made up, and upon fine goods much more than made up, by the greater 
 safety of the property, on account of which the insurance is obtained at a 
 lower rate f.-r- Another complaint is, that they are required to specify the 
 quantity of freight they will need at an appointed time of the year, when it 
 is sometimes uncertain what may be the bulk of the goods they will have to 
 ship : but, without such a specification, it must evidently be impossible for the 
 Company's servants, either in London or in India, to know what quantity of 
 
 * The merchants of Calcutta, in their memor- f For the rates of insurance in London on 
 
 ial to the Governor-general, dated 20th No- ships of various descriptions from Bengal see 
 vember 1807, stated the rates of insurance on the Appendix, N e VIII. 
 vessels bound for London to be from 10 to 16 
 per cent. 
 
 shipping
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. za 
 
 shipping they should allot for the trade of the private merchants, which is 
 very far from being uniform or regular. 
 
 The private merchants did not allege that any of the grievances they com- 
 plained of were infractions of the act of 1793 ; nor could it be denied, that 
 many deviations from the provisions of that act had been made in their favour. 
 But they now changed their ground, and advanced new claims, which had not 
 been thought of, or at least not brought forward, when that act was under the 
 consideration of Parliament. They asserted that India produces a much 
 greater abundance of commercial commodities than the Company are willing, 
 or able, to import ; and they desired to have a free permission to engage in 
 that part of the trade, which is abandoned by the Company, in order to 
 prevent it from going into the hands of foreigners, at the same time professing 
 their willingness to conduct their business in due subordination to the authority, 
 regulations, and controuling jurisdiction, of the Company. They also desired 
 leave to employ their own India-built ships, and to have them as much under 
 their own management, with respect to loading and the time of sailing, as the 
 ships in other trades are under the management of their owners, that they 
 might enjoy the profits to be made by the freight, the consequence of which 
 would be that they would frequently ship improper goods (for example, sugar, 
 a glut of which would ruin the West-India planters) for the purpose 
 of filling up the ships, to the prejudice of the commercial, financial, and pol- 
 itical, interests of this country. The policy of employing a large British capital 
 for the purpose of extending the trade of India with the port of London, or, 
 in the phrase then introduced, to bring home the surplus produce * of India, 
 was also avowedly insisted upon ; and the measure was earnestly and power- 
 fully recommended. 
 
 In these claims for privileges, which had never been in the contemplation of 
 the Legislature when framing the Charter act, the Company thought they 
 could see nothing short of a demand for the establishment of a general trade 
 in the hands of a community, who would constitute a kind of regulated Com- 
 pany, having the benefit of the commercial establishments, created by the ex- 
 
 * By the words surplus produce, ought to be commodities are produced beyond the home 
 
 understood produce remaining after the de- demand, with the exception of rice in seasons 
 
 mands for the consumption of the producing of extraordinary plenty, are pushed forward 
 
 country, and for exportation, are satisfied. But by means of capital invested in the hands of the 
 
 every one, acquainted with Indian afFairs, cultivator or manufacturer at the time of giw 
 
 knows that there exists no such surplus in India, ing the order, 
 and that whatever agricultural or manufactural 
 
 h h perience,
 
 2 34 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 perience, the labour, and the expenditure, of two centuries, and enjoying 
 every other advantage belonging to the exclusive privilege, without subjecting 
 themselves to the expense of establishments, or to any of the obligations for 
 the benefit of the British manufacturers and the revenue of the State, which 
 are incumbent upon the Company. They also observed that the members of 
 this new Company, as they may very properly be called, are no less desirous 
 that the Company's privilege may operate in full force, to the exclusion of all 
 others, than that it may be laid open to their own encroachments. 
 
 When Lord Mornington arrived in Bengal, as Governor-general, in May 
 1 798, the merchants of Calcutta so far prevailed with him, that he licenced 
 some of their ships to sail for London in October following, and also in the 
 year 1800. On the 30th of September 1800* he addressed a letter to the 
 Court of Directors, which by over-land conveyance reached them on the 2d 
 of March 1801, wherein he strongly recommends the admission of India-built 
 shipping into the trade, which, he thinks, by the cheapness of their freight, 
 will enable the British traders to take a great part of the trade of conveying 
 India goods to Europe out of the hands of foreigners, who, he believes, have 
 obtained an undue share of it : and he also recommends the transmission of 
 capital from Great Britain in order to make up sufficient funds for conveying 
 the whole exportable commodities of India to the port of London. 
 
 M r Dundas, the President of the Board of Controul, also addressed a letter 
 to the Chairman of the Court of Directors, on the 21st of March 1801, en- 
 tirely approving of the opinion of the Governor-general with respect to the 
 employment of India-built shipping, but by no means approving of the proposal 
 of transmitting British capital to India t. 
 
 The agents in London, finding their cause supported by such respectable 
 authority, became very importunate for an immediate express permission to 
 emplov India-built ships, without limitation, in the trade : and several appeals 
 were made to the Public from the press, the principal one of which, written 
 with great ability by a proprietor of India stock, was published so early as the 
 beginning of July following. 
 
 There were several proprietors of East-India stock, who favoured the claims 
 of the private merchants ; or, to speak more correctly, several private merchants 
 had become proprietors of India stock. Their claims were, on the other hand, 
 strenuously resisted by the Court of Directors, and also repeatedly in General 
 
 * He was then Marquis Wellesley by a new official authority in this matter. See conclus- 
 creation. ion of his letter of 21 March 1801. 
 
 -(- M r Dundas entirely disclaims having any 
 
 Courts,
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 235 
 
 Courts, by great majorities of the proprietors, who thought that the privileges* 
 demanded by the merchants now residing in India, might with as good right be 
 claimed by every merchant and ship-owner in the British dominions, whereby 
 the trade of India would be completely laid open, colonial settlement would be 
 introduced, and would soon be carried to such an extent, that the natives of 
 India would be oppressed, and ruined, or extirpated : the new East-India 
 merchants, by making large purchases of the Company's stock, which is at- 
 tainable by all purchasers, might in time command a majority of the proprietors, 
 and make the Company's privilege and possessions subservient to the views of 
 their own party ; for in all matters wherein their interest and the interest of the 
 Company (or rather the original part of the Company) might come to be in 
 opposition, they would certainly act with the unity and spirit of a party. With 
 respect to the low freight of the India-built ships, the great plea for their admis* 
 sion into the trade, it was found that the owners of those ships, when they 
 were left to make their own terms with the other merchants, charged their 
 freights as high as those of the ships provided by the Company, whereby the 
 conveyance of the goods, and more especially fine goods, is much more ex- 
 pensive in Indian ships, the insurance upon them being much higher than upon 
 any description of ships employed by the Company. Indeed, it must be im- 
 possible to navigate ships, whose voyages commence in India, as cheap as those 
 which sail from this country, because they must be chiefly manned by Mo- 
 hamedan natives of India, called Lascars, who, from their feeble habit of 
 body, and being accustomed only to short voyages during the fine-weather 
 season upon the tranquill seas of India, are unable to bear the cold, and 
 utterly incapable of the vigorous exertion and rapid movements, necessary in 
 the boisterous seas of Europe, and not to be depended upon for defending a 
 ship against an enemy *, to say nothing of their ignorance of the language in 
 which the officers give their orders, on the instant execution of which the 
 preservation of life and property frequently depends, nor of the frequent con- 
 flagrations of ships manned by Lascars. Thence it follows that, as they are 
 
 * It is proper, however, to observe, that the taken onboard the people and a part of the 
 
 Eliza Ann, an India-built Ship, manned by cargo of the Queen, one of the Company's 
 
 Lascars, beat oif the Confiatice, a French priv- ships, which was burnt at Saint Salvador, that 
 
 ateer, which afterwards took the Kent, one of her lower gun -ports could not be opened ; and 
 
 the Company's ships. See Henchman' s Observ- that the small arms, which ought to have 
 
 alions, Appendix, N° I. second edition. But it guarded her against boarding (the mode of at- 
 
 nuist be remembered, that the Kent was then tack by which she was overpowered) were 
 
 so deep in the water, in consequence of having found to be of a very bad quality. 
 
 h h 2 very
 
 236 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 very expensive, eighty or ninety of them being scarcely equal to fifty British 
 seamen, many of them, notwithstanding the obligation, under a penalty, of 
 carrying them back to India, are turned off in London, where they beg and 
 perish *, in order to put as many British seamen as possible in their place for 
 the return passage to India ; and there, as the ships are not regular in their 
 voyages like those of the Company, the British seamen must often be turned 
 loose, and may be obliged to go into foreign service, or driven to expedients 
 for a livelihood, which must bring disgrace upon the British name and char- 
 acter. The inevitable consequence of all these evils must be, that a most im- 
 portant branch of the commerce of Great Britain will be thrown into confusion, 
 and finally lost to the British empire. 
 
 The Company had already extended the quantity of shipping for the private 
 trade very much beyond what was required by the Charter act ; and, in order 
 to remedy as far as possible the grievance of the private merchants, arising 
 from the ships being sometimes diverted from their proper commercial destin- 
 ation to warlike or political purposes, an inconvenience frequently inevitable in 
 time of war, they engaged a sufficient number of ships in the year 1801, on 
 the terms of being employed for eight voyages certain, and never being detained 
 waiting for their cargoes beyond a limited time, in consideration of which con- 
 ditions they obtained the freight upon lower terms than it could otherways be 
 afforded. These ships they appropriated exclusively to the trade of the private 
 merchants ; and the freights of goods shipped by them were as low as those 
 charged by such of the private merchants of India as were ship-owners to the 
 others who procured freight from them, with the further advantage of their 
 being more defensible than the India-built ships, and consequently insurable 
 upon lower terms. 
 
 They also offered to convey British manufactures to any amount upon private 
 account to India, and to bring home the returns in raw materials, or any other 
 produce or manufactures, except piece goods and saltpetre, which cannot be 
 
 * The appearance of these miserable creatures support which the Company have provided for 
 in the streets of London frequently excites the them, together with the means of return- 
 indignation of passengers against the Company, ing to their own country. For the state of 
 why, they suppose, bring them to this country, the Lascars in the private ships, and in the 
 and leave them destitute. The truth is, that Company's ships, see the letters of M T 
 the Company support as many of them as they Docker, surgeon in Saint Mary -Axe, 24th 
 can collect, whether brought over by the priv- March 1802, in the Appendix to the Third 
 ate ships or their own. But many of them are Report of the Seled Committee of Direflors in 
 so much vitiated by intercourse with worthless March tSo2 ; or in the Asiatic Annual Register 
 women, as to prefer a state of beggary to the for 1S02, p. 92 of State Papers. 
 
 shipped
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 2 37 
 
 shipped without a special licence ; and they moreover offered to fill up the 
 ships on their own account with heavy goods to serve as ballast along with the 
 fine goods of the private merchants. 
 
 As a further indulgence to the private trade, the Company gave notice in 
 June 1 803, that they did not propose to adhere rigidly to the letter of the 
 Charter act by confining the exports to merchandize of the produce or manu- 
 facture of Great Britain, but would allow individuals to ship foreign goods in 
 such moderate quantities as should not very materially interfere with their own 
 exports*. 
 
 In August 1803 the Company, in a General Court, came to a resolution to 
 present the use of ten thousand tuns of shipping to Government for the public 
 service : and the vessels were accordingly employed during six months, at the 
 Company's expense, in guarding the coasts against an invasion threatened by 
 the French, and in other services. 
 
 I have already had occasion to notice the brilliant success of the renowned 
 naval hero, Nelson, which put an end to the apprehensions which some people 
 entertained for the safety of British India, in case the French had established 
 themselves permanently in Egypt. I have now to relate an equally brilliant 
 achievement of the naval heroes in the service of the Company, whose property 
 to a great amount was in their charge. On the 14th of February 1804 a 
 fleet of sixteen of the Company's ships, deeply loaded, being upon their home- 
 ward passage from China, and having ten country ships under their convoy, 
 fell in with the French Admiral Linois, having under his command a ship of 
 eighty guns, two large frigates, a corvette of thirty guns, and a brig of 
 eighteen guns. Captain Dance, who, as the senior commander, acted as Com- 
 modore of the fleet, made such preparation to receive this formidable squad- 
 ron of ships of war, that the French Admiral hesitated to engage them, and 
 actually kept at a distance till next morning, when, "on his approaching the 
 fleet, three of the Company's ships commenced an attack upon him, in which 
 he was so severely handled that he thought proper to run from them ; where- 
 upon our ships made a general chase, which they kept up as long as was con- 
 sistent with the safety of their valuable cargoes, the safe conveyance of which 
 was their first duty. 
 
 * This account of the claims and com- of the Committee of Directors of the Com- 
 plaints of the private merchants is taken pany. 
 from their own publications and the Reports 
 
 His
 
 23 g THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 His Majesty conferred the honour of knighthood upon Captain Dance. 
 The Company settled a handsome allowance on him for life ; and they made a 
 liberal donation to every officer and man of the fleet, who so nobly exerted 
 themselves in saving the property of their employers, and gaining this glorious 
 defensive victory. 
 
 In the year 1785 Sir John Macpherson, who, as the senior member of 
 Council, had become Governor-general of India on the departure of M r Hast- 
 ings, earnestly recommended to the Company to form a settlement on Pulo 
 Penang, an island adjacent to the territories of the King of Queda, which is a 
 country situated on the west coast of the great peninsula of Malacca. It was 
 considered as likely to be a port of great importance in a political as well as a 
 commercial view, as its harbour would be a most convenient port for the re- 
 ception of his Majesty's and the Company's ships, and for the protecdon of 
 the Company's trade, being happily exempted from storms, accessible in all 
 seasons, and capable of containing a very great number of the largest ships. 
 The island, from its situation, is also well adapted for a general emporium, 
 such as Malacca was in the infancy of the Portuguese dominion in Asia, which 
 may command the trade and navigadon of that part of the world. 
 
 In the year 1786 the property of the island was acquired from the King of 
 Queda, in consideration of an annual payment of ten thousand dollars ; and 
 it was called Prince of Wales's Island. The ground, which was covered with 
 trees, was cleared. A town, called George-town, was built on the north-east 
 part of the island ; and the population and trade increased. 
 
 In the year 1804 the inhabitants, consisting of Bridsh, Dutch, Portuguese, 
 Armenians, Arabians, Persees, Chulias from Coromandel. Malays, Buggusses 
 from Borneo, Birmahs, Javanese, and others, were estimated about twenty 
 thousand. The chief articles of produce were pepper of the best quality, 
 betel-nut, and coffee. There was a very considerable trade in European and 
 Indian goods, imported from the Company's various settlements, and also from 
 every coast of the Indian Ocean, by natives of various countries and islands, 
 who came in their own vessels to Georgetown, where they exchanged their 
 native commodities for the productions and manufactures of all parts of the 
 world. • 
 
 The settlement having thus increased in importance, and promising a pro- 
 gressive increase of prosperity, the Company determined in the year 1805 to 
 constitute it a regular government, subordinate only to the government-general 
 of India, as Madras and Bombay are. 
 
 The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 2 39 
 
 The connection of the Madras government with the Nabob of the Carnatic, 
 -which began in the year 1751, was kept up with him and his successors, by 
 the Company's forces protecting them against their enemies, and particularly 
 against the reiterated attempts of Hyder Ally and his son Tippoo to wrest their 
 dominions from them. As a fixed compensation for the expense incurred by 
 the Company on his account, the Nabob Wallajah, in the year 1787, bound 
 himself and his successors to pay fifteen lacks of star pagodas ( 8/ sterling each) 
 annually into their treasury at Madras. But, as many individuals also had 
 claims upon the Nabob for money lent to him, or for other considerations, and 
 he found himself unable to discharge all the demands upon him, Earl Cornwallis, 
 Governor-general of India, in July 1792 entered into a new treaty with him, 
 by which the Company became bound to keep up constantly a sufficient force for 
 the protection of the Carnatic, and accepted the Nabob's obligation to pay only 
 nine lacks of pagodas annually, instead of fifteen ; and also the further sum of 
 6,21,105 pagodas for the purpose of paying off his debts, to be paid annually 
 till the whole should be completely discharged. In virtue of this agreement the 
 Company's Government took upon them, not only to make the payments to his 
 private creditors, but also to weigh the validity, and adjust the amount, of their 
 claims, many of which were of a disputable nature. For these purposes the 
 Nabob put the Company in possession of a large tract of his country, the 
 revenue of which they were to collect, and employ agreeable to the treaty, 
 which was guaranteed by the British Parliament. In the year 1801 the Nabob 
 Azeem ul Dowlah, the grandson of Wallajah, made over to the Company 
 the entire possession and government of the Carnatic, reserving to himself the 
 title and dignity of Nabob, and one fifth part of the net revenue for the sup- 
 port of himself and his family, besides jaghires (or pensions) allotted to 
 his kindred and others, and several payments to charitable establishments, 
 the Company undertaking to support a sufficient military force for the pro- 
 tection of the country, and for the honorary guard of his person and his palace. 
 In consequence of these stipulations, the Company now stand in the place of 
 the Nabob with respect to such of the private debts as still remain unsettled, 
 amounting, as stated by the claimants, to .=£5, 600, 000 sterling, most of which 
 are said to be of about forty years' standing. In order to bring these matters 
 to a final settlement, the Company, with the concurrence of the claimants, in 
 July 1805 appointed three gentlemen to be commissioners for investigating the 
 claims, and ascertaining the sum due to each person, who may be found to 
 have an equitable claim upon the Nabob. 
 
 The
 
 t¥3 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 The unfortunate Shah Aulum, the Great Mogul, or Emperor of Hindoostan, 
 whose predecessors were during several centuries esteemed the most opulent and 
 moft powerful Sovereigns in the world, died at Delhi on the 1 9th of November 
 1806, and was succeeded in his sovereignty, which is merely nominal, by his 
 son Akber. In the year 17S8 the Mogul was made a prisoner by Gholam 
 Khaudur, the commander of his small army, who put out his eyes, plundered 
 his treasures, and insulted the Ladies of his family. This wicked servant was 
 put to death by Scindia, one of the Chiefs of the Mahrattas, who immediately 
 took possession of the territory allotted for the support of the unfortunate 
 Monarch, and thenceforth kept him in the moft miserable indigence, a melan- 
 choly example of fallen grandeur, and of the instability of arbitrary govern- 
 ment, when supported only by military force. General Perron, a French 
 officer, who held an independent sovereignty in his own hands, and was also 
 the commander of Scindia's army, was entrusted by that Chief with the custody 
 of the Mogul, an employment, which he might expect, on some of the changes 
 of affairs, which so often occur among the Princes of India, to improve into an 
 opportunity of restoring the power of his own nation in that part of the 
 world. 
 
 In order to deliver the Emperor and his family from the miserable condition 
 in which they were kept, and to put an end to the French influence in India, 
 the British army attacked the Mahratta and French forces, and on the nth of 
 September 1803 defeated their combined armies, and immediately took posses- 
 sion of Delhi, the imperial residence, or rather the prison, of the aged and 
 blind nominal Sovereign of Hindoostan, for whom and his family an honour- 
 able support was allotted by the Company's Government, which he enjoyed 
 during the remainder of his life, and his family still enjoy. 
 
 The ships employed by the East-India Company being larger than those 
 employed in any other trade, they were obliged to lie many miles below that 
 part of the river, which is properly the harbour of London ; and their cargoes 
 being of great value and national importance, the depredations to which they 
 were exposed, were felt as a most serious evil by the Company and the owners 
 of the ships, and also by the Government in the defalcation of the revenue, 
 which the embezzled goods ought to have paid. The use of sufficient wet 
 docks, in which the ships may be loaded and unloaded, being judged the only 
 remedy for the evil, a number of gentlemen were incorporated as a joint-stock 
 Company, with a capital of ^200,000, and with power to enlarge it as far as 
 if 300,000, if found necessary, for the purpofe of constructing wet docks, 
 
 inclosed
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. * 4 i 
 
 inclosed by proper walls and ditches, and communicating with the River 
 Thames, to be appropriated solely to the ships in the India trade. — The 
 business of this Company is conducted by thirteen Directors, of whom four 
 must be Directors of the East-India Company. — Their profits are restricted to 
 ten per cent ; and they must not engage in building or repairing ships, or be 
 any way concerned in shipping. — They are entitled to receive a duty of four- 
 teen shillings for every tun of the registered measurement of each British-built 
 ship, and twelve shillings per tun for India-built ships navigated by Lascars. — 
 The hatches of every ship arriving from India or China must be locked down 
 before her arrival at Gravesend ; and the captain, or one of the two officers 
 next to him in command, must remain onboard till she is moored in the docks, 
 and the keys delivered to an officer of the East-India Company. The East- 
 India Company are required to provide covered waggons or caravans, securely 
 locked, for conveying their goods from the docks to their warehouses. 
 
 These regulations, with many others of inferior general importance, were 
 enacted by Parliament in the years 1803 and 1806. [_Acts 43 Geo. Ill, c. 126 ; 
 46 Geo. Ill, c. 113.] The docks have been completed agreeable to the pro- 
 posed plan, and are found beneficial to all concerned with them. 
 
 The Company began in the year 1 796 to import a species of hemp, called 
 sunn, which grows abundantly in many districts of Bengal, and in the island of 
 Salsette near Bombay. In order to bring it as soon as possible into general 
 use, they sold it, without any regard to immediate pecuniary advantage, at 
 about two thirds of the price of Russian hemp ; and they even gave bales of it 
 gratis to several rope makers, in order to allure them to give it a trial. They also 
 got it made into cordage of a great variety of sizes, from ratline stuff" to twenty- 
 one-inch cables, some made in the ordinary manner, and some by an improved 
 process with the warm register, invented by Captain Huddart. They also 
 made sail-cloth, hammock-cloth, lines, and twine, in order to give it a trial 
 in every article in which hemp is employed : and they went to considerable 
 expense in making experiments to ascertain the proportion of the strength of 
 ropes made of the sunn in the different modes of manufacturing it, in comparison 
 with each-other and with Russian hemp : and the following statement may be 
 taken as a specimen of the result. 
 
 Of three eight-inch cables, tuns. cwts. lbs. 
 
 One made of ordinary Russian hemp bore . . . . 1240 
 
 One made of best Petersburg clean hemp . . . . 1 4 8 48 
 
 One made of sunn hemp, warm-registered . . . . 1 5 7 52 
 
 1 1 For
 
 2 4 i THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 For small cordage the sunn is found to be inferior to Russian hemp; and the 
 cordage made of sunn in the old manner is inferior in strength to the best 
 Russian hemp. But it is a great advantage, that cables and other large ropes, 
 which consume the greatest quantity of the material, can be made of the sunn 
 hemp more advantageously than the smaller cordage. 
 
 A failure of the sunn cordage in some trials made without attending to the 
 different qualities of it, together with the usual prejudice against new articles, 
 induced some rope-makers and seamen to exclaim against it as totally useless. 
 The Company, nevertheless, having a better idea of the value of it, persevered 
 in their endeavours to bring it into request, till they found that their expend- 
 iture upon that object exceeded the amount of the sales by more than ^45,000. 
 But, after making that sacrifice for the benefit of the navy and British shipping 
 in general, they thought it their duty to desist from any further importation, 
 till the prejudice raised against the sunn cordage should subside, and its utility 
 be more generally known, and till the great national advantage of lessening the 
 dependence upon Russia for our cordage, and of lessening the unfavourable 
 balance of trade with that country, be more generally understood. 
 
 When the differences between this country and Russia took place at the end 
 of the year 1800, the Ministry expressed a wish that the importation of sunn 
 mould be resumed: and in February 1803, when the price of Russian hemp 
 was £61 a tun*, they requested that the Directors would encourage the cultiv- 
 ation of sunn in their Indian territories, and import it into this country. In 
 consequence of this application, the Bengal Government were directed to spare 
 neither trouble nor expense in obtaining the sunn of the best quality ; and six 
 hemp-dressers were sent out to instruct the natives hi the best method of pre- 
 paring it for the manufacture of cordage, sail-cloth, &c. 
 
 Before the sunn, thus ordered, could arrive in this country, one of those 
 sudden changes in the political state of Europe, which have so frequently oc- 
 curred in the last twenty years, removed the obstruction to the acquisition of 
 Russian hemp : and the sunn was sold at the Company's sale in the ordinary 
 course of business. 
 
 In September 1 807 the Directors made an offer to the Ministry to import 
 sunn hemp for the use of the navy, and to deliver it at his Majesty's store- 
 houses without any profit ; but they prudently declined engaging the Company 
 to run any further risk of loss. The Ministry accepted the proposal, and put a 
 
 * In the year 1792 it was ^23 JO -O. 
 
 sum
 
 K N G L I S H WITH INDIA. 243 
 
 sum of money into the Company's hands for the purpose : and the sunn has 
 accordingly been imported, and delivered into his Majesty's store-houses *. 
 
 The rapid fluctuation of European politics, which has astonished us so often 
 that it now ceases to surprise us, most forcibly demonstrates the necessity of this 
 country making every effort to become independent of any foreign nation for the 
 supply of an article, on which our commerce, our maritime power, and even our 
 political existence, depend. But it is impossible to cultivate hemp in this country 
 without allowing it to occupy the very best of the land employed in raising corn, 
 an article of still moie imperious necessity. Therefor, unless we can have a 
 supply from our remaining American provinces, of which, it is believed, there 
 is no prospect, it is evident that India is the only country to which we can look 
 for relief from an absolute dependence upon foreigners for the materials of our 
 cordage and sail-cloth, two articles as indispensibly necessary to the equipment 
 of warlike or mercantile vessels as timber and iron. 
 
 Before we dismiss the subject of sunn, it maybe proper to observe that there 
 is another raw material of foreign growth, for which it may apparently be sub- 
 stituted. The people of Suffolk make a considerable quantity of shirting and 
 sheeting cloth of the hemp raised in their own fields, which they substitute for 
 flax 4 and they make their goods of a strong and durable fabric. The sunn, 
 being of a soft fibre and fair colour, seems very proper for an extended manufact- 
 ure of such goods, whereby great sums might be saved, which are sent to fo- 
 reign countries, and the eyes of the Public might be opened to the erroneous 
 policy of some well-meaning patriots, who recommend the cultivation of hemp 
 and flax in this country, in order to be independent of foreigners in the acquis- 
 ition of those valuable raw materials, not adverting, that, if their advice were to 
 be carried fully into effect, it would require the sacrifice of a great part of the 
 beft corn land in the kingdom. 
 
 In the year 1802 the Company's Governments in India were drawn into a war 
 against some of the Mahratta Princes, by the victorious termination of which in 
 the year 1805 a very considerable addition was made to their territories. But 
 this war, however brilliant the events of it might be in a military point of view, 
 was very much disapproved of by the Company ; for they thought it unwar- 
 rantable in itself, and also exceedingly impolitic, as tending strongly to excite 
 the jealousy of all the native Princes, and involving their Governments in India 
 in engagements with several of the Mahratta Princes of so complicated a nature, 
 
 * To detail every exertion of the Company been printed upon the subject, to which the 
 
 in this patriotic attempt, it would be necessary reader, desirous of further information, must be 
 
 almost to transcribe the papers, which have referred. 
 
 I I 2 that
 
 144 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 that they could not take a view of the situation, in which they were placed, with- 
 out dreading the consequences, and being strongly impressed with the necessity, 
 and the wisdom, of the solemn declaration of the Legislature, that ' to pursue 
 ' schemes of conquest and extension of dominion in India are measures repug- 
 * nant to the wish, the honour, and policy, of this nation.' 
 
 Another great evil attending this war was, that the expense of it was most 
 enormous, being prodigiously beyond that of any other war, in which the Com- 
 pany's forces had ever before been engaged. In order to support that expense, 
 vast sums were borrowed in India upon very disadvantageous terms ; and the 
 funds usually appropriated for the provision of investments, and also the bullion 
 sent to India from England, were abstracted from their destined commercial pur- 
 poses ; in consequence of which the Company's importations of India goods were 
 reduced much below the usual standard, especially in the years 1803, 1804, and 
 1805. 
 
 To the heavy pressure brought upon the Company's territorial finances, by 
 the Mahratta war, together with the charges of the preceding wars against the 
 Sultan of Mysore in the years 1792 and 1799, there was added a further griev- 
 ous burthen, occasioned by the numerous expeditions fitted out by the Company 
 in India, at the requisition of his Majesty's Government, against the French, Span- 
 ish, Dutch, and Danish, settlements in the East, and also an expedition to 
 Egypt, together with the purchase of vessels and stores for his Majesty's service, 
 in all which the Company were not particularly interested, the object of them 
 being merely to distress those nations with whom Great Britain was at war. In 
 order to comply immediately with the desire of his Majesty's Ministers, the Com- 
 pany's Governments in India were obliged, in the midst of their own pecuniary 
 distresses, to take up very large sums, at eight, nine, ten, and even twelve, per 
 cent, to the great prejudice of the Company's own affairs, and also, in some de- 
 gree, of their credit. By the combined operation of these heavy loans and the 
 abstraction of their funds, the Company's territorial debt, which in May 179c 
 amounted to jL'j, 056,652, was raised, notwithstanding considerable redemp- 
 tions, effected by the operation of, what was called, a sinking fund *, to 
 1 30,8 1 2,441 f in May 1809. 
 
 * The operation of this fund began in Ben- j- In this sum are included arrears of allow. 
 
 gal in the year 1799, and at Madras in the year ances due in the civil and military departments 
 
 following; and in the year 1809 it had effected £1,914,699, which leaves for the net adjusted 
 
 a reduction of the debt at interest to the amount amount of the debt on that day ^28,897,742. 
 
 of £4,038,696. [Appendix N° 7 in Report of the [Appendix N° 2 in Report of th; Select Committee 
 
 Select Committee of the House of Commons, or- of the House of Commons, ordered Jo be printed 
 
 tiered to be printed II M.iy 18 10.] 11 June 181 l.~] 
 
 The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 245 
 
 The interest payable upon this tremendous load of debt, at the devouring 
 rates which custom has established in India, together with the necessary charges 
 of government and defence, including a permanent increase of the military esta- 
 blishment, has not only deprived the Company of the annual sum allotted by 
 act of Parliament for their commercial investments, but also absorbed the whole 
 of their vast territorial revenue, though a very great augmentation of it has been 
 lately effected, partly by means of an improved and methodized collection of the 
 quit-rents, partly by the revenue derived from the newly-acquired provinces, 
 partly by some improvements in conducting the businesses of salt and opium, 
 and, above all, by the generally-increasing prosperity of the people living in the 
 Company's territories. This heavy burthen must long continue a grievous 
 drawback upon their prosperity ; and it will require a continual perseverance in 
 prudent and economical management, and also many years of peace in Europe 
 and India, to reduce it to the level, at which it may, perhaps, be proper to keep 
 up a transferable debt in India. 
 
 The proprietors of about one half of the debt had advanced their money upon 
 the condition of having an option of receiving their interest, and finally also 
 their capital, either in India or in England : and the consequence of this option 
 was, that the bills drawn in India upon the Company, exclusive of those drawn 
 in China, from the year 1801 to 1810 inclusive, have amounted to about ten 
 millions sterling. 
 
 It must at any time be very distressing to discharge such heavy demands for 
 debts, quite unconnected with the Company's commerce, from the home trea- 
 sury, which is supplied only from their commerce. But, in the present case 
 the demand is most peculiarly embarrassing, when their resources in India and 
 at home are reduced very much below their usual level by an extraordinary 
 combination of distressing circumstances, among which may be chiefly noticed — 
 The absorption of the territorial revenue in payment of the interest of the exces- 
 sive load of war debts, already accounted for. — The outlay of the greatest part 
 of the vast sums, advanced by the Company in India at the desire of his Ma- 
 jesty's Government, as also already noticed. — The support of a great number 
 of his Majesty's troops in India, sent out to act against the enemies of the Na- 
 tion, and far exceeding the number authorized by Parliament to be supported 
 at the expense of the Company. — A balance, unusually large, amounting to 
 .^1,45 1,640, being in the hands of the supercargoes in China in March 1809. 
 — The loss of four outward-bound and ten homeward-bound ships in the years 
 1808 and 1S09, the cargoes of which, with the advances made to their owners, 
 and including ^'60,729, the value of one of the ships, which was the Company's 
 
 own
 
 , + 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 own property, amounted to ^1,048,077, and, if they had arrived safe, would 
 have produced ^1,200,000, *. — To all these hardships and calamities abroad 
 were added the deficiency occasioned at home by the diminution of the Com- 
 panv's sales, partly in consequence of the reduction of the Indian investments, 
 but chiefly in consequence of the convulsed state of Europe, and the interdiction 
 of commercial intercourse with almost every country of that continent, to which 
 the Company's goods used to be exported. — The enormous increase ot expense 
 in extraordinary war freight and demurrage (freight, which is as much for carry- 
 ing troops and military stores as for commercial cargoes, and demurrage almost 
 entirely occasioned by a state of warfare) amounting together to about ^6co,ooo 
 annually. By ail these great augmentations of expenditure, and defalcations of 
 receipts, the war in Europe makes a most oppressive addition to the hardships 
 brought upon the Company by the war in India. 
 
 Notwithstanding this unprecedented pressure upon their finances abroad and 
 at home, and though the progressive advance upon every article of British mer- 
 chandize, since the commencement of the war in the year 1793, has occasioned 
 a heavy loss, which cannot be compensated by an advance upon the sales in 
 India or China, nor upon the sales of the goods imported from those countries, 
 the Company have hitherto kept up to the usual standard of their exports ; be- 
 cause a reduction of them would derange the established system of their com- 
 merce, and also involve the manufacturers and others in this country, who have 
 been accustomed to supply their goods for exportation, in the greatest distress 
 bv depriving them of a resource, to which they have always looked up with 
 assured confidence for the support of themselves and their dependents. 
 
 In the year 1805, when the draughts from India began to press most severely 
 upon the Company's home treasury, and it became necessary to make extraor- 
 dinary provision for such extraordinary demands, they considered the large sum, 
 then due to them by the Public for the money advanced in India, as the most 
 obvious, and also the most proper, resource ; and accordingly they applied to 
 Parliament for reimbursement of the sums expended by them at the desire of 
 his Majesty's Government, the gross amount of which, with the interest then 
 
 • The value of the thirteen chartered ships, was not occasioned by any deficiency in the con- 
 added to this sum, may show the pecuniary loss dition of the ships, nor any neglect or mis- 
 sustained by the Nation in this most extraor- management of the commanders. But who 
 dinary calamity, which, from the best judge- shall appretiate the loss of the brave men who 
 ment that can be formed upon the evidence of have perished, or the racking anxiety and se- 
 the captains, whose ships weathered the dread- vere distress of their suffering families ? 
 ful storms in November 1 808 and March 1 809, 
 
 due
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 2 47 
 
 due upon it, was stated at ^8,570,336, of which payments had already been 
 made upon account to the amount of ^3,000,000. The large balance, due to 
 them on this account, if fully paid up, would alone have been sufficient, in the 
 opinion of the Directors, to enable them to meet every demand pressing upon 
 the home treasury at that time. 
 
 The consideration of the account being referred to a Committee of the House 
 of Commons, they reported, that they thought seme of the articles ought not to 
 be charged to the Public, and some of them ought to be equally divided be- 
 tween the Public and the Company ; that, after taking credit for the money al- 
 ready paid, and for the whole amount of a charge made against the Company by 
 his Majesty's Military Pay office, many articles of which were, however, acknow- 
 ledged to be objectionable, there appeared to be a balance of .^2,300,000 then 
 due to the Company. But, as some of the articles were stated upon estimate, 
 and as there was a considerable difference of opinion upon others, whether they 
 ought, or ought not, to be paid by the Public, the Committee recommended 
 that, previous to a final adjustment, the accounts should be investigated by ac- 
 countants appointed by the Government and by the Company : and, in the mean 
 time, they proposed, that j€ 1,000,000 mould be paid to the Company upon ac- 
 count. That sum was accordingly voted by Parliament, and paid into the Com- 
 pany's treasury: and in the year 1806 another payment of ^1,000,000 upon 
 account was also made by order of Parliament. 
 
 It was in the Company's power to raise money by adding two millions to 
 their capital stock, in virtue of the act 2,7 Geo. Ill, c. 3. But the creation of so 
 much additional capital must have entailed upon them an annual payment of 
 £z 1 0,000 to the proprietors of the new stock, from which it would be impos- 
 sible ever to be relieved, and to which the sum, to be raised by the increase of 
 capital, could not be equivalent : for, the value of stock of every description 
 being depressed by the war, they could not expect to raise more than about 
 three millions and a half by a new subscription for two millions. They there- 
 for preferred borrowing two millions upon bonds, which can be paid off, when 
 the pressure produced by the present combination of unfavourable circumstances 
 shall be got over : and they accordingly applied for the authority of Parliament 
 to enable them to issue new bonds to that amount, which was granted by an 
 act [47 Geo. Ill, c. 41] passed on the 28th of August 1807, in consequence of 
 which the money has since been raised at various times, as it has been wanted, 
 in the manner proposed : for, notwithstanding the surmises of some persons, 
 who affected to see no difference between having a temporary occasion for 
 money and being in a state of insolvency, so far were the Public at large from 
 
 entertaining
 
 i +i j THE COMMERCE OF TH E 
 
 entertaining any doubt of the Company's stability, that the additional bond* 
 were eagerly bought up, and even a premium given to obtain them, which still 
 continues to be paid upon every transfer of them from hand to hand. 
 
 In April 1808 the Company submitted to Parliament an exposition of their 
 finances at home and abroad, explaining the leading circumstances which had 
 brought them into their actual situation of pecuniary embarrassment ; and they 
 also represented, that the number of the King's troops in India had been further 
 increased, even after the termination of the Mahratta war, whereby the charge 
 of their support, which, before the arrival of those additional troops, had gone 
 far beyond that which the act of Parliament required them to defray for the 
 support of his Majesty's troops, was still further augmented, and that at a time 
 when their finances were grievously embarrassed by the expense oi the Mahratta 
 war : and as those troops were employed for national purposes, under the or- 
 ders of his Majesty's Government, though the Company, in their zeal for the 
 public service, and in their confidence in the justice and liberality of Govern- 
 ment, had provided the money, requisite for their support, at great disadvantage 
 to themselves, in India, they conceived that they had an equitable claim for re- 
 imbursement of the whole money expended tor the support of such part of his 
 Majesty's troops as exceeded the number limited by Parliament. They ob- 
 served that the vast accumulation of the Indian debt was chiefly the consequence 
 of operations conducted under the administration of controul exercised by his 
 Majesty's Government, and also, that the preservation of the Indian territory is 
 much more advantageous to the Britilh nation at large than to the members of 
 the East-India Company ; and therefor there can be no doubt that Government 
 would willingly have incurred a much greater expense than the sum now owing 
 to the Company, or, in other words, would have expended a considerable part of 
 the large sums derived from the Company's commerce and territorial posses- 
 sions, rather than allow the French, in conjunction with Zemaun Shah, the late 
 sovereign of Cabul, and Tippoo, the late Sultan of Mysore, to get possession of 
 India. Should Parliament hesitate in voting payment of the large sum remain- 
 ing due to the Company, they requested that they might be favoured with the 
 accommodation of a loan, only to the extent of a small part of their saleable 
 property in London, the net balance of which was then valued at ■,€9,050,587, 
 after paying all debts owing in England, in which was included a part of the Ind- 
 ian debt transferred to England by bills drawn upon them, and without at all 
 considering their vast commercial and other available property abroad, amount- 
 ing then to .€22,741,542 in India, exclusive of their property in China, and 
 without reckoning any thing for their territorial possessions in India. 
 
 The
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 249 
 
 The Committee of the House of Commons, to whom the consideration of 
 the Company's exposition was referred, reported, that of the sum of 
 ^2,460,000, claimed by the Company as the balance then due to them, they 
 found ^1,500,419 unquestionably owing to them, a doubtful balance being still 
 left open for further discussion : and they intimated that they would have been 
 disposed to act more liberally towards the Company, if they had not thought 
 themselves bound by the principles laid down by the preceding Committee. 
 They also earnestly recommended early and frequent settlements of all accounts 
 between the Public and the Company. 
 
 In consequence of the Committee's report, the Parliament in June 1808 or- 
 dered ^1,500,000 to be paid to the Company on account, which sum, together 
 with ^1,020,158, received from the sales of their own goods, and for freight 
 and charges upon private trade, beyond what they were estimated to produce, 
 supplied all that was required for the payment of India bills in that year : and 
 thus were the Company enabled by their own funds to surmount all the difficul- 
 ties pressing upon them at that time. 
 
 But the remittances of the capital of the optional India debt still continued to 
 pour in upon the Company : and, in consequence of the continuing embarrass- 
 ment occasioned by that troublesome option, in April 18 10 they presented to 
 the House of Commons a supplement to their exposition of 1 808, showing that 
 bills from India for .^2,236,188 (a greater sum than had ever before been 
 drawn in one year) would be payable in the course of the year commencing on 
 the first of March 18 10, whereby, though their sales had again been much 
 more productive than they had been estimated, there would be a deficiency, to 
 the extent of ^1,202,638, of the sums necessary to be provided before the 1st 
 of March 1 8 1 1 ; and also showing that they possessed property in their ware- 
 houses in London, and on the way coming home, of the value of J?i 2,524,965, 
 besides the value of the India house, their numerous and capacious warehouses, 
 and their vessels and river craft employed at home, amounting to ^1,208,140, 
 and money owing for goods sold and not yet paid for, to say nothing of their 
 vast commercial and territorial possessions in India. Having thus demonstrated 
 the ampleness of their funds, they afterwards petitioned Parliament for a tem- 
 porary assistance by a loan. 
 
 The Select Committee, to whom the consideration of the Company's supple- 
 mentary exposition and petition was referred, having satisfied themselves by in- 
 formation obtained from some of the principal Directors of the Company, that 
 it would be very disadvantageous to raise money by an increase of the capital 
 stock, and, that, next to making payment to the Company of their remaining 
 
 k k claim
 
 , 5 o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 claim upon the Public, which would alone discharge all the demands upon them, 
 the most beneficial measure would be to assist them with a temporary supply, an 
 act [50 Geo. Ill, c. 114] was passed on the 20th of June i8iofor issuing Ex- 
 chequer bills to the amount of ^1,500,000 for the use of the East-India Com- 
 pany. By this assistance the Company's home finances were set at rest for the 
 year 1 8 1 o- 1 1 . 
 
 In the course of the year 1 809- 1 o the Company's Governments in India have 
 been enabled to pay oft" a great part of the optional debt, chiefly with money re- 
 ceived upon new loans, which were negotiated at more moderate interest, and 
 on the condition of being repayable in India only. This change of the condition 
 of payment was a most important advantage, though it was, as might be ex- 
 pected, attended with an immediate transfer of a considerable portion of the 
 optional debt, belonging to those creditors who preferred receiving their pay- 
 ment in England. But even this further transfer, though it exposes the Com- 
 pany to a longer continuance of the severe pressure upon their finances in Eng- 
 land, where there are not any funds, which ought properly to be applied to the 
 liquidation of the territorial debt, produces, by the great difference between the 
 rates of interest in India and in this country, a most important improvement in 
 their general circumstances, as the liberation of the sums hitherto appropriated 
 to the payment of the heavy interest of the capital, now paid off in India or 
 transferred to England, and even of part of the sums, hitherto paid on the debts 
 still remaining, and now s-wed by the reduction of interest, constitutes a sinking 
 fund, which, if aided by a diminution of expense in consequence of peace, may 
 in time extinguish the territorial debt, or at least bring it within moderate 
 bounds, if it shall be thought eligible to keep up a transferable debt to a limited 
 amount, and at a moderate rate of interest, in India*. And thus the transfer 
 oPthe India debt, notwithstanding the severe temporary pressure upon the Com- 
 pany, acts like a powerful medicine, painful in the operation, but salutary in the 
 effect. 
 
 In June 1 8 1 1 the Parliament, convinced of the beneficial effect of transferring 
 a considerable part of the territorial debt to this country, of the impropriety 
 of augmenting the capital stock, and of the propriety as well as necessity, of 
 
 * The Governor-general, in a letter to the very considerable improvement may be effected 
 
 Court of Directors, dated 4 January 181 1, in the ensuing year, so that the interest on the 
 
 states that there was a surplus in the aggregate public debt may very soon be reduced to six 
 
 revenue of India for the year 1810-11 of above per cent. [Appendix N" 29 in Report of the 
 
 $£300,000 sterling; and he trusts that, even Select Committee of the House of Commons, ordered 
 
 under the pressure of a war establishment, a to be brinted 21 June 181 I.] 
 
 having
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. e*i 
 
 having recourse to extraordinary means, in order to meet an extraordinary 
 demand, passed an act [51 Geo. Ill, c. 64] authorizing the Company to make 
 a further issue of bonds to an amount not exceeding two millions, which, with 
 the two millions already issued in virtue of the act 47 Geo. Ill, c. 41, may be 
 about equivalent to the sum, which might have been brought into their 
 treasury by the proposed increase of the capital. The Company have ac- 
 cordingly begun to issue the bonds, as money is wanted for meeting the 
 India bills : and the Public, considering them as an advantageous investment of 
 money, continue to give a premium for the acquisition of them. 
 
 By this act the Parliament have shown that they consider the prosperity 
 of the Company as inseparable from that of the Nation at large, of which 
 they are the constitutional Guardians. 
 
 It is certain, that there never was any other commercial Company in any age 
 or country, that could have encountered such an accumulation of calamitous 
 events, without postponing their payments, to the grievous injury, or total ruin, 
 of their creditors ; making a dissolution of their partnership with the loss of a 
 part, or the whole, of their capital ; or being absolutely bankrupt. The East- 
 India Companies of Denmark and Sweden faded away, almost to annihilation, 
 at the breath of the British Parliament, when they lowered the duty upon 
 tea. The French Company, after some vicissitudes of deep distress and 
 splendid prosperity, fell a sacrifice to the interference of Government, together 
 with their own mismanagement : and the violence of the national vibration 
 from a passive submission under the most galling oppression to the in- 
 temperance of liberty only accelerated the extinction of a life, which was 
 almost at the last gasp. Even the Dutch Company, after flourishing in pro- 
 sperity for almost two centuries, had fallen into such a state of decay before 
 the commencement of the war of the French revolution, that their Oriental 
 establishments, which once so proudly domineered over all the islands of the 
 Indian Ocean, fell prostrate before the very threat of hostility : and that once 
 puissant and opulent Company have been for some years bypast entirely at a 
 stand. But the East-India Company of this country, amidst all the distresses 
 brought upon them by misfortunes, which no human prudence could guard 
 against, and by wars and other transactions in India, engaged in against their 
 inclination, have kept up their usual exports, and also the punctuality of their 
 payments, enormously heavy as they have lately been, with undeviating regul- 
 arity. Indeed, the successful struggle they have maintained during several 
 years against the very trying situation in which they have been placed, affords 
 
 k k 2 the
 
 , J2 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 the noblest proof of their commercial stability ; while their territorial resources 
 are far beyond any comparison with the greatest property that ever was possessed 
 by any commercial Company in the world. 
 
 From beyond the mouths of the Ganges to Cape Comorin, and from that 
 southern extremity of India to the mouths of the Indus, the Company have the 
 command of the whole coast, except the trifling settlements of the Portuguese, 
 and the territory of the Poona Mahrattas, who are bound by treaty to admit no 
 ship, which does not carry British colours, into their ports. The Nizam of the 
 Deccan, whose territories are entirely inland, is engaged by treaties, and by 
 his own interest, to live in friendship with the Company's Governments. The 
 Nabob of OuJe, another inland country, may be considered as holding his do- 
 minions under the protection of the Company, as well as the Nabob of Arcot 
 and many other Princes of inferior importance. The Mahrattas are now 
 connected with the Company by treaties of friendship and alliance, which, 
 if they prefer their real interest to the precarious acquisitions of pred- 
 atory warfare, they will preserve unviolated. Indeed, there is every reason 
 to believe, that all the Princes of India are now convinced, that the tranquillity 
 of their government, together with their own prosperity and that of their sub- 
 jects, will be most effectually secured by the friendship of the Company. Of 
 the Oriental Potentates, not so nearly connected with the Company as those 
 now mentioned, the Burtnan Emperor is the most powerful ; and he is dis- 
 posed to cultivate their friendship, and to promote a commercial intercourse 
 with them : and there are also relations, offensive and defensive, between the 
 Company and the Sovereign of Persia. 
 
 From this glance of the present state of India it appears, that the Company's 
 territories are exempted, as far as human prudence, treaties of friendship and 
 alliance, and a competent military force, can exempt them, from the danger of 
 any foreign European army being landed on any part of the whole extent of 
 the coast of India, and that there is very little danger of their being attacked, 
 either from the sea or the land, by any hostile European Power, or any of the 
 neighbouring Princes of Asia. 
 
 With respect to the internal security of the Company's territories, there is 
 tvery reason to believe, that it will not be in any degree impaired, but will, 
 on the contrary, rather be augmented, by the consequence of some commo- 
 tions, which have lately taken place among their native troops, and more 
 recently among the officers of a part of their European army : while the in- 
 creased, and still increasing, prosperity of the natives of all ranks, who live 
 
 under
 
 ENGLISH WITH INDIA. 353 
 
 under their government, the security and freedom, with which they may now 
 enjoy the fruits of their industry, and their exemption from the calamities of war, 
 contrasted with the oppressions, the extorsions, and the perpetual convulsions 
 and warfare, of their former Mohamedan governments, which are still within 
 the memory of the aged people among them, afford the best assurance of the 
 continuance of their attachment to the Company, and of their desire, and co- 
 operation, to support the beneficent government, which has improved their 
 circumstances, and enabled them to enjoy the pre-eminent abundance of their 
 country in fafety and tranquillity. 
 
 From what we have seen, in the whole course of the commercial history of 
 the Company, of the unshaken fortitude and consequent success, with which 
 they have withstood and baffled the storms of above two centuries, there appears 
 no reason to doubt, that, as soon as they shall be relieved from the unpreced- 
 ented pressure upon their finances, and the multiplied hardships of the prefent 
 long-protracted univerfal war, they will make a speedy reduction of their India 
 debt ; and their commerce will recover its accustomed vigour and prosperity, 
 and continue, with the blessing of Divine Providence, to dispense comfort and 
 happiness to all connected with it in India and in Europe, and contribute 
 largely to the power and prosperity of the whole British empire. 
 
 THE
 
 ( 254 ) 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE FRENCH WITH 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 ABOUT the end of the fifteenth century the French were probably the moil 
 opulent people of Europe, next to the Italians and Netherlanders \ and they 
 consumed a large proportion of the spices, silks, and other Oriental commodities 
 imported from Egypt and Syria by the Venetians, and more recently from India 
 by the Portuguese. 
 
 In the year 1 503 some of the merchants of Rouen, who were desirous of 
 participating with the King of Portugal in the importation of India goods by the 
 newly-discovered route by the Cape of Good Hope, fitted out a small squadron 
 for India under the command of Captain Gonneville, who, meeting with a 
 furious storm beyond the Cape of Good Hope, was driven to an unknown land, 
 where he remained fome time, and thence returned to France. 
 
 Notwithstanding this very discouraging beginning, some of the merchants of 
 Dieppe are said to have also engaged in the India trade in the early part of the 
 sixteenth century, and to have met with considerable success : and one of them, 
 named Ango, is particularly celebrated for the splendid success of his commerce, 
 and even for his naval power. It must however be acknowleged that the ac- 
 counts of the early French commerce with India are of rather doubtful authority ; 
 and the spirit of enterprise, if it ever was so vigorous as some French authors 
 represent it, must have soon evaporated ; for we find that Francis the First, 
 a King who made it his study to promote the prosperity of his subjects, found 
 it necessary to exhort them by a proclamation in the year 1537, and again by 
 another in 1543, to engage in trade with distant countries. But his patriotic 
 admonitions had very little effect upon the people, being opposed at the time by 
 the general prevalence of a romantic passion for chivalrous achievements, which, 
 during their long and frequent wars in Italy, was carried to such a degree of 
 enthusiasm as made them despise commerce and navigation, and afterwards by 
 the long-continued sanguinary wars for opinions in matters of religion. 
 
 In May 1601, the fury of religious warfare having somewhat relented, an 
 association of merchants fitted out two ships at Saint Malo for India, under the 
 command of the Sieur Bardaliere. They arrived in the following February at 
 Madagascar, where they remained till May ; and in July they suffered ship- 
 wreck
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE FRENCH. 255 
 
 wreck among the Maldives, a long chain of many thousands of small islands, 
 extending north and south from the Equator, which produce scarcely any 
 article of commercial value *. 
 
 Nearly about the same time, that Bardaliere sailed from Saint Malo, Girard, 
 a Flemish navigator, who had been in India onboard a Dutch ship, made an 
 offer of his acquired knowlege and his services to some French merchants, 
 who, upon his suggestion, entered into an association for prosecuting the East- 
 India trade. In the year 1 604 King Henry the Fourth incorporated them by 
 a charter, which conferred upon them the exclusive privilege of trading to 
 India for fifteen years ; and they were to be exempted from paying any duties 
 on the goods imported in their two first voyages. 
 
 The charter granted tc this first French East-India Company constituted by 
 Royal authority, had no other effect than that of preventing other French sub- 
 jects from entering into the trade ; for the Company themselves did not send a 
 single ship to India. However, notwithstanding their total inactivity, in the 
 year 16 11 they obtained from the Ministers of the infant King, Louis the 
 Thirteenth, an addition of twelve years to the term of their privilege. It is 
 alleged that the Mareschal d'Ancre obliged them to apply for the new arret, 
 and to pay him a large sum for his good offices in procuring it, which almost 
 exhausted their little capital, so that they never were able to send out any 
 ships. 
 
 Some merchants of Rouen, seeing that the Company made no attempt to pro- 
 secute the trade, proposed to establish among themselves a more efficient associ- 
 ation. The chartered Company opposed this invasion of their dormant and 
 neglected privilege ; and the King put an end to the contest in the year 1615 
 by joining the new adventurers with them in one Company, under the name of 
 The Molucco Company, or The Montmorenci fleet ; and he gave them 
 an exclusive privilege of trading to India for twelve years, to be reckoned from 
 the departure of their first ships. 
 
 In the following year the Company dispatched two ships, commanded by - 
 Captain Nets, an officer of the Royal Navy, and Captain Beaulieu, who em- 
 ployed as many Dutch seamen as they could procure, in order to have the 
 benefit of their experience of the navigation. But this measure turned out very 
 prejudicial to their voyage ; for, when the ships arrived in Java, the Dutch 
 
 * Francois Pyrard de Laval, who wrote the in his abridgement of Pyrard's narrative, takes 
 
 account of this disastrous voyage, after being care to inform us that the pilot was an 
 
 detained many years in the Maldives, got Englishman, 
 home to France in the year 16 11. Purchas, 
 
 Governor
 
 lj6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Governor ordered all the subjects of the States-General to leave them, in confe- 
 quence of which the French commanders were obliged to dispose of the smallest 
 ship to one of the native Princes of the island, and return home with only one 
 cargo. Nevertheless, the large profit usually attending a new trade, preserved 
 the Company from being losers by the voyage. 
 
 The Company, of whom M r Gamin and M r Bachelier appear to have been 
 the principal acting members, nothing discouraged by the misfortune of then- 
 first voyage, fitted out a second fleet, consisting of two good ships and a 
 a patache, or tender, all under the command of Captain Beaulieu, who sailed 
 from Honfleur in October 1619. At the Cape of Good Hope he detached the 
 second ship for Bantam, where she was burnt, apparently by the Dutch, having 
 onboard a cargo valued at 500,000 crowns. From the Cape Beaulieu proceeded 
 to Sumatra, and presented a letter from his Sovereign to the King of Acheen, 
 the most powerful of the Princes of that great island. This King, a cruel and 
 capricious tyrant, took into his own hands as much as he thought proper of 
 the trade of his extensive dominions, compelling the cultivators to sell their 
 pepper to him at his own price, and not permitting them to sell to any stranger, 
 till he should be pleased to dispose of his own at a most enormous advance. 
 Beaulieu, after suffering many vexations, and much loss of time and money 
 by the arbitrary extorsions of this monopolizing King, and by his own want of 
 experience of the navigation and the proper method of conducting the trade, 
 got his own ship loaded with pepper, with which he arrived at Honfleur in 
 December 1622. The sale of the cargo defrayed the cost of the voyage, 
 notwithstanding the loss of one of the ships and her cargo : but the Company 
 did not feel themselves disposed to make any further attempts. 
 
 There appears to have been at this time a Company of merchants at Saint 
 Malo, apparently unchartered, who also sent ships to India, and had an agent, 
 called Limonnay, fettled at Bantam *. 
 
 In the year 1633, the Company's privilege being expired, some private 
 merchants of Dieppe sent their vessels to India and Madagascar. Captain 
 Regimont (or Reginon), the commander of one of them, having made a very 
 profitable voyage to India, the merchants concerned with him were encouraged 
 to send another ship, commanded by Captain Ricaut, along with him in the 
 next voyage ; and both these commanders afterwards made several profitable 
 voyages. 
 
 * The account of Beaulieu's voyage, and narrative, drawn up by Beaulieu himself, and 
 the short notice of the Saint Malo Company, published by Theveaot in his Voyages curieux. 
 are extracted from a very ample and judicious 
 
 In
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 257 
 
 Bn the year 1642, being the first year of Louis the Fourteenth, Cardinal 
 Richelieu, the Prime Minister, gave Captain Ricaut, and twenty-three other 
 persons, a patent for an exclusive trade with all the countries beyond the 
 Cape of Good Hope during ten years. Their views at first were chiefly directed 
 to the east coast of Africa and Madagascar, in which island they built a few 
 trifling forts ; and they afterwards settled factories at Surat and some other 
 places on the west coast of Hindoostan. But it was impossible for any com- 
 mercial undertaking to prosper amidst the civil wars which convulsed France 
 during the long minority of the King. Nevertheless, though their trade 
 languished, they were desirous of persevering; and in December 1652 they 
 obtained a patent renewing their privilege for fifteen years. But still they did no 
 good to themselves or their country : and finally, the Mareschal de la Meilleraie, 
 having by some means got their forts in Madagascar into his own hands, thereby 
 ruined the Company, and also himself. 
 
 In the year 1660 M r Fermanel of Rouen and some other merchants ob- 
 tained a patent for an exclusive trade with China, Tonquin, Cochin-China, 
 and the adjacent islands. But they had scarcely begun to make the necessary 
 preparations for carrying their privilege into effect, when they were absorbed in 
 the Company of the East Indies. 
 
 It was in the year 1664, under the administration of Colbert, the great patron 
 of the commerce and manufactures of France, that the famous Company of 
 the East Indies was formed. That great Minister, ardently desiring to see 
 his country emulate, or surpass, England and Holland in the East-India trade, 
 used every possible means to give stability, efficacy, and dignity, to the new 
 Company. In order to encourage them to go on with spirit and perseverance, 
 their exclusive privilege was granted for the long term of fifty years. Their 
 capital stock was declared to be fifteen millions -of livres*. The King sent a 
 hundred and nineteen circular letters to the magistrates of the various towns, 
 and invited all his subjects, without distinction, to subscribe to the Company's 
 stock. The Nobles were allured by the prospect of gain, and an assurance 
 that their engaging as partners in this trade should be no derogation from their 
 dignity. Honours and hereditary titles were also promised to those who should 
 distinguish themselves in promoting the prosperity of the Company. Foreigners, 
 subscribing twenty thousand livres, were declared denizens of the kingdom ; 
 and officers of the army, subscribing the same sum, were allowed to be absent 
 from their regiments, and nevertheless to have their pay and promotion go 
 
 * At that time the French money contained about twice as muph silver as it does at present. 
 
 l L forward.
 
 2 5 8 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 forward. The sovereignty of the great island of Madagascar was conveyed to 
 them, as a dependence of the Crown of Fiance, together with the power of 
 appointing civil and military officers in all their settlements, sending Ambas- 
 sadors in the King's name to the Princes of India, and making treaties with 
 them. The King engaged to protect their establishments by force of arms, 
 and to furnish sufficient convoys for their outward and homeward fleets. He 
 also engaged to pay them a premium of fifty livres for every tun of 
 merchandise exported, and seventy-five livres for every tun imported, by 
 them, and to exempt all stores, necessary for building, equipping, and victual- 
 ing, their vessels, from paying duties of any kind, outward or inward. The 
 Company were allowed to export gold and silver, notwithstanding the law in 
 force against carrying money out of the country. The goods imported by them, 
 and consumed in France, were charged with only half the duties imposed on 
 similar goods by the laws in force ; and those sent by the Company to foreign 
 countries, and to the privileged provinces, were entirely exempted from duty. 
 The King engaged to lend them the fifth part of the sum necessary for the three 
 first voyages, and to allow the money to remain in their hands ten years with- 
 out interest. 
 
 Such was the flattering encouragement held out to the Company ; and great 
 were the expectations of a flourishing trade, with all its attendant comforts and 
 advantages. But it may be observed, that the nation, whose merchants stood 
 in need of Royal pecuniary assistance for carrying on their trade, was not 
 arrived at the maturity of opulence, commercial knowlege, and commercial 
 energy, necessary for establishing and conducting an East-India trade upon a 
 magnificent scale. A strong proof of the want of opulence, or of com- 
 mercial spirit, in the country appears in the failure of completing the small 
 capital of the Company, the whole payments made by the subscribers, among 
 whom were many of the courtiers and other people of high rank, being only 
 about six millions of livres, which, with the money advanced by the King, 
 made only about eight millions in all. 
 
 The French still retained a high opinion of the importance of Madagascar, 
 and of the wealth to be drawn from its supposed mines of gold and silver. 
 The- Company, therefor, notwithstanding the repeated disasters their pre- 
 decessors had suffered in that island (mostly, indeed, owing to the mis- 
 conduct of their own people), resolved to establish the capital of their Oriental 
 possessions in it. In the year 1665 they sent out four vessels with forces 
 and colonists to make a very strong settlement, or rather to lay the found- 
 ation of an empire. But the conduct of the people entrusted by them was 
 so foolish and atrocious, that they made the natives their enemies, which 
 
 obliged
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. i 59 
 
 obliged the Company to request the King to relieve them from the burthen of the 
 island. But before any new arrangements could be effected in Madagascar, the 
 wanton cruelty of the French settlers had provoked the natives to massacre the 
 whole of them, except a small number who made their escape to the Island of 
 Mascarenhas, since called Bourbon. 
 
 The Company also established a principal factory at Surat, with several 
 posts on the coast of Malabar subsidiary to it : but it was not long before 
 they abandoned their station at Surat without paying their debts. They ob- 
 tained two posts in the kingdom of Siam. They attempted to settle a post in 
 Tonquin. They began a trade with Cochin-China. But they met with no 
 sufficient success in any of those countries, nor in several other places where 
 they attempted to settle. And now they learned from experience the impro- 
 priety of multiplying their settlements, and seeking to spread them over every 
 coast of the Indian Ocean. 
 
 The French Government, on the suggestion of Messieurs Caron and Martin, 
 who had both been many years in the service of the Dutch Company, made an 
 attempt in the year 1672 to get possession of some of the Dutch settlements in 
 Ceylon. The French forces took Trincomalee ; but they were soon driven out 
 of it, and obliged to leave it, by the superior power of the Dutch. M r de la 
 Haye, the French commander, thereupon sailed over to the coast of Coro- 
 mandel, and made himself master of Saint Thomas, then belonging to the 
 Dutch. But it was not long before the Dutch found means to persuade the 
 King of Golconda to co-operate with them in an attack upon the French gar- 
 rison, who, after a gallant defence, were obliged by famine to yield the place 
 to them. When the French were thus deprived of Saint Thomas, M r Martin 
 purchased from the King of Visiapour a village upon the coast, called Pondi- 
 chery, with a small adjacent district, where he settled with the remainder of the 
 French forces. Finding the neighbouring country inhabited by industrious 
 manufacturers, he wrote to the East-India Company, informing them that his 
 new settlement might easily be rendered a great mart for the advantageous 
 purchase of piece goods. 
 
 In consequence of some convulsions among the native Princes, Martin 
 thought it necessary to fortify his town, which, under his prudent adminis- 
 tration had become very populous. Wishing to live in friendship with the 
 Sovereign of the country, he applied for his permission to put his settlement in 
 a state of defence, which was granted in the year 1689. The Prince also 
 honourably refused a bribe offered to him by the Dutch for his assistance to 
 
 l l 2 expell
 
 26o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 expell the French entirely from the country, saying l - The French have fairly 
 ' purchased the place, and I shall not be so dishonest as t ) take it from 
 ' them.' 
 
 The Dutch never lose sight of what they conceive to be their interest. In 
 the year 1693 they purchased the co-operation of a new Prince of the country, 
 who did not possess the honourable sentiments of his predecessor, and attacked 
 Pondichery with a powerful fleet and a considerable army. Martin was obliged 
 to submit to their superior force : and the existence of the French on the coast 
 of Coromandel was supposed to be at an end. The Dutch, in order to secure 
 their conquest, immediately improved and enlarged the fortifications. But 
 their labour and expenditure were all for the benefit of the French Company, 
 to whom they were obliged most reluctantly to restore it by the treaty of peace 
 concluded in the year 1697. 
 
 Martin, the father of the settlement, was again appointed to the government 
 of it. He immediately renewed his exertions for the prosperity of the place : 
 and, by his prudent and conciliatory conduct, he rendered it the interest of so 
 many of the natives to live under his protection, that in a few years he made 
 Pondichery the largest, the strongest, the most populous, and most flourishing, 
 European city in India. 
 
 In Europe the Company, though struggling with poverty of capital, had 
 equipped several small fleets for India. The King, in order to encourage and 
 assist them, had advanced two millions of livres in the year 1668, in addition 
 to the like sum already lent to them : and he promised to take upon himself 
 any losses they might sustain in the first ten years. He alfo urged the propri- 
 etors to pay in the arrears of their subscriptions. 
 
 At a general meeting of proprietors, held at Paris in the year 1675 ury der the 
 direction of the King, a dividend of ten per cent was ordered to be paid to all 
 those who had paid in two thirds of their subscription ; and the defaulters were 
 required to complete their payments before the 11th of July 1676, on pain of 
 forfeiting to the Company the payments already made. The King at the same 
 time gave up his claim upon the Company for the four millions advanced to 
 them. 
 
 In the year 1682, the Company's funds being utterly inadequate to the 
 management of an extensive trade, permission was given to all persons, 
 foreigners as well as natives, to trade to India in the Company's ships during 
 five years, paying such freight as they could agree upon, lodging the goods 
 imported by them in the Company's warehouses, in order to be sold along with 
 
 their
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 261 
 
 their own, and paying them a duty of five per cent. The proposal was eagerly 
 embraced by many individuals, and the Directors flattered themselves with the 
 hopes of deriving some income from these small profits, to be made without any 
 any risk or further outlay of capital. But many of the proprietors, repining at 
 the profits they saw made by the private traders in virtue of the Company's 
 establishments in India, expressed their discontent ; and in two years an end 
 was put to this mode of conducting the trade. 
 
 Many were the causes which contributed to distress the Company. Notwith- 
 standing their deficiency of capital, their Directors and Managers in France, and 
 most of those in India, affected to imitate the splendour of their Sovereign in 
 schemes of ostentation and expense, instead of acting with the prudent economy 
 necessary to be adhered to in commercial transactions, especially by a community 
 circumstanced as they were. Thence they were driven to the expedient of bor- 
 rowing money, though they were far from being able to pay the interest, which 
 was generally enormous, without encroaching upon their little capital. The 
 civil wars in France, and the foreign wars, also accelerated their ruin ; and even 
 the successes of their countrymen added to their distress : for the swarms of 
 French privateers, which covered the seas, carried into the ports of France a 
 prodigious number of vessels, taken from the English and the Dutch, many of 
 which had onboard vast quantities of East-India goods : and, as prize goods 
 must be sold at whatever prices they will fetch, the glut reduced the value al- 
 most to nothing, and obliged the Company to sell their goods at a heavy loss, or 
 not to sell at all. 
 
 When we consider the accumulation of calamities pressing upon this unfort- 
 unate Company, we will scarcely be surprised to find that their sales in twenty 
 years from 1664 to 1684 amounted to no more than 9,100,000 livres, as ap- 
 peared by their accounts. 
 
 In May 1684, the Company, finding themselves unable to make good their 
 engagements, and continue their commerce, it was proposed to new-model their 
 constitution, to elect new Directors who should have salaries, and to strike off" 
 all the subscribers who had not paid in at least eighty per cent. From these 
 measures they hoped for a revival of their credit, and relief from their embar- 
 rassments. 
 
 The Company's accounts being examined by Commissioners appointed by the 
 King, it was found that three quarters of their capital stock were totally lost. 
 Therefor, in order to obtain some kind of capital, the proprietors were required 
 by Government to pay in a sum equal to the remaining quarter in ready money 
 within a month, failing which the defaulters should receive one quarter of their 
 
 original
 
 2 6a THE COMMERCE OF THE' 
 
 original stock, to be paid them in two years by persons appointed by the King, 
 as a full compensation for their interest in the Company's stock. 
 
 On this occasion it was found that the remaining stock amounted only to 
 -5,353,966 livres. No more than eighty proprietors complied with the order of 
 paying in the additional quarter ; and all their payments amounted only to 
 109,516 livres. Such feeble help only proved the impossibility of continuing 
 the trade in the condition the Company were in. The King therefor ordered 
 twelve persons, named by himself to pay in the sums which the old proprietors 
 ought to have paid. He also ordered that those new proprietors should be Di- 
 rectors, and made many other regulations for the management of the Com- 
 pany's affairs. 
 
 The Company after these new arrangements enjoyed a short glimpse of pro- 
 sperity: and in the years 1687 and 1691 the proprietors received two dividends, 
 amounting together to thirty per cent, which, it is believed, were derived from 
 the profits actually made in the trade ; whereas any dividends, which had hitherto 
 been made, were furnished by the ruinous expedient of drawing them out of the 
 capital. 
 
 Though the Company resumed their commercial operations after the termin- 
 ation of the war, which followed the revolution in Great Britain, their affairs 
 were conducted with so little energy, that in the year 1697 they were content to 
 agree to a proposal made to them by M r Jourdan and his associates for a per- 
 mission to send their own ships to China, on condition of paying five per cent 
 on the amount of their returns to the Company. Those gentlemen immediately 
 dispatched their ship, the Amphitrite, which returned in August 1700 with a 
 very rich cargo. Great hopes were now conceived of the prosperity of the 
 China trade ; and four ships were immediately fitted out, one of which was the 
 Amphitrite, which in September 1703 returned with a cargo as valuable as her 
 former one. But none of the French Companies appear to have ever been able 
 to preserve their trade in the time of war : and this one absolutely gave up send- 
 ing out any more ships as soon as the war of the Spanish succession broke out, 
 lest they should fall into the hands of the English or Dutch, who, they knew, 
 were too powerful for them in the Indian seas. So this China Company very 
 soon became dormant. 
 
 In the year 1701 the East-India Company obtained a grant of the further sum 
 of 850,000 livres from the King, on condition that they themselves would make 
 an addition of fifty per cent to their stock ; a condition with which most of the 
 proprietors refused to comply. 
 
 The
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 263 
 
 The frequent neglects and refusals of the proprietors to pay in their subscrip- 
 tions, or answer the calls made upon them, seem to show, either that the trading 
 people, and even the Nobles, Judges, and Magiflrates, of whom there were many 
 among the subscribers, possessed very little ready money, and had very little cred- 
 it ; or that many of them had so little confidence in the success of the Com- 
 pany, that, on some occasions, they would rather forfeit their installments, al- 
 ready paid in, than complete their payments. 
 
 It would be tedious to recount every Royal arret issued for regulating the 
 affairs of this ill-fated Company. The continual interference of Government in 
 the affairs of a commercial society was of itself sufficient to derange and distract 
 their counsels, and may partly account for so many of the partners chusing to 
 submit to the loss of the money they had paid in, as the least of two evils. They 
 had also now lost the favour of the Government, who loaded their imports with 
 heavy duties, and harassed them with prohibitions of their silk goods and other 
 articles, and with a constant succession of contradictory orders. In short, the 
 Company were at a stand; and it plainly appeared that France was not, at least 
 in that age, a country in which a great East-India trade could flourish. 
 
 In this unpromising state of their affairs, the Company, by the permission of 
 Government, agreed in the year 170S to licence some merchants of Saint Malo 
 to send their own ships to India, on condition that the Company should receive a 
 duty of fifteen per cent upon their returns, and should have a right to load such 
 goods as they should want freight for, to the amount of ten tuns onboard each 
 of their ships, and should enjoy the tunnage bounties outward and inward 
 granted to them by virtue of their original patent. 
 
 Scarcely any point in history has ever been recorded with more contradictory 
 assertions than the success of the Malouin merchants in their East-India voyages. 
 The enemies of privileged Companies assert that all, or at least most, of them 
 made extraordinary great profits. The friends of the Companies, on the con- 
 trary, positively affirm that many of them were ruined, and that the good suc- 
 cess of some of their voyages to India was merely owing to their immediately 
 falling into the trade abandoned by the Company, and having the benefit of all 
 their establishments. But the greatest profits, it is said, were made by those 
 who traded with the Spanish settlements in South America, where, for temp- 
 orary political reasons, their infractions of the Spanish colonial laws were per- 
 mitted, or at least winked at, by the Government, in compliment to their new 
 King, the grandson of the King of France. The vessels intended for this trade, 
 being loaded with goods proper for the Spanish colonies, after making some stay 
 at Brazil, proceeded round Cape Horn, and traded upon the coasts of Chili and 
 
 Peru,
 
 ,6 4 THE COMMERCE - O F T H E 
 
 Peru, receiving silver in exchange for their goods. Thence they stretched 
 across the Pacific Ocean, and, after touching for refreshments at the Ladrones 
 islands, proceeded to the coas: of China, and traded at Emouy, where the port 
 charges were very moderate, and they were at liberty to sail when they pleased ; 
 advantages not to be found at Canton, which is now the only Chinese port, in 
 which Europeans are admitted. They then passed the Cape of Good Hope, and 
 steered for the French islands in the West Indies, where they also carried on a 
 profitable trade ; and thence they returned to France. These voyages generally 
 took up from three to five years : and the profits made in them sometimes 
 amounted to fifteen hundred per cent upon the original cost. The Malouins 
 continued their voyages, conducted in this manner, till the year 1 7 1 9 : but 
 their neglect of the India trade, for which alone they were licenced, obliged the 
 people of France to purchase nine tenths of the India goods required for their 
 internal consumption from foreigners: and if Melon, who published a political 
 essay on commerce at Paris in 1736, was well informed, their sales of India 
 goods never amounted to two millions of livres in any year ; which, we may 
 believe, could scarcely be equal to a tenth part of the quantity needed for the 
 consumption of all France. This trade is said to have been conducted by an as- 
 sociation of merchants, who contributed a capital of four millions of livres : so it 
 was still the trade of a very considerable Company *. 
 
 While the Malouins were carrying -on their -commercial circumnavigations of 
 the Globe, a new Company was established by a Royal arret, dated in February 
 1 7 13, for trading to China, unconnected with the EastTndia Company, or with' 
 M r Jourdan and his associates : and the duration of their privilege was to be no 
 less than fifty years. The only business they transacted was sending out two 
 ships, which in the year 1718 returned with cargoes, not to France, but to 
 Ostend and Genoa f. We shall find that in the year 1719 this China Company 
 was incorporated with the great Company of the -J Vest. 
 
 In the year 1714, when the East-India Company had languished out half a 
 century without having got beyond the debility of infancy, with their capital 
 stock, completely run out. and indebted to the amount of ten millions of livres, 
 
 * I have taken the account of the Malouin f Mr. Morellet, in his list of extinct Com- 
 
 vovages chiefly from Doutes d'un actionnaire stir panies, [Examen tie la reprmse, p. 36] says, that 
 
 /<• Mrmoire tie I'jlbbe Morellet, p. 4. It is anon- this Company never made any use of their pri- 
 
 ymous and without date. But the author vilege. We have seen that they made but very 
 
 savs, he was a proprietor since the year 1720 little use of it ; but the assertion, that they 
 
 of the Company, which was suspended in 1769: made absolutely none, k one of M r Morellet't 
 
 and his work has even' appearance of being mistakes. 
 
 authentic. 
 
 they
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 263 
 
 they applied for, and obtained, a prolongation of their exclusive privilege for 
 ten years. Their view in seeking this extension seems to have been merely to 
 enjoy a continuation of the trifling benefit they derived from the commerce of 
 the private traders, though it could not be equal to the expense of their foreign 
 establishments, by means of which those traders made their profits, all of which, 
 except what they made by their clandestine trade, would have gone into the 
 treasury of the Company, if their business had been conducted by prudent mer- 
 chants, acquainted with maritime affairs and the peculiarities of Indian com- 
 merce, instead of financiers and courtiers, and, if they had been favoured with 
 less of the kind attention of Government, 
 
 Whether the Company carried on any business for themselves at this time, I 
 have not discovered. But, before the expiration of their new term, they were 
 swallowed up in one of the most extraordinary associations that ever could be 
 produced by financial, political, or commercial, speculation. 
 
 The continual wars, the magnificent buildings and gardens, and other ostent- 
 atious and useless expenses, of Louis the Fourteenth had plunged France into 
 general poverty and despondence, aggravated by an intolerable load of Govern- 
 ment paper of various descriptions, which the insolvency of the Treasury had 
 reduced to a very depredated value, or rather almost to an impossibility of circ- 
 ulation upon any terms. In this desperate state of the finances some unprin- 
 cipled pretenders to loyalty endeavoured to persuade the Duke of Orleans, the 
 Regent, that the King was not bound to pay the debts of his predecessor, and 
 that it was expedient to ruin the creditors of the Public, in order to relieve the 
 Government and the Nation at large from the pressure. The Regent was 
 somewhat staggered by the convenience of their proposal : but he was preserved 
 by his probity, or the fear of infamy, from the guilt of consenting to it. He 
 imagined he should much more effectually promote his own glory, and the 
 prosperity of the Nation, by adopting the schemes of John Law, a native of 
 Scotland, a man of a lively and ardent genius, though a great calculator, who 
 proposed to discharge the prodigious mass of the public debts by operations of 
 finance and splendid schemes of commerce*. 
 
 The first step in the execution of his stupendous scheme was the establishment 
 of a Bank at Paris in May 17 16, upon a capital of six millions of livres, divid- 
 ed into twelve hundred shares, which (according to the fourteenth article of 
 the patent) might be transferred by the signature of the seller in the proper book 
 
 * M r Law had offered a scheme of a Na- liament of Scotland, who referred the consider- 
 
 tional Bank, for issuing notes to an unlimited ation of it to the Committee of trade, by whom 
 
 amount on the security of land, to the last Par- it was rejected. 
 
 M M in
 
 2 6fi THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 in the Bank, as stock is transferred in England *. The partners of the Bank 
 were prohibited from engaging in any kind of commerce or maritime insurance 
 in their corporate capacity, the establishment being intended merely for the pur- 
 pose of receiving money in deposit and repaying it on demand, discounting bills, 
 and lending money at a moderate rate of interest. Notwithstanding the gloomy 
 aspect of affairs, the credit of the new Bank very soon became so great, that 
 their notes were current in every part of Europe. The real money, which had 
 been hoarded up, was now restored to the circulation ; industry was re- 
 animated ; foreign trade was resumed ; the exchange even turned in favour of 
 France ; Law himself was most agreeably surprised at the success of this first 
 experiment, and his enemies were confounded. 
 
 M r Law, having now acquired the character of an able and upright states- 
 man, and being ambitious of the glory of discharging the whole debts of the 
 nation, persuaded the Regent to found the Company of the West, better 
 known by the name of the Mississippi Company, in August 1717, and to 
 confer upon them for twenty-five years the exclusive trade and the property 
 of Louisiana, together with the beaver trade of Canada, the Canada Company 
 being on this occasion incorporated with the new one. The benefit proposed 
 to the Government was the absorption of a considerable quantity of their paper 
 by receiving it in payment of the Company's capital, which was declared to be 
 one hundred millions, divided into shares of five hundred livres each, the Go- 
 vernment paying interest at four per cent for their debts taken in by the Com- 
 pany. The allurement held out to the adventurers was a report of gold mines 
 in Louisiana, richer than those of Spanish America. Foreigners, as well as 
 native French subjects of every description, were admitted to become propri- 
 etors. The Nobles were exempted, as in the old East-India Company, from 
 disparaging their rank by subscribing, and the King himself became a pro- 
 prietor to a very large amount. The Company were also gratified with many 
 privileges in trade, exemptions from duties and burthens, and with the gift of 
 ships, warehouses, forts, arms, &c. in L'Orient, which was appointed to be the 
 port of their commerce, and in Louisiana. 
 
 In the year 17 18 the nominal Company of Senegal, and in May 1719 the Com- 
 pany of the East-Indies and the Company of China, were united with, or swallowed 
 up in, the Company of the West, who thereupon assumed the name of the 
 Company of the Indies: and the privileges of the Company of St. Domingo, 
 
 * In the other branches of Law's system was changed for the delivery of a loose slip of 
 this most safe and convenient mode of transfer paper. 
 
 and
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 167 
 
 and those of the extinct or dormant Company of Guinea, were added in Septem- 
 ber 1720. Their privilege of exclusive trade was now extended over all the 
 west coast of Africa and all the coasts and islands of the Indian and Pacific 
 Oceans. The King gave them a gift in perpetuity of all the French forts and 
 buildings on the coast of Africa : and, in general, all the property of every kind 
 belonging to the united Companies was now vested in this great comprehensive 
 Company, who were consequently bound to pay the debts owing by all the 
 Companies to whose rights they succeeded. All the bounties and exemptions, 
 originally granted to any of the united Companies, were transferred to them : 
 and, as the Company became bound to transport at least three thousand Ne- 
 groes to the French West Indies, the premium of thirteen livres for every Negro 
 landed in the colonies, and the other of twenty livres for every mark of gold 
 imported into France, were revived or continued to them. 
 
 In order to render the capital of the Company adequate to the vast extent of 
 their proposed commercial enterprises, they were empowered, in the year 17 19, 
 to open a subscription tor fifty thousand new shares, amounting to twenty-five 
 millions of capital stock, to be paid for at the rate of 550 livres for every share 
 of 500 ; and Law, observing that the shares of the Company of the West, 
 which had remained nearly stationary at the original subscription price till the 
 union of the Companies, had been raised to 130 per cent by the public expect- 
 ations of the prosperity of a Company uniting in itself the privileges of so many 
 separate Companies, required the payments of this subscription to be made in 
 real money. It is, therefor, not at all surprising, that subscriptions for the new 
 stock, at only no per cent, poured in so rapidly, that, very soon after the 
 offices were opened, they amounted to a hundred thousand shares instead of the 
 fifty thousand required. 
 
 The Government, seeing the eagerness of the subscribers, issued an arret 
 fixing the total number of shares at three hundred thousand, which, it was de- 
 clared, they should never exceed ; and, to make up that number, fifty thousand 
 more shares were immediately subscribed for at 1000 livres each, payable in 
 bank notes. This small subscription seems only to have kindled the ardour of 
 the Parisians, who, notwithstanding their late backwardness in subscribing for 
 the India trade, had now all become stock-jobbers. The Government took the 
 advantage of the enthusiasm, and, disregarding the recent limitation of shares, 
 indulged them with three more subscriptions for one hundred thousand shares each 
 at 1000 livres for every share ; and payable in Government paper of every 
 kind, which followed each-other in rapid succession, and were filled up by the 
 
 M m 2 infatuated
 
 268 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 infatuated people with astonishing avidity, whereby a very large additional mass 
 of the Government paper was quickly absorbed. 
 
 No business was now attended to in Paris, except buying and selling shares. 
 People of all ranks, foreigners as well as natives, sold off their property of every 
 kind, at whatever prices they could obtain, in order to participate in the wonder- 
 ful advantages expected from the financial, commercial, and mining, operations 
 of the Company : and the managers, in order to admit even the lowest of the 
 people to make their fortunes, or ruin themselves, by stock-jobbing, split many 
 of the shares into hundredth parts. Stock rose every day, and reached, when 
 at the highest, the enormously frantic price of one thousand, or, according to 
 some authors, twelve hundred, per cent *. Paris was loaded with a glut of real 
 money, a great part of which was poured in from foreign countries : the prices 
 of all the necessaries of life were raised in proportion : and lands near the city 
 were bought at fifty years' purchase by some of the speculators, more sharp- 
 sighted than their neighbours, who seized the favourable opportunity of selling 
 out their stock. 
 
 The Company, having acquired a monstrous sum of money by the sale of 
 their stock, lent the King twelve hundred millions of livres in August 1719, and 
 three hundred millions more in October, at an interest of three per cent. In re- 
 turn for the favour, the King deprived Lambert, the farmer-general, of the col- 
 lection of the revenue, and gave the farm of it to the Company, who agreed to 
 pay him fifty-two millions a-year for it ; and he had already conferred on them 
 the privilege of coining money for nine years, for which they were to pay him 
 fiftv millions ; a sum impossible to be derived from the profits of coinage, ex- 
 cept by diminishing or adulterating the money. 
 
 It is now time to turn our attention to the Bank, whose business had hitherto 
 gone on very prosperously, having scarcely any connection with the Govern- 
 ment. But in December 1718 it was declared to be a Royal Bank, the King 
 taking it into his own hands, and paying off the proprietors, not with money, 
 nor with bank notes, but with shares of the Company of the West, which he 
 had reserved i'or himself, and now sold to them at the exorbitantly-advanced 
 
 * Dupont asserts that, in the height of the highest prices vary considerably; and, indeed, 
 
 delirium, stock was sold so high as 1 8,000 and it seems probable that, in the scramble and con- 
 
 20 coo livres a share. But such prices seem fusion of such irregular transactions, no regis- 
 
 incredible, and are not supported by any other ters of prices were preserved ; and if they 
 
 of the French authors whom I have had an op- were, they were burnt by the King's order in 
 
 portunity of consulting. Their accounts of the the year 1725. 
 
 price j.
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 269 
 
 price ; a mode of payment, which, if the proprietors did not make haste to 
 convert their shares into cash, turned out nearly the same as giving them no- 
 thing. The Bank being dignified with the title of Royal, and the Regent 
 taking on himself the title of Governor of it, the collectors of the revenue were 
 ordered to receive the notes in payment ; and they were also made current by 
 authority in all payments whatever, by which means, and by the establishment 
 of branches of the Royal Bank in Lyon, Rochelle, Tours, Orleans, and Amiens, 
 they immediately obtained universal circulation. 
 
 Law, fully satisfied with the successful progress of his System, (a collective 
 name for his complication of projects) prudently determined to limit the emis- 
 sion of bank notes to a thousand, or at most twelve hundred, millions of livres, 
 which sum was estimated to be requisite for the circulation of the kingdom : 
 and thereby he expected to draw into the Royal Treasury a quantity of real 
 money sufficient to pay off every one of the public creditors who should be de- 
 sirous of converting his paper into hard cash. But the imprudent conduct of 
 the Government overturned this judicious plan by authorizing an emission of 
 notes, which raised the total amount to two thousand seven hundred millions ; and 
 it was believed that many more were fabricated without authority. 
 
 In February 1720 the Regent, having discovered that neither he nor his 
 Ministers were well qualified for carrying on the business of bankers, requested 
 the Company of the Indies to take upon them the management of the Royal 
 Bank, offering them, as a douceur, all the profits made by it since it belonged to 
 the King. The Sieur Law, comptroller-general of the finances, was appointed 
 inspector-general of the Company of the Indies and of the Royal Bank : and 
 soon after the King declared that the Company's privileges should be perpetual 
 and irrevokable by himself or any of his successors. 
 
 Some people expected vast advantages from the union of the Company with 
 the Bank *, and the perpetuity of their patent. But the most discerning part of 
 the Public saw it in a very different light : and, indeed, from this period may be 
 dated the downfall of the System. The vast inundation of Bank paper, thrown 
 all at once into the circulation, which was previously overloaded, began to lower 
 its credit, and, together with it, the value of the Company's stock. Many people 
 began to perceive that the Directors, instead of zealously and assiduously pro- 
 secuting rational plans of commerce and colonization, agreeable to the pro- 
 
 * So far is an union of the East- India Com- advantageous in this country, that there is an 
 pany with the national Bank, or any inter- express law against the same person beino- a 
 ference of their concerns, from being thought Director of both. 
 
 fessed
 
 2? o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 fessed meaning of their patent, from which soma beneficial returns might be 
 expected, were only intent upon exchanging one kind of paper of no real value 
 for another kind of as little value, and inventing deceptions for the purpose of 
 blowing up their airy bubbles in order to strip the people of their property. 
 They therefor became exceedingly urgent to get their paper converted into 
 cash : but the Government, instead of wisely and readily complying with their 
 demands, as was proposed by Law, which would soon have induced many of 
 the claimants to rest satisfied with their paper, when they should see that it 
 could be instantly changed into cash, most blindly ordered that gold should be 
 entirely banished from commercial transactions, and that no person should keep 
 above five hundred livres of metallic money in his possession ; an order which, 
 we may be sure, was generally disobeyed, in spite of informations and the odious 
 domestic visitations of inquisitors, though some were terrified into obedience, 
 and carried their money to the Bank. This arbitrary measure was followed by 
 a succession of equally-arbitrary orders for the diminution of the real money, 
 by the last of which the mark height ounces) of silver was coined into 82 livres 
 10 sous. 
 
 Next came an edict for reducing the value of Bank paper, which, when the 
 Bank was in the zenith of credit, had borne a premium of one, and one and a 
 half, per cent in exchange with cash, to one haif, in order to put it on a par 
 with the diminished real money ; and for reducing the value of the shares to five 
 ninths. The whole country was immediately thrown into confusion and misery. 
 Every one was anxious to rescue what little he could from the wreck of his fort- 
 une, which, he now plainly saw, had no real foundation. Many families, who 
 had long flourished in affluence, were utterly ruined. Law disappeared : and 
 the splendid vision of re-establishing the public credit vanished. 
 
 The Company's stock at the termination of their career consisted of the fol- 
 lowing creations of shares of 500 livres each, which entitled the proprietors to 
 annuities of 80 livres per share proceeding from the interest of the Government 
 paper, the loan, &c. 
 
 First subscription 200,000 shares, at par. 
 
 . . 50,000 . . . at 10 per cent premium. 
 
 Second 
 
 Third 
 
 Fourth 
 
 Fifth 
 
 Sixth 
 
 50,000 
 
 100,000 I 
 
 )-at 1 
 
 100,000 
 
 100,000 
 
 00 per cent premium. 
 
 J 
 
 Total . . 600,000 shares, representing threi hundred millions of 
 
 livres,
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 271 
 
 livres, but which probably cost those, who were actual stock-holders at the 
 time of the stoppage, near three thousand millions, a sum impossible to be real- 
 ized in gold and silver, but very easy to be negotiated in paper. 
 
 It is proper to observe that 1 00,000 of these shares had originally belonged 
 to the King, and 1 00,000 had been reserved by the Company for the purpose 
 of stock-jobbing ; and both the King and the Company had sold their shares at 
 exorbitant profits. 
 
 On the 26th of January 1721 the holders of the Company's shares, and Go- 
 vernment securities of every kind, were ordered to submit them to the examin- 
 ation of a tribunal, appointed for the purpose of discriminating the honest and 
 real proprietors from those who had obtained shares or Government paper by 
 fraudulent means or stock-jobbing tricks. The result of the visa, or inspection, 
 was, that of 2,696,400,000 livres in Bank notes, 703,327,460 were ordered to 
 be burnt without any compensation ; and the stock-jobbers were condemned to 
 refund 187,893,661 livres. By these and other arbitrary operations the vast 
 mass of the public debt was diminished without any payment. But it was not 
 so easy to restore public credit in a country where the edict of an absolute 
 Prince might violate it, whenever he should think it might suit his convenience. 
 
 The next step was the reduction of the Company's shares to a more moderate 
 number, which was fixed in November 1721 at fifty thousand, but, on the re- 
 presentation of the Commissioners, was enlarged in March 1725 to Jifty-six 
 thousand. I have not found that any compensation was ever made to the many 
 hundred thousands of stock-holders, whose property was thus annihilated by the 
 sweeping command of arbitrary power. 
 
 The exclusive privilege of providing all France with tobacco had been 
 farmed to the Company soon after their establishment, but afterwards resumed 
 by the King on finding that it was neglected by them. He now restored the 
 farm to them as a compensation for money due to them. At the same time 
 he ceded to them, instead of payment of another debt, the Domain of the West, 
 they taking upon them the charge of supporting the civil and military establish- 
 ments. The King also, understanding that the Company's commerce was in- 
 creasing, established regulations for their shares and dividends, and appointed 
 their council, with Cardinal Du Bois for their President, who should hold their 
 meetings at the India House in Paris. He soon after gave them the exclusive 
 sale of coffee, from the profits of which and tobacco he directed them to make 
 a dividend of 1 50 livres annually upon every share, independent of what they 
 might gain by their foreign commerce. In February 1724, he moreover gave 
 
 them
 
 t 7 i THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 them the privilege of making lotteries for prizes of life annuities or shares of 
 their stock. 
 
 In June 1725 King Louis the Fifteenth, being come of age, confirmed to the 
 Company for ever their privilege of exclusive trade in slaves, gold dust, &c. 
 from Cape Blanco along the coast of Africa to the Cape of Good Hnpe, and the 
 sole trade of every kind from that Cape eastward to Cape Horn in South 
 America, including all the coasts and islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, 
 together with the property of Louisiana, the beaver trade of Canada, and the 
 commerce of the coast of Barbary — in short, almost the whole world except 
 Europe. He also confirmed anew to them the exclusive sale of tobacco and 
 coffee, reserving with respect to the later the privilege of the city of Marseille, 
 and binding them never to raise the price of it. The King commanded them 
 never to interfere with matters of finance ; and he revoked the grant of the 
 Domain of the West and the privilege of lotteries. He also established many 
 regulations respecting their stock, dividends, meetings, and other matters. 
 
 In the same month the King, having examined the state of the Company's 
 affairs, and being desirous to promote the welfare of many antient families con- 
 cerned in the stock, issued another edict, by which he gave them a discharge of 
 all demands which might be made upon them on account of the Royal Bank ; 
 and he also cancelled many intricate old accounts, of which probably no ac- 
 countant could ever have made a clear settlement. In order to conceal the 
 names of all concerned, and as much as possible to draw the veil of oblivion 
 over the national frenzy, he ordered that all papers and accounts belonging to 
 the Company, and not relating to commerce, should be burnt. 
 
 It was only after the Company of the Indies were delivered, though with the 
 loss of almost their whole capital, from all connection with financial legerde- 
 main, that they could begin to be truely considered as a commercial Company. 
 They made some efforts to cultivate Louisiana ; and in the year 1722 New 
 Orleans, which had been founded in the year 17 17, and had hitherto been no 
 more than a petty village, was enlarged, and made the capital of the province. 
 Attention was also given to the other numerous branches of commerce com- 
 prehended in their privilege ; and in the year 1725 there belonged to them 125 
 vessels of various kinds ; but many of them very small. 
 
 We might suppose that the Company possessed a redundance of capital 
 about this time, as we find that they established a discount office ( ' caisse 
 d'escompte ') for the accommodation of the merchants of Paris and the Public 
 in the year 1727, which was continued till the year 1759, and is said to have 
 
 been
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA, 2 7J 
 
 been so prudently conducted by the Syndics and Directors of the Company, 
 that in all that number of years the only lofs they sustained was one bill of 
 4,000 livres. [Cotnte de Lauragais, Mem. sur la Co. des Indes, p. 6o.~] 
 
 They seem not to have been equally fortunate in all the other branches of 
 their trade ; or probably they became sensible that they had undertaken more 
 business than it was possible to manage to advantage ; for in the year 1730 they 
 begged of the King to accept their resignation of the exclusive trade of Barbary. 
 He also resumed the farm of tobacco, reserving to them an annual revenue of 
 eight millions payable out of it. In the following year they obtained the King's 
 consent to take the province of Louisiana off their hands, which cost them much 
 solicitation, besides paying 1,450,000 livres for the favour*. 
 
 They retained their beaver trade in Canada t, till that country fell under the 
 dominion of Great Britain : and they retained the slave trade on the coast of 
 Africa till the year 1741, though they sustained very great losses by furnishing 
 slaves to the French colonists in America and the West Indies upon credit. 
 They also peopled the Isles of France and Bourbon, and rendered them valuable 
 possessions. But their principal object was the East-India trade. Pondichery, 
 the seat of the Governor-general of their settlements in India, became a large, 
 regular, and beautiful, city, containing 70,000 inhabitants, mostly natives. 
 Under the administration of Orry in France, and of Dumas, La Bourdonnais, 
 Bussy, and Dupleix, in India, their affairs prospered exceedingly, and they 
 obtained considerable territorial possessions on the coast of India. Their trade 
 was carried on to such an extent, and for some time with such brilliant success, 
 that they excited the jealousy of the English and Dutch Companies. In the 
 year 1734 their sales at L'Orient amounted to 18,000,000 of livres; in 1740 
 they rose to 22,000,000 : in 1754 they reached 36,000,000, after which they 
 were depressed by the war, which began then J. 
 
 * Raynal, after relating this transaction, state the amounts of the sales much lower : 
 
 says, ' II est des empires oil l'on vend egale- but, in their eagerness to depredate the 
 
 ' ment la droit de se ruiner, celui de se de- prosperity of the Company, some of them 
 
 ' livrer, et celui de s'enrichir, parce que le have omitted the imports from China and 
 
 ' bien et le mal, soit public, soit particulier, the Isles of France and Bourbon, and all 
 
 ' peuvent y devenir un objet de finance.' the private goods imported by the officers 
 
 [Hist. phil. et polit. V. viii, p. no.] and seamen of the ships. I am not, how- 
 
 f The trade in all other kinds of peltry and everj perfectly sure of the accuracy of the 
 
 produce was free to all the subjects of France. statements in the text, the accounts differ 
 
 % The accounts given by some French so widely, 
 writers, who were hostile to the Company, 
 
 n n From
 
 274 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 From the commencement of that war may be dated the decline of the French 
 Company of the Indies. After all their inferior settlements had been reduced 
 by the British forces, Pondichery itself, then filled with the riches which had 
 been carried thither from the other French settlements for preservation, was 
 also taken in the year 1761 ; and the conquest of that important place may be 
 said to have extinguished the dazzling prosperity of the French in India. 
 
 In September 1741 the King issued an arret, allowing all merchants, 
 authorized to trade to the American colonies, to fit out vessels for the coast 
 of Guinea on the terms prescribed by the arret of January 1716 for the Royal 
 Company of Guinea, and on obtaining licences from the Company of the 
 Indies. 
 
 Ever fince the year 1723 the Directors of the Company were appointed by the 
 King. It naturally followed, that they were generally profuse in their expenses, 
 carelefs of the Company's interest, and immoderately attached to their own, 
 which they often promoted by means not very honourable. Being desirous, 
 however, of making the stock-holders believe that their affairs were very 
 flourishing, they continued making dividends of one hundred and fifty livres 
 upon every share of the original value of five hundred livres, agreeable to the 
 King's direction, till the year 1746, when the embarrassments of the Govern- 
 ment obliged them to reduce them all at once to seventy. In 1750 they were 
 lowered to fifty, in 1759 to forty, and in 1764 to twenty. The Government 
 had moreover appointed a Commissioner, and sometimes two or three, to con- 
 troul the Directors ; and their interference plunged the Company's affairs into 
 inextricable confusion. The Company now ventured to represent to Govern- 
 ment, that their misfortunes were entirely owing to the management of their 
 affairs being taken out of their own hands, and that they must be totally ruined, 
 if they were not relieved from the interference of Government. 
 
 In confequence of their representation, the King declared, in August 1764, 
 that their affairs in Europe and beyond the Cape of Good Hope fhould in future 
 be managed by themselves only, without any interference on the part of Govern- 
 ment ; and he recommended to them to act with wisdom and economy. But 
 at the same time he desired them to submit the regulations, they should draw up 
 for their government, to be inspected by him, and confirmed by patent. On this 
 occasion he also made over to the Company, as some compensation for their 
 losses and extraordinary expenses occasioned by the war, 11,835 shares, and 
 ah equal number of loan bonds, together with the dividends and interest due 
 upon them, subject, however, to a number of pensions, which he had granted, 
 
 payable
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 275 
 
 payable out of them. He took upon himself the charges of sovereignty in the 
 Isles of France and Bourbon, whereby the Company saved two millions an- 
 nually, without any diminution of their exclusive privilege ; and he relieved 
 them from the expense of the port of L'Orient. He empowered them to make 
 an addition to their stock by paying in four hundred livres upon every share ; 
 and he directed that the dividend upon each share should be raised to eighty 
 livres, which should be independent of their commerce, and not be liable to be 
 affected for any debt to be thenceforth contracted by them. 
 
 The Company immediately applied with great alacrity to the re-establishment 
 of their commerce, the restoration of the forts and buildings of their settlements 
 in India, and the construction of ships. In a few years their trade was so much 
 revived, that their annual sales amounted to about eighteen or twenty millions, 
 and in 1769 they rose to near thirty-seven millions. But, notwithstanding this 
 appearance of prosperity, their stock was rapidly decreasing. "When they 
 entered upon the management of their own affairs, they found their debts 
 amount to a much larger sum than they supposed ; their expenses in repairing 
 their buildings in India went much beyond their expectations ; and, in conse- 
 quence of the diminution of their influence in that country, the profits of their 
 sales fell much below those of former times, while the charges of their govern- 
 ment amounted to double the sum they had been estimated at. In this state of 
 their affairs they gave licences in the year 1768 to fifteen private ships to sail to 
 India. 
 
 In the year 1769 the Government desired to see a state of the Company's 
 affairs, by which it appeared that they were bound to pay every year 
 
 Dividends of 80 livres on their shares, the number of which 
 
 was now reduced to 36,920 
 
 T 
 
 Interest of money borrowed, &c. . 
 
 Amount of permanent payments 
 and annuities for lives amounting to 
 
 •^2,953,660 
 2,727,506 
 
 ^5,681,166 
 3,074,899 
 
 the whole yearly payments being then . . . ^8,756,065 
 
 On the 13th of August 1769 the King suspended the Company's exclusive 
 privilege till he should give further orders, allowing the government of the 
 stations and factories in India to remain in their hands, and their affairs to be 
 managed, as before, by their Syndics and Directors. He permitted all his sub- 
 jects to send their own ships to the countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope, 
 
 N n 2 upon
 
 276 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 upon applying to the Secretary of State for the marine and to the Directors of 
 the Company for passports, which should cost them nothing ; and he ordered 
 them to bring all their homeward cargoes to the port of L'Orient, and there 
 pay such duties as he should afterwards determine. 
 
 By another edict, issued a few days after, the duties were fixed at five per 
 cent on India and China goods, and three per cent on those of the Isles of 
 France and Bourbon, to be computed upon their value in France ; and the 
 merchants had the option of disposing of their cargoes either by public or 
 private sale. 
 
 The Company soon after held a general meeting for the purpose of consider- 
 ing, whether it would be most for their interest to dissolve their partnership. 
 A considerable number of the greatest proprietors, at the head of whom was 
 M r Panchaud, proposed to pay off their debts, give up their commerce, and 
 establish a Bank of discount ( « Caisse d'escompte ' ), by which means they 
 hoped to preserve their capitals. On the other hand, the celebrated M r Necker 
 (who was afterwards Comptroller-general of the finances), and all the bankers, 
 voted for preserving the Company, and even continuing the commerce by means 
 of borrowed money, which, they affirmed, there would be no difficulty in ob- 
 taining. A third party, offended by the despotic conduct of the Government, 
 were anxious to have their affairs wound up as quickly as possible, and the 
 Company dissolved entirely. 
 
 After much controversy, the Company determined to make an offer to the 
 King of surrendering into his hands all their vessels, consisting of twenty-eight 
 ships from 900 to 1200 tuns, and two snows, with all their naval and military 
 stores, their forts and warehouses in India and France, together with 2,450 
 slaves belonging to them, for the sum of thirty millions of livres ; and at the 
 same time they requested payment of sixteen millions and a half of livres due 
 to them by the King. By an arret dated in January 1770 the King accepted 
 their resignation : but, instead of paying them the money they afked, he settled 
 upon them, as a full compensation for all their claims, an annuity of one 
 million two hundred thousand livres ; which, reckoning interest at five per 
 cent, and supposing the payment perpetual, unless redeemed, would repre- 
 sent a capital of only twenty-four millions : and with that kind of settle- 
 ment they were obliged to be contented. 
 
 The Company soon after entered into another contract with the King, by 
 which they made over to him all the debts due to them in India and Europe, all 
 their merchandize and property of every kind, except their capital stock with 
 
 the
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 777 
 
 the funds appropriated for their dividends, and their privilege as a Company : 
 and the King took upon himself the payment of every demand upon them for 
 debts, annuities, pensions, halfpay, &c. After these, and some other arrange- 
 ments unnecessary to be detailed, the partners from April 1770 became merely 
 proprietors of annuities payable by the Government, and preserved the appear- 
 ance of a Company only by their establishment of Directors and clerks, and 
 the ceremony of granting licences to private merchants to fit out their ships for 
 India. 
 
 A radical fault in the original constitution of this Company was, that the 
 proprietors held their shares, not by their purchases being entered in the Com- 
 pany's books, by which their names and the amount of their stock could be 
 known, but merely by the possession of billets or tickets, each of them 
 entitling the bearer to the benefit of a share in the Company's stock. A very 
 great number of persons, connected by such a slender bond of union, could 
 scarcely ever act together with harmony and effect for the general good of the 
 society, nor attempt to remove the veil of mystery under which their affairs were 
 concealed by managers, independent of themselves, and generally under the 
 influence of Government, being, in fact, scarcely any more associated, or 
 known to each-other, than the proprietors of exchequer bills or India bonds 
 are in England*. 
 
 As soon as the India trade was laid open, a great number of merchants 
 rushed into it. They sent their ships to China, India, Persia, the Isles of 
 
 * It was usual to borrow shares for the pur- ' consequent ecoutes ; et dans ces assemblies 
 pose of showing them as admission tickets, in ' memes l'avis d'un simple porteur d'action ne 
 order to get access to the meetings of the Com- ' pouvant pas etre distingue de celui d'un 
 pany. I say nothing of the danger the pro- ' veritable proprictaire, le vceu de la propriete 
 prietors of such paper ran from fire, robbery, * ne pent jamais etre connu avec certitude. 
 or accidental loss. The proprietors of the ' La facilite avec Iaquelle on pouvoit em- 
 national debt of France held their property by ' prunter des actions ne permettoit pas non plus 
 the same dangerous tenure. Let us listen to ' de s'assurer de la propriete des Administrat- 
 the observation of the judicious Necker upon ' eurs ; et enfin, le regime d'administration, 
 this subject. ' qui soumettoit la conduite de la Compagnie a • 
 
 ' La nature de Paction, e'est a dire sa forme ' un Commissaire du Roi, s'opposoit a l'esprit 
 
 ' d'effet payable au porteur, en cachant con- ' d'economie, ou du moins ne l'entretenoit pas, 
 
 ' tinuellement son proprietaire, ou du moins en ' parce que l'homrne qui represente le Gou- 
 
 ' ne donnant aucun moyen de le reconnoitre, ' vernement n'a aucun motif pressant pour 
 
 * n'a jamais permis aux actionnaires de con- • veiller sur une economie qui dans plusieurs 
 
 * tribuer par leur surveillance et leurs conseils ' circonstances est moins importante pour 
 ' au bien de leur societe ; une fois sortis de « l'etat que pour la propriete des action- 
 
 * l'assemblee gencrale qui se tenoit chacque ' naires.' [Reponse au Memoire de M. I'slbbc 
 ' annie, ils ne pouvoient etre reconnus, ni par Morel/et, p. 29.] 
 
 France
 
 , 7 -g THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 France and Bourbon, and the east coast of Africa. The last was the destin- 
 ation of the greatest number ; for the keenest partisans of the unbounded 
 liberty of commerce felt no scruple of conscience in depriving people of their 
 liberty, who were guilty of having black skins and woolly hair, in whatever 
 part of the world they could be found ; and on the east coast of Africa 
 slaves could be bought cheaper than on the west coast, where the com- 
 petition of the traders of various nations had raised the price of human flesh. 
 It was asserted that one hundred and fifty vessels were fitted out from the 
 different ports of France (ninety-nine of which sailed in the year 1785) for the 
 east coast of Africa for the slave trade, and that they carried twenty thousand 
 slaves to the French part of the Island of Saint Domingo. The tragical con- 
 sequence of so great and sudden an importation of vindictive slaves in that 
 devoted island holds out an awful warning to the owners of slaves and the 
 advocates for slavery in all parts of the World. 
 
 With respect to the success of the private traders to India and China, we 
 are perplexed with the same extremes of contradiction, which we found in 
 the statements of the open trade in the early part of the eighteenth century. 
 On the one hand we are told that two hundred and fifty-five vessels sailed 
 from the ports of France for the east coast of Africa, the Isles of France 
 and Bourbon, and various parts of India, between the year 1780 and 1785 * ; 
 that most of them made very successful voyages ; and M r Rabaud of Marseille 
 is particularly celebrated for the extent and prosperity of his trade to India, for 
 which he fitted out five ships in the last two years. 
 
 It was affirmed, on the other hand, that those, who made good voyages, 
 were indebted for their success to particular or temporary causes, some of which 
 were unconnected with the national commerce, particularly their obtaining in 
 their first, and most successful, voyages the goods, which had been procured 
 in the country for the Company's trade, their acting as agents for merchants 
 in Geneva, Neufchatel, &c. and more especially to the circumstance of their 
 being employed by many people in the service of the English East-India 
 Company to convey their property to Europe, in which transactions the 
 owners of the ships were only the carriers and agents for the merchandize 
 which made the greatest part of their sales ; that the most of those who had 
 
 * An advocate for the private traders stated la Compagn'te des Indts, 1787, p. 27.] The 
 
 the whole number of vessels which sailed for Abbe Morellet, who distinguished himself as 
 
 India, China, the Isles of France and Bourbon, the champion for open trade in the year 
 
 at 340, of the total burthen of 148, 945 tuns. '769, is understood to have ako compiled this 
 
 [Memoire relatif a la discussion da privilege de Memoir?. 
 
 not
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 279 
 
 not that precarious foreign support, and all those who pushed into new or 
 unusual channels of trade, such as Persia, &c. made losing voyages, or were 
 completely ruined, as was the case with Messieurs Law, Chevalier, Rothe, 
 Amiraux, Boffe, Darrifat, who failed for eighteen millions of livres, and 
 many others. 
 
 Raynal [F. ix, tab. dernier'] has given an account of the public sales of the 
 goods imported by the private merchants from India, China, and the Isles of 
 France and Bourbon. They amounted to 10,336,504 livres in the year 1771, 
 and continued generally increasing till 1777 when they reached 27,509,764, but 
 fell off in 1778 (the last year of his account) to 14,026,194. The Memoire a 
 consulter pour les negocians, published in 1786, />. 28, states the sales of the 
 same years higher ; and the author of the Memoire de la Chambre dc commerce 
 de Guiemie, p. 18, says that the highest sale during the open trade was in the 
 year 1776, and states the amount of it at 32,800,000 livres, wherein he in- 
 cludes the sales by private contract, most probably by random estimate, as may 
 be presumed from the round number, and certainly not undervalued, his object 
 being to magnify the private trade and depredate that of the Company. After 
 the beginning of the war, in which France engaged for the support of the 
 American revolution, the sales fell ofF almost to nothing, and in the year 1781 
 absolutely nothing. 
 
 The King, seeing the India trade, which was relinquished by the Company, 
 also abandoned by the private merchants, was obliged to become a merchant 
 himself; and in February 1783 he dispatched a ship for China on his own 
 account. But he invested only three millions of borrowed money in this com- 
 mercial adventure. 
 
 The King, knowing that the cargo of his own ship must be very inadequate 
 to the supply of the kingdom with China goods, issued an order on the 21st 
 of July 1783 for the creation of a new Company of China; and he directed 
 that their capital should be divided among the principal sea-ports in the following 
 proportions. 
 
 The merchants of Marseille should subscribe for 400 shares ; 
 Those of Bordeaux . . .320 
 
 Rochelle 
 Nantes 
 Saint Malo 
 L' Orient 
 Havre de Grace 
 
 The whole being 
 
 80 
 140 
 90 
 90 
 80 
 
 1,200 shares 
 
 of
 
 2 fo THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 of 5,000 livres each, and forming a capital of six millions. He moreover gave 
 them abundance of directions, as usual, for keeping their accounts, and upon 
 other points belonging to the internal regulation of their affairs. 
 
 The capital stock was immediately subscribed by the merchants in the several 
 ports, who all formed only one Company ; and the King lent them three ships 
 of from 1200 to 1500 tuns, which were immediately fitted out for China by the 
 Company, and returned home in the year 1785. On making up the accounts 
 of the sales of the goods imported by them, it was found that the expedition 
 had upon the whole produced neither profit nor loss worth mentioning ; and 
 thence the Company, consisting of people unacquainted with the trade of 
 India or China, had little encouragement to proceed in further adventures, 
 though they had not been superseded, as they were very soon after their 
 creation. 
 
 The King, without giving himself time to see the result of the experiments, 
 as they might be called, of his own trade and that of the new China Company, 
 determined, before any of the ships came home, and notwithstanding the re- 
 clamation of the suspended, or dormant, Company of the Indies, and the 
 representations of the private merchants, to establish a new Company. By his 
 arret, dated 14 April 1785, he declared, that, having examined the accounts 
 and state of the India trade, he found, that competition, however beneficial it 
 might be in other branches of trade, was very detrimental in this one ; that the 
 European goods, being ill assorted, and in quantities disproportioned to the de- 
 mand, had been sold under their value in India ; that the competition of the 
 merchants had enhanced the prices of the goods bought in India ; that the ex. 
 cessive quantities of some kinds, and the total want of others, rendered the 
 imports unprofitable to the merchants, and inadequate to the demands of the 
 kingdom. Considering that these evils proceeded from a want of concert 
 among the merchants, and the impossibility of individuals being able to sup- 
 port the outlay and rifks of so distant a commerce, he was convinced that the 
 trade with India and China could be carried on to advantage only by a 
 privileged Company. Therefor he ordered the old Company of the Indies to 
 confine their attention to the settlement of their affairs, and conferred on a 
 New Company of the Indies for seven years, to be computed from the 
 sailing of their first ships, and not including years of war, the privilege of ex- 
 clusive trade to all the countries and islands to the eastward of the Cape of 
 Good Hope, except the Isles of France and Bourbon. To these islands all 
 French subjects might trade, and import from them the produce of their soil, 
 but no India goods. The inhabitants of the islands might trade, in vessels 
 belonging to themselves, and provided with a passport from the New Company 
 
 for
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA. 281 
 
 for each voyage, to the several ports of India, but not to the Red Sea, China, 
 or Japan. But no European goods might be carried from the islands to India, 
 nor any India goods from them to Europe or America, in any vessels what- 
 soever. No French vessels returning from those islands, excepting those owned 
 in them, were permitted to take onboard Negro slaves in any part of Africa. 
 The Company's capital was declared to be twenty millions *, divided into twenty 
 thousand shares of one thousand livres each. The direction of their affairs, and 
 the appointment of all officers of every description in their service, were vested in 
 twelve Administrators, approved of by the King (' agrees par sa Majeste '), each 
 of them being subscribers of five hundred shares in the capital stock ; and the 
 remaining fourteen thousand shares were left open, to be subscribed by the Pub- 
 lic at large. The Administrators were required to make up a state of the Com- 
 pany's affairs every year for the inspection of the Comptroller-general of the 
 finances, which should also be a guide to themselves in fixing the dividends to be 
 paid to the proprietors. The King gave them gratuitously the use of a house in 
 Paris, all the warehouses, dock-yards, rope-walks, &c. necessary for their ac- 
 commodation in L'Orient, and all the forts and factories in his own hands in 
 India, to be possessed by them during the term of their privilege. He pro- 
 mised to protect them by force of arms, if necessary ; to provide their ships with 
 officers and seamen, and to get them exchanged, if taken by an enemy. He 
 moreover granted them all the exemptions and favours bestowed upon the old 
 Company respecting their imports : and he ordered that all goods imported 
 from any place beyond the Cape of Good Hope into France, either by the Com- 
 pany, or by private ships from the Isles of France or Bourbon, should be landed 
 at L'Orient, and there sold at the Company's public sale. 
 
 The fourteen thousand open shares were immediately engrossed by the 
 monied speculators of Paris, which made the merchants of the sea-ports com- 
 plain very bitterly, that they could not obtain a share without paying at least 
 eighteen hundred livres for it. This gave rise to a paper war, in which the 
 closet philosophers, who manage the affairs of the World by their systems, and 
 regulate commerce by their calculations, who find no difficulty in creating ships, 
 men, merchandize, sales, and millions of money, by the dash of their pens, did not 
 fail to bring their often-confuted arguments and assertions again upon the field. 
 
 In July the Company obtained another arret, strictly prohibiting all French 
 subjects from purchasing from foreigners any East-India goods, or any foreign 
 cotton goods of any kind, except those destined for the African slave trade. 
 Those who had such goods in their possession, or had already ordered them 
 
 * Only ^888,888. 17. 9. sterling. 
 
 o o from
 
 2 »2 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 from foreigners, were allowed till the ioth of August 1786 to dispose of them, 
 or send them out of the kingdom. For the encouragement of the calico- 
 printers, the Company were authorized to purchase cotton goods from foreigners 
 for the supply of the print-fields, till their own imports should be sufficient to 
 answer the demand ; and they were obliged to sell India-painted calicoes lor 
 exportation only, the use of them in France being strictly prohibited. 
 
 The King made over r.o the Company the ship Dauphin, which he had sent to 
 China on his own account ; and, intending that they should be a body purely 
 commercial, he relieved them from the cares and expenses of sovereignty in 
 India by taking them upon himself. 
 
 The Company immediately made a sale at L'Orient of the cotton goods they 
 had bought at Copenhagen and elsewhere, together with the goods imported 
 from India by the private merchants, which amounted to above ten millions, and 
 gave satisfaction to the buyers. 
 
 In March and April 1786 the Company fitted out eight ships for India and 
 China, which cost them above eighteen millions. They resolved to fix the chief 
 direction of their affairs in India at Pondichery, and to settle factories at Karical, 
 Palicat, Masulipatnam, and some other places on the coast, all under the direc- 
 tion of the Presidency at Pondichery *. 
 
 In October 1786, the Dauphin having returned from China, and several priv- 
 ate traders having arrived from India, the Company made a second sale, in 
 which, as in the former, there were some goods bought of the foreign Com- 
 panies. The amount was somewhat above twenty-four millions ; and the 
 buyers, who came from all parts of the kingdom, were now also well pleased 
 with their purchases, the goods bought in Europe being found very advan- 
 tageous in completing the assortment, to the great emolument of the private 
 traders, whose imports stood much in need of such an assistance. 
 
 The Company now dispatched a second fleet consisting of ten ships, of the 
 burthen altogether of 7,000 tuns, the outfit and cargoes of which cost nineteen 
 
 * This Company imitated the very erroneous N°. Company of the Indies, 
 
 conduct of their predecessors (observed above, established by decree of the Council, 14th April 
 
 p. 277) in having no register of the transfers of 1785. 
 
 their stock, and consequently no list of propri- The bearer is interested in the Company of 
 
 etors. The following is a translation of one of the Indies for one share of the value of one 
 
 the billets, or certificates, by which the pro- thousand livres 
 
 pertv of their shares was held, and by the deli- At Paris the day of 
 
 very of which to the purchaser it was trans- agreeable to the resolution of the General Court, 
 
 ferred. (Signed by the Cashier and three Adminis- 
 trators.) 
 
 millions*
 
 FRENCH WITH INDIA.. 183 
 
 millions. To defray this expenditure, they obtained an arret on the 2 1 st of 
 September 1786 for adding twenty millions to their capital stock, and extending 
 the duration of their privilege to fifteen years. The new stock was mostly sub- 
 scribed for by the monied men of Paris, which was a misfortune to the Com- 
 pany ; as people, residing in an inland and uncommercial city, could not be ex- 
 pected to know any thing of maritime affairs, or to understand the principles of 
 foreign commerce, especially of India commerce, which requires, more than any 
 other, to be conducted in a regular routine, and by people who have acquired 
 experience from long practice. The acquisition of almost the whole of the new 
 stock by people of this description was also prejudicial to the Company in 
 another respect, as it gave the merchants of the sea-ports a just cause of fresh 
 resentment and complaint against such an abuse of the exclusive privilege, as 
 debarred them from obtaining any participation of it, except by paying an enorm- 
 ous advance to those capitalists. It was another unfortunate circumstance for 
 the Company, that about this time the spirit of gambling in the national debts 
 and the stocks of public Companies had revived in France to a most dangerous 
 and alarming extent. The Abbe d'Espagnac and his confederates formed a 
 scheme for getting into their own hands the whole stock of the Company of the 
 Indies, at whatever price, in order to command a resale on their own terms. 
 Commercial affairs could not prosper in the hands of a Company (if dayly suc- 
 cessions of new stock-holders could be called a Company) who purchased shares 
 without any view to the benefits arising from the trade, but merely in order to 
 sell them again at an advanced price. 
 
 Ever since the establishment of this Company the private merchants had kept 
 up a continual outcry for the unlimited freedom of trade ; and they persisted in 
 demanding licences from Government for their ships, though they were con- 
 stantly refused. Those, who had been concerned in smuggling East-India goods 
 into the kingdom during the abandonment of the trade, also joined in the cry, 
 and employed a lawyer to draw up a memorial against the Company. But they 
 could not then make any impression upon the King or his Ministers ; and im- 
 partial men perceived in their representations much more of the clamour and 
 resentment of disappointed fraudulent dealers than of the judicious argument- 
 ation of true patriots. 
 
 The opponents of the Company were not to be easily repulsed. They steadily 
 persisted in demanding the abolition of the Company, whom they called (and 
 indeed not without reason) rather an association of stock-jobbers than a Com- 
 pany of merchants ; and they found means to get their memorials presented to 
 many members of the Assembly of Notables, who met in the year 1787. At a 
 
 002 time
 
 z8 4 THE COMMERCE OF THE FRENCH. 
 
 time when the minds of the people of France were tending rapidly to the revol- 
 ution, which not only overturned the antient government of that country, but 
 has also, in its consequences, given a new face to the continent of Europe, the 
 King was obliged to pay attention to every claim supported by the cry of liberty : 
 and in October 1787 he sent eight Commissioners to a general meeting of the 
 Company to examine their accounts. In 1789 he sent a message to the 
 States-general by his Minister, requesting them to consider the question of 
 the national advantage or disadvantage of conducting the India trade by means 
 of a privileged Company, for which purpose he had ordered all the papers 
 necessary for throwing light on that important subject to be laid before them ; 
 and at all events recommending to them to take due care of the interest of the 
 proprietors of the stock. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at, that the French, in the very crisis of emancip- 
 ation from the galling fetters of despotism, should have run to the opposite ex- 
 treme, and supposed that, in order to enjoy perfect liberty, they had only to 
 demolish whatever had the least appearance of restraint, however salutary. On 
 the 20th of March 1790 a committee of the National Assembly gave their 
 opinion, that the Company should be abolished, and the commerce with India 
 be free to individuals, the Company remaining in possession of their privilege 
 till January 1792. There were many debates* on the same subject in subse- 
 quent meetings : and finally at eleven o'clock at night, on Saturday the 3d of 
 April 1790, the National Assembly, consisting at that late hour of less than half 
 their due number, passed a decree that all French subjects might freely navigate 
 the seas beyond the Cape of Good Hope, which was sanctioned by the King's 
 proclamation on the 3d of May. 
 
 Such was the final catastrophe of the French Company of the Indies, which, 
 with several revolutions and interruptions, and several vicissitudes of prosperity 
 and adversity, had in some degree subsisted near two centuries. Penury of 
 capital, stock-jobbing, want of capacity and commercial knowlege in the ad- 
 ministration, and the perpetual interference of Government in the management 
 of their business, seem to have been the principal causes of the frequent derange- 
 ments of their affairs, and to have concurred with the circumstances of the times 
 to effect their dissolution. 
 
 * In one of them it was proposed to put those paid by the English and Dutch Compa- 
 
 fourteen or fifteen of the King's ships of 50 to nies, in order to have a respectable naval force 
 
 64 guns into the service of the private traders in the Indian seas in case of a war. 
 to India, upon freights 15 per cent lower than 
 
 THE
 
 ( 28 5 ) 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE DANES WITH 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 ABOUT the year 1612 Christiern the Fourth, King of Denmark, is said to 
 have given a charter to a Company for trading to the East Indies. Their cap- 
 ital consisted of two hundred and fifty shares of one thousand rix-dollars each. 
 The Company recommended to their officers to obtain a settlement upon the 
 coast of India by fair purchase, and carefully to avoid having any disputes with 
 the natives, or the European traders. When their people arrived on the coast 
 of Coromandel in the year 16 16, they were kindly received by the Rajah ofTan- 
 jore ; and they entered into a treaty with him for the village of Tranquebar, 
 with a district adjacent to it, and also permission to erect a fort upon it, for 
 which they agreed to pay an annual rent of two thousand pardoes*, or 
 paeroons. 
 
 Such is the origin of the Company, and of their first settlement in India, ac- 
 cording to some, who have professedly written upon the subject. [Commerce 
 des Danois aux Indes, />. 31 .J Others give the following account of the 
 matter. 
 
 Boschhower, a merchant in the service of the Dutch East-India Company, 
 having gained the favour of the Rajah of Ceylon, was persuaded to take up his 
 residence in that island, where he married a woman of high rank, with whom he 
 received a great territory, and the title of Prince of Mignonne. The Rajah 
 afterwards sent him to Europe, as his Ambassador to the States- General, to so- 
 licit their protection against the oppression of the Portuguese : and he also au- 
 thorized him to treat with any other European Power, in case he should not 
 succeed with the Dutch. Boschhower, thinking himself neglected by his own 
 countrymen, applied to the King of Denmark, who accepted his proposals, and 
 sent three ships, with a proper force, to conduct him to Ceylon, which were ac- 
 companied by other three belonging to the Company. Unfortunately for the 
 success of the expedition Boschhower died upon the passage ; and Giedde, the 
 Commander of the King's ships, having got into some dispute with the Rajah of 
 Ceylon, abandoned the enterprise. Crape, the commander of the Company's 
 ships, thereupon sailed for the coast of Tanjore, where he agreed with the Sover- 
 
 * A pardoe is equivalent to four shillings. [PurcLis's Pilgrimage, p. 636.] 
 
 eign
 
 iZ6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 eign of that country for permission to make a settlement, which is believed to 
 have been that of Tranquebar. 
 
 Probably the truth of the matter is, that the whole, or a part of the forces, in- 
 tended to act in Ceylon, were landed at Tranquebar, and the reinforcement, 
 being more numerous than the original settlers, have come to be considered as 
 the founders of the settlement, as has happened in similar cases in other coun- 
 tries and in various ages : and it is not improbable that the original Company 
 may have been an unchartered association till the year 1618 *. 
 
 The town of Tranquebar, protected by the adjacent fort of Dansburg, soon 
 began to make a respectable appearance. Many of the natives, induced by the 
 advantage of the trade, and the kindness and justice, wherewith the Company's 
 agents treated people of all descriptions, with whom they had any transacdons, 
 became fixed inhabitants : and the ships of various nations resorted to the port, 
 where they were allowed to trade upon liberal terms. By such conduct the 
 Danish factory acquired the goodwill and the confidence of the people of India ; 
 and their trade, which was extended to the Moluccos, China, and other coun- 
 tries, became very flourishing. They had also some factories on the coast of 
 Malabar and in Bengal, and one at Bantam, all which were under the direction 
 of Tranquebar. 
 
 Their prosperity was not of long continuance. Their Sovereign got himself 
 involved in a long and bloody war, which deranged the Company's affairs, and 
 prevented them from dispatching their ships with due regularity. Their servants 
 in India appear, however, to have conducted their affairs with great prudence, 
 according to circumstances. The Company's capital not admitting extensive 
 speculations in commerce, nor powerful armaments to protect them in time of 
 war, they traded from port to port in India, and even took goods belonging to 
 the Moorish merchants on freight. When the profits accumulated to a suf- 
 ficient sum to load a ship for Denmark, they dispatched one ; though, in the 
 reduced state of their trade, they were able to do so only once in two or three 
 years. 
 
 But this languid state of the trade, and their slender capital, amounting in the 
 year 1624 only to 189,616 rix-dollars, could not enable the Company to pre- 
 
 * This appears probable from the answer of Dutch Company to persuade the English Corn- 
 King Frederick the Fourth to the British and pany to an union with them. See above, 
 Dutch Ambassadors in the year 1728, and also p. 99. 
 from one of the arguments adduced by the 
 
 serve
 
 DANES WITH INDIA. 287 
 
 serve their commercial existence ; and King Christiern the Fourth had the morti- 
 fication to receive a surrender of their property into his hands in payment of a 
 debt due to him. Notwithstanding the misfortunes of the original founders of 
 the East-India trade, their servants in India, by their prudent management, ap- 
 pear to have preserved the possession of Tranquebar, and perhaps some of the 
 inferior settlements, though the Rajah of Tanjore, their landlord, observing their 
 enfeebled state, was frequently very troublesome to them by cutting off their 
 communication with the country, and other acts of hostility. He even entered 
 into a negotiation with agents from the Dutch Company in the year 1689 to put 
 Tranquebar with its adjacent district into their hands, in consideration of 50,000 
 pardoes to be paid to him. In consequence of this bargain he kept the place 
 closely invested with an army of above thirty thousand men, till he was driven 
 away by a detachment of the English Company's forces sent from Madras, after 
 he had continued the siege for six months. 
 
 In November 1670 King Christiern the Fifth gave a charter to a new Com- 
 pany for the trade to India ; and he presented to them some vessels and other 
 property, valued at 97,073 rix-dollars, in addition to which they subscribed 
 162,800 crowns. Of the transactions of this Company little is known. On 
 the 29th of October 1 698, they got a new charter, by which they became bound 
 to make certain payments into the Royal treasury. 
 
 The suppression of the East-India Company of Ostend, which, after long ne- 
 gotiations, was effected by the strong remonstrances of the British and Dutch 
 Governments, was expected to be a means of giving new vigour to the exertions 
 of the Danish Company, Josiah Van Asperen, a member of that Company, 
 having found means to persuade King Frederick the Fourth, that the ruin of 
 the Ostend Company was a circumstance very favourable for the Danish East- 
 India trade, which might now be augmented and improved by the stock and 
 knowlege of their members and officers, and that the objection made by other 
 nations against their establishment could by no means be urged against a Com- 
 pany, who had already existed above a century. 
 
 The King thereupon issued a charter in April 1728, by which the Company 
 were empowered to assume new partners, subscribing for shares of one thousand 
 rix-dollars each, whom he united with the old members in a full participation of 
 all rights and privileges ; and he prescribed the mode of adjusting the accounts 
 of the old and new members. 
 
 The King thought that the subscription for new shares would be promoted by 
 establishing an India house at Altona, a town adjacent to Hamburgh, and be- 
 longing to Denmark. But this measure was regarded by the English and Dutch 
 
 Companies
 
 188 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Companies as little less than re-establishing the Ostend Company : and the 
 British and Dutch Ambassadors at Copenhagen were instructed to request that 
 the King would continue the Danish East-India Company in their original state. 
 The King answered, that he had not erected a new Company, but only con- 
 firmed the privileges of a Company, who had subsisted above a hundred and 
 ten years ; and that he was not restrained by any treaty from promoting the 
 commerce of his subjects in every part of the world, but bound by his duty, as 
 their Sovereign, to advance their prosperity by every means in his power. 
 
 The jealousy of the foreign Companies opened the eyes of the Danish people, 
 who did not before see it, to the advantage likely to ensue to the adventurers in 
 the East-India trade, when conducted on a proper scale, and induced great num- 
 bers to subscribe. The King thought proper, however, to shut up the house at 
 Altona. 
 
 On the 1 2th of April 1732 King Christiern the Sixth gave the Company a 
 new charter, confirming to them, for the term of forty years, the privilege of ex- 
 clusive trade to all countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope as far as China, 
 under the name of The Royal Danish Asiatic Company. — They, and 
 their representatives, are empowered to make alliances and treaties, in the King's 
 name, with the Princes of India, and, in cases of necessity, to defend their rights 
 by force of arms. — They are confirmed in the possession of the castle of Dans- 
 burg, the town of Tranquebar, and its territory, with power to erect forts, 
 comptoirs, and factories, they maintaining the garrison, and paying the rent due 
 to the King of Tanjore. — The ships and merchandize of the Company shall 
 never be detained or arrested upon any account whatever, either in time of peace 
 or time of war. — Their transactions shall be entirely free. — The money invested 
 in their capital, or drawn out of it, and carried to foreign countries, and money 
 lent to them, shall be exempted from all taxes and confiscations, even though it 
 may belong to the subjects of Powers at war with Denmark. The paper used 
 for their contracts and other transactions is exempted from stamp duties. — All 
 kinds of merchandize and stores, required for equipping and victualing their 
 vessels in Denmark or in India, are exempted from all duties of customs, excise, 
 and Ore sound, and all other taxes upon importation and exportation, whether in 
 Danish or foreign vessels : and the Company's own vessels are exempted from 
 all harbour dues, lastage money, and other charges, except one hundred rix- 
 dollars for each ship returned from India. — The Directors shall give in an attested 
 account, extracted from their books, of all merchandize imported by them from 
 India, with the amount of their proceeds at the public sale ; agreeable to which 
 there shall be paid a duty of one per cent on the value of all such merchandize 
 
 exported
 
 DANES WITH INDIA. 289 
 
 exported to foreign countries, and two and a half ■per cent on what are consumed 
 in the Danish dominions. Moreover the India goods exported shall be ex- 
 empted from the duties of the Sound for the first ten years. — All foreigners in 
 the service of the Company shall enjoy the privileges of Danish subjects. — The 
 Directors may borrow money at interest for account of the Company. — The 
 members of the Company may make regulations for the regular and upright ad- 
 ministration of their affairs, and the general advantage of their commerce. — 
 They are empowered to chuse as many Directors as they think necessary. The 
 Company shall chuse persons of piety, good morals, and learning, for their 
 ministers, who shall be confirmed by the King. — As an acknowlegement for 
 the Royal favour, the Company are required to carry in each of their ships, 
 •outward and homeward, three bales, or packages (of a limited size) free of any 
 •charge for freight, and the King engages to put them onboard without delay or 
 ■expense to the Company. 
 
 The Company, in order to give the partners the liberty of taking more or less 
 concern in their enterprises, divided their capital stock into two parts, called 
 fixed capital, and circulating capital. The fixed capital consisted of shares of 
 250 crowns, and was employed in the purchase of the property of the old Com- 
 pany in Europe and India. The circulating capital consisted of money advanced 
 by the partners, and was more or less, according to the number of vessels to be 
 loaded and fitted out in the course of the year, so that any partner might decline 
 being concerned in the voyage of any particular vessel *, in which case another 
 was at liberty to take the portion so resigned by him, and to share the profit or 
 loss, when the accounts of that vessel's voyage should be made up. — In order 
 to enlarge the fixed capital, which was considered as the Company's main de- 
 pendence, it was agreed that a tenth part of the produce of the sales, and a rate 
 of five per cent on all goods shipped at Tranquebar, should be constantly added 
 to it, subject to a certain proportion of the charges of trade. — No vessels built 
 in Europe should be sent out to remain in India ; but vessels, built of Indian 
 timber, might be used for the country trade. If, however, an European ship 
 should lose the proper season of returning to Europe, she should be sent on a 
 trading voyage in India, in order to keep her in employment. — The Company 
 should have five Directors, possessing four shares each in the Company's stock, 
 who should have salaries of 500 rix-dollars each : except that in any year in 
 which no vessel sails or arrives, they should have no salary. There should also 
 
 • None of the partners ever availed himself of this liberty of declining any particular voyage. 
 
 p p be
 
 290 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 be five assistant Directors, having each two shares, with salaries of 100 rix- 
 dollars each, except as above. — The strictest attention should be paid to the 
 morals of the people sent out to India in the Company's service, and those who 
 recommend them must declare upon their honour that they believe them to be 
 persons of good character. No money should be lent or borrowed without the 
 consent of a general meeting of the proprietors. 
 
 In the year 1 744 the Company divided each of their 400 shares into four 
 parts, making 1600 shares, each of which gave a qualification for a vote in the 
 management of their affairs. The fixed capital continued to increase, and in 
 1755 the original share of 250 crowns had increased to 1500, or 375 crowns 
 for each of the 1600 shares. 
 
 In the year 1755 the Company re-established their factory at Chinsura in 
 Bengal, and settled a small factory in the Nicobar islands, which, being found 
 not sufficiently productive, was afterwards given up. They had also some small 
 settlements on the Malabar coast, from which they drew a supply of pepper. 
 Their trade with China was managed by supercargoes, who sailed and returned 
 with the ships to which they were attached. 
 
 From the year 1733 to 1753 the Company dispatched 
 
 to India . . . . . . .28 ships. 
 
 to China ..... . . 32 
 
 60 
 
 Or these there were lost . . 13 
 
 
 returned from India . .20 
 
 
 and from China . . 27 
 
 
 60 
 
 
 From 17154 to 1 764 there arrived from India 
 
 14 ships. 
 
 from China 
 
 . 18 
 
 
 3 2 
 
 In 11 years, 1753 to 1763 inclusive 
 
 Rix-dolhrs. 
 
 the sales produced ..... 
 
 . 11,015,083 
 
 The outfits cost .... 8,152,108 
 
 
 and the profits amounted to . . 2,862,975 
 
 
 1 1,015,083 
 
 The
 
 DANES WITH INDIA. 231 
 
 The dividends were regulated according to the profits made in each year, 
 after setting aside the portion appropriated for the augmentation of the fixed 
 fund, and keeping a sufficient sum in reserve to answer unforeseen exigencies ; 
 and consequently they were very irregular. 
 
 In April 1772 the Company's charter expired, and they obtained a new one, 
 but only for the term of twenty years. The Company continued by this charter 
 to enjoy the exclusive trade to China, as before. But the trade of all other 
 parts of the Indian seas was put upon a new footing. Any Danish subject, and 
 even any foreigner, may trade to India on his own account, if he employs 
 Danish-built vessels, exports a certain quantity of Danish manufactures, and 
 pays the Company two per cent on the value of his outward cargo, and eight 
 per cent on his returns. Individuals may also engage in the country trade in 
 India, paying two per cent on the value of European goods, and four per cent 
 on those of Asia, in the Danish ports in India *. The Company are obliged to 
 export certain quantities of Danish manufactures in every vessel : and all their 
 imports, whether for home consumption or exportation, pay a duty of two per 
 cent, except silk goods and coffee, which are rated higher, in order to en- 
 courage the home manufacture and the cultivation of the Danish West-India 
 Islands. 
 
 The Company, having experienced some inconvenience from the division of 
 their capital into two separate stocks, now united them into one ; and they 
 made a further division of their shares, splitting every one into three, which 
 brought the number to 4,800, which was done for the sake of rendering 
 them more saleable f. They established four factors at Canton to do the 
 business which had hitherto been transacted by the supercargo of each ship. 
 At home they abridged the excessive credit of several years, which they had 
 been accustomed to give to the buyers at their sales, whereby they were 
 obliged to be constantly in debt for money borrowed to carry on their trade : 
 and they also made several improvements in their internal management. 
 
 In the territory of Tranquebar about thirty thousand of the natives lived 
 under the government and protection of about three hundred Danes, and con- 
 tributed a revenue sufficient to defray all the expenses of government. In 
 
 * ' Si, comme on n'en sauroit douter, la f Surely the method used in this country of 
 
 * cour de Copenhague n'a fait ces arrangement selling any number of pounds of the capital, 
 ' que pour donner de la vie a >ses comptoirs, which the buyer and seller agree upon, is much 
 ' l'experience a du la convaincre qu'elle a ete more convenient. 
 
 ♦ trompee.' [Raynal, Hht.phll. et pol. V.'m, 
 p. 16.] 
 
 f P2 process
 
 a9 , THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 process of time abuses were introduced in the administration : the revenue fell 
 off, and the expenses increased : trade languished, and the Company's factors, 
 unable to make advances to the manufacturers, agreeable to the universal 
 practice of India, were obliged to purchase their goods at an advance of 25 or 
 30 per cent. In order to remedy this evil, the Company resolved to keep a 
 sum of money employed in India, no part of which should be drawn home for 
 at least ten years, during which the profits made upon it, should also be added 
 to the capital. The state of affairs at Tranquebar was soon greatly improved : 
 new beneficial regulations produced a happier and more economical management 
 of the police and the revenue, which was further augmented by the acquisition 
 of an addition to the territory. 
 
 In consequence of these improvements in the state of the Company's affairs, 
 their stock sold in the year 1775 at from 25 to 30 per cent above par, while 
 their dividends were about ten per cent. 
 
 We have seen that the greatest number of the Company's ships went to 
 China. Their homeward cargoes consisted chiefly of tea, the greatest part of 
 which was sold to people, who smuggled it into Great Britain, in which the 
 consumption of tea is more than three times as much as is consumed in all the 
 continent of Europe. The commutation of the heavy duty upon tea, which 
 was enacted by the British Parliament in August 1784, gave a severe blow to 
 the continental East-India Companies, but more especially those of Denmark 
 and Sweden, whose trade was in a great measure supported by the fraudulent 
 importations of tea, and along with it many other articles of Indian merchand- 
 ize, into Great Britain *. Notwithstanding this check, their dividend in the 
 year 1 797 was twelve per cent. They had at the same time about ^30,000 
 sterling remaining in their treasury, after making their dividend ; and they had 
 great hopes, that their neutrality, during a war in which almost every other 
 nation in Europe was involved, would render their affairs eminently prosperous. 
 
 But they were not long allowed to indulge in these pleasing hopes. In the 
 year 1 807 Denmark ceased to be a neutral country, in consequence of which 
 the Danish Company were deprived of their settlements in India, and several of 
 their ships were taken. Under the pressure of these disasters the Company's 
 trade has been suspended. 
 
 * It will appear by the subjoined account of was passed, were not near so numerous as 
 tea imported from Canton, that the ships dis- before, 
 patched to China after the commutation act 
 
 72c
 
 DANES WITH INDIA. 
 
 2 93 
 
 The following is an Account of the number of ships loaded at Canton in China, and 
 the quantity of tea shipped, for account of the Danish East-India Company, since 
 the year 1767. 
 
 Season. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tea, lbs. 
 
 I Season. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tea, lbs. 
 
 1767.8 . 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 . 3,OIO,286 
 
 I787-8 . 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 2,664,000 
 
 1768-9 . 
 
 I 
 
 • 1,430,874 
 
 I788-9 . 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 2,496,800 
 
 1769-70 . 
 
 I 
 
 . 1,449,306 
 
 1789-90 . 
 
 . I 
 
 • 1 >773> ooa 
 
 1770 - 1 . 
 
 2 . 
 
 . 2,800,482 
 
 I790-I • 
 
 I 
 
 520,700 
 
 1771 -2 nc 
 
 » account. 
 
 
 1791 - 2 . 
 
 . O 
 
 
 1772-3 . 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 2,999,600 
 
 1792-3 . 
 
 I . 
 
 852,670 
 
 1773- 4 • 
 
 2 . 
 
 . 8,867,300 
 
 r 793 - 4 • 
 
 . O 
 
 
 »774-5 • • 
 
 2 *. 
 
 ' 3> 2 37>3°° 
 
 '794-5 • 
 
 I . 
 
 24,670 
 
 1775-6 . 
 
 2 . 
 
 2.833,700 
 
 1795-6 . 
 
 . o- 
 
 
 1776-7 . 
 
 2 . . 
 
 2-,487,3oo 
 
 1796-7 . 
 
 2 . 
 
 2,504,400 
 
 1777-8 . . 
 
 2 . . 
 
 2.098,300 
 
 1797 - 8 . 
 
 ■ 3 • 
 
 . 1,307,800 
 
 1778-9 . . 
 
 1 . . 
 
 1,388,400 
 
 1798-9 . , 
 
 5 • 
 
 2,910,900 
 
 1779-80 . 
 
 3 • - 
 
 3,983,600 
 
 1799,1800 
 
 3 • 
 
 . 1,132,266 
 
 1780 - 1 . 
 
 2 . . 
 
 2,341,400 
 
 1800 - 1 . , 
 
 4 • 
 
 963,467 
 
 1781 - 2 . 
 
 3 • • 
 
 4,118,500 
 
 1801 - 2 » . 
 
 1 
 
 l8 S>533 
 
 1782-3 . . 
 
 4 . . 
 
 5,477,200 
 
 1802-3 • • 
 
 1 
 
 . 1,380,266 
 
 1783-4 . . 
 
 3 • • 
 
 3,204,000 
 
 1803-4 . . 
 
 
 
 
 1784-5 . . 
 
 4 • • 
 
 3,158,000 
 
 1 804 - 5 . . 
 
 1 
 
 966,133 
 
 1785-6 . . 
 
 3 • • 
 
 4,578,100 j 
 
 1805-6 . . 
 
 2 . 
 
 • i,739 3 8 66 
 
 1786-7 . . 
 
 2 . . 
 
 2,092,000 1 
 
 1806-7 . . 
 
 O 
 
 
 THE
 
 ( 294 ) 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE OSTEND COMPANY 
 
 WITH INDIA. 
 
 AFTER the Seven United provinces of the Netherlands threw off the yoke 
 of Spain, the remaining ten provinces fell into the most deplorable decay, 
 almost all their industry, and also most of their moveable wealth, being trans- 
 ferred to Holland and other Protestant countries, for the sake of enjoying 
 religious, civil, and commercial, freedom. 
 
 In the year 1598, when Philip, King of Spain, bestowed the feudal sover- 
 eignty of the Netherlands on his daughter, Isabella Clara Eugenia, and her 
 husband, Albert Archduke of Austria, he prohibited their subjects by the deed 
 of conveyance from sailing to America or the East Indies. In vain the unfort- 
 unate and oppressed Netherlanders presented petition after petition to the Court 
 of Madrid, praying to be relieved from this cruel exclusion : they could obtain 
 no redress. Their trade was annihilated ; their cities, once the hives of industry, 
 were depopulated ; and even Antwerp, lately the commercial capital and general 
 emporium of Europe, was reduced almost to a solitude, its harbour without 
 shipping, and its exchange deserted by the merchants. 
 
 At length, after the sovereignty had reverted by the death of Isabella in the 
 year 1638 to the Crown of Spain, the King was persuaded to grant the Nether- 
 landers the liberty of trading to those parts of India, which were possessed by 
 the Portuguese, then also his subjects. But, before they had time to avail 
 themselves of the indulgence, it was frustrated by the revolt of the Portuguese, 
 who, in the year 1640, threw off the yoke of Spain, and consequently resumed 
 the sovereignty of as many of their Indian settlements as the Dutch had not yet 
 wrested from them. 
 
 Nothing further was done for opening a trade with India till the year 1698, 
 when Carlos the Second, the last of the Austrian Kings of Spain, granted a 
 charter for a Company to trade from the Netherlands to such parts of India and 
 the coast of Guinea as were not occupied by other European nations, with a 
 capital of two millions of florins. But again they were prevented from making 
 any advantage of their charter by the death of the King on the 1 ft of November 
 1 700, and the long and bloody war for the succession to the crown of Spain, 
 which convulsed all Europe till the year 1713. After the peace the Netherlanders 
 fell under the dominion of the House of Austria, subject to the same restriction 
 
 by
 
 .THE COMMERCE OF THE OSTEND COMPANY. 29; 
 
 by which, when they were under the dominion of Spain, they were debarred 
 from trading to India in any other manner than had been allowed to the sub- 
 jects of Spain *. 
 
 The Emperor, desiring to encourage and extend the commerce of his new 
 subjects in the Netherlands, and at the same time wishing to avoid a contest 
 with the maritime Powers, chose that two ships equipped by private individuals, 
 should go to India, by way of experiment, with his passport After a long 
 time spent in preparation, these two ships sailed from Ostend in the year 1717; 
 and their success encouraged other merchants to fit out some more in the same 
 manner. Thus the trade continued under a kind of temporary association of 
 merchants till some enterprising foreigners, observing this promising commence- 
 ment of an East-India trade, made proposals to the Court of Vienna for the 
 establishment of a regular East-India Company, with the Emperor's charter for 
 a proper term of years. 
 
 In the mean time one of the ships belonging to the temporary adventurers 
 was seized with a rich cargo onboard, by the Dutch West-India Company on 
 the coast of Africa in the month of December 17 18. The Emperor made a 
 demand for satisfaction and compensation to the suffering merchants, which 
 was so little regarded by the Dutch, that another ship belonging to Ostend was 
 also taken by the ships of the Dutch East-India Company. The merchants of. 
 Offend, finding, no good to be. done by negotiation, fitted out some vessels of 
 force, for which they obtained the Emperor's commission of reprisal. Captain 
 Winter, whose ship had been taken from him on the Coast of Guinea, com 
 manded one of them, and soon found his own ship lying in the Downs, with a 
 cargo of ivory and gold dust, the property of the Dutch West-India Company. 
 He immediately took possession of her ; and now the Dutch took their turn to 
 make remonstrances against this capture ; but, in such a case, they could 
 scarcely expect to obtain restitution of the prize. 
 
 The merchants, encouraged by the countenance and support of their Sover- 
 eign, dispatched five vessels for India in the beginning of the year 1720 ; and 
 next year they sent six more, whereof three were bound for China, one for 
 Mocha, one for Surat and the coast of Malabar, and one for Bengal. The 
 Dutch Government, seriously alarmed by such active exertions, seized a ship 
 fitting out for India by the merchants, and, in contempt of the application of 
 the Imperial Minister at the Hague, ordered her to be publicly sold. About 
 the same time a British privateer made prize of a rich homeward-bound ship, 
 belonging to the Ostend merchants, near the coast of Madagascar. 
 
 * Sec above, p. 52. 
 
 These
 
 j 9 6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 These losses threw a damp upon the ardour of the adventurers, and induced 
 them to detain a ship, nearly ready to put to sea, in the harbour of Ostend. 
 But the arrival of four ships richly loaded in the summer of the year 1722 en- 
 couraged them to resume their spirit of enterprise and exertion. 
 
 Though the Emperor had authorized the associated merchants in the year 
 1719 to take in subscriptions for a joint stock, and even specified some of the 
 privileges he proposed to grant them as an incorporated body, yet being unwilling 
 to come to a rupture with the Dutch, who were continually importuning him 
 not to establish an East-India Company, he appeared desirous that they should 
 rather continue to carry on their trade under the authority of his passports 
 granted to them as individuals. 
 
 On the 5th of April 1723 the Dutch Minister at Brussels presented to the 
 Marquis de Prie, the Austrian Governor of the Netherlands, a memorial setting 
 forth, that by the treaty of Munster in the year 1648 the Spaniards and the 
 Dutch had agreed, that each nation should preserve their trade and navigation 
 in the East Indies within the same limits in which it was then conducted. He 
 observed that the Dutch had assisted the Emperor to obtain the dominion of 
 the Netherlands, and that they could not expect so bad a return as the establish- 
 ment of a trade in direct violation of the treaty of Munster, and of the confirm- 
 ation of that treaty by the 26th article of the Barrier treaty, wherein it was ex- 
 pressly stipulated, that commerce, and all that depends upon it in whole or in 
 part, should remain on the footing established, and in the manner appointed* 
 by the articles of the treaty of Munster ; that the Barrier treaty was guaranteed 
 by the King of Great Britain, at a time when his Imperial Majesty was actually 
 the Sovereign of the Netherlands, the inhabitants of which could claim no other 
 rights by passing from the dominion of Spain to that of the Emperor, than 
 those they enjoyed by the treaty of Munster as subjects of Spain. He concluded 
 by requesting that the patent, said to have been granted, should not be publish- 
 ed, or should be revoked, and that no ships should be allowed to sail from the 
 Netherlands to India, either by virtue of a patent or any other kind of authority. 
 
 The Marquis de Prie, who derived a considerable emolument from the temp- 
 orary licences to the ships, and therefor wished the trade to continue on its 
 present footing, advised his Sovereign against granting a charter. Prince 
 Eugene and the Emperor's other Ministers also represented to him, that the 
 erection of the proposed Company could not fail to give offence to the maritime 
 Powers, by whose means he had become Sovereign of the Netherlands, and 
 that therefor the measure was equally inconsistent with his interest and with 
 his dignity. 
 
 The
 
 OS TEND COMPANY WITH INDIA. 297 
 
 The English East-India Company had also become uneasy at seeing the 
 progress of the Netherlanders ; and they complained, not without reason, that 
 much of the capital which supported the trade, was furnished by British sub- 
 jects, and that the trade and the navigation were in a great measure conducted 
 by men bred up in their service, who were seduced, by extravagant pay and 
 promises, to employ their talents and acquired knowlege of the Indian trade 
 to the prejudice of their original employers and their native country. 
 
 In the year 1721 the British Parliament had passed an act [7 Geo. I, c. 21] for 
 a rigorous enforcement of the penalties formerly enacted against British sub- 
 jects going to India in the service of foreigners, and against smugglers of East- 
 India goods into any part of the British dominions. This act having had little 
 effect, another [9 Geo. I, c. 26] Was passed in the Spring of the year 1723, 
 more expressly prohibiting British subjects from being concerned in the pro- 
 posed Company for carrying on the East-India trade from the Austrian 
 Netherlands, on penalty of triple the value of their subscriptions to the capital 
 of that Company, or imprisonment. British subjects, found in any part of 
 India, and not in the service of the English East-India Company, are declared 
 to be guilty of a high misdemeanour, and are to be seized, and sent to 
 England, in order to be punished. 
 
 The British Minister at Vienna also remonstrated against the establishment 
 of the new Company. But, notwithstanding all the dissuasions of foreign 
 Courts and of his own Ministers, the Emperor, as if resolved to (how that he 
 was not to be dictated to, now departed from his former cautious line of 
 conduct, and in August 1723 published the charter, which had been made 
 ready on the 19th of December 1722*. 
 
 In the preamble, the Emperor, not satisfied with his Imperial titles, which 
 were sufficiently numerous and pompous, assumed those appropriated by the 
 King of Spain, calling himself King of the East and West Indies, the Canary 
 Islands, the Islands of the Ocean, &c. — He grants to the Company for thirty years 
 the right of trading to the East and West Indies and both sides of Africa. — The 
 capital is fixed at six millions of florins in shares of one thousand each. — Twelve 
 of these shares are necessary to entitle the proprietor to a vote : but foreign 
 proprietors are entirely excluded from voting, — The Company are authorized 
 to ship military stores, and all kinds of merchandize, without any exception 
 whatever. — They may ship gold and silver, coined or in bullion, except the 
 current money of the Austrian Netherlands. — They may fortify their settle- 
 
 * The charter was published at Brussels in Latin, German, Flemish, English, and French. 
 
 Q q merits,
 
 29 8 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 ments, and fabricate cannun and other arms in them, placing the Emperor's 
 armorial bearing over their own. — They may fit out and arm as many vessels as 
 they require : they may build vessels in any of his Imperial Majesty's ports in 
 the Netherlands, Italy, &c. except those of Istria and Dalmatia, which are ap- 
 propriated to the Eastern Company of Vienna, from whom, however, they 
 mav purchase two or three ships every year. — They may acquire lands in the 
 Indies, and build forts and establish colonies upon them ; they may supply them 
 with artillery and stores, and maintain garrisons in them. — They may make com- 
 mercial treaties in his Majesty's name with the Princes of India : but they must 
 not declare war without his Majesty's consent. — As an acknowlegement for 
 his Majesty's favour, they shall present to him, and to each of his successors on 
 his accession, a golden lion, weighing twenty marks (i6o ounces). — His 
 Majesty promises to protect the Company against all enemies, and even, if 
 necessary, to employ his arms in supporting the entire liberty of their commerce 
 and navigation, and will endeavour to procure every advantage and facility for 
 them by treaties with foreign Princes and States. 
 
 It was also reported that the Emperor had promised to exempt them from all 
 duties upon their imports and exports during the first three years, and to make 
 them a present of 300,000 crowns to support the extraordinary expenses and 
 losses incident to a new undertaking. 
 
 The Company, in full confidence of obtaining their charter, had dispatched 
 a vessel in January for Bengal, in order to take possession of a fort, which the 
 Great Mogul had permitted them to build for the security of their factory. By 
 this vessel the Emperor sent an Ambassador to the Great Mogul, with a present 
 of six cannon marked with his own arms. 
 
 The Company, having obtained their charter, opened subscription books at 
 Antwerp on the 1 1 th of August, and at noon next day the subscription was 
 completely filled up by the merchants and bankers of Brussels, Ostend, New- 
 port, Ghent, and Bruges, and many Lords of the Courts of Vienna and 
 Brussels. About the end of the same month the shares were sold at a premium 
 of from twelve to fifteen per cent. 
 
 The Dutch East-India and West-India Companies now demanded permission 
 from the States-General to oppose the new Company by force of arms. The 
 King of France, picqued at seeing a subscription filled for the new Company in 
 a few hours, when similar subscriptions had gone on so heavily in his own 
 dominions, notwithstanding the allurements held out to the vanity, as well as 
 the interest, of subscribers*, issued an arret on the 16th of August, strictly pro- 
 
 * See above, pp. 257, 266. 
 
 hibiting
 
 OSTEND COMPANY WITH INDIA. 299 
 
 hibiting his subjects from taking shares in the Ostend Company, entering into 
 their service, or selling them any ships, and threatening the offenders with con- 
 fiscation and imprisonment. In the year 1724 the King of Spain also joined in 
 remonstrating against the establishment of the new Company. 
 
 Notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of all the nations already engaged 
 in the India trade, the Company's affairs went on very prosperously both in 
 Europe and in India. Most of their factors and other servants, having been in 
 the service of the older Companies, were perfectly acquainted with the business, 
 and found no difficulty in convincing the ruling people among the natives, that 
 an opposition to the interest of the Ostend Company, which some of the agents 
 of the other Companies wished to engage them in, would only prevent the 
 people of the country from enjoying the benefit of a greater variety of com- 
 petitors for their trade. 
 
 A very unexpected event seemingly promised to secure the stability of the 
 Company. Philip, King of Spain, entered into a close alliance with his late 
 enemy, the Emperor, whose pretensions to the crown of Spain, supported by 
 Great Britain and the States-General, had harassed Spain, and almost all 
 Europe, with a long and ruinous war. This alliance was cemented by several 
 treaties, one of which, dated the 1st of May 1725, and particularly relating to 
 commercial affairs, provides that the ships of the contracting Powers shall be 
 received in a friendly manner in each-other's ports, ' which same proviso is 
 ' also to take place in the East Indies, on condition that they do not carry on 
 ' any trade there, nor be suffered to buy any thing besides victuals, and such 
 ' materials as they want for repairing and fitting out their ships.' This article 
 gave the Company's ships at least the liberty of obtaining refreshments and 
 repairs in the Spanish ports in India, which lie very conveniently in the way of 
 ships sailing to or from China. A market in Europe, and seemingly also in 
 the Spanish colonies, was provided for them by the 36th article, which engages 
 that ' his Imperial Majesty's subjects and ships shall be allowed to import all 
 ' sorts of produce and merchandize from the East Indies into any of the states 
 ' and dominions of the King of Spain, provided it appears from the certificates 
 ' of the India Company erected in the Austrian Netherlands, that they are the 
 ' produce of the places conquered, the colonies, or factories, of the said Com- 
 ' pany, or that they came from thence : and in this respect they shall enjoy the 
 ' same privileges which were granted to the subjects of the United provinces by 
 * the Royal cedulas of the 27th of June and 3d of July 1663.' 
 
 It was now supposed by most people, that the Company were established on 
 the most secure and permanent foundation. But some of the most judicious of 
 
 g Q 2 the
 
 3 oo THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 the partners were of a very different opinion, and took the opportunity of selling 
 out their shares during the sun-shine of prosperity. The succeeding events 
 soon justified the prudence of their conduct. 
 
 In order to counterbalance the alliance between Austria and Spain, the Kings 
 of Great Britain, France, and Prussia, entered into a treaty in September follow- 
 ing, whereby they all engaged to guarantee the territories belonging to each of 
 them, ' in and out of Europe,' and also ' all the rights, immunities, and ad- 
 ' vantages, particularly those relating to trade, which the said allies enjoy or 
 ' ought to enjoy respectively *.' 
 
 The States-General were invited to join in this alliance. But, with that con- 
 stitutional tardiness which sometimes counteracts their habitual keen attention 
 to their pecuniary interest, they put off their accession to it till August 1726. 
 
 While these diplomatic transactions were going forward, the Company's 
 affairs appeared to be in the most prosperous situation. Several ships arrived 
 from India and China with valuable cargoes, the sales of which amounted to 
 above five millions of florins. In September 1726 the Directors called a meet- 
 ing of the proprietors, and informed them their commerce had been in general 
 so successful, that they were enabled to carry 250 florins to the account of every 
 share of the capital, which, with the 750 already paid in, completed the invest- 
 ment of 1000 florins, the original amount of the share. But this addition, 
 which was equal to a dividend of 32 3 per cent upon the capital really paid in, 
 and employed in the trade, was not sufficient to keep up the spirits of the part- 
 ners under the pressure of a confederacy of the most powerful Sovereigns of 
 Europe against them. 
 
 The object, which King Philip had in view in entering into a close connection 
 with the Emperor, was to obtain the Archduchess Maria Theresa, his daughter 
 and heiress of all his dominions, for a wife to his own son Carlos. But the 
 Emperor does not appear to have ever intended that the match should take 
 place: and the King of Spain soon after finding himself unable to furnish the 
 pecuniary assistance expected by his Imperial ally, the alliance broke up. 
 
 About the same time the King of Great Britain and his allies signified their 
 willingness to support the pragmatic sanction, the purport of which was to 
 secure the succession of Maria Theresa to her father's dominions. That bein<r 
 
 o 
 
 the object the Emperor had most at heart, he, in return, sacrificed the interest 
 
 * The Ostcnd Company is never once men- lude to the right claimed by the contracting 
 tioned in the treaty. But the words, ' par- powers of opposing the establishment of that 
 ' Ucularly those relating to trade,' plainly al- Company. 
 
 of
 
 OSTEND COMPANY WITH INDIA. 301 
 
 of the Ostend Company, so far as to agree, by a treaty concluded on the 31st 
 of May 1727, that their privilege should be suspended for seven years, during 
 which no ships should sail from Ostend for India ; but those which had already 
 sailed should be permitted to return without molestation, and, if any of them 
 happened to be taken, they should be freely restored. 
 
 On the 1 6th of March 1731 the King of Great Britain entered into a treaty 
 with the Emperor, whereby the King engaged formally to guarantee the succes- 
 sion to the Emperor's dominions agreeable to his declaration made in favour of 
 his daughter, and to maintain it against all persons whatsoever. The Emperor, 
 on his part, bound himself to suppress the Ostend Company totally, and never 
 to permit any vessels to sail to India from the Austrian Netherlands, or any 
 other country which was subject to the crown of Spain in the time of King 
 Carles the Second, only reserving to the Ostend Company a right to send two 
 ships, each only for one voyage, to India, and to receive the merchandize to be 
 imported by them, and sell the same, as they should think proper, at Ostend. 
 
 Immediately after the suspension of the Company's privilege, the proprietors, 
 knowing that the absolute suppression was resolved upon, turned their thoughts 
 to consider of some means to preserve their commerce, either in ports belonging 
 to the Emperor, which had never been subject to Spain, and consequently not 
 liable to the objections urged against those of the Netherlands, or in the ports 
 of some other Prince by means of passports, under which they had for some 
 time carried on their trade. The only ports in the Austrian dominions, besides 
 those of the Netherlands, were Trieste and Fiume, both at the head of the 
 Gulf of Venice, neither of them convenient nor capable of receiving large ves- 
 sels. The Emperor, who was as desirous of having an East-India trade in his 
 Dominions as the Company could be, did every thing in his power to render 
 those two ports more commodious, and in the year 1728 visited Trieste in per- 
 son, where he witnessed the launch of a small ship of war, and animated the 
 workmen employed in improving the harbour by his presence and bounty : but 
 the natural impediments were found to be insurmountable : and the Emperor 
 seems to have given up all hopes of obtaining any share of the India trade to his 
 dominions. 
 
 The Company next applied to the Kings of Poland and Prussia, and obtained 
 passports from both. The Saint Theresa, under Polish colours, was seized by 
 some English ships of war in the Ganges, and retained as a prize, notwithstand- 
 ing a faint application to get her restored made by the Polish Minister. The 
 Apollo, with a Prussian passport (which, it is believed, was put onboard her by 
 
 an
 
 > 02 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 an advice boat, after she arrived in the European seas) arrived at Stade, a port 
 in the River Elbe, belonging to the King of Great Britain, where she was re- 
 ceived as a Prussian ship, as she was also at Hamburgh, a few miles higher up 
 the river, where she arrived in September 1 73 1. After she had landed the most 
 of her cargo, and the sale was advertized, the British and Dutch Ministers pre- 
 sented a strong memorial to the Magistrates of Hamburgh on the 10th of De- 
 cember, requiring them to sequester the ship and cargo. The Magistrates, 
 having called a general meeting of the citizens to consider the matter, answered 
 that, as the Elbe was a river free to the whole German empire, all vessels, except 
 those of the enemies of the empire and pirates, had a right to come into it ; that 
 they could not refuse to admit a ship bearing the colours of his Prussian Majesty, 
 especially after she was received as a Prussian ship at Stade, and also at a port 
 in Ireland, where she had called for refreshment ; that they had no right to inter- 
 fere with the cargo of any ship in their port, further than to receive the cus- 
 tomary duties. Therefor they begged that the King of Great Britain and the 
 States-General would not insist upon their doing what they had no right nor 
 power to do, or require them to interfere in disputes between the higher Powers 
 of Europe. Notwithstanding the menacing stile of a second memorial presented 
 by the British and Dutch Ministers, it was not thought prudent to push the 
 matter to extremities, which might induce the Emperor to vindicate the freedom 
 of the River Elbe, and the King of Prussia to support the honour of his flag. 
 The sale was allowed to go forward ; and the Company flattered themselves 
 that they had found a way of carrying on their business successfully. 
 
 Soon after, another of the Company's ships, which was expected home, was 
 also met by an advice boat, and directed to put into Cadiz, and to act agree- 
 able to instructions to be received there. At Cadiz the cargo was shifted into 
 a French ship, the commander of which signed bills of loading for the delivery 
 of the goods, as the property of a Spanish merchant of Cadiz, to a merchant in 
 Hamburgh. The British and Dutch Governments, being informed of the 
 whole of these transactions, now applied to the Emperor, requesting him to in- 
 terpose his authority to put a stop to such violations of the late treaties. The 
 Emperor thought it best not to contest the matter, and ordered his Minister at 
 Hamburgh to request the Senate of that city to sequester the goods, as belong- 
 ing to a Company, whom he had suppressed, and who were carrying on their 
 trade in defiance of his orders. Though the Senate represented to the Em- 
 peror, that they found by the ship's papers that the cargo was Spanish property, 
 the Emperor insisted, and the goods were sequestered. After a tedious nego- 
 tiation,
 
 OS TEND COMPANY WITH INDIA. 303 
 
 tiation, the Senate, on the 15th of January 1734, prohibited the citizens from 
 having any concern with vessels or cargoes so circumstanced : and then the 
 proprietors were allowed to carry away the goods privately. 
 
 The two ships, which, by the terms of the treaty of March 1731, the Com- 
 pany had a right to send to India, sailed from Ostend in April 1732, and 
 returned in the end of the year 1734. 
 
 In the rapid fluctuation of politics, which had for some time taken place in 
 the affairs of Europe, the Emperor was now at war with France, Spain, and Sar- 
 dinia. In such a situation he did not think it expedient to give the slightest 
 cause of offence to Great Britain and the States-General, whose support was so 
 necessary to him, that all thoughts of supporting the interest of the Ostend 
 Company were abandoned. 
 
 An Account of all the ships fitted out by the Ostend Company after they received 
 
 their charter in August 1723. 
 
 Years. Ships. Guns. 
 
 1724 The Emperor Charles 30 
 The Empress Elizabeth 28 
 The Eagle . .25 
 
 1725 The Charles the Sixth 36 
 The Empress . .34 
 The Marquis de Prie 36 
 
 1726 The Golden Lion . . 36 
 The Eagle . . 34 
 The Peace . .36 
 The Hope . . 34 
 
 1727 The Archduchess ~) 
 
 Elizabeth . 5 ^ 
 The Charles the Sixth 28 
 The Concord . .36 
 The Marquis de Prie 28 
 The S' Antony of Padua — 
 The S l Ann . . — 
 about 1728 The S l Joseph . . — 
 
 1729 S' Theresa . . — 
 
 Commanders. 
 
 Michael Caifaes . 
 Balthasar Rose 
 Nicholas Charpentier 
 James Winter . . 
 
 Clarke 
 Andrew Vlaerdering 
 James Larme 
 John Wael 
 Philip Perronet 
 Nicholas Charpentier 
 
 Michael Caifaes . . 
 
 De Meyenne 
 Ryngaet 
 Branwer 
 John Van Brakel 
 Mathew Clynkaert 
 Daniel Petre . . 
 Dominic Braco 
 
 Voyages. 
 
 Bengal. Lost. 
 
 China. 
 
 China. 
 
 Bengal. 
 
 China. 
 
 China. 
 
 China. 
 
 China. 
 
 Bengal. 
 
 Bengal. 
 
 Bengal. 
 
 Bengal. 
 
 China. 
 
 China. 
 
 Brazil, 
 
 as advice 
 boats. 
 
 Bengal. 
 
 about
 
 304 THE COMMERCE OF THE OSTEND COMPANY. 
 Years. Ships. Guns. Commanders. Voyages. 
 
 about 1729 Apollo . . — Michael Calfaes. 
 
 Syren . . . — 
 
 1732 The Concord . . 40 James de Lormes . Bengal. 
 
 The Duke of Lorrain 44 le Clerc . . Bengal. 
 
 The ships of 1726 and 1727 were out upon their voyage, when the treaty 
 of the 31st of May 1727 was concluded ; and the advice boats were dispatched 
 in consequence of that treaty to meet the homeward-bound ships on the coast of 
 Brazil, and give them information of the state of affairs, together with instruc- 
 tions for their conduct. 
 
 THE
 
 ( 3°S ) 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE SWEDES WITH 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 THE Swedes, though a brave and hardy race, and famous, in the earliest 
 accounts we have of the northern parts of the world, for the boldness of their 
 maritime enterprises, were among the last of the European nations to engage in 
 active commercial speculations. Abandoning to the merchants of the Hanse 
 towns the labour and the profit of conducting the little commerce, for which their 
 produce and their fisheries supplied scanty materials, they addicted themselves 
 entirely to military enterprise, and were almost perpetually engaged in war. 
 
 Their great Monarch, Gustavus Adolphus, was the first who attempted to 
 turn the attention of the Swedes to active foreign commerce. He also endea- 
 voured to establish a Company for carrying on a trade with Africa, Asia, Ame- 
 rica, and Magellanica : and on the 14th of June 1626 an association of mer- 
 chants, who proposed to adventure in it, were incorporated for a term of twelve 
 years by his charter. But the wars, in which he was constantly engaged, turned 
 the attention of the people from commerce ; and nothing effectual was done by 
 this first chartered Company. 
 
 In the reign of Queen Christina, the learned daughter of Gustavus, no attempt 
 was made to engage in the India trade. But some of her subjects settled a colony 
 in North America ; and their descendents, though the sovereignty of their 
 country of New Sweden has passed into other hands, are still a numerous peo- 
 ple, distinguished by the Swedish names of themselves and their towns, in New 
 Jersey (the modern name of their country), besides forming a part of the popul- 
 ation of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The perpetual wars and the splendid victories of Charles the Twelfth desolated 
 the kingdom, and destroyed the little trade which the Swedes had acquired. In 
 the following reigns the country slowly recovered from the disasters of Charles's 
 reign ; and industry, with its concomitant prosperity, gradually advanced. 
 Many Swedish subjects, who had flown from their country to avoid the miseries 
 of perpetual war, returned to enrich their native land with their acquired know- 
 lege and the fruits of their industry ; and all foreigners, who were able to add to 
 the commercial knowlege or the trading capital of the country, were received 
 with the greatest kindness. 
 
 R r Such
 
 3 o6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Such was the situation of affairs in Sweden, when the abolition of the East- 
 India Company of Ostend turned adrift a number of men possessed of capital 
 and of commercial and nautical knowlege, and particularly of those branches 
 of them, which were adapted to the commerce of India. The success of that 
 Company's trade had proved that the same people, who conducted it, could 
 manage with propriety and success a similar trade in any country, to which the 
 maritime Powers, whose subjects were already established in the trade, could 
 not make the same objections, which, together with concurrent political events, 
 had finally overthrown that ill-fated Company. 
 
 M r Henry Koning, a judicious and opulent merchant of Stockholm, observing 
 how favourable the time was for establishing an East-India trade in Sweden, re- 
 presented to the King and the Ministry the advantage of seizing the opportunity 
 of attracting the capital and commercial and nautical knowlege of the merchants 
 and navigators, who by the fall of the Ostend Company were no longer con- 
 nected with the Netherlands, and whom the rigour of penal laws prevented from 
 returning to their native countries. 
 
 After mature deliberation, the King, on the 14th of June 1731 granted a 
 charter to Henry Koning and his associates, whereby he bestowed upon them for 
 fifteen years the privilege of trading to all countries between the Cape of Good 
 Hope and Japan, so that they do not enter the ports belonging to any European 
 Power without previously obtaining permission. — Gottenburg is appointed to be 
 the sole port of outfit and arrival for this trade, and for disposing of the home- 
 ward cargoes, which must be done only by public sale. — The Company are 
 bound to pay a hundred dalers to the King, and two dalers to the city, for every 
 last of shipping employed in their trade, within six months after the return of 
 each ship. — The Company's vessels must be built in Sweden, and be rigged and 
 equipped with Swedish materials ; and no foreign ships or materials must be 
 employed, unless it be found impracticable to procure such in Sweden. The 
 ships may be armed as the Company think proper, and carry the Swedish flag. 
 — The Company may make their capital any sum they think proper. — They may 
 export silver bullion of all kinds, except Swedish coin ; and they may import 
 all kinds of merchandize from India. — Their seamen and soldiers are exempted 
 from being pressed into the King's service ; their ships are never to be hindered 
 from sailing on any pretence whatever j their commanders are invested with the 
 same power of maintaining discipline onboard their ships, which the com- 
 manders of the King's ships have ; and they are authorized to oppose by force 
 of arms all pirates and others, who may attempt to molest them in any part of 
 the world. — The goods imported by the Company are exempted from paying 
 
 any
 
 SWEDES WITH INDIA. 307 
 
 any duties, except a very trifling acknowlegement upon removing them. — The 
 Company's business is to be conducted by three Directors, who must all be Pro- 
 testants, native or naturalized subjects of Sweden, and residing in the king- 
 dom ; and Henry Koning is nominated the first of them. — If any Director be- 
 trays his trust, or acts in any respect improperly, the proprietors may apply to 
 the College of commerce, who are empowered to suspend him, in which case 
 the proprietors are to elect another in his place. — All foreigners, who are pro- 
 prietors of the Company's stock, or are employed in their service, shall be na- 
 turalized, on making application to the King ; and their property shall upon 
 no account be liable to arrest. — All other subjects of Sweden are prohibited 
 from trading within the Company's limits on penalty of forfeiting their vessels 
 and cargoes. — The King promises to alter, renew, or enlarge, the Company's 
 privileges, if it shall be found necessary for promoting the prosperity of their 
 trade. 
 
 As the Company were absolutely prohibited by their charter from interfering 
 with the settlements of any other Europeans in India, the Companies of other 
 nations could scarcely find any reason to complain of their establishment ; and 
 they were allowed to make their preparations without remonstrance or molest- 
 ation. Some people, indeed, supposed, as they heard but little of their oper- 
 ations, that the scheme had miscarried of itself. But M r Koning and his partners 
 were not idle, though they chose not to make any great noise or proclamation 
 about their proceedings. They built two large stout ships, and furnished and 
 armed them in the completest manner. They were very careful in the choice 
 of their supercargoes, who were men of abilities and probity, and experienced 
 in the trade with China ; and their naval officers and seamen were selected 
 with equal attention to character and experience. Every thing was done in the 
 best manner : and in two years, from the time of obtaining the charter, the 
 Frederick and the Ulrica, so named after the King and Queen, sailed from 
 Gottenburg. 
 
 The King had notified to the States-General the establishment of the Com- 
 pany, adding that their ships would not upon any account interfere with the 
 trade of other European nations, and would pay ready money for whatever re- 
 freshments or repairs they might want in the ports of any of his allies, which, 
 he therefor hoped, would be readily granted. But it was not till a second ap- 
 plication was made, that their High Mightinesses answered, that, though they 
 could not be expected to favour the new Company, they would give every 
 necessary succour to his Majesty's subjects. As a further mark of the King's 
 solicitude for the prosperity of the Company, and in order to grace their first 
 
 B R 2 appearance
 
 3 o8 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 appearance in China with a conspicuous mark of the Royal countenance and 
 protection, he invested M r Colin Campbell, the supercargo of the Frederick, 
 with the character of his Ambassador to the Emperor of China and some other 
 Oriental Princes. 
 
 The Swedish Company's ships were very well received by the Chinese, who 
 gave them permission to establish a factory at Canton on the same footing with 
 the other Europeans already possessing factories in that city. 
 
 When returning to Europe, the Frederick was seized in the Straits of Sunda 
 by a Dutch fleet of seven ships, and carried into Batavia. On complaint being 
 made by the Swedish Minister to the States- General, they, and also the Direct- 
 ors of the Dutch East-India Company, declared that they had never given any 
 orders to intercept or trouble the Swedish Company's ships. The ship was soon 
 liberated ; and no such insult upon the Swedish flag was ever after committed 
 by the Dutch Company's ships. 
 
 The other ship arrived without any accident ; and the voyage turned out 
 moderately profitable, whereby the Company were encouraged to proceed, and 
 warranted to hope for more profitable returns in subsequent voyages. Their 
 hopes were not disappointed : their trade, notwithstanding the loss of some of 
 their ships, was exceedingly advantageous to themselves, and also to the king- 
 dom ; for, as they exported a considerable quantity of Swedish merchandize, 
 and only a very small portion of their Oriental merchandize was consumed in 
 the country, the money, obtained from foreigners for what was exported, was a 
 great deal more than the bullion exported by them, and had a great effect in 
 enriching a country, which had previously had but a very small quantity of the 
 pretious metals in circulation. 
 
 Notwithstanding these obvious advantages, the envy against foreigners, which 
 characterizes that stage in the progress of society in which a nation is emerging 
 from barbarism, made the unthinking part of the Swedes grumble at seeing so 
 many strangers employed in the Company's service, and taking the bread, as 
 they supposed, out of the mouths of their own people, though those strangers 
 expended their earnings in the country, the only foreigners, who drew any 
 money out of the country, being the non-resident proprietors, who, not being in 
 the sight of the people, escaped their animadversion. In order to appease the 
 discontent, the Company published an order, that at least two thirds of the sea- 
 men onboard their ships should be native Swedes : and, as it is was generally 
 found impossible to obtain so many, properly qualified for the voyage, the 
 people became sensible of the unreasonableness of their clamour. 
 
 In
 
 SWEDES WITH INDIA. 309 
 
 In the year 1746 the Company's charter was renewed, and the term of their 
 exclusive trade prolonged to the year 1766. 
 
 Ever since the establishment of the Company, each of the partners had had 
 the option of withdrawing his capital upon the final termination of the particular 
 voyage for which it was subscribed. In the year 1753 the Company, feeling 
 the inconvenience of this fluctuating and precarious state of their capital, agreed 
 that it should in future be permanent, and that any proprietor, who might be 
 desirous of drawing out his property, should find a purchaser for it, agreeable 
 to the practice of the joint-stock Companies of other nations. At the same 
 time the King, in order to enable the Company to stand their ground against 
 the competition of the new Prussian Company, recently established at Embden, 
 agreed to a commutation duty of twenty per cent upon the value of the East- 
 India goods, consumed within the kingdom, instead of the lastage duty, hitherto 
 paid by every ship for each voyage. But in the year 1765, when the charter 
 was nearly expired, the Government not only resumed the lastage duty, but 
 also demanded the arrears, said to be due since 1753. 
 
 The Government also took another method to obtain a participation of the 
 Company's profits. In the year 1766 the charter was again renewed for a 
 further term of twenty years : and on this occasion the Company were obliged 
 to lend to Government above a hundred thousand pounds sterling at an in- 
 terest of six per cent, and also half as much more without any interest ; and for 
 the payment of the later sum they were to be allowed to retain in their hands 
 the duty payable upon every ship, till the whole of that debt is thereby 
 cancelled. 
 
 The trade of the Company has been, from their first establishment almost 
 entirely with China, whereby they were exempted from falling into quarrels 
 with the Indian Princes, or with other European Companies, and also from the 
 expense of maintaining forts and garrisons. Four fifths, at least, of their imports 
 have been tea, of which a very small part was consumed in Sweden, the most of 
 it having been sold for ready money to foreigners, chiefly for the purpose of 
 being smuggled into Great Britain. That clandestine trade was carried on 
 very successfully, till the British Parliament laid the axe to the root of it in the 
 year 1784 by passing an act for lowering the duties upon tea, and thereby im- 
 mediately almost annihilated the trade of the Swedish Company, who had 
 scarcely any support from the consumption of their own country. It is to be 
 regretted that the enormous expenses of the present long-protracted war have 
 again raised the British duties upon tea almost as high as formerly, and thereby 
 holdout a strong temptation to renew the smuggling trade. 
 
 The
 
 3 l<i 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE SWEDES. 
 
 The following is an account of the number of ships difpatched by the Swedish 
 East-India Company before the year 1766, and of the number of their ships 
 loaded at Canton in China, and of the quantity of tea shipped onboard them 
 after that year. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Voyage. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Voyage 
 
 1731-1745 
 
 3 
 
 Bengal. 
 
 1 746-1 765 
 
 3 
 
 Surat. 
 
 
 22 
 
 China. 
 
 
 33 
 
 China. 
 
 Of 
 
 these 25 fo 
 
 Ships. 
 
 ur were lost. 
 
 Of the 
 
 se 36 one 
 
 Ships. 
 
 was lost. 
 
 Season. 
 
 Tea, lbs. 
 
 Season. 
 
 Tea, lbs. 
 
 1767- 8 
 
 . . 2 . 
 
 • 3,066,143 
 
 1787-8 . 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 . 2,890,900 
 
 1768.9 
 
 . . 2 . 
 
 . 3,186,220 ; 
 
 1788-9 . 
 
 2 . 
 
 . 2,589,000 
 
 1769- 70 
 
 . . I 
 
 • i,494,5°9 
 
 1789 - 90 . 
 
 . O 
 
 
 1770- 1 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 • 3,076,642 
 
 1790- I 
 
 . O 
 
 
 1771 -2 
 
 no account. 
 
 
 1791 - 2 . 
 
 I . 
 
 ■ i>59i>33° 
 
 1772-3 . 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 . 2,746,800 
 
 I792-3 . , 
 
 I . 
 
 • i>559>73° 
 
 1773-4 < 
 
 1 
 
 . 1,489,700 
 
 !793-4 • 
 
 I . 
 
 756,130 
 
 ^774-5 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 . 4,088,100 
 
 l 794-S • 
 
 O 
 
 
 177S- 6 ' 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 . 2,562,500 
 
 1795-6 . , 
 
 2 . 
 
 . 2,759,800 
 
 1776-7 
 
 , . 2 . 
 
 • 3>°49> 100 
 
 1796-7 . . 
 
 O 
 
 
 1777.8 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 . 2,851,200 
 
 1797-8 . . 
 
 2 . . 
 
 1,406,200 
 
 1778.9 
 
 . 2 
 
 . 3,258,000 
 
 1798-9 . , 
 
 1 
 
 1,408,400 
 
 1779-80 
 
 • 2 • 
 
 2,626,400 
 
 1799,1800 
 
 1 . 
 
 444,800 
 
 1780- I 
 
 • 3 • 
 
 . 4,108,900 
 
 1800-1 . . 
 
 2 . 
 
 2,202,400 
 
 1781-2 , 
 
 . 2 . 
 
 • 3> 26 7>3°° 
 
 1801-2 . 
 
 O 
 
 
 1782-3 
 
 • 3 • 
 
 . 4,265,600 
 
 1802-3 • > 
 
 2 . 
 
 . 1,427,067 
 
 1783-4 
 
 • 3 • 
 
 . 4,878,900 
 
 1803-4 . 
 
 O 
 
 
 1784.5 
 
 
 
 
 1804-5 • ■ 
 
 2 . 
 
 2,352,666 
 
 1785.6 
 
 • 4 • 
 
 . 6,212,400 
 
 1805-6 . . 
 
 O 
 
 
 1786-7 . 
 
 1 
 
 • i»747j7°° 
 
 1806-7 . . 
 
 
 
 
 tHE
 
 ( 3» ) 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE PRUSSIANS 
 WITH INDIA. 
 
 THE King of Prussia having obtained the sovereignty of the Province of 
 East Friesland, which contains the city and port of Emden, was desirous that 
 that port, the only one he possessed upon the Ocean, should be the seat of a 
 flourishing trade with China. 
 
 Having got together a Company, composed mostly of Englishmen, Dutch- 
 men, and Frenchmen, whom the hopes of enjoying an advantageous trade with 
 very ample privileges emboldened to set at defiance the strict laws of their own 
 countries against adventuring in foreign East-India Companies, he incorporated 
 them by the name of the Asiatic or China Company, on the nth of 
 September 1750, for the term of fifteen years, during which they should have 
 the privilege of sending two ships every year to China. — All goods imported by 
 them, and sold to foreigners, may be exported without paying any duties ; and 
 the Company may export any article manufactured in the King's dominions 
 without paying any duty. — Foreigners subscribing to the Company's capital 
 acquire all the privileges of Prussian subjects. — Noblemen may subscribe with- 
 out derogating from their dignity. — All the countries to be conquered by them 
 are declared to be their own property. — They are also invested with the privilege 
 of carrying on several manufactures, and the herring, cod, and whale, fisheries 
 and to trade in all places where their vessels can have free access, &c. &c. 
 
 The Company in the course of four or five years sent six ships to China. 
 But there is reason to believe that their business was conducted by people un- 
 acquainted with the proper methods of carrying it on ; for while other Com- 
 panies were making considerable profits by their China trade, the Prussian 
 Company, on winding up their accounts, when the war put an end to their 
 commerce in the year 1756, found that their profit amounted to one half per 
 cent in the year. 
 
 On the 21st of January 1753 the King established a second Company, also at 
 Emden, for trading to Bengal and the neighbouring countries during the space 
 of twenty years, with liberty to send as many vessels as they might think proper. 
 He granted them all the usual privileges of joint-stock companies, such as the 
 
 power
 
 i li 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE PRUSSIANS. 
 
 power to make laws for their regulation, to chuse Directors, who must, how- 
 ever, be approved by him, &c. &c. * 
 
 The Company limited the amount of their capital at a million of Branden- 
 burg crowns, in shares of five hundred crowns each. But the formation of the 
 original Company, who got the charter, could not be completed ; and some 
 other persons, by the King's permission, got possession of the charter, and 
 opened subscriptions at Emden, Breslaw, Koningsberg, Magdeburg, Antwerp, 
 and Hamburgh ; and they proposed to send one or two vessels to Bengal, by 
 way of experiment, as soon as there should be a sufficient sum raised for 
 that purpose. 
 
 After many delays, the Company dispatched a ship to Bengal, where they 
 established a factory. The ship was cast away in the Ganges in the year 1756. 
 In the year 1761 the second ship, sent out by the Company, went to look for 
 the remains of the wreck of the first, but did no good for her owners, who made 
 no further attempt to trade to Bengal. 
 
 Thus expired the Bengal Company, formed by the great Frederick, without 
 any loss, but such as a great Company ought to expect, and be able to bear ; 
 without any opposition from rival Companies ; and without suffering any thing 
 from war, either in Europe or India. 
 
 The Asiatic or China Company have some kind of trade with China at very 
 distant intervals of time, but whether really, or only nominally, on their own 
 account, I do not pretend to know. The following is 
 
 An Account of ships under Prussian colours loaded at Canton, and of the quantity 
 
 of 'tea shipped onboard them. 
 
 Season. Ships. Tea, lbs. 
 
 1783-4 
 
 2 
 
 3>3 2 9> 8qo 
 
 1787-8 
 
 1 
 
 499,300 
 
 179I -2 
 
 1 
 
 5,'°7° 
 
 1800 - I 
 
 1 
 
 802,400 
 
 1802-3 
 
 2 
 
 1,756,000 
 
 1803-4 
 
 1 
 
 i>°73>733 
 
 and none after that year. 
 
 
 
 « The charter contains a great number of minute particular in the affairs of a Company, 
 articles : but it would be idle to relate every xvhich was scarcely ever effective. 
 
 THE
 
 ( --$*3 ) 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE IMPERIAL COMPANY 
 OF TRIESTE, &C WITH INDIA. 
 
 IN the year 1775 M r William Bolts, who had been in India in the service of 
 the English East-India Company, and had incurred their displeasure •, went to 
 Vienna, where he was received by the Empress Maria Theresa as one of her 
 subjects. In order to shew his zeal for the interest of his new Sovereign and 
 her subjects, he presented to her a proposal for establishing a trade with Africa 
 and the East Indies, to be carried on, under her auspices, from her ports at the 
 head of the Adriatic sea, to which there could be no such objection made, as 
 was urged against the establishment of an East-India trade in the Netherlands t- 
 That he might be the better enabled to carry his proposal into execution, he re- 
 quested the Empress to let him have an assortment of metals, cannon, and small 
 arms, from the Imperial mines and manufactories, to the amount of 180,000 
 florins, and to allow him two years to make the payment J. 
 
 The Empress approved of his proposal, and on the 5th of June 1775 
 figned a charter, whereby she authorizes him, during the space of ten years, 
 to carry on a trade, with vessels under the Imperial flag, from her ports in the 
 Adriatic sea, to Persia, India, China, and Africa ; to carry Negro slaves from 
 Africa and Madagascar to America ; to take goods upon freight, either for the 
 Imperial ports or any others, for account of foreigners, whose property shall 
 not be liable to confiscation, even if they should belong to nations at war with 
 her ; to take possession, in her name, of any territories, which he may obtain 
 from the Princes of India ; and she declares, that the vessels belonging to him, 
 or freighted by him, and the people belonging to them, shall be exempted 
 
 * In the year 1760 M r Bolts arrived in f See above, the Commerce of the Ostend 
 
 Bengal ; in 1766 he resigned his appointment East-India Company. 
 
 in the Company's service : and in September , „, .■'•»« 
 
 ,„,_,,„ „ ,. , J I he succeeding Emperor made a present of 
 
 this sum to M' Bolts and his pari 
 
 de pieces authmtiques, isfr. p. 8. J 
 
 ,„ , r, , s*, r ,. , + j. "v. ™ti.ci.uiiiE t,iiiuaui iiwuL a present or 
 
 1768 the Company's Government, finding that ,. .,, „ . , , . r 
 
 , . , , • • T , • ■ r r t,lls sum to M Bolts antl hls partners. \ Recueil 
 he intended to remain in India in defiance or 
 
 their regulations, were obliged to make use of 
 the power vested in them by Parliament to send 
 him home to England. 
 
 S S 
 
 from
 
 3 i4 THE COMMERCE OF THE IMPERIAL 
 
 from arrest or detention, at all rimes, whether of peace or war, that she will 
 provide him all the necessary passports, and will take care to obtain redress for 
 him, if he is attacked or molested. 
 
 Bolts immediately assumed Charles Proli and Company, merchants in 
 Antwerp, as partners to the extent of one third of the business. They 
 agreed to fit out and load two ships at Leghorn and Trieste, and that Bolt? 
 should proceed to India, in order to establish factories and conduct the business, 
 leaving the charter in the hands of his partners with authority to establish a 
 house of India trade at Trieste. 
 
 M r Bolts bought a ship in London, and in March 1776 sailed from the 
 Thames. When he got to sea, he deprived the English captain of the com- 
 mand, appointed a new one, and sailed, under Imperial colours, into Lisbon. 
 There his ship was stripped of all her hands by a British frigate, and a new 
 ship's company procured, consisting of Italian seamen. After encountering 
 several other hardships at Lisbon, he proceeded to Leghorn, whence he sailed 
 for India. Having settled three factories on the Malabar coast, one on the Ni- 
 cobar islands, and one at Delagoa on the east coast of Africa, he returned with 
 three ships to Leghorn, where he arrived in May 1781. 
 
 The Grand Duke of Tuscany was so much pleased to see ships from India 
 arrive in his dominions, that, in order to testify his good will to M r Bolts, he 
 gave him a charter, dated on the 29th of May 1781, for an exclusive trade 
 between Tuscany and all the countries beyond the Cape-de-Verd islands , to be 
 conducted in two ships under Imperial or Tuscan colours, and to continue till 
 the expiration of his Imperial charter. 
 
 With this additional charter in his possession, and enjoying apparently the 
 favour of two Sovereigns in Europe, and some in India, M r Bolts felt himself 
 in a very disagreeable situation, which was owing entirely, as he represents the 
 matter, to the treachery of his Antwerp partners, who left him to support the 
 charges of forming new establishments by his own exertions, and dishonoured 
 the bills drawn by him in India for sums, which his former connections in that 
 country enabled him to raise on his own credit for the joint account of all the 
 partners. He also accused them of not only neglecting to send out ships, ac- 
 cording to agreement, in order to follow up the beginning made by him, but 
 also treacherously sending in the year 1779 one ship from L'Orient in France, 
 and another from Leghorn, both direct for China on their own account, with- 
 out allowing him his two thirds of the profit, stipulated by the contract of part- 
 nership. Moreover, in the later part of the same year they attempted to per- 
 suade
 
 COMPANY OF TRIESTE, &c. WITH INDIA. 3 i S 
 
 suade the Empress to give them a new charter for a trade with India, in which 
 Bolts should have no participation. 
 
 As soon as it was known that Bolts had arrived with three loaded ships from 
 India, his creditors in various parts of Europe flew to Leghorn, and got the 
 ships and their cargoes arrested. The distress he was now in reduced him to 
 the cruel necessity of entering into a new connection with the partners, against 
 whom he already had so many causes of complaint. 
 
 By a contract, dated at Antwerp the 9th of August 1781, M r Bolts ceded 
 to Messieurs Proli and Company the Imperial charter and also the Tuscan 
 charter, in order to raise a joint stock of two millions of florins ; he renounced 
 any right he might have in the profits made by the ships they had sent to China, 
 except a commission of two per cent on the gross sales of the cargoes ; and he 
 took upon himself the property of a ship, called the Grand Duke of Tuscany, 
 with her cargo, which had been seized at the Cape of Good Hope in April 
 1 78 1 by the French and the Dutch, and also of another vessel expected from 
 Malabar. In return, Proli and Company, in friendship to M r Bolts, agreed to 
 lend him ^6,280 16 8 sterling at five per cent interest, in order to enable him 
 to pay off" a debt contracted on the joint account, for which they took security 
 upon his property in the trade : and, as some compensation for the cessions 
 made by M r Bolts, they agreed that he should have a right for once to send 
 two ships to India or China on his own sole account, only paying to them a 
 rate, or commission, of six per cent on the gross amount of the sales of their 
 cargoes in Europe. 
 
 Their agreement was confirmed by the Emperor Joseph II, the son of the 
 Empress Maria Theresa, who also authorized them to raise the sum of two 
 millions of florins, the proposed amount of the capital of the new Imperial 
 Company of Trieste for the Commerce of Asia. 
 
 Proli and Company immediately opened subscriptions for the sum wanted to 
 complete their capital, valuing the present stock of the Company at one million 
 of florins, whereof 800,000 were their own property, and 200,000 belonged 
 to Bolts : and for the remaining million they invited subscribers to take shares 
 of a thousand florins each. They appointed themselves to be Directors at 
 Antwerp, and Bolts and another person, not yet elected, to be Directors at 
 Trieste ; and they reserved to the Directors, as a compensation for their 
 trouble, a commission of two per cent on the gross sales in Europe. 
 
 In a meeting of the partners held at Antwerp in September 1781, and 
 the only one they ever held, Proli and Company recommended to them 
 
 s s 2 to
 
 3 i6 THE COMMERCE OF THE IMPERIAL 
 
 to avail themselves of the favourable circumstance of the nations, most largely 
 concerned in the India trade, being then engaged in warfare, to send out as soon 
 as possible six ships for China and India, two for the east coast of Africa, and 
 three for the southern whale fishery. For these extensive outfits they pro- 
 posed to borrow a large sum of money ; and the subscribers present 
 authorized them to raise a sum not exceeding the amount of their capital 
 subscribed. 
 
 In November 1781 M r Bolts, upon his own account, fitted out a large ship, 
 called the Cobenzel, for the north-west coast of America, in hopes that she 
 might be the first to take advantage of the very lucrative business of carrying 
 the furs of the sea otter from that country to China ; a new branch of trade 
 discovered in Captain Cook's last voyage. He proposed that the ship should 
 pass round Cape Horn, and after taking in her furs at Nootka and selling them 
 in China, return to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope, and so accomplish the 
 first Austrian circumnavigation of the Globe. For the direction of the voyage 
 he had engaged four English officers *, bred up under the immortal Cook ; and 
 five naturalists were also engaged to embark in the voyage, in order to improve 
 and extend the knowlege of natural history by their discoveries. He purchased 
 a Bermudian sloop to serve as a tender ; and he obtained recommendations from 
 the Emperor to the various Princes, in whose ports the vessels might chance to 
 anchor. But this expedition, so promising in prospect, was frustrated, accord- 
 ing toBolts's representation, by the malicious intrigues of his brother Directors 
 at Vienna and Trieste, whereby he sustained an enormous loss, and was 
 obliged to employ the ship in another business, for which she was not so well 
 adapted. 
 
 In the mean time the Antwerp Directors and their agents were busily em- 
 ployed in fitting out and loading the ships they already had at Trieste and Leg- 
 horn, and in contracting for the purchase of other ships at Trieste and Liver- 
 pool : and in April 1782 they reported that they had six millions of florins, and 
 six ships under the Imperial flag, all in action. But the spirit and hopes, ex- 
 cited by the bustle of these transactions, were somewhat damped by the inform- 
 ation they received of their factory at Delagoa being destroyed by the Portu- 
 
 * Captain Dixon, one of these four offic- the Cobenzel, in which he also circumnavigated 
 ers, who was afterwards employed by Mes- the globe, was kept eighteen months at Trieste 
 sieurs Etches and Company of London to by M r Bolts, in expectation of the ship pro- 
 make a voyage similar to that proposed for ceeding according to her destination. 
 
 guese,
 
 COMPANY OF TRIESTE, kc WITH INDIA. 517 
 
 guese, who claim the sovereignty and exclusive commerce of the whole of the 
 east coast of Africa. 
 
 In the year 1784 five of the Company's vessels from China arrived at Ostend, 
 which the Emperor, when on a visit to the Netherlands in the year 178 1, had 
 made a free port : and, though a most strenuous, and finally successful, oppos- 
 ition was made to the establishment of an East-India trade in that port in the early 
 part of the eighteenth century, we do not hear of any objection or remonstrance 
 being made against it at this time by the principal maritime Powers, who were 
 now opposed to each-other in the war occasioned by the American revolution. 
 But the fortunate arrival of so many ships, with near three millions and a half 
 of pounds of tea *, besides other goods, which promised to put the Company in 
 possession of a large sum of money at their sale, appointed for November 1785, 
 was balanced by the misfortune of their ship, the Imperial Eagle, which had 
 been built for them at Trieste at the expense of above 300,000 florins, being 
 arrested, with her cargo, in the harbour of Cadiz by their creditors, whereby 
 they incurred a loss estimated at 290,000 florins. Many of the proprietors 
 were so much disheartened by this disaster, that they sold out their stock at 
 above thirty-eight per cent under par : and the event soon showed that the 
 buyers, even on these terms, were greater sufferers than the sellers ; for in the 
 same year the Company were declared bankrupt at Antwerp to the amount of 
 ten millions of florins. 
 
 The failure of this Company, who seem to have met with scarcely any foreign 
 opposition, except from the feeble East-India government of Portugal, may be 
 chiefly ascribed to the jealousy and misunderstanding between Bolts and his col- 
 legues at Antwerp. He seems, also, to have had too much of the dashing spirit 
 of a projector ; and they, though the principals in point of capital, appear to 
 have been entirely destitute of the particular kind of knowlege requisite for con- 
 ducting a trade with India. 
 
 * The Duque de Almodovar, in his ' His- cargoes. But I see, by the returns from Can- 
 
 ' tor'ia politica de los estabecimientos uhramarinos de ton, that the quantity of tea imported by them 
 
 • las naclones Europeas,' V. iv, p. 129, says, these was equal to what has been sometimes imported 
 
 five vessels were only half loaded. Not know- by five British ships, and more than what was 
 
 ing the burthen of them, I cannot pretend to imported by fourteen American vessels in the 
 
 judge how much should have been their full season 1789-90. 
 
 The
 
 3 i8 THE COMMERCE OF THE IMPERIAL COMPANY. 
 The following is 
 
 An Account of the number of ships, carrying Imperial, Hungarian, or Tuscan, 
 colours, which loaded at Canton, and of the quantity of tea shipped onboard 
 them. 
 
 Seasons. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Tea, lbs. 
 
 I779-8o 
 
 . i Imperial 
 
 ^375*900 ■ 
 
 1780- I 
 
 1 Hungarian 
 
 317,700 
 
 1782- 3 
 
 . 1 Tuscan 
 
 933>3°° 
 
 1783- 4 
 
 5 Imperial 
 
 3,428,400 
 
 In the season 1792-3 one ship, carrying Tuscan colours, took onboard 
 393,870 pounds of tea. 
 
 THE
 
 ( 3*9 ) 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE SPANIARDS IN THE 
 
 EAST INDIES. 
 
 THE Spaniards, though they were the first Europeans after the Portuguese, 
 who navigated the Indian Ocean, were the very last of the European nations 
 who accomplished the establishment of a direct trade with India. 
 
 Many years elapsed after Christopher Colon made the discovery of America, 
 when upon his voyage in search of a short western passage to India, before it 
 was ascertained that a great continent, extending many thousand miles from 
 north to south, rendered it impossible to sail westward from Europe to that 
 country without deviating very much from a due-west course. 
 
 Vasco Nunnez de Balboa, a Spanish adventurer, having heard that there was 
 a great sea beyond America, was desirous of discovering it ; and, having pro- 
 cured some of the native Americans in the year 1 5 1 3 to serve him as guides, 
 he was the first European leader, who obtained a sight of the vast Ocean which 
 separates America from Asia. In consequence of that discovery, the King of 
 Spain, in the year 15 15, sent Juan Diaz de Solis, who had previously sailed 
 along the coast of Brazil, to attempt a passage to the South Sea and to India 
 by the south part of America : but that commander and many of his people 
 being killed in a quarrel with the inhabitants of the country bordering on the 
 Rio de la Plata, the survivors returned to Spain. 
 
 The Spaniards were also unfortunate in an attempt to sail to India from some 
 settlements they had recently formed on the south coast of Mexico. The ves- 
 sels, which they built for that purpose, were constructed of some kind of timber 
 liable to be so rapidly destroyed by the worms, that they were rendered unserv- 
 iceable within a few weeks after their being launched ; and of course they were 
 totally useless for distant voyages. 
 
 It was reserved for Fernando de Magalhanes, a discontented Portuguese offic- 
 er, who offered his services to Carlos, the new King of Spain, to conduct the 
 first European vessels into the South Sea by a western course through the 
 famous strait, which still retains his name, and thence to accomplish the passage 
 to the Indian islands, in one of which, called Matan, he lost his life in a battle 
 
 with
 
 3 2o THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 with the natives *. Of six vessels, which sailed upon this expedition, only one, 
 called the Victoria f of the burthen of ninety tuns, returned to Spain in Sep- 
 tember 1522, having onboard a cargo of spices taken in at the Molucco islands, 
 and with only eighteen men, surviving the battles and disasters of the voyage, 
 who, having returned by the Cape of Good Hope, had the honour to be the 
 first who ever circumnavigated the Globe. If Magalhanes had returned safe, 
 he was to have had a patent for the exclusive trade with the countries discovered 
 by him for ten years. 
 
 The King of Portugal, who had hitherto thought the navigation and com- 
 merce of the Oriental seas his own property, remonstrated against what he reck- 
 oned an invasion of his right : but not thinking it prudent to provoke the re- 
 sentment of Carlos, who was now not only King of Spain and Sovereign of the 
 seventeen rich provinces of the Netherlands, but also Emperor of Germany, he 
 compounded the matter by paying him the sum of 350,000 ducats of gold, in 
 consideration of his desisting from sending any vessels into the Indian seas. The 
 Emperor accepted the money and the terms, on condition that he might resume 
 the consideration of his right to a participation of the India trade on repaying the 
 sum now deposited : and the bargain was confirmed by a treaty executed at 
 Saragossa on the a 2d of April 1529. 
 
 By this treaty the commerce of the Molucco or Spice islands was secured to 
 Portugal, or at least relieved from the competition of Spain, as long as Portugal 
 remained independent of Spain. But the subsequent union of these kingdoms 
 exposed the Portuguese settlements to the hostilities of the English and the 
 Dutch, the enemies of Spain, by whom the Portuguese were expelled from the 
 Moluccos in the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
 
 After the discovery of the route to the Indies by the Strait of Magalhanes, 
 many attempts were still made by the Spaniards and other nations to discover 
 a more compendious passage, which all ended in disappointment. The Span- 
 iards thereupon endeavoured to carry on a trade with the Spice islands from 
 their new settlements on the west coast of America, in which they were more 
 
 * Some have asserted that Magalhanes (whose voyage from England: and we have just 6een 
 
 name we, following the French, have corrupted that Juan de Solis set out with the express 
 
 to Magellan) was the first who conceived the intention of attempting the passage, which 
 
 idea of reaching India by sailing to the west- Magalhanes accomplished. 
 ward. But it is certain that India was the f The Spaniards, after her return, called 
 
 object of Colon's voyages, and most probably this ship The •venerable Victoria. They say, she 
 
 also of the earliest Spanish navigators who fol- sailed in this voyage 14,460 leagues, and crossed 
 
 lowed him, as it undoubtedly was of Gavotta's the Equator six times. 
 
 successful ;
 
 SPANIARDS IN THE EAST INDIES. 32, 
 
 successful ; and, in order to connect this trade with that of the mother country, 
 the commodities and manufactures of Europe, and also those of India, were 
 conveyed by land carriage across the narrow isthmus between North and South 
 America. 
 
 Several fruitless attempts were made by the Spaniards to subdue the islands, 
 now known by the collective name of the Philippines, before the year 1564, 
 when an expedition was undertaken by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, an expe- 
 rienced warrior, who was more successful than his predecessors. In the island 
 of Zebu he founded a town called San Miguel : and afterwards, having reduced 
 the great island of Luconia to the yoke of Spain, he founded in it the city of 
 Manila, destined to be the capital of the Spanish dominions in the Oriental 
 seas, which, by being the emporium of the Spanish trade with America, China, 
 and other rich countries and islands, has become exceedingly opulent, and is 
 called by the Spaniards the Pearl of the East. 
 
 The Spanish colonists of Manila carry on a little trade with China in their 
 own vessels : but the greatest part of their intercourse with that country is con- 
 ducted by the Chinese, who come in their own vessels to Manila, and bring 
 every article of the produce and manufacture of their vast empire, for which 
 they receive payment mostly in silver, and to a prodigious amount. 
 
 The chief trade of the island, and almost the only one, in which the inhabit- 
 ants are actively concerned, is the intercourse with Acapulco in Mexico by the 
 annual ships, which are generally called galleons. The following account is 
 given of the origin of this trade. 
 
 The missionaries, whom King Philip the Second, in his zeal for the propag- 
 ation of the Catholic religion, had sent to convert the natives of the Philippine 
 islands, represented to him that they could not perform the sacrifice of the Mass 
 for want of flour and wine ; and they proposed and requested that those neces- 
 sary articles might be brought to them from Acapulco, the nearest Spanish port 
 on the continent of America. The King, notwithstanding a strenuous oppos- 
 ition made by the Council of the Indies, acceded to the proposal of the mission- 
 aries, and licenced the Viceroy of Mexico to send every year a vessel of one 
 hundred and fifty tuns to Manila, loaded with flour and wine ; and he gave 
 strict orders that no other merchandize whatever should be carried to or from 
 Manila. 
 
 After the importation of flour and wine had gone on for some years in a 
 strict observance of the royal mandate, the Viceroys of Mexico and Manila 
 agreed between themselves that the annual vessel, instead of returning quite 
 
 t t empty
 
 3 22 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 emptv to Acapulco, should carry a parcel of Chinese and Indian silk and cotton 
 piece goods, to be sold for their joint account. When the energy of the Span- 
 ish Government declined, the vigilance of the Council of the Indies relaxed, 
 or perhaps their complaisance to the Viceroys increased, in consequence of which 
 the trade of carrying Oriental merchandize to Acapulco was carried to such an 
 extent as to require two ships of from fifteen to eighteen hundred tuns, which 
 arrived annually at Acapulco, deeply loaded with rich stuffs of every kind, and 
 also linens, made in China in imitation of the fabrics of Bretagne and Rouen, 
 diamonds, pearls, spiceries, drugs, tea, porcelain, &c. sufficient for the whole 
 consumption of the great province of Mexico. The returns consisted of cochi- 
 neal, confections, mercery goods, some European trinkets, and the original ar- 
 ticles of flour and wine : but the chief part of the return cargo has always been 
 silver, to the amount of five or six millions of dollars. This trade, begun by 
 the two Viceroys for their own emolument, appears, upon the subsequent great 
 augmentation of it, to have been shared by the inhabitants : and it became very 
 prejudicial to the trade between Spain and Mexico by supplying the colonists 
 with an innumerable variety of articles of Indian and Chinese manufacture, which 
 by their superior cheapness, and most of them also by their superior beautv, 
 rendered the rival European fabrics * in a great measure unsaleable, and very 
 much impaired the King's revenue, not only by the deficiency of the duty upon 
 merchandize exported from the kingdom, but also by depriving him of his share 
 of the silver, which would be imported into Spain, if it were not diverted to 
 Manila, whence it is carried to India and China. 
 
 It was apparently owing to this state of the trade, and to consciousness of 
 a want of power to controul the abuses and infidelities of distant governments, 
 that it has repeatedly been the subject of debate in the Councils of Spain under 
 the Austrian Monarchs, and also under those of the house of Bourbon, whether 
 the Philippine islands ought not to be totally abandoned. In the year 1720 the 
 King of Spain, not willing entirely to give up the dominion of so many fertile 
 islands, but yielding somewhat to the opinion of his Council, and the long-con- 
 
 * Very few of those European fabrics have account they are shipped for America in the 
 
 been produced by the almost-extinct manufact- name of the Spanish merchants, who are in 
 
 uring industry of Spain, the merchants of reality only agents in the business. It is much 
 
 which have only a transit profit upon the la- to the honour of the Spanish merchants, that 
 
 bour of the industrious nations, and very often they have never been unfaithful to their consti- 
 
 only a commission, the goods being the real tuents, even in time of war. 
 bona-fide property of foreigners, upon whose 
 
 tinued
 
 SPANIARDS IN THE EAST INDIES. 323 
 
 tinued clamours of the Spanish merchants, ordered a strict prohibition of the use 
 of Chinese or Indian fabrics of silk or cotton in every part of his dominions in 
 both hemispheres. 
 
 This order struck the colonists with consternation and despair, insomuch 
 that many of them resolved to abandon the island of Lu9onia, if the remon- 
 strances sent home by the Governor, the Archbishop, the Magistrates, and, in 
 short, by every community in the island, religious and civil, should not prevail 
 with the King to repeal the fatal mandate : and, after a long controversy, they 
 succeeded in obtaining a reversal of it in the year 1734. 
 
 Hitherto the Spaniards had had no direct commercial intercourse with the 
 East Indies, except what they may perhaps have had in conjunction with the 
 Portuguese between the years 1580 and 1640, all their voyages since the separ- 
 ation of Spain and Portugal being made to and from the west coast of Ame- 
 rica, (as they were before the union of the kingdoms) in compliance with the 
 treaty of Munster, concluded in the year 1648, whereby it was agreed between 
 the King of Spain and the States-General of Holland, that neither of them 
 should use the East-India trade in any other manner than was then practised ; 
 that is to say, that the Dutch should only sail to India by the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and the Spaniards only from their settlements in America. 
 
 Though treaties are professedly intended to last for ever, most of them re- 
 main unviolated no longer than till one of the parties finds an interest in break- 
 ing them. But no attempt appears to have been made by the Court of Spain to 
 infringe this article of the treaty of Munster for almost a century. For, though 
 an India trade by the Cape was proposed in Spain about the year 1720, it was 
 not till the 29th of March 1733* that the King granted a charter to Don 
 Emanuel de Arriaga and his associates under the name of The Royal Com- 
 pany of the Philippine islands, vesting in them, during a period of 
 twenty years, the exclusive privilege of trading to both sides of Africa and to 
 all the countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope. — They may carry the royal 
 colours upon their ships, which are exempted from all duties, in the same man- 
 ner as if they actually belonged to the royal navy, their officers also being on a 
 footing of equality with those of the navy. — They may export bullion without 
 paying any duty. — The Company are to pay at Cadiz a duty of eight per cent 
 on spiceries, and five per cent on all other species of goods imported by them. — 
 The Company's capital shall consist of four thousand shares of one thousand 
 
 * So the date is repeatedly quoted in ations it is erroneously made the 2(ith of April 
 subsequent charters. But in some public- '/32- 
 
 t T 2 crowns
 
 324 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 crowns (or dollars) each, to be subsribed at Cadiz. — The business of the 
 Company is to be conducted by nine Directors, appointed by the King, each 
 of them possessing twenty-five shares in the Company's stock. — The King 
 subscribes for four hundred shares. 
 
 These are the most important of the very numerous articles of the charter of 
 the Royal Philippine Company. The King, it may be observed, subscribed a 
 tenth part of the whole capital. If that was done to allure his courtiers and 
 other dependents to contribute largely to the subscription, it certainly presented 
 a very degrading picture of the commercial resources of Spain. In a com- 
 mercial country there is no need of such an example to urge forward a sub- 
 scription ; and the Sovereign leaves commercial undertakings to commercial 
 people, all persons of every description being, however, at liberty to subscribe, 
 or purchase stock. In this projected Spanish Company the stock of the re- 
 tainers of the Court, when added to that of the King, wculd most probably 
 have commanded a majority of votes upon every question, which must conse- 
 quently have been determined by, what are called, reasons of state. 
 
 This Company never did any thing. Their inefficiency was ascribed by some 
 to the late return of the galleons, and by others to the great influence of the 
 Chinese merchants in Manila * ; and there were many who believed that the 
 project of the Company was contrived only for the purpose of stock-jobbing, 
 without any intention of ever engaging in real commercial adventure. 
 
 After the complete failure of the scheme of an India trade to be conducted by 
 this Company, there seems to have been no further attempt made on the part of 
 Spain to make commercial voyages to India by the Cape of Good Hope till the 
 end of the year 1764, when the King's ship, the Buen Consejo, sailed from 
 Cadiz, and, passing the forbidden Cape, arrived at Manila, whence she returned 
 to Cadiz in the year 1766 with a cargo of Oriental merchandize. Thirteen 
 more voyages were made by the same route, the last of which was completed 
 in the year 1784. 
 
 About that time the expiration of the privilege of the Royal Guipuzcoan 
 Company of the Caracas was thought to present a favourable opportunity of 
 employing their capital in a scheme of commerce, which should unite the trade 
 of Asia and America with that of Europe. The plan was approved of by the 
 King, who on the 10th day of March 1785 gave them a very copious charter, 
 consisting of one hundred articles, of which the following are the most 
 important. 
 
 * The preamble to the Royal charter of quent war, which, however, could not affect 
 July 1803 ascribes their failure to the subse- them till several years after their formation. 
 
 The
 
 SPANIARDS IN THE EAST INDIES. 315 
 
 The Royal Company of the Philippines are established for twenty-five 
 years, reckoning from the first day of July 1785. — The capital is to consist of 
 eight millions of ' pesos sencillos,'* divided into thirty-two thousand shares of 
 two hundred and fifty pesos each, to which all persons of whatever description, 
 not excepting ecclesiastics, either individually or corporately, may be admitted 
 to subscribe. — The King subscribes a million of dollars ( ' pesos fuertes ' ) t 
 for himself and his sons, besides his stock in the capital of the Caracas Con> 
 pany ; and he hopes that the National Bank of San Carlos, and the other Banks 
 in Spain and the Havana will show their zeal for the prosperity of the nation 
 and the advancement of its commerce by subscribing largely. The Caracas 
 Company shall be incorporated into the Philippine Company, and all their 
 property of every kind be brought into the capital stock at a fair valuation. — 
 The prosperity of the Philippine islands being one of the principal motives 
 which induced the King, in his paternal love for his subjects, to establish the 
 Company, three thousand shares shall be reserved for the inhabitants of those 
 islands of every description, whether Spaniards or Indians, whether individuals 
 or communities, to subscribe for them at any time within two years after the 
 publication of the Company's charter in the islands. — The shares may be trans- 
 ferred by indorsement +, as is practised in those of the National Bank, and at 
 such prices as the parties may agree for. The Company are prohibited from 
 borrowing money upon interest § . But, if they find a greater capital necessary, 
 they may, with the King's permission, raise an additional sum by a subscription 
 among themselves. — A statement of the Company's affairs shall be printed 
 every year for the satisfaction of all concerned ; and copies shall be sent 
 to the agents in America and the Philippines. — During the term of the Com- 
 pany's privilege no Spanish vessels, except those of the Royal navy and the 
 Company, shall be permitted to sail to the Philippine islands or any part of the 
 East Indies ; and no other ships than those of the Company shall be allowed to 
 sail direct from Spain to the ports of South America, the Philippines, or India. — 
 The Company's ships may trade to the other Spanish dominions in America, as 
 other Spanish subjects do, but without any exclusive privilege. — The Company 
 
 * The peso sencillo is a money of account, J The property of the shares was thus made 
 
 Talued at fifteen reales velon, being exactly to depend upon the preservation of the paper 
 
 three quarters of the peso fuerte, which we voucher, in imitation of the erroneous practice 
 
 call a dollar ; so the peso sencillo may be rated of the French East-India Company and of the 
 
 at 3/4^ sterling. Spanish National Bank. 
 
 f In a subsequent charter the King's stock § This prohibition was soon repealed, or 
 
 is stated to have been 5,935 shares, which does disregarded. 
 
 not agree with this sum. 
 
 shall
 
 3*6 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 shall send every year 2,000 tuns of merchandize to Caracas, Maracaybo, and 
 Cuinana ; and 800 to New Spain. — The Company's ships may sail direct 
 by the Cape of Good Hope, or they may call at Buenos Ayres : but, as the 
 principal advantage of the Company, as well as of the State, consists in uniting 
 the commerce of America with that of Asia, the King recommends to them to 
 send their ships rather by Cape Horn, that they may trade in the ports of the 
 South Sea, exchanging the merchandize of Europe for such articles of the 
 produce of America as are wanted in the Philippine islands. — All kinds of 
 merchandize, the produce of Spain or Spanish America, are exempted from 
 paying customs : and foreign merchandize shipped onboard the Company's 
 vessels in Spain shall pay two per cent ad valorem. — The Company may 
 ship onboard each of their vessels 500,000 dollars ( ' pesos fuertes ' ") in 
 coined money. — In order to enable the Company to obtain with facility the 
 Oriental commodities necessary for their trade, Manila is declared a free port, 
 during the term of the charter, to all nations truely belonging to Asia ( ' las 
 ' naciones propiamente Asiaticas '), for the importadon of their produce ; 
 and they may carry home in return either silver, or European, American, 
 or Philippine, merchandize, paying a duty of three per cent for silver, two and 
 a half for foreign goods, and nothing for the productions of the Spanish 
 dominions. — The Company may carry silver or merchandize to the ports of 
 Asia, paying two per cent on foreign goods, and nothing on Spanish goods or 
 money. — The Company shall not engage in any alliances without an express 
 order from the King. — The Company are desired to charge their officers to give 
 no cause of offence to any of the European nations established in the East 
 Indies. — If the Company do not find sale for their East-India commodities 
 within the kingdom, they may export them on their own account to foreign 
 countries. — The Company may ship every kind of Oriental produce and 
 manufacture, not excepting piece goods of silk and cotton of every descrip- 
 tion, at the port of Manila for Spain, without paying any duty whatever. — On 
 their arrival in Spain they shall pay five per cent,- rated on the current prices : 
 and a drawback of three and a half per cent shall be allowed on re-export- 
 ation. — The laws, formerly promulgated for prohibiting the admission of 
 muslins and other cotton goods, are repealed with respect to those imported by 
 the Company, being first duely sealed in the custom house of Manila : but they 
 remain in full force with respect to such goods imported by any other channel 
 of conveyance. — For the encouragement of the people of the Philippine islands, 
 all goods produced or manufactured by them are exempted from paying any 
 duty, when shipped there, or when landed in Spain : but such goods, when 
 
 sent
 
 SPANIARDS IN THE EAST INDIES. 327 
 
 sent to America by the Company, shall pay the moderate duties payable by 
 other Spanish subjects, — For the further encouragement of the subjects in the 
 Philippine islands, they are authorized to ship their produce and manufactures 
 on their own account for Spain in the Company's vessels, so as not to exceed 
 the fifth part of the tunnage of any one ship, paying a moderate freight to the 
 Company. — They may also trade to any part of India, the Company's exclusive 
 privilege being restricted to the direct communication between India and Spain : 
 and they may still carry on the commerce with Acapulco by an annual ship, in 
 which the Company and all their servants are prohibited from beino- any way 
 interested. — The Company's ships may carry the King's colours ; their captains 
 and lieutenants shall be commissioned : and all their officers and seamen shall 
 have all the privileges granted to those of the navy, and shall not be drawn 
 off for any other service without the consent of the Company. ■ — The first and 
 second captains of every ship must be native or naturalized subjects of Spain : 
 but the other officers, and a half of the ship's company, may be foreigners : 
 and the officers of the Spanish navy may serve in the Company's ships without 
 prejudice to their promotion. — The ships built for the Company shall have all 
 the privileges which belong to those of the navy : and, during the two first 
 years, foreign ships employed by them shall be exempted from the duties 
 chargeable on foreign vessels. — Similar privileges shall be extended to their 
 naval stores and provisions. — As the prosperity of the Philippine islands is 
 closely connected with that of the Company, there shall be set aside one quarter 
 per cent of the Company's annual profits, to be applied, under the direction 
 of the Company's government at Manila, for promoting the agriculture and 
 manufactures of the islands. — For promoting the same laudable object, the 
 Company are required to carry out Spanish, or Catholic foreign, artificers and 
 professors of science, who shall have the King's permission to settle in the 
 Philippines, without any charge for their passage.— The Company shall receive 
 onboard their ships the seamen of the Philippine islands, of whatever origin 
 or colour they may be, who are willing to serve, so as not to exceed one third 
 of a ship's company. — 'The Company's business is to be conducted by a Junta 
 of government or direction, authorized by the King, and consisting of three 
 Directors chosen by the Company, two by the National Bank, two by the 
 Bank ' de los Gremios,' two by the Bank of Havana, and one by the Bank of 
 Seville, if those bodies shall hold a sufficient amount of stock, and also two 
 stock-holders, being in all twelve Directors, who shall meet weekly at the 
 Company's house in Madrid. — The King's Secretary for the universal dispatches 
 of the Indies shall call a meeting of the Junta, when he sees occasion, and act 
 
 as
 
 
 
 j8 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 as President.— The Company may employ foreigners in the factories, giving, 
 however, on all occasions, a preference to Spanish subjects, if equally intelligent 
 and experienced. — The factories of San Sebastian, and the others established 
 by the Caracas Company in Venezuela, Maracaybo, and Cumana, may be kept 
 up in their present state, or altered, as the Junta of government shall think pro- 
 per. — Factories may also be established in Mexico, Vera Cruz, Lima, Buenos 
 Ayres, and other chief towns of America, which shall be managed agreeable to 
 instructions to be drawn up by the Junta of government. — The Company shall 
 have a preference to all other creditors in recovering their property from any 
 of their factors or servants, who shall become insolvent. — The Company shall 
 every year make up a complete statement of all their effects of every kind. — 
 They shall not sell their goods upon credit in Europe or in India. — In Decem- 
 ber every year a general Junta of all the proprietors shall be called, when the 
 state of their affairs shall be laid before them. — The Company's dividends shall 
 never exceed three fourths of the profits made in the year, and shall be regul- 
 ated for every year according to the profits actually made good. — In consider- 
 ation of the great distance of the Philippine islands, a Junta of government 
 and direction shall be established in Manila, subordinate to the chief Junta in 
 Madrid, who shall meet once every week, or oftener, for the management of the 
 Company's affairs, regulating their proceedings by the instructions received 
 from Madrid, and having also a discretionary power for cases not provided for. 
 — Whatever further regulations or alterations, time and experience may show 
 to be necessary, shall be confirmed by the King, who strictly enjoins all his 
 Councils, Audiences, Viceroys, &c. to be aiding and assisting to the Company 
 in guarding their privileges and promoting their prosperity. 
 
 Some of the Banks and other public bodies, besides what they subscribed of 
 the capital stock, advanced money to the Company upon interest, as did also 
 many individuals in Spain, Spanish America, and Holland. 
 
 The people of Manila, who were all in some degree connected with the trade 
 of the Acapulco ships, were so far from receiving with gratitude the privilege 
 of subscribing for three thousand shares of the Company's stock, which the 
 King had reserved for them, that they treated the offer with the utmost con- 
 tempt, and did all in their power to discredit the Company, and thwart them in 
 their commercial operations. 
 
 Notwithstanding this discouraging reception, the Company's agents endea- 
 voured to direct the industry of the aboriginal natives of the islands to the 
 cultivation of indigo, cotton, pepper, and silk, which they wished them to regard 
 as their principal staples. 
 
 On
 
 SPANIARD? IN THE EAST INDIES. 329 
 
 On the 15th of August 1789 the King gave permission to all European ves- 
 sels to import into Manila every kind of Asiatic merchandize, but by no means 
 any European goods, and to receive in return the merchandize of Spain, Spanish 
 America, and the Philippines, and any foreign goods imported by the Com- 
 pany, and also silver. This permission was to continue three years, reckoning 
 from the first day of September 1790. 
 
 The liberty, which had been granted by the Company's charter to real natives 
 of Asia to enter the port of Manila, had probably been accepted only by the 
 Chinese, or rather they continued to trade as they did before. But the vessels, 
 which arrived under Moorish, Armenian, and Portuguese*, colours, were 
 mostly the property of the enterprising individuals, employed in the service of 
 the English East-India Company, or trading under their protection, as was ob- 
 served by the enlightened French navigator, Perouse, when he was in the port 
 of Manila. The Philippine Company trusting to this passive kind of commerce, 
 felt the want of assortment in the goods brought to them, and now availed them- 
 selves of the extension of the permission to vessels belonging to Europeans to 
 contract with the English East-India Company for a regular supply of assorted 
 India goods, to be delivered at Manila, and paid for in dollars.. But this agree- 
 ment was not productive of much effectual intercourse between the two 
 Companies. 
 
 The Royal Philippine Company, to the formation of which the King and the 
 Royal family contributed from their private funds, and the subscriptions of 
 every public body, and even the ecclesiastical communities, throughout the vast 
 extent of the Spanish dominions in the various quarters of the world, were soli- 
 cited, never performed any thing worthy of the great expectations, which were 
 held out to the Public by the Royal charter. A noble Spanish author t, who is 
 sufficiently disposed to think well of them, has published very minute accounts 
 of their commercial transactions from their commencement to the year 1790 
 inclusive, of which the following is the compressed substance. 
 
 * The Spanish Government apparently con- sumed anagrammatic name of Eduardo Malo 
 
 sidered the Portuguese colonists in India as de Luque) of ' Hhtoria poliftca de los estableci- 
 
 genuine Asiatics : and, in fact, they are very mientos ultramarinos de las naciones Europeas,' 
 
 nearly such, there being scarcely any European in five volumes 8vo. The first four are almost 
 
 blood in their veins. translated from Raynal : the fifth is entirely 
 
 f The Duke de Almodovar, who was Am- original, and is appropriated to the Spanish 
 
 bassador from the King of Spain to the Court settlements and trade in the East Indies, 
 of Great Britain, the author (under the as- 
 
 u u There
 
 33<> 
 
 THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 There were only 23,538 shares of the capital subscribed and ) 
 
 paid in (instead of 32,000 proposed) which amount to . , 
 The capital of the Caracas Company incorporated 
 
 Total capital joint stock ..... 
 
 The Company borrowed in Spain, America, and Holland 
 
 J 
 
 Reales velon *. 
 88,267,50a 
 
 23,720,625 
 
 111,988,125 
 79,999,677 
 
 191,987,802 
 
 whereby their trading fund was enlarged to 
 
 In five years the Company sent the under-mentioned number of ships and 
 men to the following countries. 
 
 
 1785 
 
 I786 
 
 1787 
 
 I788 
 
 1789 
 
 Totals. 
 
 
 Ships 
 
 Men. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Caracas and Maracaybo . 
 
 4 
 
 112 
 
 5 
 
 •54 
 
 5 
 
 144 
 
 4 
 
 107 
 
 2 
 
 5° 
 
 20 
 
 567 
 
 New Spain 
 
 1 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 100 
 
 4 
 
 200 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 6 
 
 300 
 
 Lima . 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 1 
 
 120 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 239 
 
 3 
 
 359 
 
 Manila .... 
 
 1 
 
 128 
 
 4 
 
 631 
 
 2 
 
 232 
 
 3 
 
 407 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 10 
 
 1398 
 
 Totals . . . • 
 
 6 
 
 3OO 
 
 10 
 
 905 
 
 9 
 
 476 
 
 1 1 
 
 714 
 
 4 
 
 289 
 
 40 
 
 264S 
 
 During these years they shipped goods to the following amount 
 
 
 Foreign merchandize. 
 
 Spanish merchandize. 
 
 East-lnui.1 goods. 
 
 Totalr. 
 
 To Caracas and Maracaybo 
 
 16,432,179 
 
 6,323,892 
 
 3 2 7.574 
 
 23,083,645 
 
 New Spain 
 
 2 > 2 °3»47° 
 
 2,153,104 
 
 2,047,365 
 
 6 .4°3.939 
 
 Buenos Ayres 
 
 i>i29>459 
 
 1,105,7*5 
 
 255.5 '4 
 
 2,490,698 
 
 Lima • • • 
 
 8,182,908 
 
 7.774-5 21 
 
 1,310,306 
 
 I 7>267,/35 
 
 Manila 
 
 1,197,172 
 
 5,790,301 
 
 . . 
 
 f .987.473 
 
 
 29,145,188 
 
 2 3. '47.543 
 
 3.940.759 
 
 56,233,490 
 
 They paid in duties upon 
 They paid for insurance, c 
 
 the forty cargoes 
 ommission, and ot 
 
 ler charges 
 y cargoes 
 
 • 
 
 15,689,045 
 11,468,886 
 
 Total cost and charges of the for 
 
 8 3>39 1 >4 21 
 
 * The real velon is the twentieth part of a reckoning the par value of the dollar at four 
 peso fuerte, or dollar ; and consequently equal shillings and six pence sterling, 
 to almost two pence three farthings sterling, The.
 
 SPANIARDS IN THE EAST INDIES. 
 
 33' 
 
 Brought over ........ 
 
 The following is the account of the sales, and stock remaining on hand, of 
 the above cargoes, brought down to the 31st of December 1788. 
 
 At Caracas and Maracaybo 
 New Spain 
 Buenos Ayres 
 Lima 
 
 Manila . • . 
 
 Profit on this branch of -> 
 their trade . . -* 
 
 Sold. 
 
 Remaining. 
 
 26,175,498 
 
 I '44°»935 
 1,047,293 
 
 8,45M I 4 
 3>597>5 28 
 
 16,050,708 
 7,808,205 
 2,515,326 
 
 1 8,779,955 
 6,096,823 
 
 51,251,017 
 40,713,768 
 
 . 
 
 91,964,785 
 
 8 3'39^4 21 
 
 8,573>3^4 
 
 91,964,785 
 
 Profit on bottomry bonds, letters of credit, and bullion, as follows. 
 
 To Caracas and Maracaybo 28,846,260, which produced a profit of 
 
 New Spain . . 3,000,000 ..... 
 
 Buenos Ayres . 18,604,963 ..... 
 
 Lima . . . 8,306,000 ..... 
 
 Manila . . . 110,801,600 . ' . 
 
 169,558,823 
 
 Profit on this branch of 
 their trade 
 
 } 
 
 577*4^5 
 938,849 
 
 982,918 
 
 1,611,501 
 
 196,082 
 
 4,306,815 
 
 Their returns from America and the Philippines during the above-mentioned 
 
 years were as follows. 
 
 Invoice cost. 
 
 From Caracas and " 
 
 Maracaybo in 20 
 
 ships belonging to I „ 
 
 * 6 5 > 28,234.244 
 
 the Company, and 
 
 upon freight in | 
 
 other ships. J 
 
 From India, China, ~t 
 
 and the Philippine >■ 81,836,632 
 
 islands in 9 ships. J 
 
 110,070,876 
 
 Duties. 
 
 15,982,376 
 
 5.571,359 
 
 2I >553>735 
 
 Insurance, com- 
 mission, &c, 
 
 7,416,936 
 
 37.353.965 
 
 44,770,901 
 
 Sales down to 
 30 Sept. 1789 
 
 50,767,351 
 
 31,626,600 
 
 82>393»95 I 
 
 Remaining on 
 hand 30 Sept. 
 
 4,023,852 
 
 97,439.9°' 
 
 101,463,753 
 
 Profits. 
 
 MlMl 
 
 4,304,545 
 
 v v 2 
 
 7,462,192 
 Their
 
 33* THE COMMERCE OF THE 
 
 Their total profits during these years are thus stated. 
 
 On merchandize exported . . .... 8,573,364 
 
 On bottomry bonds, &c. 4,306,815 
 
 On merchandize imported ....... 7,462,192 
 
 2 °>342,37i 
 But they expected to sustain a loss upon their slave trade, 
 which, with some other deficiencies *, is taken at . . . 4,290,740 
 
 whereby their net profit is reduced to ..... 16,051,631 
 
 They possessed ships in port in India and Europe, and at sea, 
 to the value of . . ...... 11,838,500 
 
 and in buildings and other property ..... 8,241,689 
 
 Value of their dead stock . ..... 20,080,189 
 
 From the above accounts it appears, that the exports to the Philippine islands, 
 from which the Company take their name, were only equal to a seventh part 
 of those to America : and such must ever be the case, while America is occu- 
 pied by strong European colonies, with only a remainder of the aboriginal inhab- 
 itants, and among both classes manufacturing industry is almost unknown; and 
 while the Oriental regions are fully occupied by the aboriginal people, who pos- 
 sess in the produce of their own soil and their own industry, almost every thing 
 they can desire. We find, however, that the natives of the Philippines, what- 
 ever pains the Company's agents might take to stimulate them to exertion in 
 preparing surplus produce for exportation, had made no great progress, as ap- 
 pears by the particular accounts of the cargo of each of the five last ships, 
 which returned from the Philippines to Spain, before the end of the year 
 1790 t? in which the following are the aggregate amounts of the chief 
 articles : 
 
 Indigo ....... 69,900 pounds. 
 
 Silk ....... 1,700 pounds. 
 
 Cotton + . . . . . . . 180 pounds. 
 
 Cotton yarn ...... 500 pounds. 
 
 * Quaere, if a further deduction ought not to ippine goods, if there were anv, are not distin- 
 
 be made for interest on the money borrowed by guished from others, 
 the Company ? J It is probable that the most of the cotton 
 
 f There are also very particular accounts of raised in the islands was carried to China, where 
 
 the cargoes of the first four ships, which ar- there is a great demand for it. 
 rived in 1787 and 17S8. But in them the Phil- 
 Pepper
 
 SPANIARDS IN THE EAST INDIES. 333 
 
 Pepper ....... 601 pounds. 
 
 Sibucao (or Campechy) dye wood . . 4,920 quintals. 
 
 Wax ....... 2,927 pounds. 
 
 Sugar ....... 80,500 quintals. 
 
 Nutmegs 244 pounds. 
 
 It is proper to observe, that the half of the indigo, almost all the sugar, and 
 the whole of the nutmegs, were imported in the ship which arrived in the year 
 1790. 
 
 The commerce of the Philippine Company, as well as of most of the other 
 East-India Companies of Europe, was very much deranged by the war, which 
 was occasioned by the French revolution. Nevertheless, with the proceeds of 
 the few cargoes which arrived *, and the sales of their stock of goods remaining 
 in their warehouses, they paid off the money they had borrowed, and made 
 6ome dividends of from five to seven per cent, but not regularly. 
 
 On the 1 2th of July 1803 King Carlos the Fourth gave the Company a new 
 charter, by which — The term of their privilege is extended to the first day of 
 July 1825. — The capital' stock shall consist of twelve millions and a half of 
 pesos, divided into five hundred thousand shares of two hundred and fifty pesos 
 each, every peso being fifteen reales velon. — The King makes up his property 
 in the Company's capital stock to three millions, nine hundred and forty-three 
 thousand, two hundred and fifty pesos. — Foreigners may hold stock, and dispose 
 of it at their pleasure, even if their Sovereigns be at war with Spain. — Twenty 
 shares entitle the holder of them to a vote ; and no person can have more than 
 one vote, not even as proxy for another : but the representatives of corporate 
 bodies, sucn as the province of Guipuzcoa, the Banks, &c, may have more 
 votes. — The Company are not now prohibited from borrowing money, if the 
 Junta of government and direction shall think it proper. — The three Direct- 
 ors chosen by the Company shall hold their offices for life, and receive an an- 
 nual salary of 60,000 reales f each. — The accountant, secretary, and treasurer, 
 shall also hold their offices for life, with salaries of 30,000 reales each. — The 
 
 Junta of direction, established at Manila by the former charter, is suppressed. 
 
 The Company and their servants are, as before, prohibited from having any con- 
 cern in the trade of the Acapulco ship ; except that they may ship indigo and 
 other produce of the Philippine islands for Acapulco, paying freight at the rate 
 
 * One ship, richly loaded, from Manila came was bringing Lord Macartney home from his 
 to the European seas in the year 1794 under embassy to China, 
 the convoy of Siv Erasmus Gower, when he f About s£6G6 sterling. 
 
 of
 
 334 THE COMMERCE OF THE SPANIARDS. 
 
 of nine pesos * for every quintal ; and they may receive American produce in 
 return, for which they shall also have freight in the ship. — The Company are 
 not to interfere with the people of the Philippines in the trade of the interior, 
 nor in their commerce with any part of Asia. — The port of Manila is declared 
 free to all the nations of Asia and Europe, but only for the importation of 
 Asiatic merchandize, and they may take in return every article of Philippine 
 produce, except cotton, the exportation of which is reserved to the Company 
 and the people of the Philippine islands ; and they may also receive foreign 
 goods imported by the Company, and silver ; the Philippine produce and for- 
 eign goods being exempted from duty on exportation, and the silver paying three 
 per cent. — The Asiatic goods, on being carried into the interior of Spain, shall 
 pay the alcavalas and cents only as Spanish merchandize. — Tea, and other 
 Oriental merchandize, may be exported from Spain by the Company or by 
 others, without paying any duty on exportation. — The Company's ships may 
 sail from India or China direct for Spain without being obliged to put in at Ma- 
 nila. — They may establish factories on the continent of Asia. — In order to pre- 
 vent the King's subjects in America from being disappointed of a proper supply 
 of merchandize, which cannot easily be sent from Spain in time of war, and to 
 open to the Company a channel for continuing their commercial operations, 
 thev are authorized to send every year, during war, all kinds of merchandize of 
 the Philippine islands and of Asia in general, to the value of five hundred thou- 
 sand dollars (' pesos fuertes ' ), from Manila to Lima, Buenos Ayres, and other 
 ports of South America, and to Sonsonate and Rialejo on the coast of Guati- 
 rr.ala, for which they shall pay no duty in Manila, and shall pay thirteen per cent 
 at Lima on the cost of the Asiatic goods, but nothing on those of the Philippines: 
 and they may carry back the returns in dollars, on which they shall pay a duty 
 of nine and a half per cent. This permission is to continue six months after a 
 peace is announced in Manila. — The Company may engage in commercial spe- 
 culations in Europe, as any other Spanish subjects may do f. 
 
 Since the late revolution in Spain the Company have done no business, and 
 made no dividends. 
 
 * About £ I. io. o sterling. noticed, are either similar to those in the first 
 
 f The other articles of the charter, not here charter, or of inferior general importance. 
 
 A Review
 
 ( 335 ) 
 
 A Review ok the arguments for and against the trade with 
 India, and of those for and against the management of it 
 by a chartered company with a joint stock. 
 
 HAVING now laid before the reader a brief account of the rise and progress 
 of the East-India trade in every country of Europe, which has engaged in it, 
 and having in the course of the narrative shown the causes of its decline in 
 several of those countries, I think it may be a proper and instructive sequel of 
 the history to take a rapid glance of the arguments which have been adduced for 
 and against the utility of the trade, and also, and more especially, of those for 
 and against the policy and justice of conducting it by the agency of a Company, 
 vested with exclufive privileges, and trading with a joint stock, as has been 
 practised by every European nation concerned in the trade, except the Port- 
 uguese, whose King retained a monopoly in his own hands. Thus the 
 reader will find, within the compass of one volume, the arguments adduced on 
 both sides of this great controversy, and the facts on which those arguments 
 are, or at least, ought to be founded *. 
 
 The reader has already seen that, soon after the commencement of the East- 
 India trade in England, the trade itself, and those, to whom the charter of the 
 Sovereign had conveyed the privilege, together with the charges and the rifk, of 
 conducting it t» had to encounter the enmity'of two sets of adversaries ; those 
 who entirely condemned the trade, as hurtful to the nation ; and those who, 
 approving of the trade, and wishing to share in it, when they saw the experi- 
 ment attended with success, asserted that every person, who chose to engage 
 in it, ought to have perfect liberty to do so, and to conduct it in any way most 
 agreeable to himself. 
 
 * Some facts, which derive their historical f The reader will remember, that in those 
 
 importance merely from being connected with days charters were given by the Royal authority, 
 
 the arguments, which they are adduced to and were not supposed to stand in need of the 
 
 illustrate, have been reserved to be introduced sanction of Parliament. 
 in this part of the work. 
 
 Arguments
 
 336 A R E V I E W O F T H E A R G U M E N T S FOR 
 
 Arguments against the Indian trade in general, and answer's to them. 
 Ever since the age of Pliny *, and perhaps long before, many of those, who 
 thought themselves qualified to judge of politico-commercial affairs, have cried 
 out against the trade with India, as importing only luxuries, and carrying away 
 gold and silver, the most valuable of all kinds of property : and during the last 
 two centuries the defenders of the trade, who generally appear to have admitted, 
 as an undeniable axiom, that gold and silver were really the most valuable of 
 all earthly possessions, have endeavoured to ward off the later part of the charge 
 by proving, that their own particular nation did not in reality lose any gold or 
 silver by the trade, becaufe the India goods, they exported to other nations, 
 brought back as much of the pretious metals, as had purchased the whole 
 quantities imported for home consumption and exportation, taken together. 
 However true that may be of any one nation engaged in the India trade, it is 
 certain, that Europe, taken all together, has sent many millions of money to 
 India, which have never returned. What is the consequence ? Is Europe 
 drained of money ? Are not the pretious metals much more abundant now in 
 every part of Europe than they were before the importation of India goods was 
 increased by the discovery of the route by the Cape of Good Hope, and after- 
 wards much more increased by the establishment of the Dutch, English, and 
 French, East-India Companies ? Those, who have not considered the subject, 
 will answer, ' If" there had never been any trade with India, we should have 
 ' been so much richer as the whole amount of the money carried to that 
 ' country ; and consequently the distress for want of money, under which 
 ' many suffer at present, would never have been known. 't— But, is there really 
 any distress arising from the want of money t ? Is there not much more 
 
 * Pliny, after animadverting upon the ex- ^807,291 13 4 of modern British standard 
 
 travagant waste of cinnamon in burning it with money. [Tailes of ancient coins, &c. p. 1 93-] 
 the bodies of the dead, and particularly at the -(- In every community there are, and ever 
 
 funeral of Poppea, the wife of the Emperor will be, many individuals, whom misfortune 
 
 Nero, says tlrat ' At the lowest computation a er their own misconduct or idleness, renders 
 
 ' hundred millions of sesterces are sent every indigent : and such will ever be the case, 
 
 ' year from the Roman empire to India, the though money were a hundred times as plenti- 
 
 ' country of the Seres (supposed China), and fnl as it is at present, because bread and the 
 
 ' Arabia Felix. So much do luxuries and other necessaries of life would infallibly be 
 
 ' women cost us.' [Hist. nat. Z. xii, c. 18.] n l so a hundred times as dear as they are at 
 
 That sum, according to the calculation of Doc- present. 
 tor Arbuthnot, containsd as much silver as 
 
 distress
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 
 
 337 
 
 distress flowing from a redundance of money, or what passes for it ? Does not 
 every one, whose property consists of money, feel the ruinous consequence of 
 it being too cheap, becaufe it is too plentiful * ? Every person, who has given 
 any attention to political economy, will immediately answer the two last queries 
 in the affirmative, and will see abundant reason to bless the gracious dispens- 
 ations of the merciful and beneficent Providence of the Almighty, who has so 
 ordered it, that the India trade arose to considerable magnitude at the same 
 time that the American mines began to pour their treasures into Europe f, 
 which has happily been preserved by the exportation of silver to India from 
 being overwhelmed by the inundation of the pretious metals, as it must have 
 been, had no such exportation taken place \. 
 
 The chief of the other objections to the India trade (for many trifling ones, 
 unworthy of being mentioned, were started) were — That it wore out many 
 ships, and consumed much of the timber proper for shipbuilding, and that 
 many seamen lost their lives in India voyages, owing to the great length of 
 time taken up in them, whereby the number of ships and seamen would be 
 diminished, to the great damage of the country. — The stuffs imported from 
 India would injure our woolen manufactures, &c. But the futility of these 
 
 * It is a curious circumstance that Xenophon, 
 and apparently also the legislators of Athens, 
 above two thousand years ago, saw the policy 
 of exporting bullion in a truer light than some 
 of our late, or even modem, political writers. 
 Speaking of the superior commercial advantages 
 of Athens, he says that, ' The merchants of 
 ' other cities are obliged to barter one cargo 
 
 * for another, because their money is not ac- 
 
 * ceptable beyond the limits of their own 
 ' country ; whereas at Athens they may not 
 ' only receive in exchange many valuable 
 
 * articles of general utility, but also, if they 
 ' decline exporting our goods, they may re- 
 ' ceive payment in silver, by which they may 
 ' make a considerable profit in any market 
 ' they may carry it to.' \_Dt <vectigalibus.~\ 
 
 t Raynal affirms, that the Spaniards must 
 have abandoned their most productive mines of 
 silver in America, as they have already aband- 
 oned many of the less productive ones, if the 
 progress of the depretiation of silver had not 
 been somewhat retarded by the exportation of 
 it to India. [Hist ph'il. et polit. V. iii, p. 169, 
 
 ed. 178J.] The Duque de Almodovar in his 
 Historia politica de los establecimientos ultramar- 
 inos de las tiaciones Europeas, V. v, p. 65, says 
 the same thing. His work being partly a 
 paraphrastic translation of Raynal, and partly 
 original where he saw reason to vary from, or 
 add to, his author, the repetition of the fact 
 by a Spanish statesman of high rank may be 
 received as a sufficient proof of the authenticity 
 of it. 
 
 \ This reasoning, it must be acknowleged, 
 loses much of its force during the present ex- 
 traordinary state of the money concerns of this 
 country, occasioned by an emission of a paper 
 ' circulating medium,' not convertible into real 
 money, which may be increased ad infinitum, in 
 almost every town and village of the kingdom. 
 But it may be hoped, that such an unnatural 
 order of things, in which the whole business of 
 the nation is carried on without paying any 
 money, but merely by turning over the creditor 
 from one debtor to another debtor, will not con- 
 tinue much longer. 
 
 X X 
 
 objections
 
 33$ A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 objections has been so often completely demonstrated, that it would be improper 
 to detain any reader of moderate knowlege with any remarks upon them, espe- 
 cially after it has been proved by an investigation, made under the authority of 
 Government, that the mortality of seamen in India ships, compared to that in 
 slave ships, whose voyages were so much shorter, was somewhat under the ratio 
 of 37 to 216 ; and late improvements in the Company's maritime regimen have 
 reduced the mortality among their seamen to a level with that among an equal 
 number of men residing on the land in a healthy country. Indeed, every body- 
 knows that Europe, and more especially this country, possesses incomparably 
 more ships and seamen now than before the discovery of the route to India by 
 the Cape of Good Hope, and that the increase of large and strong ships, and 
 skilful seamen, is in a great measure owing to the India trade. As to the 
 popular solicitude for the prosperity of the woolen manufacture, there can be 
 no serious apprehension of the use of woolen cloth being ever superseded in 
 this climate by any of the fabrics of India ; and it is moreover sufficiently 
 known, that the manufacturers have lately had more orders for goods than 
 they could find either materials or hands to execute *. 
 
 Arguments against exclusive Companies, and answers to them. 
 
 In later times the benefit and utility of the India trade have been so universally 
 acknowleged, that in almost every maritime country in Europe there has been a 
 Company established under the authority of the Government for carrying it on 
 upon a scale proportioned to the ability of the country : and in some countries 
 many individuals, who were not associated in those Companies, have attempted 
 to invade their privileges, and endeavoured to justify their invasion by argu- 
 ments calculated to prove the necessity and policy of laying the trade open to 
 the enterprise of all who may chuse to engage in it, which may at least be 
 received as a further proof of the acknowleged advantage of it. This brings us 
 to the second class of the opponents of the Company. 
 
 These have consisted chiefly of merchants, who seeing the prosperity of the 
 trade opened with India by the efforts of the Companies of Holland, England, 
 and France t, were very desirous of reaping a share of the advantages accruing 
 
 * Any more ample discussion of the argu- t The East-India trade of the King of Port, 
 ments respecting the utility of the India trade, ugal could not be openly attacked by his sub- 
 would be the more superfluous, as I have jects. But his servants, employed in conduct- 
 already had occasion to give the compressed ing it, took such good care of themselves, that 
 substance of them in the early part of the they left very little of the profit of the trade 
 history of the English commerce with India. to their Royal Masttr. 
 
 from
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. ^ 
 
 from it, though they had had no hand in sowing the seeds which produced 
 them. Their claims of a free participation have been revived from time to 
 time ; and they have been supported by some writers upon political economy; 
 whose high reputation has given lustre to their cause, which has also derived no 
 small support from the captivating sound of the word Liberty. 
 
 Of these writers the chief were 
 
 John De Witt, a celebrated statesman of Holland, who wrote about the 
 year 1662 ; 
 
 The Abbe Morellet, who advocated the cause of the opponents of the French 
 East-India Company in 1 769 ; and 
 
 Doctor Adam Smith, whose valuable work, entitled ' An Inquiry into the 
 « nature and causes of the wealth of nations,' was published in London 
 in 1776 *. 
 
 De Witt's arguments against exclusive Companies, and answers to them. 
 
 De Witt, treating of the convenient situation of Holland for trade, says, 
 
 ' The conquered lands and strong holds of the East India Company are now 
 
 ' become very considerable, in order to secure to Holland the trade of all spices 
 
 ' and Indian commodities, which is already pretty well fixed to it. And this 
 
 ' improvement of trade might be made much more considerable, if the said 
 
 * conquerors would not, by virtue of their grant or patent, hinder all the other 
 ' inhabitants of these lands from trading to those conquests, and to innumer- 
 ' able rich countries, where the said conquerors, for reasons of state, may not, 
 
 * or, for other reasons, cannot, or perhaps, will not, trade. Yea, though the 
 ' said free trade of our inhabitants, to the greater benefit of the participants, were 
 ' in some measure limited, and circumscribed, to those lands and sea-ports 
 
 * lying in their district, to which they never yet traded, I should then expect 
 
 * to see much more fruit of that trade and monopoly together, than of their 
 ' monopoly alone : for if our East-India Company could find some expedient, 
 '■ either as to freight of goods to permit all the inhabitants of these lands freely 
 ' to lade their goods onboard the Company's own ships, or to import and ex- 
 ' port all manner of goods to the places of their conquests and back to this 
 ' country, or in process of time, by laying imposts on the consumption of the 
 ' inhabiting planters, who would resort thither in great numbers by reason of 
 
 * I have not mentioned Pollexfen, who in to notice a work, in which the strength of the 
 
 the year 1697 published a pamphlet, called argument rests on the alleged pernicious con- 
 
 ' England and East India inconsistent in their sequence of exporting bullion, and in which 
 
 ' manufactures ;' because it is not worth while the exportation is much exaggerated. 
 
 x x 2 'a free
 
 3 + o A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 * a free trade, or by any other imaginable means tending to give it an open 
 
 * trade, they would thereby reap much more profit than the poor participants 
 « now commonly, and with much uncertainty, do enjoy * ; and then, if after- 
 ' wards the said participants would be persuaded to deny themselves so much 
 ' of their privilege, or authorized monopoly, as to set open that trade in some 
 ' good measure to the inhabitants of these United Provinces, it would question- 
 ' less produce to our industrious and inquisitive nauon so many new and unheard 
 ' of consumptions of all our manufactures, especially of wool, and so great a 
 ' trade, navigation, and commerce with that vast land of Africa, and the incred- 
 ' ibly great and rich Asia, which lies so convenient for trade, that many hun- 
 
 * dred ships would yearly make voyages thither, and bring their returns hither, 
 
 * especially from and to Amsterdam ; and by means of which alone we should 
 « certainly, and very easily, work all other foreigners out of those Indian seas. 
 ' Whereas, on the other hand, to the end we may preserve our East-India 
 ' trade, consisting yearly of no more than ten or sixteen ships going and coming, 
 ' we find ourselves continually drawn into so many quarrels and contentions 
 
 * with those foreign nations with imminent danger of losing by such dissensions 
 ' and wars, not only our European trade, but also those conquered Indian coun- 
 
 * tries, and consequently the trade also, for want of planters, and by the exces- 
 ' sive great expenses, which they must be at, more and more yearly, by reason 
 1 of such great numbers of soldiers as lie in their garrisons, and which will 
 
 * much increase with their conquests, as (God amend it) hath but too plainly 
 ' appeared by the West-India Company of this country. 
 
 ' This advantage, which Holland hath for commerce and tramck, would be 
 ' yet more improved, if the West-India Company in all places of their district 
 ' would also set that trade open. And in case things are so constituted, that the 
 ' East and West India trade cannot be preserved but by mighty Companies, as 
 
 * some indeed affirm who understand the India trade, and have the credit of af- 
 « firming what they say with good shew of reason ; yet this, however, must be 
 ' confessed, that the said Companies, as now constituted, do attract and preserve 
 ' to Holland all the trade which depends on their vast equipages, ladings, and 
 « returns.' [Interest of Holland, p. 31, English translation.'] 
 
 He afterwards says, that the establishment of an East-India and a West-India 
 Company was * a necessary evil,' because private adventurers would not be 
 
 * The dividends, which the poor participants varied from 12^ to 45 per cent. But the 
 of the Dutch East-India Company enjoyed imallest of these dividends afforded an ample 
 about that time, were indeed uncertain, ai they support to a frugal Dutchman. 
 
 able
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 341 
 
 able to resist their enemies : but that the trade being now well established, and 
 many ' good and necessary conquests ' being made, the interest of the Com- 
 panies and of the community at large have come to be opposed to each-other ; 
 and he thinks that the settlements conquered by the Company would afford a 
 great accommodation to the subjects of the United States trading to India. 
 [P.83O 
 
 Here we see De Witt urging the same objections against the East-India and 
 the West-India Companies, and at the same time seemingly acknowleging that 
 both were beneficial to Holland, though the West-India Company were never 
 beneficial, and at the very time of his writing were in a ruinous condition. 
 Indeed, it is evident, that, however sound he may have been in some of the 
 selfish maxims of politico-commercial economy, he had no proper conception of 
 the very great difference in the methods and principles of conducting the trade 
 of the East and the West Indies, whence it necessarily follows, that every con- 
 clusion drawn from the idea of assimilating them must be exceedingly erro- 
 neous. If his many hundreds of Dutch ships could have annually imported 
 full cargoes of spiceries and the other produce and manufactures of India, and 
 they could even have prevented all other European vessels from importing any, 
 what could they have done with them ? Could all Europe and the European 
 colonies in America have consumed them ? As to the annual hundreds of out- 
 ward cargoes of woolen goods, and other Dutch manufactures, if he had paid 
 due attention to the climate and fertility of India, and the manners and religion 
 of the people, he must have been sensible that all the inhabitants of India would 
 not consume as much as might have been carried in the ten or sixteen large 
 ships, which he thought so inadequate to the trade, unless the number of con- 
 sumers were prodigiously augmented, as he indeed proposes, by settling populous 
 colonies of European planters, who must massacre the rightful owners of the land 
 before they could find plantations to settle upon *. It might be observed also, 
 that, whether the Dutch East-India Company acquired their settlements by fair 
 and honourable means, or not, those of their countrymen, who had no concern 
 in the acquisition, could not, upon any principle of honesty, pretend to take 
 them from them, or even to partake of the accomodation afforded by them. 
 
 * The nations of hunters on the continent of of India has been so fully occupied many cen- 
 
 America could spare a part of their lands to turies ago by agricultors and manufacturers, 
 
 new settlers, who, applying to agriculture, did that there is no room for any additional po- 
 
 not require near so great an extent of country pulation. 
 in proportion to their number. But every part 
 
 Neither
 
 i4 2 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 Neither does it appear that the Dutch Government ever made any claim upon 
 the Company's territories *. 
 
 To the principal points of De Witt's doctrine may be opposed that of Wattel, 
 who is considered as the very oracle of politicians. According to him 
 
 ' Commerce is the common good of the nation, all the members of which 
 ' have an equal right to it. Monopoly is therefor in general contrary to that 
 ' right. To this rule, there are, nevertheless, some exceptions, founded upon 
 ' the general interest of the nation : and in some cases a wise Government may 
 ' justly establish a monopoly. There are some commercial enterprises, which 
 1 cannot be accomplished without an armed force, and require great capitals, 
 1 beyond the power of private individuals. There are others, which would soon 
 ' ruin the undertakers, if they were not conducted with great prudence and har- 
 ' mony of counsels, together with an unremitting perseverance in established 
 ' maxims and rules. As such branches of commerce cannot be carried on by 
 ' individuals, Companies are formed under the authority of Government : and 
 ' as such Companies cannot be supported, if others are permitted to interfere in 
 ' their trade, it is advantageous to the nation at large, that exclusive privileges 
 ' should be conferred upon them. Thus have powerful Companies been 
 ' formed in several countries for carrying on the trade with India.' [Droit de 
 gens, L. i, c. 8, § 97.] 
 
 Morellefs arguments against exclusive Companies, and answers to tbem. 
 In the year 1769 the Abbe Morel let published a Memoir e upon the situation 
 of the India Company of France, in which, after giving a history (not very can- 
 did or correct) of the successive Companies established in France for conducting 
 the Oriental trade, he maintains, that the French East-India trade has never sup- 
 ported itself, even in time of peace, and consequently that the stock-holders, by 
 persevering in it, must finally sink their whole capital, and ruin themselves and 
 their creditors ; that the Company's trade, instead of promoting the prosperity 
 of the country, has been a heavy load upon it, requiring donations of public 
 
 * Most of De Witt's arguments have been ment of the United Provinces in the year 1665, 
 
 again brought forward by the advocates of when the Dutch East-India Company's charter 
 
 open trade in this country, and will therefor be was renewed for above thirty-five years (a 
 
 more fully considered, when we come to the longer term than the English Company ever 
 
 arguments adduced for and against the English obtained) ; so that, unless we suppose that he 
 
 East-India Company. However, before we was outvoted, his conduct appears not to have 
 
 entirely part with De Witt, it may not be amiss been guided by the opinion he had published 
 
 to observe that he was in the supreme govern- to the world a few years before. 
 
 money
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 343 
 
 money and bounties to the amount of 399,852,516 livres between the years 
 1725 and 1769 * ; and that therefor it is for the interest of the State, as well as 
 of the stock-holders themselves, that the Company should be abolished. He 
 proceeds to show the facility of establishing a free trade, wherein, either ignor- 
 antly or wilfully, he prodigiously misrepresents the state of affairs in India, the 
 mode of conducting the trade and navigation, and the principles of commerce 
 in general. Like De Witt, he proposes, that the individual traders should have 
 all the advantages of the forts and factories established by the Company, and he 
 even proposes to keep up the name of the Company in India, in order to enable 
 the private traders to enjoy the advantages arising from the treaties made by the 
 Company with the native Princes, who, he supposes, are not to find out- the 
 deception. 
 
 Morellet was immediately answered by the celebrated merchant, M r Necker r 
 who was afterwards Minister of the finances. He observes that exclusive Com- 
 panies for the East-India trade were established by the freest Governments in 
 Europe, meaning those of Great Britain and the United Provinces ; that the 
 Government of France had always considered the Company as beneficial to the 
 State ; but, granting that the Government were mistaken, the Company ought 
 no more to be deprived of their property on that account, than a soldier ought 
 to be refused his pay, on the pretence that the war, in which he is employed, is 
 unnecessary. He detects several gross errors in Morellet's statements of the 
 Company's accounts. Against his prospectus of what the private traders may 
 perform, he sets a retrospect of what the French Company have performed, in 
 cultivating the Isles of France and Bourbon, establishing settlements and build- 
 ing towns, erecting forts and arsenals, building churches, hospitals, and other 
 public edifices, paying judges, soldiers, &c. and, in short, defraying all the ex- 
 penses of sovereignty, without which the trade could not be carried on : and he 
 adds, that since the peace they have liquidated sixty millions of debts contracted 
 by the King in India. Against Morellet's assertion of vast sums of the public 
 money being given to the Company, he affirms that the money was neither 
 under their management, nor employed for their service, and, that if the trade 
 had been open to individuals, the protection of it must have cost the State an 
 enormous expenditure, which has been defrayed by the Company. Finally, he 
 observes, that Morellet continually sets up theory against experience, and possibil- 
 ities against facts. 
 
 * Admitting Morellet's statement to be cor- East-India Company of France appear to that 
 reel, how very opposite in this respect does the of this country. 
 
 There
 
 344 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 There were also answers to Morellet published by the Comte de Lauraguais, 
 M r Godheu, and others ; and many publications on both sides appeared. But 
 it is sufficient to notice the principal ones on each side. 
 
 Morellet very soon produced an Examination of Necker's Answer, which was 
 written with great art. Instead of giving any answer to the innumerable dif- 
 ficulties represented by his antagonist as inevitably attending the private trade 
 in India, he gives examples of the success of private traders in other branches of 
 commerce, which nobody is inclined to dispute with him, but which have no 
 points of resemblance to the trade of India. As an illustration of the ruinous 
 tendency of Companies vested with exclusive privileges, he gives a list of fifty- 
 five Companies formed in France, Spain, Italy, Holland, England, and Denmark, 
 every one of which had either fallen (' tombee'), or had never carried their 
 privilege into effect. 
 
 In order to swell out his list, he has inserted the names of several Companies, 
 who never had any other existence than as embryo projects. But for speci- 
 mens of his accuracy, such as we can best judge of in this country, we may 
 take the Turkey Company of England, which, he says, fell in the year 1752, 
 though it remains to this day ; and the East-India Company of England, estab- 
 lished, as he says in 1608, and fallen in 1698 ; whereas all the world knows 
 that it was established in 1600, and remains to this day, united with the New 
 Company. What should we think of the integrity of a pleader, who should 
 assert, that a merchant, who has long carried on trade by himself with success 
 and reputation, and afterwards entered into partnership with another merchant, 
 has failed, or given up business? What should we think of the judgement of an 
 historian, who should inform his readers, that the kingdoms of England and 
 Scotland ceased to exist, when they were incorporated by the union under the 
 comprehensive name of Great Britain ? Of those Companies who really failed 
 (and there is no small number of them) many were ruined by the oppressions 
 of their Governments, or by other causes, which would have been equally de- 
 structive to the trade of unchartered partnerships or individuals. And it must 
 be acknowleged, though his list were perfectly correct, that the establishment 
 of new chartered Companies, in place of those which had miscarried, is at least 
 a proof, that several European Governments have thought very differently from 
 M r Morellet respecting the expediency of carrying on a very distant commerce 
 by means of a Company. 
 
 It would not be supposed that Morellet should be adduced as a supporter of 
 chartered Companies. But the defenders of the French Company actually de- 
 rived a refutation of his arguments against chartered privileges from his own 
 
 proposal
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 345 
 
 proposal of preserving the appearance of a French Company in India, on ac- 
 count of the grants made by the native Princes, and in order to protect the 
 French private traders from being harassed by the agents of other European 
 Companies. Thus, say they, this enemy of Companies acknowleges the neces- 
 sity of keeping up the appearance of one, which, he flatters himself, will produce 
 all the benefits which have been effected by real Companies. Of this curious 
 project it is sufficient to say, that fictions will never long stand their ground ; 
 and that his proposal to have recourse to a shadow confesses the real utility of 
 the substance. 
 
 They also objected to him a fact related by himself, that the merchants of 
 Canton, who are concerned in the trade with the Europeans, are united in an 
 exclusive Company under the superintendence of the Government. Behold, 
 say they, the authority of the Chinese Government, so highly extolled for pol- 
 itical wisdom, precisely according with that of the Governments of the commer- 
 cial nations of Europe. Now, how does M r Morellet imagine that his uncon- 
 nected private merchants can avoid being entirely in the mercy of this united 
 Chinese Company, who will immediately discover, that they have no connec- 
 tion with any of the great Companies, whom their own interest obliges them to 
 respect * ? 
 
 The authority of Montesquieu, the illustrious author of The Spirit of Laws, 
 is also adduced for the necessity of exclusive Companies in some cases. ' When 
 ' the business' says he, ' is not above the reach of individuals, it is advisable 
 ' not to restrain the liberty of commerce by exclusive privileges.' .... 
 ' The liberty of commerce does not consist in every merchant being at entire 
 ' liberty to do whatever he pleases, which would be very pernicious. There 
 ' may be restraints upon the merchants, which are by no means restraints upon 
 4 commerce.' \_Esprit des Loix, L. xx, cc. 10, 12.] 
 
 The authority of Ustariz, a celebrated Spanish writer upon ' The Theory 
 ' and practice of commerce and maritime affairs/ is also produced by the 
 friends of privileged Companies in France. After recommending free trade, as 
 being in general preferable to Companies, he says, ' It appears, however, ad- 
 ' viseable to licence a Company of merchants, willing to establish a limited 
 
 * Perhaps it will here occur to the reader condition, if they had not the advantage of 
 that the American traders are situated at Can- transacting their business under the shelter of 
 ton exactly as the French private traders are European influence, which removes every dif- 
 here supposed to be : and probably they would ficulty. 
 feel ail the hardships of such an unsupported 
 
 Y Y
 
 34 6 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 * commerce and navigation to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, by 
 ' means of the Philippine islands, as some of his Majesty's subjects have pro- 
 ' posed, at their own expense, and without his Majesty risking his ships or 
 
 * treasure in such a distant navigation, or so uncertain an undertaking, as this 
 ' may very probably turn out to be. However, as the proprietors are to enjoy 
 ' all the profits, they may perhaps, by industry and perseverance, conquer the 
 ' many difficulties that must evidently attend their undertaking. But when 
 ' such a scheme shall be determined upon, proper restraints must be prescribed, 
 
 * that the commerce may be conducted agreeable to existing treaties, and with- 
 ' out injuring the manufactures or the American trade of Spain. With these 
 
 * necessary precautions, his Majesty may with propriety assist them with artil- 
 ' lery and ammunition, and grant them other encouragement at home and in 
 ' the Philippine islands.' [cap. 41.3 
 
 Thus does this friend of open trade propose, that an exclusive Company 
 should take upon them all the risk of a new trade, and consequently, upon 
 every principle of equity, be entitled to all the advantages to be derived from 
 their own capital, their own exertion, and their own experience, and that they 
 should even receive some assistance from the national treasury. 
 
 Arguments of Smith and others against exclusive Companies. 
 
 Having now very briefly glanced at the arguments adduced for and against 
 the existence of privileged Companies in the two principal commercial countries 
 upon the continent of Europe, it is proper to take a more extensive view of the 
 controversy respecting the privileges of the East-India Company of this country. 
 Their situation is, however, very different from that of the Dutch Company, 
 who must have sunk under the mismanagement and peculation of their servants 
 and the decline of the demand for spices, even if they had suffered none of the 
 calamities of war, and from that of the French Company, who were ruined by 
 being involved in frantic schemes of finance, mining, and colonization, besides 
 the continual interference of an absolute Government in the management of 
 their affairs, and the inexperience, or want of integrity, of the administrators 
 forced upon them by the Government, who were not only ignorant of the prin- 
 ciples of commerce, but apt to despise commercial pursuits as beneath the atten- 
 tion of gentlemen. 
 
 Ever since the first formation of the English East-India Company, their priv- 
 ileges have been keenly attacked by those who wished to avail themselves, with- 
 out any expense, of the establishments and facilities created by the Company at 
 a vast expense. 
 
 All
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 347 
 
 All the successive opponents of the Company have re-iterated the same ar- 
 guments, which were so often urged and answered in the infancy of the trade *, 
 with scarcely any addition of matter or strength, till Doctor Adam Smith pub- 
 lished his ' Inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations/ which 
 every person, who has bestowed any attention upon the science of political eco- 
 nomy, must consider as one of the greatest works ever produced by human 
 judgement upon that most important subject ; though, like other works of 
 human judgement, it is not exempted from error. His almost unqualified re- 
 probation of monopolies has been, ever since his work appeared, the rock, 
 upon which the modern champions of open trade have erected their batteries to 
 demolish the strong castle of the East-India Company, which has weathered the 
 storms of ages. His opinions having acquired so great an authority, it is pro- 
 per to lay them before the reader in his own words : but, before I proceed to 
 quote them, I must take the liberty, as they are dispersed throughout his work, 
 to reduce them to the following three propositions. 
 
 I) All monopolies and exclusive Companies are pernicious, except Companies 
 for conducting the businesses of banking and insurance, for making navigable 
 canals, or bringing water to a town, and the monopolies granted for limited 
 times to the inventors of new machines and the authors of new books. The 
 East-India Company, presuming upon their monopoly, and being incapable of 
 economical management, confine the trade, and charge exorbitant prices for 
 their goods ; and therefor they ought to be abolished, that the trade may be 
 conducted to greater national advantage by unconnected private adventurers. 
 
 II) The East-India Company are bad Sovereigns ; their being Sovereigns 
 makes them bad merchants ; and their servants are oppressive and wasteful. 
 
 III) Their forts and territories ought to be taken from them, and made a 
 source of national revenue. 
 
 Smith's first proposition, and arguments against it. 
 
 Doctor Smith, in support of his assertion that monopolies are pernicious, 
 says, 
 
 ' Except in Portugal, and within these few years in France, the trade to the 
 ' East Indies has in every European country been subjected to an exclusive 
 ' Company. Monopolies of this kind are properly established against the veiy 
 ' Nation which erects them. The greater part of that Nation are thereby not 
 ' only excluded from a trade to which it might be convenient for them to turn 
 
 * See above, pp. 8j, 94, 107, 133. 
 
 y y 2 ' some
 
 j 4 3 A REVIEW OE THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 ' some part of their stock, but are obliged to buy the goods, which that trade 
 1 deals in, somewhat dearer than if it was open and free to all their countrymen. 
 ' Since the establishment of the English East-India Company, for example, the 
 ' other inhabitants of England, over and above being excluded from the trade,. 
 ' must have paid in the price of the East-India goods, which they have con- 
 ' sumed, not only for all the extraordinary profits which the Company may 
 ' have made upon those goods in consequence of their monopoly, but for all the 
 ' extraordinary waste, which the fraud and abuse, inseparable from the manage- 
 ' ment of the affairs of so great a Company, must necessarily have occasioned.' 
 [V. ii, p./\.6y,ed. 1793. See also V. iii, p. 144, where the same assertions are 
 repeated.] 
 
 ' That such Companies are not in general necessary for carrying on the East- 
 ' India trade, is sufficiently demonstrated by the experience of the Portuguese, 
 * who enjoyed almost the whole of it for more than a century together without 
 ' any exclusive Company.' [V.n, p. 47 1 ; and the same is repeated in 
 p. 474-] 
 
 In these statements Doctor Smith betrays a deficiency of knowlege of the facts 
 argued upon, which could not be expected in a man of such general knowlege 
 and extensive research. The East-India trade of Portugal never was open to all 
 the subjects of that kingdom. With the exception of the time when it was put 
 into the hands of two short-lived and ill-constituted exclusive Companies, it was 
 bound up in the very worst possible kind of monopoly, a monopoly restricted to- 
 the sole benefit of the Sovereign, as far as his authority could grasp it. But, 
 notwithstanding every fetter which absolute power could put upon the conduct 
 of his servants, the King found that he could not prevent their rapacious smug- 
 gling from tearing the greatest part of the commerce between Portugal and India 
 out of his hands. In India, indeed, the trade was in a great measure left to in- 
 dividuals by the King, but made a job of by the Governors and other principal 
 officers, who sold the licences for carrying it on to any adventurer, however 
 worthless, who would purchase them, the consequence of which was, that the 
 
 Indian seas swarmed with Portuguese pirates *. 
 
 • 
 
 * Though the historical fact of the royal being conducted without any Company, which, 
 
 monopoly has already been noticed in its pro- with two temporary exceptions, is true. But 
 
 per place, it is necessary to mention it here also, it was very far from being a favourable speci- 
 
 because not only Doctor Smith, but every other men of the benefits expected from trading to 
 
 advocate for open trade, has built very con- India without a Company, 
 fedently upon the trade of Portugal with India 
 
 The
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 
 
 3 
 
 49 
 
 The assertion that monopolies are ' established against the very nation which 
 
 * erects them,' and the necessary inference that they ought therefor to be 
 abolished, will meet with the cordial and strenuous support of all who wish to 
 partake of the benefits appropriated to the monopolists, and will probably 
 receive the assent of all those, who, having never examined the subject, verv 
 naturally conclude, that entire liberty must in all cases be salutary, and that 
 restraint of any kind must in all cases be pernicious ; while a third set, perhaps 
 acting from conviction, perhaps stimulated by a desire of distinguishing them- 
 selves by the appearance of liberality in their principles respecting political 
 economy, or by other motives, endeavour by their conversation, and some of 
 them by their writings, to persuade the Public, that the East-India Company 
 are not only a dead weight upon the national commerce, but are also ruining 
 themselves by their trade ; though other opponents of the chartered monopoly 
 assert, that the principal members of the Company are enriching themselves by 
 excessive advantages ; and yet I do not remember to have seen any statement 
 of advantages obtained by the Directors, or greater proprietors of the Company's 
 stock, beyond their dividends, for which they have paid their purchase money 
 at the market price, and which they receive at the same rate with every other 
 person, who holds the most minute share of the stock *. 
 
 Raynal, the philanthropic author of the History of the European settlements 
 in the East and West Indies, whom nobody will suppose hostile to the greatest 
 possible extension of commercial liberty, when treating of the question, Whe- 
 ther the trade with India ought to be perfectly free, or conducted by exclusive 
 Companies, says, ' The whole world allows that liberty is the very soul of com- 
 ' merce, and that it can be carried to its greatest extension only by liberty. 
 ' Every body will agree, that it is competition which developes industry, and 
 ' carries its exertions to the utmost point of which they are capable. Neverthe- 
 
 * less, the facts of above a century f have been in continual and direct oppos- 
 ' ition to these principles.' [Hist.phil. V. iii, p. 186.] 
 
 Every monopoly or restraint of any kind whatever must, in the very nature 
 of it, be attended with inconvenience to some persons. But, if it is beneficial 
 to the greater number of individuals, or to the Nation at large, a wise Legislat- 
 
 * It is needless to mention the small salaries and comfort, to which those gentlemen, and 
 
 paid to the Directors, which are inferior to particularly the Chairman and Deputy Ciiair- 
 
 those enjoyed by the secondary clerks in offices, man, subject themselves. 
 
 and even by many clerks in merchants' counting j With respect to the English East-India 
 
 houses, and very far, indeed, from being a com- Company, now above two centuries, 
 pensation for the fatigue, and privation of rest 
 
 ure
 
 i5 o A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 ure will resist the importunity and clamour of the few, who are, or think them- 
 selves, aggrieved by it, and support a measure, which, they are convinced, is 
 productive of general prosperity. Of the many monopolies, kept up in this 
 country, it is sufficient to notice two, which are both very popular. 
 
 The first is the Navigation act, esteemed the maritime Palladium of Great 
 Britain, which is as much a monopoly against the manufacturers and consumers 
 of this country, in favour of shipbuilders and seamen, as any exclusive charter 
 to a Company can possibly be. — Shall the Navigation act then be repealed ? — 
 Let us consult Doctor Smith. He, though he points out many inconveniences 
 arising from it, such as diminishing our foreign trade, especially with the con- 
 tinent of Europe, diminishing the trading capital, and contributing to raise the 
 price of native and foreign commodities, says, ' As defence, however, is of 
 ' much more importance than opulence, the act of navigation is, perhaps, the 
 ' wisest of all the commercial regulations of England.' [V. ii, p. 195.] SirJosiah 
 Child, who calls the Navigation act our Cbarta maritima, says, ' In relation to 
 ' trade, shipping, profit, and power, it is one of the choisest and most prudent 
 ' acts that ever was made, and without which we had not been owners of one 
 ' half of the shipping nor trade, nor employed one half of the seamen which we 
 ' do at present.' Lord Sheffield even goes beyond these two great authors in 
 his estimation of the Navigation act, which in the beginning of his ' Consider- 
 1 ations on the commerce of the American States,' a work composed for the ex- 
 press purpose of guarding against an apprehended relaxation of it, he calls • the 
 ' guardian of the prosperity of Britain.' — And yet, nobody can deny that it is 
 a monopoly. 
 
 The monopoly in favour of the woolen manufacturers of England against the 
 feeders of sheep and the consumers of mutton, (and consequently of all other 
 animal food, as the price of one kind regulates the price of the others) of candles, 
 soap, and a thousand other articles, partly or wholely the produce of sheep, in 
 short against every human creature in the kingdom, is supported by rigorous and 
 vexatious laws for confining the wool within the country, and also by heavy duties 
 paid by the consumers of foreign linen, and by considerable sums drawn from 
 the public revenue in bounties upon the exportation of British and Irish linen, 
 and in other allurements, calculated to reconcile the people of Scotland and 
 Ireland to the less profitable manufacture of linen in preference to the more 
 profitable manufacture of woolen goods. The woolen manufacture is, never- 
 theless, universally esteemed the most valuable branch of English industry, and, 
 as such, has for ages been fondly cherished by the Legislature, insomuch that 
 the East-India Company have been obliged by their charters to export a very 
 
 large
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY 3J1 
 
 large quantity of it, though it is impossible to sell it in India or China for what 
 it costs them ; and even the dead are not exempted from a compulsive support of 
 it. Those who are concerned in it have been sometimes persuaded to join in the 
 cry against the East-India Company, because they do not ruin themselves by 
 exporting woolen goods in greater abundance than they do, in order to let them 
 perish in India, where there can never be any great demand for them. The ad- 
 vocates for Doctor Smith's doctrines respecting privileged commerce will here 
 abandon him, for he recommends a permission to export wool from England *. 
 [T.ii, />. 504.] 
 
 The experience of two centuries has proved the wisdom of the most enlight- 
 ened Governments in Europe in acting upon the sound politico-commercial 
 maxim, that restraints, imposed in a particular branch of trade for the benefit 
 of the community at large, are not injurious to any individual, and that the true 
 liberty of commerce consists in granting to the trader all the facilities which are 
 compatible with the real interest of the Nation, of which he is a member, and 
 withholding from him all those which are incompatible with it. 
 
 This will probably not be denied : but the opponents of chartered privileges 
 insist, that an exclusive Company for foreign trade can in no case whatever be 
 considered as promoting the benefit of the community at large, but, on the con- 
 trary, excluding ' the greater part of the Nation' from engaging in the trade in 
 order to enrich a small number, and obliging all the other inhabitants of Eng- 
 land to pay for the ' extraordinary waste,' &c. he. of the Company's super- 
 cargoes and other servants, as well as their own extraordinary profits upon the 
 trade, which they mismanage ; for says Doctor Smith, 
 ' These Companies, though they may, perhaps, have been useful for the first 
 
 * introduction of some branches of commerce, by making, at their own expence, 
 
 * an experiment which the State might not think it prudent to make, have in the 
 ' longrun proved, universally, either burthensome or useless, and have either 
 ' mismanaged or confined the trade.' [V. iii, p. 1 10J 
 
 * Another consequence of the wool laws is, English wool, \_V. i, p. 364 ; V. ii, p. cos") 
 that they have brought down the quality of But he seem6 to have known nothing of the 
 English wool, which was the very best in exportation of English sheep to Spain, the 
 Europe some centuries ago, to such a degree truth of which is even denied by some histori- 
 of inferiority, as renders the English manfact- ans, though the vouchers for the fact are as 
 ure dependent upon the importation of Spanish full and clear as for any point of history ; and 
 wool, which has acquired its superiority by it was not unknown to the poet Shenston, who 
 means of the English sheep carried to Spain in in his eighteenth elegy, mentions it as a known 
 the reigns of Edward III and Edward IV. fact, which he probably received from the trad- 
 Doctor Smith is also of opinion that the wool ition of the country, 
 laws have been injurious to the quality of 
 
 ' Without
 
 3|2 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 ' Without an exclusive privilege they have commonly mismanaged the trade- 
 ' With an exclusive privilege they have both mismanaged and confined it.' 
 [F. iii, p. 1 24.] 
 
 The representation of the grievous hardship of excluding the great body of 
 the Nation from the trade, for the benefit of the few, is very plausible, and 
 likely to catch the assent of those who do not bestow much thought upon the 
 matter. Let us consider the effect of an abolition of this grievous hardship. — 
 In the great body of the Nation there are but very few individuals desirous of 
 entering actively into the trade ; therefor all the rest of the people, being at least 
 99,999 in 100,000, feel no deprivation of what they do not desire to have. The 
 truth is, that the abolition of the Company's privilege would deprive of their 
 rights, held under the sanction of the law, and very much impair the property 
 of, all the proprietors of India stock, whose number is most probably fifty 
 times as great as that of the adventurers in the open trade would be in the first 
 year after the abolition *, and five hundred times as great as it would be in the 
 fifth year \. Neither ought it to be forgotten that there are at all times some 
 proprietors of the stock of this envied monopolizing Company, who are willing 
 to dispose of it, and that no person of either sex, or of whatever condition, age, 
 religion, or country, is debarred from purchasing. 
 
 The grievous charge of ' the extraordinary waste, which the fraud and 
 ' abuse, inseparable from the management of the affairs of so great a Com- 
 ' pany, must necessarily have occasioned ;' has been superexaggerated by Smith 
 from the exaggerated account of Dow, who wrote his History of Hindostan in 
 the worst, and most unsettled, period of the Company's administration, before 
 their government was properly established. But what was then exaggerated 
 censure, has become absolutely unfounded slander, ever since the regular system 
 of the Company's commercial and political administration has been brought to 
 its present state, which is perhaps as near to perfection as any human institution 
 can be : and there is every reason to believe, that the gentlemen, who for many 
 years past have filled the various offices in the Company's service, and have all 
 been selected and regularly bred up for their respective branches of employ- 
 
 * On the 8th of April 1807 there were \ See on this subject the opinion of Raynal 
 
 2,045 qualified stock-holders, who voted at \_V. iii, p. 200] on the French East-India 
 
 the election of Directors. [Asiatic An. Reg. Company, who were never, in their best days, 
 
 1807, India house, p. 31] In autumn 1810 so beneficial to their country as the English 
 
 there were 3,637 accounts for the stock-holders East-India Company have always been, when 
 
 in the Company's book : and, as many of them their privileges were duely supported, 
 are joint accounts, the number of persons in- 
 terested in the stock cannot be less than 4,000.
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. ssi 
 
 merit, are as expert in their several departments of business, as upright in their 
 conduct, and as attentive to the interest of their employers, as any set of men in 
 any part of the world. 
 
 Some of Smith's followers have so far improved upon his charge of extra- 
 vagant emoluments being enjoyed by the servants of the Company, as to assert, 
 that ' every individual concerned in the monopoly, from the Director down to 
 ' the door-keeper of the palace in Leadenhall street, are amassing independent 
 ' or princely fortunes.' It is not necessary to say, that this is mere rant. But, 
 if any intelligent person should be induced by such statements to think for a 
 moment, that the servants of the Company ought to have smaller salaries, a 
 just and comprehensive view of the matter will convince him, that to withhold 
 the fair and liberal compensation due to those who devote their talents and 
 attention, during the greatest, or at least the best, part of their lives, to the 
 service of their employers, would be neither just nor prudent. We have seen 
 that the niggardly conduct of the Dutch lost them the great empire of Brazil : 
 and indeed, with all their commercial wisdom, the conduct of the Dutch towards 
 the people employed by them has afforded many strong proofs of the truth of 
 the maxim, that excessive parsimony is as much contrary to real prudential 
 economy as starving the body is contrary to salutary regimen. But granting, 
 for the sake of argument, that the Company's servants may sometime be less 
 economical in managing the affairs of their employers, or even unfaithful to 
 their trust, (and where shall we find the human institution which can guard 
 against all defects ?) are not the Directors, who, by the constitution of the 
 Company, must be proprietors of stock to a larger amount than most of the 
 other stock-holders, impelled by interest, as well as duty, to check every im- 
 proper expenditure, and bring delinquents to punishment ? If the trade were 
 divided among a thousand small traders, every one of them would have charges 
 upon his portion of it ; for there must be charges on small trade as well as on 
 great trade. The merchant, who trades to the extent of £i 00,000 a-year, can 
 better afford to pay ^1,000 a-year to his clerks, than he, who trades for ^5,000 
 can afford ^150, the larger sum being one per cent, and the smaller three per 
 cent, on the amount of the trade. Large payments are not in all cases imprud- 
 ent; and, indeed, there is reason to believe that the expenses upon the Company's 
 trade are lower than those upon the trade of the free merchants in India *. 
 
 * 
 
 A respectable gentleman, who resided to economize them, run higher than those upon 
 
 thirty years in India, declared to the Committee the Company's trade. His personal knowlege 
 
 of the House of Commons in May 1809, that he of the fact is rather preferable to Smith's 
 
 found the charges upon the trade conducted by random assumption, 
 himself, with all the attention he could bestow 
 
 z z Doctor
 
 354 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 Doctor Smith re-iterates his remarks upon the hardships of the inhabitants of 
 England being obliged to pay, in the price of the India goods they consume, 
 not only ' the extraordinary profits ' made by the Company, but also to pay for 
 the ' extraordinary waste' of their servants (in other words, to pay the charges 
 of trade) ; whereas a boundless competition would very much reduce the price 
 of goods in the English market, to the great benefit of the consumers. \V. iii, 
 pp. 134, 144] 
 
 That a very great competition will produce an excessive depression of prices, 
 which may afford a small temporary convenience to the consumers, is what 
 nobody will dispute. But what was the consequence of the boundless compet- 
 ition, which took place in England for some years previous to the renewal of the 
 Company's charter in October 1657, and again for a few years after 1698, 
 when there were two established Companies, and two sets of separate traders, 
 all courting sale by lowering their prices, to their own ruin * ? If we apply to 
 Doctor Smith for the answer to this question, even he will inform us, that 
 ' The competition of the two Companies with the private traders, and with one 
 
 • another, is said to have well nigh ruined both.' [F. iii, p. 133] But this 
 very competition, however ruinous to the traders and others, was exactly what 
 Doctor Smith constantly recommends as the national summon bonum of com- 
 merce, in order to let the consumers have their tea, pepper, muslin, &c. a little 
 cheaper t, and but a little cheaper ; for he does not propose that the Govern- 
 ment shall take off any part of the duties paid to the revenue, which, with the 
 advance necessarily put upon them by the retailers, constitute the greatest part 
 of the price paid by the purchasers for many species of India goods. Is there 
 nothing else requisite to the happiness of a well regulated nation, than that in- 
 dividuals should be enabled to buy the articles, wanted for their consumption, 
 under the fair price, which, Doctor Smith himself, allows, ought to return to 
 
 * See above pp. 123, 150. perfect astronomical or mathematical instru- 
 
 f The interest of the consumers seems to be ment, or the most powerful machinery, down 
 
 the only object in politico-commercial economy, to the poor peasant who produces a crop of 
 
 thought worthy of the attention of a wise Legis- potatoes, or the poor woman who produces 
 
 lature, by Doctor Smith. He says, yarn to make fine shirts for the rich, are alio. 
 
 ' Consumption is the sole end and purpose of consumers. The skill and labour of the pro- 
 
 4 all production ; and the interest of the pro- ducers, and the expenditure of the consumers 
 
 • ducer ought to be attended to, only so far as are reciprocal benefits. But there can be no 
 
 • it may be necessary for promoting that of the reason for preferring the interest of the mere 
 
 • consumer.' [F. ii, p. 515] idle consumer, who is useful to society only by 
 But he ought to remember, that all pro- his consumption, to that of the industr'wui 
 
 ducers, from the capital artist who produces producer, who is useful to society in both 
 the most accurate chronometer, the most capacities. 
 
 the
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 355 
 
 the seller his first cost and charges with a sufficient profit ? Was the ruin of 
 the adventurers in the India trade, and of the monied people and manufacturers, 
 who advanced their properties to them, and whose families and connections, 
 through a great extent of ramifications, were rendered miserable by the enorm- 
 ous glut of India goods in the two periods now referred to*, a matter of no con- 
 cern to a philanthrophic and beneficent Government, whose duty it is, by every 
 constitutional means, to prevent the subjects from running into ruinous projects, 
 upon the same principle of public safety, which prohibits an individual from 
 setting fire to his own house, which is adjacent to others ? 
 
 To Smith's charge of the Company making the people of England pay in the 
 price of their goods for their ' extraordinary profits ' and the ' extraordinary 
 ' waste' of their servants, it may be answered, that the Company are obliged by 
 law to expose all their goods to public sale, and in lots within the reach of 
 every dealer in moderate circumstances, and that none of them are ever bought 
 in on their own account ; so that the buyers have them at prices of their own 
 making : and, that these prices are lower than on the Continent of Europe, is 
 evidently proved by merchants from various parts of Europe purchasing East- 
 India goods in London, rather than in their own countries. It is also a fact 
 well worthy of serious consideration, that Oriental goods, imported by this 
 monopolizing Company, have for thirty or forty years bypast been sold for less 
 nominal money than they were a hundred years ago ; whereas all other goods, 
 not excepting the produce of the West-India islands, the trade of which is en- 
 tirely open to all British subjects, have advanced to double, triple, or quadruple, 
 prices. Notwithstanding these well-known facts, people can be found, even in 
 the present day, to re-iterate Smith's silly complaint against the ' extravagant 
 ■ profits' charged by the Company. 
 
 The charge of confining the trade means probably (for it is not very clearly 
 expressed) that more British goods ought to be exported, or more India goods 
 ought to be imported, or both. But, if the exports are already greater than the 
 consumption of India can take off, and it is an unquestionable fact that they are, 
 and if the imports are fully adequate to the demand for home consumption and 
 exportation, and it is not alleged that the market is not sufficiently supplied 
 with India goods, that charge falls to the ground. 
 
 In order to procure to the consumers of India goods the most important and 
 desirable advantage of buying them at very low prices, Doctor Smith proposes 
 
 * For one pointed instance (the others cannot be specified by name) see the fate of Courten, 
 his partners, and creditors, p. 115. 
 
 Z Z 2 tO
 
 35 6 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 to abolish the Eaft-India Company, and to allow every British subject to send 
 ships to India ; for, says he, 
 
 ' When a Company of merchants undertake, at their own risk and expence, 
 ' to establish a new trade with some remote and barbarous nation, it may not 
 ' be unreasonable to incorporate them into a joint-stock Company, and to grant 
 ' them, in case of their success, a monopoly of the trade for a certain number of 
 ' years. It is the easiest and most natural way in which the State can recom- 
 ' pense them for hazarding a dangerous and expensive experiment, of which 
 
 * the Public is afterwards to reap the benefit. A temporary monopoly of this 
 
 * kind may be vindicated upon the same principles upon which a like monopoly 
 ' of a new machine is granted to its inventor, and that of a new book to its 
 ' author. But upon the expiration of the term the monopoly ought certainly 
 ' to determine.' [V. iii, p. 143] 
 
 In order to avoid multiplying quotations, it is sufficient to observe, that the 
 propriety and justice, or rather the expediency, of abolishing the Company's 
 privilege, are inferred in every paragraph of Doctor Smith's work, which 
 touches upon the subject of exclusive trade. 
 
 He allows, that a Company may be chartered to open a new trade, and to 
 encounter all the difficulties, and bear all the losses, inseparable from every 
 untried enterprise. Then, after having smoothed the way, they are to retire, 
 and let others reap the fruits of their labours. But where shall we find a set of 
 people willing to clear the uncultivated land, plough the new fields, and sow 
 the seed, with a certainty of not enjoying the harvest ? 
 
 When the ' dangerous and expensive experiment ' of an India trade was made 
 in England, Queen Elizabeth, not inferior in political sagacity, and a keen per- 
 ception of her own and the national interest, to any of the most enlightened 
 speculative philosophers of the present age, assured the subscribers to the new 
 Company, that, if the trade should appear to be beneficial to the realm, she 
 would give them a renewal of their charter. But, at the same time she, very 
 properly, reserved a power of annulling it upon two years' notice, if it should be 
 found to be hurtful. Thus the undertakers of a new and unknown trade had 
 the Royal assurance of reaping their own harvest, if there should be a harvest ; 
 and if there should be none, they would undoubtedly be ready enough of them- 
 selves to abandon a losing business. 
 
 From the history of the early transactions of the Europeans in India we learn 
 that, though some of the first trading voyages were made by ships fitted out by 
 small associations, yet all the Nations, who engaged in the trade, the Portuguese 
 only excepted, established Companies, more or less extensive according to their 
 
 abilities,
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 3J7 
 
 abilities, as soon as they became sensible of the weight of capital required in 
 the East-India trade. 
 
 The example of several of the most enlightened Governments in Europe 
 establishing Companies with exclusive privileges for the trade with India, and 
 continuing them during two centuries, notwithstanding the bitter outcries of in- 
 dividuals, evidently shows that they have found them beneficial. People may 
 be made to mistake their interest for some time : but in the long-run they never 
 fail to adhere to that which they find most for their advantage. 
 
 If we consider the nature of the trade, and those points wherein it differs 
 from others, we shall find that the Sovereigns, who have established exclusive 
 Companies, have been induced to do so by the consideration of the greater 
 security of the merchants who employ their capitals in the trade, and also of 
 the seamen, and the agents in India, and the natives of India. 
 
 All these arguments apply very well, say the advocates for free trade, to the 
 state of things two hundred years ago, when the capitals of merchants were 
 small, and their knowlege of Oriental trade and of navigation still smaller. But 
 now the case is widely different. There is no trade too great for our capital, 
 nor any navigation too arduous for our navigators ; and therefor, whatever 
 might be alleged formerly, there can be no reason for debarring us now from 
 a trade, which we are fully qualified to carry on to advantage. The French 
 National Assembly abolished their exclusive Company in the first and best days 
 of their revolution, and we ought to profit by their example. 
 
 These gentlemen are fully aware that the establishment of an East-India trade 
 is not the work of a few years, nor, indeed, to be accomplished during the 
 longest single life. They know that a Company must often sow with a liberal 
 hand, that posterity may reap, and they do so upon a well-founded expectation 
 that their own posterity, or those to whom they may assign their interest in the 
 joint stock, shall reap the fruits of their labours. Let us suppose that a family 
 of merchants or manufacturers have, by unremitting industry and perseverance 
 in several successive generations, established a very great trade, and acquired a 
 good landed estate, upon which they have built an excellent house for their own 
 mansion, and commodious dwelling houses and work-shops for their numerous 
 officers, workmen, and tenants, and have also made the land more productive *. 
 Has any person a right to say to the chief of this family, You have possessed 
 this property a long time, which is an inconvenience to me, as I want to reap 
 
 * The successive merchants of the family of Medici in Florence afford an illustrious 
 example in a single family. 
 
 the
 
 j 5 « A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 the corn upon some of the fields, which you have brought Into cultivation, and 
 also to make use of the houses and shops, which you have erected, for conduct- 
 ing my own business ? — The example of the French Company is not well chosen. 
 They ujere very different indeed from the Company of this country, having been 
 bolstered up by the pecuniary aids and bounties of Government, and also in a 
 great degree ruined by the interference of the agents of Government ; though 
 perhaps these circumstances were not taken into consideration by those who ef- 
 fected their abolition. It is not at all surprising that a people, newly emancipated 
 from the fetters of a corrupted arbitrary Government, should run to the oppos- 
 ite extreme, and suppose that, in order to enjoy perfect liberty, they had only to 
 demolish whatever had the appearance of restraint, however salutary. It is 
 hoped that the French example will never be imitated in this country. 
 
 Doctor Smith, after discussing what he calls the ripeness of a nation for the 
 East-India trade, exemplified in its effects upon a poor nation and upon a rich 
 nation, says, 
 
 ' There is no great branch of trade, in which the capital of any one private 
 
 * merchant is sufficient for carrying on all the subordinate branches, which must 
 ' be carried on in order to carry on the principal one. But, when a nation is 
 ' ripe for any great branch of trade, some merchants naturally turn their capitals 
 
 * towards the principal, and some towards the subordinate branches of it ; and, 
 ' though all the different branches of it are in this manner carried on, yet it very 
 ' seldom happens, that they are all carried on by the capital of one private mer- 
 ' chant. If a nation, therefor, is ripe for the East-India trade, a certain portion 
 < of its capital will naturally divide itself among all the different branches of that 
 ' trade. Some of its merchants will find it for their interest to reside in the 
 ' East Indies *, and to employ their capitals there in providing goods for the ships 
 ' which are to be sent out by the merchants who reside in Europe. [V. ii, 
 p. 471] ' The East Indies offer a market both for the manufactures of Europe 
 1 and for the gold and silver as well as for several other productions of Ame- 
 
 * ricaf, greater and more extensive than both Europe and America put toge- 
 « ther.' [V. ii, p. 470] After observing that the concurrent trade of the two 
 Companies and the separate traders at the close of the seventeenth century 
 brought a plentiful supply of India goods into the English market * to the 
 
 * It was apparently in gratitude for this \ The quantity of American productions, 
 
 pleasing proposal, that one of those merchants that can be wanted in India, must be very 
 gave the name of • Adam Smith ' to a ship of trifling indeed, 
 ioo tuns. [Aiiatic Ann. Reguter for 1803, 
 Bombay Reportt, p. 166] 
 
 * great
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. i59 
 
 ' great advantage and conveniency of the Public,' he adds, ' But that it should 
 ' have raised very much their price in the Indian market, seems not very 
 ' probable, as all the extraordinary demand, which that competition could oc- 
 ' casion, must have been but as a drop of water in the immense ocean of Indian 
 ' commerce *. The increase of demand, besides, though in the beginning it 
 ' may sometimes raise the price of goods, never fails to lower it in the long run. 
 
 * It encourages production, and thereby increases the competition of the pro- 
 
 * ducers, who, in order to undersell one another, have recourse to new divisions 
 
 * of labour, and new improvements of art, which might never otherwise have 
 ' been thought of.' [V. iii, p. 134] 
 
 It is vexatious to be under a necessity of observing, in so respectable an au- 
 thor as Smith, a great deficiency of knowlege of a subject, upon which he has 
 dogmatically decided. Throughout his whole work he has fallen into the same 
 error with De Witt in supposing that the trade of the East-India factories and that 
 of the American colonies are conducted in the same manner, and upon the same 
 principles : nor does he seem to have ever suspected, that any thing further is 
 necessary to establish a merchant in India than a competent capital and a proper 
 connection at home. He must have imagined that the manufactures of India 
 are supported by the capital and enterprising spirit of opulent manufacturers or 
 great merchants, and that the labour of them is abridged by excellent machinery, 
 and facilitated by a judicious distribution of it among the various classes of work- 
 people, like those of this country. He must also have imagined that every indi- 
 vidual of the very numerous population of India is a consumer of the exotic lux- 
 uries of Europe, which our ships carry out. 
 
 If Doctor Smith had reflected but a little, or made inquiry of those who could 
 inform him, he would have known that there are scarcely any points of resembl- 
 ance between the commerce of the East Indies and that of North America, 
 which has been colonized within the two last centuries by British subjects. 
 Almost all of those, who settled upon the continent of America, proposed, when 
 they emigrated from their native country, to establish themselves and their famil- 
 ies permanently upon lands, which they have since rendered valuable by cultiv- 
 ation ; and the greatest part of their descendents are now a separate nation : but 
 still their productive industry is chiefly exerted in agriculture and foreign com- 
 merce, there being scarcely any considerable manufacture carried on among 
 them, except that of shipbuilding ; and a very great part of the articles of their 
 
 * In India the legal interest of money is § 30.] Is such a rate of interest compatible 
 twelve per cent. \_Sec act 13 Geo. Ill, c. 63, with an immense ocean of commerce ? 
 
 consumption
 
 3 6o A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 consumption is imported. In the British American islands, or West Indies, all 
 the white inhabitants fthe only human creatures possessing property and polit- 
 ical existence) were born, or are descendents, not very remote, of people born, 
 in Great Britain or Ireland *, who consider themselves only as sojourners in the 
 islands, and look forward with anxiety to the time when the acquisition of a com- 
 petency shall enable them to return to the society of their friends in their native 
 country. In such a state of the population there can be absolutely no manu- 
 factures, unless we consider the operation of bringing the produce into a state 
 fit for shipping it off as a rude kind of manufacture. In those islands all the 
 white people, all their slaves, and even their horses, mules, and oxen, are con- 
 sumers of British produce and manufactures : all their victuals and drink, their 
 clothing, watches, jewels, ornamental furniture, and trinkets, their household 
 furniture, their candles, their books and stationary of every kind, their agricul- 
 tural tools and ironmongery of every kind, their paint and glass for their 
 wooden buildings and shipping, their ship-chandlery, their boilers, stills, and all 
 the iron and copper articles required for the machinery and utensils of their 
 sugar works, the very lime used for tempering the cane liquor, their arms and 
 military accoutrements, in short every article wanted for conducting their busi- 
 ness, and for the support or the enjoyment of life, except rum for their drink, and 
 a few articles of provisions raised upon the plantations or supplied by fishing in 
 the sea, and some provisions and lumber imported from the continent of Amer- 
 ica, are all carried to them from Great Britain and Ireland : even their wine, 
 though the produce of other countries, is supplied by British merchants, as 
 were also their African slaves till the late abolition of the slave trade. 
 
 When the sugar, rum, coffee, pimento, ginger, cotton, and other articles of 
 produce, are prepared for exportation, the proprietors of the plantations generally 
 ship them on their own account and risk, thus uniting in their own persons the 
 characters of cultivators, manufacturers of the produce in its first stage of pre- 
 paration, and also of merchants, as far as concerns the exportation of their own 
 produce from the islands, the sale of it in a British port, and the importation of 
 all their necessary stores. The quantity of produce retained in the islands for 
 their own consumption is very minute, and is but as a drop of water in the 
 ocean (not immense) of West-India commerce. Of the proprietors of West- 
 India plantations many are British merchants, and many others, who are not en- 
 gaged in any business, except what is connected with their plantations, chuse to 
 
 * The native West-Indians are but few in comparison of the adventitious ones. 
 
 reside
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 3 6t 
 
 reside in Great Britain, where they expend the income derived from their pro- 
 perty in the islands. 
 
 Such is the state of the population and trade of America and the West 
 Indies. Let us now see how far they are like or unlike to those of the Oriental 
 regions, the trade of which is appropriated to the East-India Company. 
 
 From what little we can see through the darkness of remote antiquity, the 
 Oriental countries, and more especially India and China, appear to have been 
 fully inhabited by civilized nations of industrious and ingenious cultivators and 
 manufacturers very many centuries before the light of civilization, which is 
 universally acknowleged to have arisen in the East, began to shine in the less 
 fertile northern and western parts of the world. It has been noticed in the in- 
 troduction to this work, that the first commercial adventure, of which we have 
 any knowlege, was partly founded upon a trade with India, which may very 
 probably have subsisted for ages before that time ; and the trade between the 
 several parts of India, by which the spicery was apparently brought within the 
 reach of the Arabian traders, must have been still more antient, for spices must 
 have been long in use, and established objects of commerce in India, before the 
 Arabians could even have heard of their existence. 
 
 The sciences, and the arts of cultivation and manufacture, have been trans- 
 mitted from father to son, through innumerable generations, occupying the same 
 country which their ancestors occupied thousands of years ago, who, though 
 they have been several times over-run, plundered, and subjugated, by foreign 
 conquerors, still form nine tenths of the population *, even in Hindoostan, 
 where the Mohamedans have been the governing people during many centuries : 
 and, notwithstanding the softness and timid gentleness of their disposition, they 
 still retain the manners and the religion of their ancestors, without the slightest 
 degree of assimilation to those of their conquerors f. 
 
 * See above, p. 176 note, for Mr. Orme's (notwithstanding the reveries of some antient, 
 
 estimate of the proportion of the Hindoo and and some modern, authors) could never be very 
 
 Mohamedan inhabitants. numerous, has been so far extinguished, and 
 
 ■j- In this respect there is a remarkable dif- superseded, by successive adventitious colonics 
 
 ference between the Hindoos and the antient of the conquering nations, that they are not 
 
 Egyptians, whom some writers suppose to have now to be found in the country, unless we shall 
 
 been their ancestors, though they might with think proper to recognize the Negro inhabitants 
 
 rather more probability be supposed their de- of Upper Egypt as the remaining represent- 
 
 scendents, if there wasanyrelationbetweenthem. atives of that much-famed Nation. Neither is 
 
 Though both nations have been conquered by there a vestige of their religion, their manners, 
 
 every invader who led an army into their coun- or their learning, as far as is known to Europ- 
 
 try, the original population of Egypt, which eans, now to be found in their country. 
 
 3 a The
 
 3 6 2 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 The Hindoo, born and desiring to pass his life in the same country, where his 
 ancestors, through a long succession of ages, were born and passed their lives, 
 whose food is rice, whose drink is water or milk, to whom wine or strong 
 liquor is an object of abomination, and who, if he strictly acts up to his religious 
 principles, would sooner lay down his own life than put any living creature to 
 death*, or permit a morsel of animal food to enter his mouth, whose warm 
 climate renders any clothing, beyond what decency requires, intolerable, and 
 whose light clothing is made by himself and his family from the cotton pro- 
 duced in his own fertile fields, whose customs and religion, to which he adheres 
 with the most inflexible constancy, render utterly inadmissible many articles of 
 enjoyment and comfort, which our habits have rendered almost necessary to our 
 existence, can never have any desire to acquire the produce or manufactures of 
 Europe t- Hence it is evident that the exportation of European goods of any 
 kind must be, and must ever remain, on a scale very contracted, compared to 
 the population of the country, the demand being in a great measure confined to 
 the small handful of Europeans, who are either in the service of the Company, 
 or living under their protection, the degenerate posterity of the Portuguese col- 
 onists, some of the Mohamedan inhabitants, and, for jewels and trinkets of 
 exquisite workmanship, a very small number of the most opulent of the Hind- 
 oos t. How very different is this order of things from that in America, where 
 almost every article of manufacture is imported, or that in the West Indies, 
 where the most necessary articles, as well as the most superfluous, are all im- 
 ported from the mother country ? Is it possible, that such a country as India, 
 producing all the necessaries, and, to the extent of the desires of the inhabitants, 
 
 * Doctor Buchanan, in his ' Journey through % The Committee of the House of Commons 
 
 • Mysore, &c.' tells us that a Brahman may on the East-India Company's affairs, in May 
 
 lawfully kill his enemy in battle : and, indeed, 1 809, examined several merchants of London, 
 
 many of the native soldiers in the Company's who have resided in India, and now act as agents 
 
 army are of that most rigorous cast. for the private merchants established there, who 
 
 ■)• That the natives of India are prevented by gave it as their general opinion, that the export- 
 
 their climate, and prohibited by their religion, ationof British goods to India might be greatly 
 
 from ever being consumers of European goods extended. But, when they were pressed by 
 
 to any great extent, was observed long ago by the Committee to be more particular, they ac- 
 
 Montesquieu. \_Esprit des loix, L, xxi, c. -I.] knowleged, that a full concession of all the 
 
 Surely, with the superior knowlege we now facilities they could desire would only operate 
 
 have of India, a British merchant ought not to to make British goods cheaper in India, where, 
 
 be ignorant in the beginning of the nineteenth according to the evidence of some gentlemen 
 
 century of what was known by a French phil- before the same Committee, they are already too 
 
 osopher in the early part of the eighteenth. plentiful and too cheap, but could not increase 
 
 the consumption among the native«. 
 
 all
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 
 
 363 
 
 all the luxuries of life, and a people of such simplicity and moderation, can ever, 
 as Doctor Smith, imagines ' offer a market both for the manufactures of Eu- 
 ' rope, and for the gold and silver as well as for several other productions of 
 ' America, greater and more extensive than both Europe and America put 
 ' together * ? ' The Doctor, however, filled with this magnificent idea, holds out 
 to the private British trader the encouraging prospect, that, immediately on his 
 arrival at any of the ports of the vastly extended Indian Ocean, he is to find 
 many merchants ready to purchase his European merchandize, and eagerly com- 
 peting for the advantage to be obtained by distributing his woolen cloths and 
 other articles among the innumerable native consumers. — What a flattering 
 prospect for the British manufacturers ! 
 
 But Doctor Smith seems to have another resource for a copious augmentation 
 of the British export trade. Paying no attention to the difference between the 
 state of India and that of America when first resorted to by the Europeans, he 
 apparently proposes to create a demand for European merchandize by establish- 
 ing populous colonies ; for he complains, that, ' Though the Europeans possess 
 * many considerable settlements both upon the coast of Africa and the East 
 ' Indies, they have not yet established in either of those countries such numer- 
 
 * The following statement serves to prove 
 that the consumption of India, instead of being 
 capable of an infinite extension, is liable to be 
 glutted by a very trifling excess beyond the 
 usual supply. 
 
 The estimated amounts of the goods carried 
 to India by the commanders and officers of the 
 Company's ships, calculated on the tunnage and 
 value expressed in their applications to the 
 Court of Directors for permission to ship them, 
 were in the year 1784 .... ,£110,410 
 
 1785 .... i39> 28 ° 
 
 1786 . . . . 153-34° 
 
 1787 .... 122,490 
 
 1788 .... 118,930 
 
 1789 .... 118,310 
 
 1790 .... 124,050 
 On the 25th of November 1789 the com- 
 manders and officers, returned in that year from 
 India, represented to the Directors, that the 
 markets in India were overstocked, and they 
 were distressed, in many instances almost to 
 
 3 A 
 
 ruin, by the badness of their sales, and prayed 
 for a remission of the duties payable to the 
 Company upon their investments. The truth 
 of their allegations being attested by the Go- 
 vernments of Bengal and Madras, their petition 
 was complied with. 
 
 Such instances were then rare, and may there- 
 for be admitted as some test of the real state of 
 the Indian markets : for the exports in the 
 three years 1785 — 1787, which average about 
 £138,337, are little more than £20,000 above 
 the average of the preceding and subsequent 
 years, which is £1 17,925 ; and in the last year 
 the amount is raised above the two preceding 
 ones in consequence of the demand, which suc- 
 ceeds the expended operation of the glut. 
 Behold how small a matter was sufficient to 
 make a distressing overflow in ' the immense 
 ' ocean of Indian commerce.' [Report of the 
 Select Committee of the Court of Directors, Sep- 
 tember 1791.] 
 
 ' ' ous
 
 364 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 ' ous and thriving colonies as those in the islands and continent of America *.' 
 [T. ii, />• 473] But, though thus persisting in the notion of subjecting the trade 
 of the East Indies and that of America and the West Indies to the same system 
 of colonial and commercial policy, he acknowleges, that ' it is more difficult to 
 ' displace the natives ' of Africa and the East Indies than those of America. 
 Are we thence to infer, that the displacing, which can mean nothing else than the 
 expulsion, or rather the extermination, of the rightful proprietors of the soil, who 
 have no land to spare for coexisting strangers, ought to be undertaken, if not tot 
 difficult, by a civilized and enlightened people, professing a religion whose cha- 
 racteristic is mildness, and which exhorts us to do to others as we would wish 
 that they should do to us ? But, supposing there were plenty of vacant land, 
 ready forthe reception of colonists, we must remember, that the land cannot be 
 cultivated in the torrid zone but by the labour of Negro slaves, as we are assured 
 by most of the West -India planters ; and it is evident, that Negro slaves (grant- 
 ing, for argument's sake, that slavery were justifiable) cannot be retained in 
 rigorous bondage upon a great continent, as they can in our small sugar islands ; 
 and it would be still less possible in Africa, the continent in which then - natural 
 home is. If free labourers could be introduced, there could be only one ob- 
 jection to colonizing the west coast of Africa, where there is abundance of fertile 
 land, thinly inhabited, which might be honestly purchased from the proprietors ; 
 and that is, that the ruin of the West-India islands, which we have colonized al- 
 ready, and are therefor bound to support, must be the infallible consequence of the 
 prosperity of colonies of similar production so much nearer home ; for the whole 
 world does not afford a demand for a double supply of sugar and other West -India 
 produce. The Doctor proceeds to complain, that the genius of exclusive Com- 
 panies is unfavourable to the growth of new colonies, and has probably been 
 the principal cause of the little progress which they have made in the East Ind- 
 ies. [Y. ii, p. 474]] But the colonies settled in India by the Portuguese, who 
 seem to be his favourites when upon the subject of East-India commerce, though 
 not impeded in their growth by a Company, were partly the cause of the down- 
 fall of their power in India ; and the descendents of their colonists form at this 
 
 * King Charles the First accused the East- prevailed through a great part of Europe. 
 
 India Company of neglecting to settle colonies. The present age has discovered that populous 
 
 \jee above, p. 1 1 2 ] Such mistaken ideas might continental colonies, less remote than India, 
 
 be excusable in the infancy of the trade, and cannot be retained in subjection to the mother 
 
 especially in a time when a rage for colonizing country. 
 
 day
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 365 
 
 day the most contemptible part of the population of the country. Perhaps it 
 may be alleged that colonies from other European nations will not sink into 
 the wretched abyss of superstition, which has very much contributed to the de- 
 gradation of the Portuguese in India. That may be granted : but the physical ob- 
 struction to the prosperity of European colonies in India is insuperable, being the 
 effect of the operation of Nature, by whose unvarying laws, as demonstrated by 
 the experience of ages, men, animals, and even plants, brought from other coun- 
 tries, are ordained to degenerate in the course of a few successions in India, while 
 the indigenous men, animals, and plants, retain their original character and state 
 of existence unimpaired. Where could any people be found more robust, or 
 more dauntless, than the Mogul conquerors of India ? To what state have the 
 influence of the climate, together with indolence and voluptuous indulgence, re- 
 duced their modern descendents, especially those of the higher ranks ? With 
 what facility are numerous armies of them defeated by handfuls of European 
 soldiers ? 
 
 In case of the establishment of British colonies in every part of India, and such 
 establishment must inevitably follow an unlimited and uncontrouled trade, such 
 colonies, by receiving continual recruits from the mother country, would very 
 probably preserve more of the original energy than the Mohamedan or Portu- 
 guese colonies have done. But what will be the consequence ? Is it not as cert- 
 ain as any thing in the womb of futurity can be, that such colonists will soon 
 become dissatisfied with the obligation of bringing their ships to Great Britain, 
 and, in order to enjoy an uncontrouled trade with all the world, will, as soon as 
 they feel themselves strong enough, follow the example of the colonists in Amer- 
 ica, and shake off all dependence upon the British empire. Such a consequence 
 of colonization did not escape the sagacity of the Marquis Cornwallis, whose 
 political wisdom was not inferior to his military valour and experience. That 
 illustrious veteran, after being several years Governor-general of India, in a let- 
 ter of November 1794 (soon after the commencement of the present system of 
 private trade) says ' I am strongly impressed with a conviction, that it will be of 
 ' essential importance to the interest of Britain, that Europeans should be dis- 
 ' couraged, and prevented as much as possible, from colonizing and settling in 
 ' our possessions in India." 
 
 Let us now attend to Smith's proposed extension of the importation of Indian 
 commodities, which is attended with many more difficulties in the purchase, and 
 also in the sale of them, than were conceived by him, or acknowleged by his 
 followers, who have assumed, as an incontrovertible proposition, that ' the 
 ■ ( immense ocean of Indian commerce' only waits for the animating impulse of a 
 
 sufficient
 
 S 66 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 sufficient number of British merchants to put it in motion. They have no doubt 
 that the private trader, after having disposed of his outward cargo with great 
 profit, will find all the native merchants and great warehousemen in every one of 
 the ports of the Indian Ocean anxiously courting his preference in chusing his 
 homeward cargo out of the ample assortments of goods, which are piled up in 
 their spacious warehouses, and only waiting his order to be sent onboard hi? 
 ship : by means of this competition among the sellers he is to lay in his goods 
 of the choicest qualities, and at very low prices ; and there is no danger of their 
 being raised by the European demand, which, when even prodigiously aug- 
 mented by the boundless freedom of trade, will be still ' but as a drop of water 
 ' in the immense ocean of Indian commerce.' In short, we are required to 
 believe, that business, to any amount, may be transacted with the same ease, 
 dispatch, commercial confidence and punctuality, in every port of India as in 
 Great Britain. Doctor Smith ought to have known, and at least some of his 
 followers (or their instructors) do know, that there are no great stores of goods 
 in India, and that the manufacturers do not, like those of this country, prepare 
 goods to be ready for the order of a purchaser ; that they all are, or pretend to 
 be, so exceedingly poor, that the employer must advance one third of the price 
 when he orders the goods, another third when one half of them are delivered, 
 and the last payment must be made as soon as the order is completed. After 
 all this loss of time and advance of money, the goods are to be put into other 
 hands in order to receive the finishing touch, which occasions a further expense 
 of time and money. In like manner a part of the price of pepper and other 
 articles of agricultural produce is usually advanced before the crop is gathered. 
 
 As to the notion of new divisions of labour, and new improvements of art, 
 which, Smith foresees, will arise from the increase of demand in India, he ought 
 to have known, that every man is obliged to adhere invariably to that branch of 
 business, which his father, his grandfather, and other progenitors, adhered to ; 
 and consequently all new divisions of labour, all improvements, and also the 
 convenience of changing hands from a branch of manufacture, not in request, to 
 another branch, more in demand, are rendered almost impossible by the pre- 
 judices of education and the force of habit and custom. 
 
 Doctor Smith, if he had known the state of the manufactures, and the 
 customs of the trade, in India, would perhaps have told us, that the merchants, 
 who reside in that country, will employ their capitals in providing goods for the 
 ships, which are to be sent out by other merchants, who reside in Europe : and 
 it is very certain that there are merchants at present settled in India, not in the 
 service of the Company, but licenced by them, who do employ their capitals 
 
 in
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 3 6 7 
 
 in making such provision of India goods. But they are enabled to do so only 
 by having the benefit of the Company's established factories, and being treated 
 by the people of the country, with the consideration and respect, which are paid 
 to every person connected with the Company : and it cannot be denied, that 
 their goods are often procured by their agents seducing the manufacturers to 
 let them have what have been provided with the money advanced to them by 
 the Company. 
 
 But those merchants are only to be found at or near the Company's fact- 
 ories * ; and the advocates for a boundless free trade will need to consider what 
 will be the state of the trade, if the Company's privilege is abolished, and their 
 factories are either gone to decay, or are in the possession of other European 
 Companies, and how the trade is to be managed in places where there are no 
 factories ; for the new traders are to run their vessels into all the ports on 
 every coast eastward from the Cape of Good Hope as far as Cape Horn, the 
 southern extremity of America, most of which, they say, have been neglected 
 by the Company, who, they allege, wish rather to contract the trade, that they 
 may have enormous profits upon a small capital, than to push it to the great 
 extent of which it is capable ; forgetting, or not willing to acknowlege, that 
 the Company have established factories in many parts of India, whence they 
 have withdrawn them, when they were convinced, after a trial more full and 
 deliberate than any private merchants will, or can, bear the expense of, that the 
 trade could not support itself ; and also forgetting, that the British merchants 
 already established in India are fully competent to manage all the trade which 
 the Company may find it prudent to relinquish to them, and which they may 
 be enabled by their local knowlege and the comparative shortness of the navig- 
 ation, to render profitable to themselves ; though the greater length of the 
 voyage must render it utterly impracticable to merchants of Great Britain ; and 
 that those merchants actually do trade to every country between the Cape of 
 Good Hope and the farthest Oriental islands f. 
 
 A later 
 
 * In order to prevent any occasion of offence unless particularly licenced by the Court of 
 to the people of the country, and also to guard Directors, or by the Governor in Council, 
 against forming connections to the prejudice of f p or sir Thomas Roe's decided opinion, 
 
 the Company, all persons licenced by them to so early as the year 1616, on the impolicy of 
 go to India, and not in their own service, are establishing too many factories, see his letter 
 obliged to find sufficient security in England addressed to the Company, while he was 
 
 for their observance of the Company's regul. residing as Ambassador from the King, but 
 
 ations, by one of which they are bound to at their expense, at the court of the 
 
 reside at the factories or settlements, or at Great Mogul, in Purchases Pilgrima, L. iiii, 
 
 farthest not above ten miles from one of them, p. 590. 
 
 For
 
 3 68 
 
 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 A later author, however, after asserting, that there are numerous ports in the 
 rich kingdoms of India, Persia, and Japan, where at present the British flag is 
 unknown, assures us, that, instead of exporting our products and manufactures 
 to the amount of only half a million annually*, they may be carried to those 
 wealthy regions to the amount often millions annually, and the trade must be 
 continually augmenting. Such an augmentation of the India trade would 
 ' increase national power, wealth, influence, and respectability. Taxes would 
 ' be lessened, and the people would be generally, but moderately and grad- 
 ' ually enriched.' At the same time that the taxes would be lessened, the 
 revenue and maritime force of the British empire would be augmented by the 
 increase of our trade with India : for if one million of annual exports and im- 
 ports produce jf20o,ooo of duties, ten millions must produce .§£2,000,000 ; and 
 if the present trade employs 6,000 seamen, the increased trade will employ 
 60,000 f. This happy extension of the India trade would alleviate the national 
 burthens, ' and our national wealth and naval greatness would rapidly arrive at 
 ' an unexampled height of prosperity and grandeur.' 
 
 What a delightful prospect for John Bull, to have his burthens alleviated 
 (and it must be owned that they need some alleviation) and that by the wonder- 
 
 For the amount of the money expended in 
 making experiments of a trade with Japan, 
 see above, p. 144. 
 
 The French, in imitation of the English, 
 (as stated by a French writer) made several 
 voyages to Bender-Abassy (or Gombroon) and 
 Bassorah in the Persian Gulf ; but they have 
 all been unfortunate, and ruined the merchants, 
 
 who undertook them. The French have 
 
 had many posts and factories in the eastern 
 parts of Asia and the islands, which they have 
 abandoned. The Dutch have also aband- 
 oned some of the settlements, which they had 
 formed, when they found them unprofitable. — 
 And other European nations have done the 
 same. [Etat actuel de P Inde, 1787, pp. 49, 100, 
 109, 1 12] 
 
 The scheme of making a vast increase of the 
 East-India trade by establishing new factories 
 in every port of the Indian seas, reminds us of 
 the fancy of the maniac, who, observing that a 
 great deal of money was raised by the customs, 
 proposed to raise funds for paying off the 
 national debt by erecting custom-houses along 
 the side of the Thames all the way from London 
 to Gravesend. 
 
 * For the amount of the exports to India, 
 rather more accurately stated, see the Table of 
 Shipping, Exports, and Imports, in the Ap- 
 pendix, N°VII. 
 
 ■f- I am again obliged to call the attention of 
 the reader to the Table of Shipping, Exports, 
 and Imports, by which he will see that the 
 annual amount of exports and imports, taken 
 together and exclusive of bullion, of late years 
 has been about ten or twelve millions. By a 
 glance of the accounts of the shipping of the 
 British empire, presented annually to Parlia- 
 ment, it appears that about 12,000 seamen sail 
 and arrive in the Company's ships every year ; 
 and, as the ships cannot return sooner than the 
 year after that in which they have sailed, it 
 follows that there must be at least 24,000, or 
 more probably 30,000, seamen constantly in 
 their service. So very far has this writer's 
 eagerness to depretiate the present India trade 
 misled him. Neither is he better informed 
 respecting the revenue derived from the India 
 trade, which, in its present state produces about 
 twice as much as he prophecies the amount of 
 it to be from a tenfold increase of it. 
 
 ful
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 3^ 
 
 ful means of increasing his expenditure of Indian commodities in a decuple pro- 
 portion ! And how clearly and mathematically is this comfortable increase of 
 revenue demonstrated by the rule of three, which the schoolmasters, in admir- 
 ation of its infallibility, have dignified with the name of the golden rule. The 
 rule is very good, when properly applied : but unfortunately it has often been 
 very injudiciously applied by people, who did not attend to Dean Swift's observ- 
 ation, that two and two do not always make four in the arithmetic of the customs . 
 Let us try the application of the rule in the case now supposed, by taking some one 
 article of the Company's imports. Let us suppose, that instead of 20,000,000 
 of pounds of tea, the quantity required at present for the annual consumption of 
 these kingdoms, the very numerous new traders could procure in Canton, 
 without any advance of price, and import into this country, 200,000,000 of 
 pounds in a year, what would be the consequence to the importers and to 
 the revenue ? — At whatever price it might be sold, and it would be sold a 
 great deal under prime cost, very little more, or, most probably, no more,, 
 would be consumed than is consumed at present ; therefor about nine tenths of 
 it must remain in the warehouses, under the keys of the revenue officers, as 
 the property of the importers, till it can be exported for the small sale of the 
 Continent (another hopeless adventure), or sold for home consumption, or 
 perish. The distress of the first importers will be aggravated during the next 
 subsequent year by the competition of other importers, who, not knowing the 
 state of the market, have strained their abilities to add to the ruinous glut, after 
 which the importation will cease *. The duty is not payable till the tea is deliv- 
 ered out of the warehouse, and therefor no more, or very little more, will be 
 paid to the revenue than is paid at present : in two or three years the people 
 will either be deprived of their accustomed beverage, or be obliged to use dam- 
 aged tea ; the duties now paid upon tea, and also those upon sugar, its in- 
 separable attendant, will fall off ; the trade will be deranged f ; the present 
 considerable exportation of British merchandize to China, comprehending 
 woolen manufactures to the annual amount of about one million, will be inter- 
 rupted, if not totally abolished ; British seamen, instead of getting additional 
 employment, will be thrown destitute, and obliged to offer their services to the 
 
 * The effect of a glut, here exemplified in t The Company are obliged by law to have 
 the article of tea, would be the same in all the always a sufficient stock of tea in their ware- 
 other articles of Indian produce and manufact- houses, and to make a sale every three months 
 ure. That this is no ideal case, but what has of a quantity sufficient for the supply of the 
 actually taken place formerly, the reader may country. 
 easily satisfy himself by turning back to p. 160. 
 
 3 b Americans
 
 37 o A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 Americans or other foreigners * ; and the prediction of the taxes being light- 
 ened, and the naval power of the country being augmented f by the unbounded 
 extension of the India trade, if not entirely forgotten, will only excite the 
 laugh of scorn or the sigh of melancholy. 
 
 In all the acts of Parliament concerning the Company's privilege it is 
 provided, that, if the Legislature shall think proper to refuse a renewal of the 
 privilege of exclusive trade, the Company shall still have a right to continue 
 a corporate body, and to trade to India with their joint stock, in concurrence 
 with other British subjects. But in such a state of their trade, Doctor Smith, 
 who perceives no difference between the East-India trade and any other foreign 
 trade, foresees that the Company will not be able to compete with their new 
 rivals ; for, according to his idea of the trade, 4 To buy in one market, in order 
 4 to sell, with profit, in another, when there are many competitors in both ; 
 ' to watch over, not only the occasional variations in the demand, but the much 
 4 greater and more frequent variations in the competition, or in the supply 
 4 which that demand is likely to get from other people, and to suit with dexterity 
 4 and judgment both the quantity and quality of each assortment of goods to all 
 4 these circumstances, is a species of warfare of which the operations are con- 
 4 tinually changing, and which can scarce ever be conducted successfully, with- 
 4 out such an unremitting exertion of vigilance and attention, as cannot long be 
 4 expected from the Directors of a joint stock Company. The East India Com- 
 4 pany, upon the redemption of their funds, and the expiration of their exclus- 
 * ive privilege, have a right, by act of Parliament, to continue a corporation 
 4 with a joint stock, and to trade in their corporate capacity to the East Indies 
 ' in common with the rest of their fellow subjects. But in this situation, 
 4 the superior vigilance and attention of private adventurers would, in all 
 4 probability, soon make them weary of the trade.' [V. iii, p. 144] 
 
 A writer of ' Considerations upon the trade with India,' after quoting this 
 passage, exclaims, 4 It is impossible to add any thing to arguments so invinc- 
 4 ible.' But, notwithstanding this decided suffrage of applause, it may be at 
 least doubted, whether every person, who considers the matter, including even 
 
 * One of the benefits promised by the pre- for all the British seamen ? Are we not ob- 
 
 diction is, that British seamen, now lost to their liged to admit foreign seamen for want of a 
 
 country by being in foreign service, will be sufficient number of British ones ? 
 
 brought home by getting employment in the j It is very well that the naval power of 
 
 new India ships — Can the present va;t British the country has no need of such chimerical 
 
 navy, and the present unprecedented number of augmentation. 
 British merchant vessels, not find employment 
 
 the
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 37 t 
 
 the warmest friends of open trade, will not be sensible, that the extensive inform- 
 ation, requisite for suiting the quantity and quality of each assortment, is just 
 that branch of the knowlege of the business, in which the separate traders would 
 evidently be the most ruinously defective, and will be of opinion that the para- 
 graph, containing these invincible arguments, is perhaps the weakest part of 
 Smith's generally-judicious work. Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus. 
 
 Though some of the authors, who are convinced that the India trade 
 can be carried on to national advantage only by the agency of a priv- 
 ileged Company, have been at some pains to show the hardships and dangers, 
 to which private traders must be exposed in India, as well as at home, merely 
 from acting without concert, I shall not take up the reader's time by adducing 
 any extracts from them, as it would be absurd to suppose that a great Company, 
 acting upon the accumulated experience of above two centuries, and having reg- 
 ular agents stationed in all proper parts of the world, should not be more likely 
 to obtain every necessary information, and to regulate their trade judiciously ac- 
 cording to circumstances, than any private merchant, however great his com- 
 mercial knowlege, and however extensive his correspondence may be. 
 
 To the opinion of Smith and his panegyrist may, however, be opposed the 
 experience of gentlemen, who have resided long in India. M r Udney, a member 
 of the Supreme Council of Bengal, in a letter to Marquis Wellesley, the Go- 
 vernor-general, 15th September 1800, says, 'The Company have, from the 
 ' long establishment of their factories, from the skill of their servants trained up 
 
 • and employed at them, and the confidence which the manufacturers repose in 
 ' them from the long habit of dealing with the Company, handed down to them 
 ' from their forefathers, obtained so decided a superiority in the provision of 
 ' the most valuable articles, piece goods and raw silk, that individual merchants 
 ' cannot pretend by any practicable reduction of freight to cope with them.' 
 
 A friend of open trade, in a letter dated Bombay 30th March 1803, says, 
 
 * The price the Company pay (for pepper; is from 130 rupees to 140 per can- 
 ' die, while individuals pay from 160 rupees to 170.' [Asiatic Annual Register. 
 
 for 1803,^.91 of Miscellaneous.'] 
 
 A respectable gentleman, who lived thirty years in Bengal, and shipped goods 
 on his own account to London, in answer to the questions put to him by the 
 Committee of the House of Commons, says, ' The Company from their greater 
 ' capital, and, generally speaking, the better intelligence and skill of their serv- 
 ' ants, are able to carry on the trade with India with more advantage to them- 
 ' selves and to the country than individuals. I presume always, that the illicit 
 1 practices of individuals are out of the question, and that the trade is to be 
 
 3 b 2 ' fairly
 
 372 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 ' fairly carried on.' . . . • ' The Company's goods have a character for 
 • excellence, which the goods of private persons do not attain. This gives the 
 « Company a considerable advantage in the European market. A foreign mer- 
 ' chant can give his correspondent in London an order to purchase the Com- 
 1 pany's goods with confidence that they will prove of the quality he desires *. 
 ' With respect to the goods of individuals, he is at an uncertainty ; he must 
 ' trust to the judgement and attention of his correspondent, and is liable to dis- 
 ' appointment in the quality of the goods. The Company's goods therefor sell 
 « at a higher price than the goods of private persons, even though such goods 
 ' may be equal in quality to the Company's. When engaged on my own ac- 
 ' count in correspondence to this country from Bengal, I conceived the ditfer- 
 ' ence to be equal to fifteen per cent on piece goods +, though my gooas were 
 ' provided by myself with great care and attention. The commission which 
 ' falls upon the goods of private merchants at the different places of purchase, 
 ' shipment, and sale, except where the owner himself may reside, in their transit 
 ' from the place of produce in Bengal through Calcutta and London to the place 
 ' of consumption abroad, by its repetition acts with a pressing weight upon the 
 ' proceeds of the goods, and abates the profit, or eventually creates a loss. 
 
 ♦ Some of the rates of commission were 1 o per cent for procuring goods at the 
 
 • place of manufacture, 24 per cent for shipping, and 2^- per cent on the gross 
 ' sales in London \. [Minutes of Evidence i8tb, 10th May 1809] 
 
 After the goods are imported from India they must be sold ; and it may be 
 proper to take a view of the effects of ' the superior vigilance and attention of 
 ' private adventurers,' which, as Smith prophecies, will soon make the Com- 
 pany weary of the trade. The variety of the species, especially of the piece 
 goods, is very great, and they must be sorted for sale in such proportions, in re- 
 gard to quality and quantity, and also to preceding and ensuing sales, as are 
 found from experience to be equal to the usual demand for each, and most con- 
 ducive to the mutual advantage of buyer and seller. The periodical regularity 
 
 * I am credibly informed that upon the con- factories, &c. ought not to be set against those 
 
 tinent of Europe bales of goods bearing the commissions ; to which he answered in the af- 
 
 Company's mark frequently pass through the firmative. But those expenses will surely not 
 
 hands of many successive proprietors without amount to fifteen per cent, 
 
 examination, and are not opened till they come \ See an Account of the sales of Bengal 
 
 into the hands of the dealer, who retails them to piece goods belonging to the Company, and of 
 
 the consumers. those belonging to private traders, in the Ap- 
 
 f A member of the Committee asked the pendix, N° IX. 
 
 witness, whether the expense of the Company's 
 
 of
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 373 
 
 of the sales, the great quantity and variety of goods offered to the choise of the 
 purchasers, the established confidence in the standard lengths and breadths, and 
 in the uniform goodness of the fabrics, and the judicious assortment of them, 
 attract foreign merchants to the Company's sales from most parts of Europe, 
 who, while they are in London for the purpose of procuring India goods, take 
 the opportunity of also purchasing large quantities of British merchandize. 
 What would be the consequence if there were a great number of sales, with very 
 defective assortments, not only in London, but also, as with equal reason there 
 might be, in Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow, Leith, Newcastle, Hull, &c. 
 
 If the British Legislature shall ever think of repeating the experiment of 
 throwing the India trade open, they may oblige the importers to make their 
 sales with periodical regularity : but that is all they can do in the affair. Nobody 
 can suppose that it will ever be possible for unconnected merchants, either to 
 import the proper quantities of each species of goods, or to concede so much of 
 their individual claims as to agree in lotting and sorting them for sale. The for- 
 eign merchants finding the goods of inferior quality, and not assorted as they 
 used to be, will give up attending the sales in London, and will carry their mo- 
 ney to those of the continental Companies ; for it must be remembered, that, if 
 the British Legislature should abolish the Company's privilege, the other Powers 
 of Europe are not obliged to follow their example, and that their Companies, 
 who are at present eclipsed by the great superiority of ours, will rise into import- 
 ance and opulence, partly by the decline of the British East-India trade, partly 
 by the advancing prosperity of the manufacturers and traders of their own coun- 
 tries in consequence of some of the demand for British goods being transferred 
 to those countries along with the demand for India goods, and partly by additional 
 capital thrown into their stock by many of the British India traders, who will 
 soon discover, as their predecessors in the later part of the seventeenth century, 
 and beginning of the eighteenth, did, that the trade with India can only be con- 
 ducted by a Company, acting harmoniously with united counsels for the good 
 of the whole : for, whatever theoretical projectors may fancy, neither the trade 
 with India, nor the consumption of Indian commodities in this country, or in all 
 Europe, can be increased ad infinitum: and immoderate competition, as it form- 
 erly ruined the unconnected adventurers in this country and in France *, will 
 also ruin all who shall engage in the trade in the same manner, and will finally 
 
 * While the French East-India trade was ular, was bankrupt for eighteen millions of 
 open, some of the merchants, who went into it, French money, or ^750,000 sterling, 
 failed for very large sums : Darnfat, in partic- 
 
 throw
 
 374 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 throw the British consumers of Indian goods upon the mercy of foreigners for 
 the supply, and oblige them to pay such prices as they shall be pleased to im- 
 pose, as was the case in the year 1597, when the new Dutch Company raised 
 the price of pepper from ^/"to 8/T 
 
 Perhaps it will here be objected, that there are private merchants actually en- 
 gaged in the India trade at this moment, who do not find their trade ruinous. 
 But the objection is at least questionable in point of fact, as it is believed, that 
 those merchants have already felt that they have overdone their trade in the im- 
 portation of Indian goods *, and that their small exports, which have interfered 
 with the investments of the commanders and officers of the Company's ships, 
 have not been advantageous to themselves. But the objection will vanish en- 
 tirely, when it is considered, that those merchants trade with the advantage of 
 the Company's ships, or their own ships licenced by the Company, and that they 
 enjoy the advantages, as already observed, of the Company's establishments 
 and the Company's authority in the country, and also the further advantage of 
 having their goods sold at the Company's sales; and moreover, that those mer- 
 chants desire to confine all these advantages to themselves, as a second East- 
 India Company, grafted upon the first, and by no means to see an unbounded 
 liberty of trading to India, such as is recommended by Smith and some of his 
 followers. 
 
 The merchants of this description constitute a new class of traders, who have 
 lately attracted a good deal of the public attention by the great national import- 
 ance which has been ascribed to their trade, though they had not been heard of 
 when Smith wrote his Inquiry. At first their claims were founded upon the sup- 
 posed greatness of the trade, which was carried on by foreigners upon British 
 capital. They alleged that, when a servant of the Company wished to retire 
 from India, he could find no other means of conveying his property to Europe 
 
 * Sometimes a redundant quantity of a part- and consequently rendering their goods unsale- 
 icular kind of goods is imported in private able, except at ruinous prices. In the year 1 805 
 trade, after a sufficient quantity of the same there were East-India drugs in the warehouses 
 kind has been sold at the Company's sale. The sufficient for the consumption of six years ; and 
 agent in London urges a speedy sale, that the many of them perished. Perhaps even Smith 
 proceeds may help to meet the bills drawn upon would have acknowleged that the total loss of 
 him from India. The usual buyers are already so much capital was rather a hardship, as the 
 supplied, and will not, or can not, purchase demand for drugs could scarcely be increased, 
 more : but they are very much chagrined, and if they were given for nothing to the con- 
 seriously injured, if not ruined, by other buyers sumers. 
 
 obtaining the same goods, perhaps at half price, 
 
 than
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 375 
 
 than by shipping it in the form of merchandize onboard a foreign vessel, and of 
 course consigning it to a commercial house in the port to which the ship was 
 bound ; and that by this mode of transacting the business the freight and com- 
 mission, which ought naturally to yield emoluments to British subjects, were 
 unavoidably thrown into the hands of foreigners. As a remedy for this evil, 
 they proposed, that the British subjects residing in India in a commercial char- 
 acter, whether in the Company's service or living under their protection as free 
 merchants, should be authorized to conduct the business, and to ship goods 
 for the transmission of the fortunes of individuals, onboard the Company's 
 ship?. Representations, calculated to set forth the great extent of the trade, of 
 which British subjects were thus deprived, and the necessity of authorizing the 
 proposed mode of conducting it, were made to Parliament, who, considering it 
 as ' only a remittance trade, which would otherwise go to foreigners,' were inclined 
 to listen to the proposal. 
 
 It is evident that this kind of trade, whatever may have been alleged of the 
 great advantages thrown into the hands of foreigners by it, could never have 
 been very extensive, as the private fortunes, to be really remitted home for the 
 purpose of retiring from India, could never return, and were limited in their 
 amount to a sum by no means adequate to the production of such alarming con- 
 sequences as were ascribed to them. Besides, most of the gentlemen, who had 
 no other object in view than the conveyance of their property, once for all, to 
 Great Britain, would prefer bills upon the Company, which, being carried in 
 the form of letters, and exempted from the dangers of the seas and enemies, 
 pay neither freight nor insurance, and being also exempted from the danger of 
 loss by the sales of goods, afford the most eligible mode of remittance, as being 
 in general the most profitable, and at all times the surest, and by which the 
 remitter, moreover, knows to a farthing the amount of his property in 
 London. 
 
 When the renewal of the Company's privilege, which took place in the year 
 1 793, was in contemplation, the Parliament were desirous of furnishing to indi- 
 viduals residing in India a legal channel for the conveyance of their property, and 
 also of promoting the interest of the manufacturers of Great Britain by an ex- 
 tended exportation of their fabrics to India. The Company concurred with the 
 wish of the Parliament to promote the prosperity of the manufacturers and the 
 accomodation of their servants in India ; and they desired the parties, proposing 
 to engage as agents in the trade, to specify the extent of freight they would 
 think necessary for them. 
 
 In
 
 576 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 In consequence of these preliminary arrangements a paragraph was inserted 
 in the act for renewing the Company's privilege, by which they became bound 
 to furnish 3,000 tuns of shipping annually for the use of the private trade to 
 and from India, at a limited rate of freight. 
 
 The trade has gone on ever since : but the private merchants, who, with all 
 their advantages, have not found their account in it, so much as they expected, 
 were every year asking for additional privileges, and particularly that they might 
 be allowed to employ ships of their own, entirely independent of any controul 
 of the Company, or, in other words, desiring that the trade with India should 
 be as free to the British merchants in India, and their correspondents or agents 
 in London, but by no means to the Public in general, as the trade with the Brit- 
 ish colonies, and with foreign nations, is to British merchants in general. 
 
 It must not be forgotten, that, since Smith wrote, and more especially during 
 the present long-protracted war, the antagonists of the Company have accused 
 them of allowing the trade, by their mismanagement, to go into the hands of 
 the Americans and other foreigners ; and they expatiate, with no small exult- 
 ation, upon the superior advantages, which the American traders, each of them 
 acting for himself, and unconnected with any Company, enjoy in point of dis- 
 patch and lightness of expense, and also in the great extent of their trade, 
 which, taken altogether, we are told, ' actually exceeds that of Great Britain.' 
 A reference to the Appendix, N° X, will show that the assertion is exceedingly 
 erroneous : and we ought to remember, that those American separate traders 
 could never have such dispatch, or more probably could not trade at all, in the 
 ports of India or in Canton, if they were debarred from the benefits of the Com- 
 pany's establishments ; so that they are in fact so far connected with the Com- 
 pany, that they owe to them the facilities they enjoy in their trade *. We must 
 also remember, that their vessels, being very small, some only about a hundred 
 tuns, may very soon be loaded ; that, being at peace with all the world, they 
 sail at less expense, and pay less for insurance, than ships sailing under the flags 
 of the belligerent Powers ; that their ships are not exposed to capture or ship- 
 wreck in consequence of their best hands being pressed from them ; that they 
 
 * No merchants are permitted by the Chinese the Chinese call A T £<w Englishmen, must be un- 
 
 Government to trade at Canton, except such as der the wings of some of the resident agents ; 
 
 reside there under commissions from Sovereign and they naturally apply for assistance to those, 
 
 Powers. [Staunton's Embassy to China, V. iii, with whom they can most readily carry on a 
 
 p. 407] The unconnected Americans, whom conversation. 
 
 lose
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 377 
 
 lose no time in waiting for convoy, or sailing in fleets, whereby the swiftest sail- 
 ing vessel is obliged to wait for the slowest ; and that the present state of Eu- 
 rope gives their neutral flag admittance into every port of the continent, where 
 they obtain much of the trade, which would come to London, if the obstructions, 
 which the war has set up against the British trade, were removed. Moreover 
 the war subjects the Company to great loss of ships by capture, — to great loss 
 of time (which is loss of money) by the obligation of sailing in fleets, which is 
 also the cause of more shipwrecks than would otherways happen, — to the hard- 
 ship of having their best British seamen taken out of their ships in India by the 
 commanders of his Majesty's ships, which renders their ships less defensible 
 against the tempest or the enemy, as has lately been most fatallv experienced in 
 the loss of many valuable lives, ships, and cargoes*, — and to a prodigious ex- 
 pense of extra freight and demurrage, which is equal to the whole of the sum 
 drawn by all the proprietors as the envied profits of their trade. But the war 
 cannot last forever : and, when it shall have destroyed itself, the Company's 
 ships will again sail with the security and the dispatch of peace, and at an ex- 
 pense much below what they have cost during the last nineteen years ; the un- 
 restrained commercial intercourse with all parts of Europe will again be opened, 
 and trade will in a great measure flow in its former channels. The Americans 
 will then retain only such a share of the India trade, as their own capital, and 
 their own consumption, both of which, undoubtedly, are rapidly increasing:, 
 together with some clandestine dealings with the Spanish colonists, can 
 support. 
 
 The private merchants afterwards proposed nothing less than to bring the 
 whole of the exportable merchandize of all India, which, they think, may be 
 greatly increased in quantity, into the port of London, and to drive the Americans 
 and all other foreigners out of the trade. Without entering into any debate upon 
 the liberality or justice of allowing nobody to live but ourselves, we may venture 
 to call in question the practicability of excluding all other nations from trading 
 to India, even if Great Britain were willing to support such a pretension by a 
 perpetual war. The projectors of this national monopoly, however, seem to ap- 
 prehend no difficulty ; and they tell us how it may be very easily accomplished. 
 — Only make foreigners pay very high duties and port charges, and allow us to 
 
 * If these ships had sailed singly, and inde- notice that the greatest number of ships lost, 
 pendent of convoy, the storm could not have are on their homeward passage, in consequence 
 overtaken so many of them : and it is worthy of of their best hands being pressed. 
 
 3 c carry
 
 .-> 
 
 7 g A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 carry on our own trade with our own India-built ships, at such times, and in such 
 manner, as we may find most convenient. 
 
 There were till very lately two objections to the practicability of the scheme 
 of driving foreigners out of the trade by taxation. — First, that, with respect to 
 the Americans, it would have been contrary to the terms of a treaty between his 
 Majesty and the United States, which was in force till the year 1807, and also a 
 violation of the faith of Parliament, to impose heavier duties in our ports in India 
 on goods imported and exported by them than were paid on such goods im- 
 ported and exported in British vessels, or to levy heavier tunnage dues than were 
 levied upon British vessels in the ports of the United States *. As for other 
 friendly foreigners, they also have the faith of an act of Parliament for free ad- 
 mission into our ports, in which, it is true, there is not a word of duties or port 
 charges, either high or low. But some of the maritime States of Europe have 
 had ports of their own in India, which will most probably be restored to them 
 at the end of the war, and to which goods will be carried for them f, if we shall 
 think it advisable to prevent them from bringing their money, almost the only 
 article that they or the Americans carry to India J, to our ports. Secondly, that 
 the duty, to have any effect, must be so high as to operate almost as a prohib- 
 ition, — or as a premium for smuggling, from which it is no easy matter for any 
 Government to prohibit their own subjects ; and it may be left to the proposers 
 to devise any means to punish foreigners for evading enormous duties, except by 
 resorting to the Ratio ultima Regum. 
 
 The main argument, advanced in favour of India-built ships, is, that they can 
 sail at lower freights than the Company's regular ships, or even the extra ships 
 employed by them. Granting that the freight for a tun § of goods carried in 
 them should be lower than in any description of the Company's shipping, still 
 
 * See above p. 226. ther, they amounted to somewhat above 
 f In the year 1803 the Danes desisted from ^ 1 ,000,00c sterling, of which £944,834 con- 
 purchasing piece goods at Madras, where they sisted of bullion, and the chief part of the small 
 had previously bought and shipped them, and remainder consisted of wine, cyder, and other 
 began to ship them in their own port of Tran- liquors. For the amount of the American 
 quebar. trade in the years 1802 to 1807, see the Ap- 
 
 t We happen to have an account of the im- pendix, N° X and XI. 
 
 ports of the Americans and Portuguese into § I am not properly informed whether the 
 
 Bengal in the year 1799-1800, when they began tunnage in those India-built ships, which came 
 
 to be very considerable, as stated by Mr. Ud- to London was rated at fifty cube feet, accord- 
 
 ney, a member of the Supreme Council of Ben- ing to the measurement established in the Com- 
 
 gal, in a letter to Marquis Wellesley, dated pany's ships, or at forty, according to the cus- 
 
 Calcutta, 15th September 1800. Taken toge- torn of London. 
 
 the
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. m 
 
 the conveyance of valuable goods by them is more expensive, as the insurance 
 on them is much higher ». But, that India shipping is cheaper than British, i* 
 a new discovery : for that it was found to be more expensive than any other, not 
 very long ago, is evident from the following unquestionable documents. 
 
 By a minute of the Governor-general in Council, dated 12th August 1791, 
 it is stated that the low price of rice in Bengal might render the exportation of 
 it to other parts of India a very extensive and profitable business, * were it not 
 ' checked by the heavy expense of Indian shipping, and by the other necessary 
 ' charges.' [Report from the Committee of Warehouses relative to the culture of 
 sugar, dated 2gth February 1792.] 
 
 ' Strong solicitations were made to the Court of Directors, when British ships 
 ' were taken up, during the American war, to carry out naval and military stores, 
 ' to suffer those ships to be sold in India. Under such permission the freight 
 f was very low, as the owners considered the sale of the ship in India as the cert- 
 f ain means of realizing a little fortune ; and these applications have been re- 
 * peated from time to time to the present day. Such a sale, however, would 
 ' have been impossible, if teak ships could have sailed at as cheap a rate as the 
 ' British. If these facts require further proof, it will be found in the proceed- 
 ' ings of the Marine Committee at Bengal in 1793. They say, " The Amer- 
 " icans actually build ships with a view to dispose of them here, and get a large 
 " profit, because they can afford to sell cheaper than we can build." [Third 
 Report of the Special Committee, dated 15th March 1802.] 
 
 The writer of an article of intelligence inserted in the Asiatic Annual Register 
 for 1 807 [Chronicle, p. 43] after observing that the price of rice in Canton is very 
 fluctuating, adds, ' that ships in India are navigated much too dear for trans- 
 ' porting grain to such a distant market, and therefor that the trade to China in 
 ' India ships must be limited to more precious articles.' 
 
 Ships, which begin their voyage in India, must of necessity have Lascars for a 
 considerable portion of their crews. That Lascars are not only less efficient, but 
 also much more expensive, than British seamen, has already been observed, 
 p. 235, and has also been demonstrated by Mr. Henchman, the ablest of the ad- 
 vocates for the private merchants, who states the difference for a ship of 500 
 tuns at .=€6y 80a month, equal to about 2/9 monthly for every tun 
 of the ship's burthen. [Observations on the Report of the Directors, Appendix, 
 N°X.] 
 
 * See the rates of insurance in the Appendix, N' VIII. 
 
 3 C 2 As
 
 3 6o A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 As it thus appears, that India shipping has been, and still is, more expens- 
 ive than British shipping, it may be asked, What is the object which renders 
 the employment of India-built shipping so desirable ? To the ship-owners in 
 India it is partly to find employment for their ships, and for those whom they 
 wish to promote to be commanders and officers in them ; but much more to 
 avoid that controul upon their transactions, which law and reason have placed 
 in the hands of the East-India Company. The India agents in London are in- 
 fluenced by the desire of promoting the interest of their correspondents, and 
 by the esprit du corps ; and they are also interested in putting large sums 
 through their hands for the repairs, the stores, and the provisions, of the ships, 
 which yield them profit in their commissions, and give them patronage in the 
 choice of the tradesmen to be employed. 
 
 The advocates for the Indian shipping have endeavoured to make the British 
 shipbuilders believe, that their interest will not be affected by the introduction 
 of India-built ships into the port of London, because they will have the profit of 
 repairing them. But it will not be easy to persuade the builders, that the profits 
 of repairing can be equal to the profits of building and repairing : and it will 
 probably be as difficult to persuade the British Legislature to sanction a system 
 tending to discourage, perhaps to send out of the country, or at least to 
 diminish the numbers of, a class of artificers, so indispensibly necessary to the 
 commercial prosperity and the maritime power of the British empire. 
 
 Smith's second proposition, and arguments against it. 
 
 Doctor Smith, in support of his proposition, that the Company are bad 
 Sovereigns, that their sovereignty makes them bad merchants, and that their 
 servants are wasteful and oppressive, says, 
 
 ' A Company of merchants are, it seems, incapable of considering themselves 
 ' as Sovereigns, even after they have become such. Trade, or buying in order 
 ' to sell again, they still consider as their principal business, and by a strange 
 ' absurdity, regard the character of the Sovereign as but an appendix to that of 
 
 * the merchant.' ' Their mercantile habits draw them in this manner, 
 
 ' almost necessarily, though perhaps insensibly, to prefer upon all ordinary 
 ' occasions the little and transitory profit of the monopolist to the great and 
 
 * permanent revenue of the Sovereign, and would gradually lead them to treat 
 ' the countries subject to their government, nearly as the Dutch treat the 
 ' Moluccas.' \V. ii, p. 479.] 
 
 After
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 
 
 381 
 
 After describing the oppression and tyranny of the Dutch, by which, he says, 
 the Moluccas have been almost depopulated, he adds, ' The English Company 
 ' have not yet * had time to establish in Bengal so perfectly destructive a 
 ' system. The plan of their government, however, has had exactly the same 
 ' tendency. It has not been uncommon, / am ivell assured, for the chief, that 
 ' is the first clerk of a factory, to order a peasant to plough up a rich field of 
 ' poppies, and sow it with rice or some other grain. The pretence was, to 
 4 prevent a scarcity of provisions ; but the real reason, to give the chief an 
 ' opportunity of selling at a better price a large quantity of opium, which he 
 
 * happened then to have upon hand. Upon other occasions the order has been 
 ' reversed ; and a rich field of rice or other grain has been ploughed up, in 
 ' order to make room for a plantation of poppies, when the chief foresaw that 
 
 * extraordinary profit was likely to be made by opium ].' [V. ii, p, 477] 
 
 ' The 
 
 * That is, about the year 1775. 
 
 t Unless this chief could have destroyed the 
 whole, or at least a very great part, of the pop- 
 pies throughout the whole country, it could 
 not be worth his while to be so wicked for the 
 difterence, which the destruction of one field, 
 or a hundred fields, could make upon the value 
 of his stock of opium. Was Doctor Smith 
 really ' ivell assured' of the truth of this story, 
 which certainly makes a most extraordinary 
 figure in a serious work ? Let us hear what is 
 said of it by Colonel Capper, the judicious 
 author of a valuable philosophical work en- 
 titled ' Observations on the winds and mon- 
 
 * soons.' 
 
 * After having mentioned the famine in 
 ' Bengal, [in the year 1769] and ascribed it 
 ' partly to the want of a judicious economy 
 
 * and appropriation of the water of the Ganges, 
 ' in justice to the servants of the East-India 
 
 * Company, who governed Bengal at that time, 
 
 * and who have unjustly incurred much odium 
 ' on that account, I must take upon me to say, 
 ' that, after a very diligent enquiry made a few 
 ' years afterwards on the spot, no European at 
 ' that time derived the smallest pecuniary ad- 
 .* vantage from the monopoly of grain. 
 
 * 1 have even heard a gentleman named as 
 
 ' having contributed towards the general dis- 
 ' tress by converting rice grounds into fields of 
 ' opium, and from the sale of which he is said 
 ' to have acquired immense riches ; but it is 
 ' well known that opium does not thrive in the 
 ' same kind of ground in which rice is planted ; 
 ' the one requires a dry, and the other a wet, 
 ' soil. Besides, if we admit that four or five 
 ' hundred acres, or even as many thousand, 
 ' were taken from the rice grounds of the 
 ' provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, for 
 ' the purpose of planting opium, the defalc- 
 ' ation of this small quantity of land from 
 ' countries, more extensive than those of 
 ' Great Britain, would not have been felt but 
 ' as a drop of water in the sea. The misfortune 
 ' originated in the folly or iniquity of the nat- 
 ' ive farmers or grain merchants themselves. 
 
 ' It should be known, that the scarcity 
 ' happened in a season of uncommon drought, 
 ' which followed one of unusual plenty. When 
 ' the native farmers, or perhaps the merchants, 
 ' during a plentiful year, had sold and exported 
 ' as much grain as they could, they destroyed 
 ' a prodigious quantity of the remaindt r, in 
 ' order to keep up the price ; and consequently, 
 ' when the subsequent crop failed, an universal 
 ' distress pervaded the whole country. It was 
 
 'by
 
 3«2 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 ' The administration is necessarily composed of a Council of merchants, a 
 c profession no doubt extremely respectable, but which in no country in the 
 ' world carries along with it that sort of authority, which naturally overawes 
 ' the people, and without force commands their willing obedience *. Such a 
 
 * Council can command obedience only by the military force, with which they 
 ' are accompanied, and their government is therefore necessarily military and 
 ' despotical. [/>. 480] 
 
 The servants of the Company ' will employ the whole authority of govern- 
 ■ ment, and pervert the administration of justice, in order to harass and ruin 
 ' those who interfere with them in any branch of commerce, which, by means 
 ' of agents, either concealed, or at least not publicly avowed, they may chuse 
 c to carry on.' . . . . ' The. monopoly of the Company can tend only to 
 4 stunt the natural growth of that part of the surplus produce, which, in the 
 ' case of a free trade, would be exported to Europe. That of the servants 
 
 * tends to stunt the natural growth of every part of the produce in which they 
 
 * chuse to deal, of what is destined for home consumption, as well as of what 
 
 * is destined for exportation, and consequently to degrade the cultivation of the 
 ' whole country, and to reduce the number of its inhabitants. It tends to reduce 
 ' the quantity of every sort of produce, even that of the necessaries of life, 
 ' whenever the servants of the Company chuse to deal in them, to what those 
 
 * servants can both afford to buy, and expect to sell with such a profit as 
 
 * pleases them.' [/>. 482] 
 
 ' The real interest of their masters, if they were capable of understanding it, 
 
 * is the same with that of the country, and it is from ignorance chiefly, and 
 ' the meanness of mercantile prejudice, that they ever oppress it. But the real 
 
 * interest of the servants is by no means the same with that of the country, and 
 ' the most perfect information would not necessarily put an end to their op- 
 
 ' by these means that thousands of the wretch- which some malicious wag has imposed upon 
 
 * ed inhabitants of Bengal perished through him. 
 
 * hunger in the granary of India. * One might here suppose that Doctor 
 ' But, for the credit of the East-India Com- Smith had never heard of the illustrious mer- 
 
 4 pany's servants, and even for the honour of cantile family of the Medici, who, without force, 
 
 ' the nation itself, it is to be lamented that this and without the name of sovereignty, but merely 
 
 * matter was not at the time made the subject by the influence founded upon the confidence 
 ' of public inquiry, and entirely cleared up to of their fellow citizens in their wisdom and 
 ' the satisfaction of the whole world.' patriotism, conducted the public affairs of 
 
 The evidence of the Colonel, who was ac- Florence during almost the whole of the fif- 
 quainted with India, may be admitted as a teenth century, 
 sufficient antidote to Smith's pretty story, 
 
 ' pressions.
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 383 
 
 ' pressions. The regulations accordingly, which have been sent out from 
 ' Europe, though they have been frequently weak, have upon most occasions 
 ' been well meaning. More intelligence, and perhaps less good meaning, has 
 ' sometimes appeared in those established by the servants in India. It is a very 
 ' singular government, in which every member of the administration wishes to 
 ' get out of the country, and consequently to have done with the government, 
 ' as soon as he can *, and to whose interest, the day after he has left it, and 
 ' carried his whole fortune with him, it is perfectly indifferent though the whole 
 ' country was swallowed up by an earthquake.' [p. 483] 
 
 Doctor Smith winds up the charge against the Company and their servants in 
 this part of his work with the following sentence of condemnation. 
 
 ' Such exclusive Companies, therefore, are nuisances in every respect ; 
 ' always more or less inconvenient to the countries in which they are 
 ' established, and destructive to those which have the misfortune to fall 
 
 * under their government.' [^-485] 
 
 Returning to his accusations of the Company and their servants, he says, the 
 people are taxed in the high price of the Company's goods ' for the most worth- 
 
 * less of all purposes.' . . . ' It is merely to enable the Company to support 
 the negligence, profusion, and malversation of their own servants.' [V. iii, 
 
 p. 144] 
 
 ' No two characters seem more inconsistent than those of trader and Sover- 
 ' eign. If the trading spirit of the English East India Company renders them 
 ' very bad Sovereigns, the spirit of sovereignty seems to have rendered them 
 
 * equally bad traders. While they were traders only, they managed their trade 
 ' successfully, and were able to pay from their profits a moderate dividend 
 ' to the proprietors of their stock. Since they became Sovereigns, with a 
 ' revenue, which, it is said, was originally more than three millions sterling, 
 ' they have been obliged to beg the ordinary f assistance of Government in 
 ' order to avoid immediate bankruptcy.' \_p. 245] 
 
 * The governments of the East Indies have service. Many gentlemen have been much 
 
 been less fluctuating than almost any other. longer ; and it rarely happens that any of the 
 
 Few, if any, of the West-India Governors Company's servants return home, till they 
 
 have continued so long in their governments have been twenty or twenty-five years in the 
 
 as M r Hastings did. M 1 ' Duncan, the late service. 
 
 Governor of Bombay, was near forty years in f Has not this word ' ordinary ' dropt in 
 
 the service, without ever coming home. Sir by accident ? It does not appear to have any 
 
 George Barlow, the present Governor of meaning. 
 Madras, has been thirty-two years in the 
 
 The 
 
 t
 
 384 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 The reader has seen that the acquisition of the territorial revenue in the year 
 1765 was the consequence of a chain of events, neither planned nor expected 
 by the Company : and notwithstanding Smith's dismal description of the 
 arbitrary and oppressive conduct of their servants, and his doctrine of the 
 incompatibility of the noble science of government with * the meanness of 
 ' mercantile prejudice,' we know from more certain authority, that the mild 
 government of the Company's settlements, ever since they began to have any, 
 has induced the natives of the adjacent parts of the country to flock to them, for 
 the sake of enjoying the benefits of regular government and protection. 
 
 To the censures of a man, who evidently had not the knowlege of India, 
 which by reading and diligent inquiry he might, even when he wrote, have ob- 
 tained, it may be proper to oppose the observations of men who have given ac- 
 counts of the government of the Company's settlements from their own local 
 and personal knowlege. 
 
 Let us first attend to the testimony of Colonel Dow, an author by no means 
 partial to the Company's Indian administration, who wrote before the present 
 beneficent system of government was matured. He says, ' The slavery and 
 ' oppression, which the Indians suffer from their native Princes, makes the 
 ' justice and regularity of a British government appear to them in the most 
 c favourable light. The great men of the country have no more idea of 
 ' patriotism than the meanest slaves ; and the people can have no attachment 
 ' to chiefs whom they regard as tyrants. Soldiers of fortune are so numerous 
 ' in India, that they comprehend one fourth of the inhabitants of that extensive 
 ' country. They are never paid one third of the stipulated sum by the Princes 
 ' of Hindostan, which renders them mutinous and discontented ; but they would 
 ' most certainly prove themselves obedient, faithful, and brave, in the service 
 ' of a Power who should pay them regularly.' [History of Hindostan, V. ii, 
 p. 95, published in 1768] 
 
 Major Rennell says, that in Bengal, ' Previous to the establishment of our 
 
 * influence, invasions were frequent, particularly by the Mahrattas : and one 
 ' province or other was ever in rebellion, owing to the want of energy in the 
 ' ruling power, an ill-paid and mutinous army, or an excess of delegated 
 ' power. Those who know what miseries are brought upon a country by 
 ' being the seat of war, will know how to appreciate the value of such a 
 ' blessing as that of having the horrors of war removed to a distance from our 
 
 * habitations.' [Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan, p. cv.] 
 
 M r Myers,
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 385 
 
 M r Myers, late accountant-general in Bengal, in a letter addressed to 
 M r Dundas *, the President of the Board of Controul, observes, that, * The 
 
 * increase of the population of those countries by births is very rapid ; and 
 ' while few persons emigrate from the provinces, which have been any length 
 1 of time under our authority, great numbers of people, who were born in 
 ' other countries, are constantly resorting to those provinces, with a view of 
 ' seeking some means of livelihood and a more secure asylum.' 
 
 The following is the account of the state of the Company's territories, given 
 by Marquis Wellesley, late Governor-general of India, contained in a minute 
 in Council at Calcutta, dated 18 th August 1800. ' The British possessions in 
 ' India now constitute one of the most extensive and populous empires in the 
 1 world. The immediate administration of the government of the various 
 
 * provinces and nations, composing this empire, is principally confided to the 
 ' European civil servants of the East-India Company. Those provinces, namely 
 f Bengal, Bahar, Orissa, and Benares, the Company's Jaghire in the Carnatic, 
 
 * the Northern Circars, the Baramhal, and other districts ceded by the peace 
 ' of Seringapatam in 1792, which are under the more immediate and direct 
 ' administration of the civil servants of the Company, are acknowleged to 
 
 * form the most flourishing and opulent part of India, in which property, life, 
 
 * civil order, and religious liberty, are most secure, and the people enjoy a 
 ' larger portion of the benefits of good government than in any other country 
 
 * in this quarter of the globe.' 
 
 To these respectable testimonies of local knowlege and personal ex- 
 perience f, against which no one will be disposed to balance Smith's random 
 opinions and unfounded declamations about depopulation and oppression, may 
 be added the opinion of Lord Melville, who studied Indian affairs with rather 
 more application, and with better means of acquiring full knowlege of them, 
 than Doctor Smith. In a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Company, 
 dated a d April 1800, he says, ' That the ostensible form of government, with 
 ' all its consequent extent and detail of patronage, must remain as it now is, I 
 ' am persuaded will never be called in question by any, but those who may be 
 ' disposed to sacrifice the freedom and security of our constitution to their own 
 
 ' personal aggrandizement, and ill-directed ambition.' e The same 
 
 ' principles, which prove the necessity of the present form and mode of Indian 
 
 * Afterwards created Viscount Melville. but it is presumed that these may be sufficient 
 
 t It would only cost the trouble of tran- to every intelligent and candid reader, 
 scribing to add many more such testimonies : 
 
 3 d ' government.
 
 3 S6 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 * government, evince the necessity of the monopoly of trade. The government 
 4 and trade are interwoven together ; and we have only to recur to a very recent 
 1 experience to learn the immense advantages, which have flowed from that 
 
 * connexion of government and trade. By the commercial capital of the Com- 
 1 pany at home, acting in connexion with the public revenues under their ad- 
 1 ministration abroad, they have mutually aided and administered to the wants 
 ' of each other ; and the result has been the fortunate achievement of 
 
 * those brilliant events, upon the success of which depended the existence of 
 ' the government, the territorial wealth, and the trade, of India.' 
 
 This well-matured opinion is rather at variance with Smith's notions respect- 
 ing the inconsistency of government and commerce, and his conclusion that the 
 spirit of sovereignty has rendered the Company bad traders, as their trading 
 spirit has rendered them bad Sovereigns. This has not been lost sight of by 
 Smith's followers, who taking it for incontrovertible, as they generally take all 
 his propositions and assertions, have asserted that ' the interest of England, as a 
 ' producing country, has never entered into the views of the Company at 
 ' any time, far less since they became territorial Sovereigtis.' From these words 
 the reader, who is not at the trouble of obtaining information of the facts, is to 
 understand that the Company have been at all times neglectful of exporting the 
 productions of British industry, and that since their acquisition of the territorial 
 revenue they have become still more neglectful than they were before. 
 
 But opinions, however respectable, and all unfounded assertions, must give 
 way to unquestionable facts. The following statement of the Company's ex- 
 ports during fifty years before they became powerful in India, and also during 
 fifty years after that aera, show how much they have extended their exports of 
 merchandize, and diminished those of bullion, in the later period, and thereby 
 promoted ' the interest of England as a producing country,' to the great benefit 
 of the manufacturers, miners, and all other industrious classes of the people. 
 
 The amount of exports in 
 
 fifty years, 1710-1759. fifty years, 1760-1809. 
 
 Merchandize . ^9,248,296 ^48,659,458 
 
 Bullion . . . 26,829,207 14,656,587 
 
 Thus we find, that the exportation of merchandize, which, we are told, has 
 fallen off in the second of these periods, has increased to more than five times 
 the amount of it in the first period. It may also be observed, for the comfort 
 of those who think the exportation of the pretious metals a great evil, that, 
 whereas, in the first fifty years the amount of the merchandize is little more 
 
 than
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 387 
 
 than one third of the bullion, in the second fifty the bullion is much less than 
 one third of the merchandize. 
 
 In ten of these years, 1799-1808, notwithstanding the obstructions of war, 
 the merchandize amounted to ..... ^19,931,801, 
 
 and the bullion to ........ 6,030,035, 
 
 whence it appears that the increase of exportation has been progressive. 
 
 Of the merchandize exported in these ten years, the woolen goods 
 
 amounted to ^11,299,420, 
 
 being on an average yearly ....... 1,129,942, 
 
 more than half, in value of the whole merchandize exported by the Company 
 being the production of the most favoured manufacture of England *. 
 
 If the respectable testimonies, which have been adduced, be not sufficient 
 to repell the general charges of extravagance, oppression, depopulation, and in- 
 competency, brought against the Company's servants by Doctor Smith, his own 
 evidence may be brought in addition to them ; for after having abused them 
 through several pages, he seems inclined to part with them in friendship. He 
 says, ' I mean not, however, by any thing which I have here said, to throw 
 ' any odious imputation upon the general character of the servants of the East 
 ' India Company, and much less upon that of any particular persons. It is the 
 1 system of government, the situation in which they are placed, that I mean to 
 ' censure ; not the character of those who have acted in it. They acted as 
 ' their situation naturally directed ; and they, who have clamoured the loudest 
 ' against them, would probably not have acted better themselves. In war and 
 ' negociation the Councils of Madras and Calcutta have upon several occasions 
 
 * conducted themselves with a resolution and decisive wisdom, which would 
 ' have done honour to the Senate of Rome in the best days of that republic. 
 ' The members of those Councils, however, had been bred to professions very 
 ' different from war and politics. But their situation alone, without education, 
 
 * experience, or even example, seems to have formed in them all at once the 
 ' great qualities which it required, and to have inspired them both with abilities 
 ' and virtues, which they themselves could not well know that they possessed.' 
 IV. ii, p. 484] 
 
 Doctor Smith tells us that the Company ' have been obliged to beg the 
 ' ordinary assistance of Government in order to avoid immediate bankruptcy.' 
 But he says nothing of their lending much greater sums to Government than 
 they ever borrowed j and he knew nothing of their advancing very great sums 
 
 * The reader will soon see a specimen of the woolen manufactures exported in the private trade. 
 
 3 D 2 for
 
 3 88 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 for Government service, at the request of the Ministry. It is true that they 
 have borrowed money, when necessary, as any small Company, or any indi- 
 vidual merchant in good circumstances and credit, may easily do ; and they have 
 repaid it. But they never received, nor ever asked, any gratuitous donations 
 from the public purse, such as some of the regulated Companies have regularly 
 received. 
 
 The Company have been accused by Smith's followers of discouraging the 
 productive powers of their territories in India. Indigo, it is acknowleged has 
 been brought to great perfection ; but the success of it, we are told, ' may 
 * fairly be ascribed to its being left to private adventure.' The production of 
 sugar, cotton, raw silk, and sunn hemp, has been discouraged, though those 
 articles might be imported from India to a great amount. 
 
 The reader has already seen (p. 200) what the Company have done for pro- 
 moting the cultivation of indigo. It may not, however, be improper here to 
 ask, whether any private trader, or any small society of private traders, could, 
 or would, have submitted to such a privation of the use of a very capital sum, 
 in order to establish a trade, which should eventually be beneficial to their 
 country in a distant day, perhaps when they should not be alive to reap any 
 benefit from it ? Such sacrifices can only be made by a corporate body pos- 
 sessing a degree of immortality. 
 
 About the year 1789 the quantity of sugar produced in the British West- 
 India islands was found to be much inferior to the demand for home consump- 
 tion and for exportation, the trade with every part of Europe being then free 
 to British merchants ; and the Public were distressed by the rise of the price. 
 The distress was soon after aggravated by a deficiency of the sugar crop in the 
 British islands, and a total failure of importation from the important French 
 island of Saint Domingo, occasioned by the insurrection of the Negro slaves. 
 The Company's territories in Bengal are capable of supplying sugar for the 
 consumption of all Europe, if a regard for the interest of the West-India 
 planters did not render a very great extension of the East-India sugar trade im- 
 proper, and if the duty upon it were not so high as to render the importation of 
 it a losing business, except when the price happens to be very high in this 
 country. In April 1789 the Company sent orders to Bengal for shipping a 
 quantity of sugar, which, arriving at the time when the price, owing to the 
 circumstances just mentioned, was enormously high, was sold with some 
 profit. The Company, thinking that Bengal ought to be considered as a 
 British territory, and seeing that the British West-India sugar could not 
 stand in need of a protecting duty, when the quantity of it was so very 
 
 inadequate
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 389. 
 
 inadequate to the demand for home consumption and exportation to the 
 Continent, applied to the Lords of the Treasury for a reduction of the duty, 
 but without success. If the duty upon East-India and West-India sugar were 
 equalized, the difference of the freight upon so heavy an article would still oper- 
 ate as a protection to the later, and effectually prevent any larger importation of 
 the former than what may be brought as ballast along with finer and lighter 
 goods. From what is now stated, it is evident, that a very large importation of 
 East-India sugars would be ruinous to the West-India planters, whose property is 
 too large and important to be sacrificed, and also to the importers. With re- 
 gard to the balance of trade, for which many of our political economists are so 
 anxious, it is proper to remember that the whole first cost of East-India sugars 
 must be paid in bullion, whereas West-India sugars are mostly paid for with 
 British merchandize, and a great part of the balance, paid to the proprietors of 
 sugar estates, is spent by them in this country. 
 
 Cotton is another article raised both in the East and the West Indies, as also 
 in Brazil, and it may be cultivated in every warm country. It is the raw ma- 
 terial of the great staple manufacture of India, and therefor a quantity, sufficient 
 for the supply of the manufacturers, must of necessity remain in the country. It 
 also makes a good remittance to China, except when the rage for adventure 
 overstocks the market ; and the sale of it in that country diminishes the quant- 
 ity of silver payable to the Chinese. The consumption of cotton in the British 
 manufacture of the vast variety of articles made of that material is so great, that, 
 though much more has been planted in the West Indies, since the great extens- 
 ion of the cotton manufacture by the use of Arkwright's machinery, than ever 
 was planted before, though the cultivation of it, has lately been introduced with 
 remarkable success in the southern territories of the United States of America, 
 and great quantities are brought from Brazil and the Levant, still there is also a 
 great demand for cotton from India ; and the supply of the raw material for so 
 important a branch of the national manufacture is consequently a very popular 
 object ; and it has not been lost sight of by the opponents of the Company, who 
 have represented them as discouraging the growth of it in their own territories, 
 to the great injury of the natives and of the British manufacturers. They tell 
 us that it may be bought in India for three halfpence a pound *, whereas West- 
 
 * This was cotton, which some of the mer- wages of London workmanship for picking out 
 
 chants, not acquainted with the nature of the the seeds, by which operation the cotton was 
 
 article, had purchased, in the ardour of specul- reduced to one quarter of the weight shipped, 
 
 ation, with the seeds in it, whereby they sub- and consequently cost more money than it could 
 
 jected themselves to pay freight for seeds which be sold for. 
 were to be thrown away, and also to pay the 
 
 India
 
 | 9 o A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 India cotton costs a shilling in the place of its growth ; but that, notwithstand- 
 ing so prodigious a difference of cost, the higher charge for freight by the 
 Company's ships renders the importation of it unprofitable *. The truth is, that 
 the cultivation of cotton in India never stood in need of encouragement. But the 
 Company, observing that the bad success of many of the speculations in cotton 
 has lately rendered the supply of it very irregular, and frequently defective, and 
 desirous of securing a constant and steady supply of that important article, have 
 determined to make it a regular branch of their own commerce ; for which pur- 
 pose they have established a permanent factory in the upper part of India, and 
 another on the west coast, in the country lately ceded by the Peishwa ; and from 
 both of them considerable quantities of good and clean cotton have already been 
 imported. 
 
 Raw silk, we are told, has been neglected by the Company. The Bengal silk 
 has for some years been growing worse, except what has been imported in priv- 
 ate trade, which has been improving. In short, by the Company's mismanage- 
 ment the British silk manufacturer is obliged to depend for a supply of the 
 material ' on our enemies, to whom we pay more than two millions annually 
 ' for silk alone.' 
 
 The Company's fostering care of the cultivation of silk in Bengal, and the 
 great expense bestowed by them for the purpose of preventing the British manu- 
 facturer from depending upon foreigners, whether friends or enemies, any furth- 
 er than the assortment of different qualities may require, has been already re- 
 lated (p. 223) : and it is therefor needless to do more here, than just barely to 
 observe that the assertion, that the private traders can procure better goods of 
 any description whatever than can be obtained by the Company, is rather in con- 
 tradiction to the experience of gentlemen, who have been long acquainted with the 
 
 * The excess of import (for even cotton The freight from Surinam, Demararay, 
 
 maybe imported to excess) has sometimes re- andBerbice . ... 3 
 
 duced the price much below what may be reck- Grenada . . 2f 
 
 oned the fair value. In general, if it is well Saint Lucia and Nevis 2* 
 
 cleaned, and of pretty good quality, it will bear Considering the distance, the freight from the 
 
 the freight, as appeals by the following com- East Indies is by far the cheapest, though re- 
 
 parison. presented as ruinous to the importation : and 
 
 The freight from India is charged by the tun it is evident that East-India cotton, well cleaned, 
 
 of 50 cube feet, which may contain 1 600 pounds if bought twopence lower than West-India 
 
 of cotton, and, at jf22 15 o per tun, the freight cotton of equal quality, may meet it in the 
 
 in the Company's extra ships, and also in the London market with superior advantage, 
 ships of the private merchants, is for one pound 
 about . • . . 3rd. 
 
 trade
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 391 
 
 trade of India, and whose local knowlege is more to be depended upon than the 
 information obtained by the author of the ' Considerations upon the trade with 
 ' India,' who moreover, pays our enemies rather too generously for their silk, 
 which, according to the amount stated by him, costs above four guineas for 
 every pound. 
 
 Sunn hemp, though it has been imported by the Company for fourteen years 
 bypast, is still very little known in Great Britain : and therefor the anonymous 
 writer of the ' Considerations upon the trade with India,' who has abused the 
 Company for neglecting, or opposing, the introduction of it in this country, 
 might have been almost excused for being misled in his statement, if he had 
 not asserted that he is well assured, and indeed partly knows the fact, that the 
 Company have opposed the cultivation of it and the introduction of it in this 
 country. The reader has already seen (/>. 241) what efforts, and what sacri- 
 fices, the Company have made, in order to promote that great national 
 object. 
 
 Those above-mentioned are the chief articles of the agricultural produce of 
 India, which are imported into this country. But there are many others, which 
 amply repay the industry of the cultivators and manufacturers, and supply the 
 materials of a very extensive trade with all the coasts and islands of Asia, as far 
 west as the Red Sea, and as far east as China and Manila, whereby the natives 
 are comfortably supported, and even enriched. This trade, usually called the 
 country trade, is in a great measure carried on by the capital and enterprise of 
 the civil servants of the Company, and the free merchants living under their 
 protection ; and it is chiefly by this trade, which is entirely resigned to them by 
 the Company, that their fortunes are acquired, and not by plundering and op- 
 pressing the natives, as the revilers of our countrymen residing in India would 
 have us believe. There are also many merchants of Arabia, Persia, Armenia, 
 and the Oriental islands employed in this trade ; and some of them do business 
 to a great amount. The cargoes in the country trade consist of all the articles 
 of produce and manufacture, which are brought from India to Europe, and also 
 opium and rice to a great extent, and a small assortment of British manufact- 
 ures. The manufactures of India have in all ages formed a most important 
 part of the cargoes shipped for every country in the East. Indigo is bought 
 largely by the Arabian merchants. Pepper and cotton are shipped for China to 
 a very large amount. 
 
 Such are the resources of the people living under the Company's government, 
 the plan of which Smith has thought proper to represent as similar to the system 
 of oppression and tyranny, by which the Dutch have almost depopulated the 
 
 Molucco
 
 39 z A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 Molucco islands, and extirpated the most valuable productions of their soil. 
 Such are the most important of the innumerable lucrative articles, produced in a 
 country, the productive powers of which the followers of Smith accuse the Com- 
 pany of discouraging. But the real truth is, that the produce and manufactures, 
 and the exports, have been augmented, very much beyond what they ever were 
 before, in all the countries where the natives enjoy the protection and tranquil- 
 lity of the Company's government, with the secure possession of their landed 
 property, the quit-rents of which are collected without the necessity of military 
 compulsion, a mode of collection quite usual in the territories of the Mohamedan 
 Princes. 
 
 Smith's third proposition, and arguments against it. 
 
 Doctor Smith, having proved, to his own satisfaction, that, when a nation is 
 ripe for the East-India trade, it will be carried on to much greater advantage by 
 unconnected individuals residing in India than by a great Company, proceeds 
 to dispose of the Company's territorial acquisitions in the following manner. 
 
 ' The settlements, which different European nations have obtained in the 
 
 * East Indies, if they were taken from the exclusive Companies, to which they at 
 ' present belong, and put under the immediate protection of the Sovereign, 
 ' would render this residence both safe and easy, at least to the merchants of the 
 1 particular nations, to whom those settlements belong.' [V. ii, ^. 47a] ... . 
 Upon the expiration of the Company's charter, ' the monopoly ought certainly 
 1 to determine ; the forts and garrisons, if it was found necessary to establish 
 
 * any, to be taken into the hands of Government, their value to be paid to 
 
 * the Company, and the trade to be, laid open to all the subjects of the State.' 
 [T.iii, p. 144] 
 
 In his chapter upon the debts of the Public, after proposing that they should 
 be alleviated by contributions from Ireland and the American colonies, by which, 
 and a faithful application of the revenue to the discharge of them, the greatest 
 part of the taxes might be abolished, he adds that ' The territorial acquisitions 
 
 * of the East India Company, the undoubted right of the Crown, that is, of 
 ' the State and People of Great Britain, might be rendered another source of 
 ' revenue, more abundant, perhaps, than all those already mentioned.' [V. iii, 
 p. 462] 
 
 It is not denied, that the Company, upon the faith of the charters, for which 
 they have paid very large sums to the Public, have acquired their forts, fact- 
 ories, and other establishments, by the expenditure of vast sums of their own 
 money, without receiving any pecuniary assistance from the State, such as other 
 
 Companies
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 393 
 
 Companies have had ; and it is generally admitted that no trade can be carried 
 on in India without the security of fortified stations. The Company have also 
 been at great charges in defending their settlements and their property against 
 the attacks of the Mohamedan Princes of India * and their French allies, who 
 were defeated by the superior skill and bravery of their own officers and sol- 
 diers, whereupon they obtained a grant of the revenue of the territories con- 
 quered by their own forces, and at their own expense and risk, not from the 
 King and Parliament of Great Britain, who did not possess any kind of right or 
 property in the sovereignty of those countries, but from the Great Mogul, who, 
 however deprived of real substantial power, is the acknowleged Sovereign of the 
 empire, of which the territories acquired by the Company form a part. 
 
 That the territory, acquired in India by the Company, was their undoubted 
 property, was universally acknowleged in India and in Europe. That no idea 
 of making any claim upon it had been entertained by his Majesty or his Minis- 
 ters, when the negotiations for peace with France were going forward in the 
 end of the year 1762, is evident ; for then the French Minister, upon proposing 
 that some settlements, taken from the French East-India Company during 
 the war, should be restored, received the following answer from the British 
 Ministry. 
 
 ' Respecting those territorial acquisitions the English East-India Company 
 ' have made in Asia, every dispute relative thereto must be settled by that 
 ' Company, the Crown of England having no right to interfere in what is allowed 
 ' to be the legal and exclusive property of a body corporate, belonging to the English 
 1 nation f .' 
 
 Perhaps it may be alleged that the Ministry did not think the territory, then 
 possessed by the Company, sufficiently important to be claimed for the Crown ; 
 but that, after the Company acquired the revenues of extensive provinces, it has 
 been discovered, upon better consideration, that all territorial acquisitions, made 
 by subjects, though at their own expense and risk, must belong to the Crown. 
 — In answer, it is argued, that the powers of making war and peace, and enter- 
 ing into treaties with foreign Princes, conferred upon the Company by their 
 charter, and confirmed by Parliament, certainly convey to them as great a por- 
 
 * It is well known that those Princes were this important acknowlegement of the Corn- 
 all usurpers upon the authority of their acknow- pany's right, already inserted in a note in 
 leged Sovereign, the Great Mogul. p. 192, as it could not, with any regard to pro- 
 
 f The reader will excuse the repetition of priety, be omitted either there or here. 
 
 3 e tion
 
 59+ A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 tion of sovereign power as may entitle them to hold a delegated authority from 
 the Sovereign of a foreign country. But, if the opinion of the Statesmen, who 
 gave the above answer in the year 1762, shall be alleged to be now antiquated, 
 let us listen to the declaration made by a great Statesman, lately deceased, who 
 particularly attended to the affairs of India, many years after Smith's recommend- 
 ation of seizing the territorial revenue for the Crown had been published to the 
 world. Upon the question being started in Parliament, To whom, in case of 
 the Company's privilege being terminated, should the most important seats of 
 trade in India belong ? he answered, ' To the Company undoubtedly. By 
 ' their original and perpetual charters they have legally purchased various pos- 
 « sessions in India, which cannot be taken from them.' \M r Dundas's Speech 
 in Parliament, i^d April 1793] 
 
 Without saying any thing of the propriety or impropriety of the Sovereign of 
 Great Britain acknowleging the Great Mogul for his feudal Over-lord, as the 
 East-India Company have done, let us consider, what is to be done with the 
 Company's forts and territories, when taken from them and vested in the Crown. 
 Will not the support of them be a dead weight upon the industry of this coun- 
 try, as some others of our foreign possessions have been ? The support of go- 
 vernments, and armies, and ships of war, in the hands of the Crown, every think- 
 in"- person will allow, must be much more expensive than they are in the hands 
 of the Company, who are surely as frugal in the expenditure of their own money 
 as is consistent with prudence and liberality. The Crown must endeavour to be 
 reimbursed by imposts upon the trade ; and these, being necessarily much 
 heavier than what were levied under the direction of the Company, will ruin the 
 trade entirely, and transfer it to the foreign Companies, who, it must be remem- 
 bered, will prosper upon the decline of the British trade ; and when the imposts 
 shall be thereby reduced to little or nothing *, what is to support the expense ? 
 Smith tells us, the territorial revenue, which is not only to support all the 
 charges of the government, with all its dependencies in India, but also to pro- 
 duce an abundant fund for the reduction of the national debt of Great Britain. 
 But it may at least be doubted, whether the expenses of a Royal government 
 in India swelled by the creation of a multitude of new offices, with the charges 
 of a sufficient army, and a considerable portion of the navy, with all the endless 
 
 * Upon the suspension of the French East- amounted to more than two millions of livres, 
 
 India Company in the year 1769, the French in return for which they produced just the tenth 
 
 settlements in India came to be supported by part of that sum. [liajnal, Hist, phil.et polk. 
 
 the King, whose annual expense upon them J 7 , ii, />. 338] 
 
 train
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 395 
 
 train of subordinate expenses, will not be more than sufficient to prevent any 
 balance of revenue from being remitted to the Treasury ; and whether it is not 
 much more probable that the Governors of the settlements in India, like the 
 Governors of other foreign settlements, will not need to draw bills upon the 
 Treasury. How many of the European Governments have accumulated 
 treasure by making their expenditure less than their revenue ? How many of 
 them are there, who are not in debt by letting their expenditure exceed their 
 revenue ? 
 
 The Governors, appointed by a commercial Company, to the superintend- 
 ence of settlements formed and supported by commerce, must know that it is 
 their duty to give every proper assistance to commerce. The Governors, ap- 
 pointed by Royal authority, being generally military gentlemen, whose educ- 
 ation and habits are frequently rather anticommercial, cannot be expected to 
 pay the same attention to the interests of commerce, which must therefor suffer, 
 not from their ill intentions, but from their habits of considering commerce as 
 an object of too little importance to merit their attention or support. It may be 
 alleged that in case of any gross act of oppression, justice may be obtained by 
 the laws of Great Britain against any delinquent, however high his rank, or 
 great his power, may be. That is very true : but a much shorter time than is 
 necessary for all the tedious and complex operations of such a process, is suf- 
 ficient to involve a merchant, and those who are deeply connected with him, in 
 irretrievable ruin. 
 
 In France, where the East-India Company were supported by the public 
 money in the infancy of their trade, and had many other assistances and indulg- 
 ences, besides their exclusive privilege, the Government might fairly claim a 
 share of the acquisitions made by the help of the public money. In England 
 the Company risked no property but their own. The Public did not advance a 
 shilling, either to set their trade a-going, to encourage it by bounties, or to 
 compensate any of the heavy losses they sustained. On the contrary, the Com- 
 pany, notwithstanding the losses and extraordinary expenses occasioned by war, 
 amounting to many millions, have poured large sums into the public Treasury j 
 certainly much larger than ever the Treasury can draw from their territories, if 
 in the possession of the Crown. Indeed, no good reason can be alleged, why 
 the heirs, and other representatives, of the original partners of the Company 
 should be deprived of the property of every kind whatever, acquired by the 
 exertions and capital, and at the risk, of their predecessors, any more than 
 that many honourable and noble families, now flourishing in this country, 
 
 3 k 2 should
 
 396 ARE V [£W OF THE ARGUMEN T S F O R 
 
 should be deprived of the estates acquired by the successful industry of their 
 commercial ancestors, who lived in the last, or preceding, century. 
 
 There are other opponents of the Company, more moderate, or more knowing, 
 than Smith and the advocates for his financial policy, who are willing to allow 
 them to retain the burthen of supporting the torts and factories, and only desire 
 to have the accommodation of them for the protection and convenience of their 
 own trade. 
 
 The most enlightened politicians, and those, who from their knowlege of 
 Indian affairs are best qualified to judge of such a matter, are of opinion, that 
 the territories in India cannot be managed and governed so much for the ad- 
 vantage of the British empire in general by any other system of government as 
 that of the East-India Company : and they do not scruple to express their ap- 
 
 • • • I 
 
 prehension, that the Indian dominions, if vested in the Crown, and along with 
 them the India trade, which has so largely contributed to place Great Britain in 
 her present pre-eminent rank in the scale of Nations, would at no very distant 
 time be totally lost ; and that, while they remained connected with this king- 
 dom under the direction of his Majesty's Ministers, the additional patronage, 
 thereby thrown into their hands, would enable them, if they should be so in- 
 clined, to overthrow our happy constitution ; whereas that patronage, while in 
 the hands of a numerous body of gentlemen, most of whom have little or no 
 connection with the political parties of the State, cannot be productive of any 
 political danger whatever *. 
 
 The probable consequences of the East India trade being thrown open. 
 
 Let us now suppose that the East-India trade is thrown open, either to the 
 utmost extent claimed by the advocates for the unbounded freedom of trade, or 
 only to the merchants and agents already connected with India ; though there 
 seems to be no good reason, if the Company's privilege is to be invaded, 
 why any one should be debarred from a share of the spoil, who thinks 
 
 * Governor Johnstone, in his treatise, en- ' Saint Iago, Calatrava, and Alcantara, to the 
 
 titled Thoughts on our Acquisitions in the East- ' Crown of Spain ; which, a celebrated Spanish 
 
 Indies, says, he is persuaded that, if the ter- • historian says, contributed more towards en- 
 
 rilories of the East-India Company were put ' slaving that country than all the other insidi- 
 
 into the immediate possession of the Crown, ' ous arts and expedients of Ferdinand and 
 
 « we might expect the same effects that fol- ' Isabella.' 
 ' lowed the annexation of the rich orders of 
 
 he
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 397 
 
 he can "make it beneficial to himself ; and let us endeavour to estimate the 
 consequences to 
 
 The East-India Company, as merchants ; 
 
 The people wholely or partly dependent upon the Company ; 
 
 The new East-India merchants ; 
 and 
 
 The national revenue, and the Nation at large. 
 That the East-India Company have a right to remain a corporate body, and to 
 carry on trade with their joint stock, being acknowleged by all parties, there 
 are, besides Smith's prediction of their incapacity (See above, p. 370), two 
 opinions respecting the propriety or the probability of their continuing to trade 
 in competition with an unlimited number of private adventurers. 
 
 Notwithstanding the heavy charges of waste and mismanagement brought 
 against the Company and their servants by Smith and his followers, and their 
 assertion that ' the superior vigilance and attention of private adventures would, 
 ' in all probability, soon make them weary of the trade,' we have already seen 
 (p. 371) that the Company purchase their goods on better terms, and also 
 conduct their business more economically, than the private traders, with all 
 their vigilance and attention, can do. 
 
 A gentleman, already quoted, who has had the experience of thirty years' 
 residence in India, and has been engaged in trading on his own account, has 
 said that, after reflecting upon the subject for twenty years, he believes the 
 Company would have nothing to fear, in a point of view merely commercial, 
 from the trade being thrown open to the competition of private merchants in 
 India and in this country ; and that the Company would certainly carry on 
 their trade to greater advantage than private merchants, the expenses of their 
 trade being lighter in proportion, and the goods purchased for them being 
 of better quality, so as to sell in general about fifteen per cent higher than 
 similar goods imported by the private merchants. ' But, in such a case, it 
 ' could not be expected that they should export articles of national manufacture 
 ' to a loss, as they now do, or import from India articles for the benefit of 
 ' Government on the terms they often now import them. At present they 
 ' bring sunn hemp for the service of Government, without any profit whatever, 
 ' as they lose by the necessary dead weight to be shipped along with it. Some 
 * years ago, on a rupture with Russia, they brought it on their own account, 
 ' at the wishes, or at the instance, of his Majesty's Ministers, for the purpose 
 ' of answering the national exigence ; and they lost greatly by it, the quantity 
 
 ' being
 
 398 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 ' being considerable *.' [Evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons, 
 18 th , so'" May 1809] 
 
 Others are of opinion that, if the trade were to be thrown open, the Com- 
 pany ought to abandon it, at least for some years, to the scramble of the new ad- 
 venturers, and let their ships return empty, rather than bring goods which must 
 assuredly be sold at a great loss, or be unsaleable at any price. At any rate, if 
 they should resume the trade after some intermission, it would not be incumb- 
 ent upon them to continue their exports of British manufactures, or their im- 
 ports of raw materials for manufactures, without any profit, or at a loss, as they 
 have hitherto done, upon the patriotic principle of sacrificing their own emol- 
 ument to the public advantage, as a grateful return for the privilege with which 
 they have been favoured. Such was the opinion of the Committee of Directors 
 in September 1791, as expressed in their Report upon the export trade. 
 
 Whichever of these opinions might come to be acted upon, there can be no 
 doubt, that a very great number of the proprietors of India stock would take 
 fright immediately upon the abolition of their privilege, and, in the dread that 
 their property must immediately be destroyed along with it, would eagerly run 
 to sell out their stock at any price, and the price would be very much depressed 
 by the competition of sellers, whereby they and their families would be reduced 
 in their means of living, if not completely ruined. 
 
 The people ivholcly or partly dependent upon the Company may be divided into 
 three classes, 
 
 Those who are, or have been, in the numerous branches of their service ; 
 
 1 hose who are benefited by providing the shipping required for their trade, 
 and in supplying the merchandize of every kind, which they export j 
 
 and 
 
 The purchasers at the Company's sales, who are benefited by working them 
 up in their manufactures, by selling them to the consumers at home, or by ex- 
 porting them to foreign countries. 
 
 * This gentleman affirms that the Company's man, founded upon the experience of thirty 
 
 profits are greater than he could make, with all years. — In answer to the later, it is sufficient 
 
 his advantages of local knowlege and personal to observe that an annual income of s£lo$ (or 
 
 attention. Nevertheless, one set of the oppon- at present only ^94 10 o) which may be 
 
 ents of the Company accuse them of persisting diminished by losses in war, but, by the pre- 
 
 in carrying on a losing trade with India, while sent law, cannot be increased, is no very exorb- 
 
 another set, probably following Smith, cry out itant profit upon a capital of from ] 800 to 2000 
 
 against their enormous profits. — Against the pounds. 
 
 former may be set the testimony of this gentle- 
 
 The
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 399 
 
 The people in the immediate service of the Company in India and at home, 
 and those employed in preparing goods for their imports, amounting with their 
 families to many millions*, are all decently supported, according to their rank 
 and services, while in employment : and when accident, or sickness, or old age, 
 render their immediate servants, civil, military, or naval, incapable of further 
 service, they are never left destitute, but are all provided with a comfortable 
 support during the remainder of life ; and the Company's bounty is also ex- 
 tended to their widows and children. 
 
 The Company's military officers, who have all been bred up in their army 
 from early youth, after being a certain number of years in the service, are per- 
 mitted to retire, not upon half pay, like the reduced officers of the King's 
 army, but to the enjoyment of comfort and repose, with their full pay, which is 
 assured to them as long as they live. 
 
 The Company's naval officers have also been regularly bred up in their serv- 
 ice, and are not inferior in every branch of nautical knowlege and the sciences 
 connected with their profession to any body of navigators in the world ; and in 
 maritime warfare they have often gallantly supported the honour of the British 
 flag. They have hitherto been considered as having a right, unless forfeited by 
 misconduct, to look up to the Company for constant employment, with the 
 reasonable prospect of making a competent fortune before old age renders re- 
 pose desirable and necessary, and with an assurance, in case of failure, of being 
 protected and supported by the Company in a stile not unsuitable to their rank 
 in life. — Must such valuable men, when bending under the weight of years, if 
 their endeavours to obtain independent competence have been unsuccessful, be 
 turned adrift to starve, or to seek such employment as their diminished powers 
 of exertion may be capable of, in situations inferior in emolument and respect- 
 ability to those they have held in the Company's service ? — Or must the Com- 
 pany support them when unemployed, and when there is no longer a possibility 
 of finding employment for them ? Or can they support them, when their own 
 funds, which have hitherto so liberally provided ease and competence for their 
 superannuated servants of every description, who have been in need of assist- 
 ance, shall be torn from them ? — Will unconnected private merchants make 
 them any compensation in lieu of the respectable establishment, which they 
 propose to abolish ? — Will they make any such provision for those who wear 
 out their lives in their own service ? 
 
 * In January 1786 the number of people em- estimated at six millions. They are now prob- 
 ployed in India, in the production and manufact- ably near twice as many, 
 ure of goods for the Company's trade, were 
 
 The
 
 + oo A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 The Company have entered into engagements with a great number of ship- 
 owners to find constant employment for their ships, which, on the faith of 
 those engagements, have been built expressly for their service, and rigged, and 
 found in every respect, in a very superior manner, which renders them capable 
 of performing the longest voyages, and conveying their cargoes, with the greatest 
 possible degree of security for life and property ; and they are also armed and 
 manned with sufficient strength to beat off not only the pirates, who have in all 
 ages preyed upon defenceless ships in the Oriental seas, but also many of the 
 warlike ships of hostile European Powers. — Must all these ships, to the value 
 of above four millions sterling, which carry above a hundred thousand tuns *, 
 and are too large to be turned into any other trade, be thrown upon their owners 
 to rot in harbour ? 
 
 We come now to consider the probable situation of the people, who have 
 been benefited by supplying merchandize and stores of every kind for the Com- 
 pany's exportation. Of these the manufacturers, and particularly those engaged 
 in the woolen manufacture, are the class for whom the Public are most solicitous 
 to provide employment and emolument. It seems the most proper method, in 
 order to obtain clear ideas upon this subject, to state 
 
 i ) What the Company have done for the benefit of the British manufacturers 
 and other classes of traders and producers. 
 
 2) What the private traders have promised to do for extending the export- 
 ation of British manufactures and produce. 
 
 3) What the private traders have actually performed. 
 
 1 ) From the first establishment of the Company, above two centuries ago, 
 they have never ceased to direct their agents in India to use every endeavour to 
 extend the sale of British manufactures ; and so far have they been from being 
 actuated by ' the meanness of mercantile prejudice', that they have constantly 
 ordered their agents to make the extension of the consumption their first object, 
 and to let the price be only a subordinate consideration. But the truth is, that 
 there are obstacles to a very extensive consumption of European goods, pro- 
 ceeding, as already observed, from the nature of the climate, and the religion 
 
 * In the beginning of the eighteenth cent- reign the shipping of England 
 
 ury the shipping of all England amounted was about . . . 500,000 tuns. 
 
 to ... 261,222 tuns, At the end of the eighteenth 
 
 whereof there belonged to the century it had increased to 1,466,632 
 
 port of London . . 84,882 of measured tunnage, all the preceding num- 
 
 In the year 1760, the commence- bers being by estimate. 
 
 ment of his present Majesty's 
 
 and
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. +01 
 
 and manners of the people ; and it is certain, that no reduction of price, nor 
 even gratuitous donations, can ever force into use any of the articles obnoxious 
 to such imperious prohibitions. 
 
 The Company's agents in India have not been neglectful in attempting to in- 
 troduce British goods in every country accessible to their efforts. The several 
 Presidencies have endeavoured to establish trade with Assam, Ava, Thibet, 
 Bussorah in Persia, Japan, and the other Oriental islands, besides all the 
 countries of Hindoostan. But, notwithstanding their utmost efforts, they 
 have found the trade of many places, after a sufficient trial, incapable of 
 supporting the charges, and have been obliged to send many hundreds of 
 bales of woolen goods from India to China, where the increased purchases of 
 tea have proved of great service in pushing off our woolen manufactures. But, 
 after all the efforts of the Company's servants, vast quantities of woolen goods 
 are continually lying on hand at every factory. 
 
 Sometimes, when the Company, in consequence of their warehouses in India 
 being filled with goods, have proposed to diminish their exports, the manufact- 
 urers have represented to them the distress to which a disappointment in the ex- 
 pected amount of their sales must reduce them and their dependents, whereupon 
 the Company, in order to relieve them, have agreed to take upon themselves 
 the burthen of the full usual quantity. It is a further accommodation to the 
 woolen manufacturers, that their goods are received in regular weekly portions 
 during the season proper for drying them : and this steady and uniform regul- 
 arity, together with the punctuality of the payments, enables them to conduct 
 their business in the most comfortable manner for themselves and all connected 
 with them. 
 
 Those, who have not turned their attention to the subject, will not easily con- 
 ceive that the fabrication of the woolen goods exported by the Company, 
 amounting since the extension of the trade in China to above a^i, 000,000 an- 
 nually *, gives employment to forty thousand persons, from the shepherd, who 
 feeds the sheep and shears the wool, to the finisher, who puts the goods out of 
 his hand in a state fit for consumption or exportation. 
 
 For many years the Company had desisted from exporting tin, because that 
 metal is found in some parts of India. But, upon the proprietors of the Cornish 
 mines representing to them, that the sales of their tin had fallen off so much 
 that they were not able to find employment for all their people, they again 
 
 * For an account of the woolen goods exported by the Company in a considerable number of 
 years, see the Appendix, N° VI. 
 
 3 f began
 
 402 
 
 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 began to export tin in the year 1789 ; and they have continued to export it to a 
 considerable amount ever since, to the great relief of the Cornish miners and all 
 connected with them. 
 
 They have also exported iron and copper to a very large amount, till the 
 later was prohibited on account of the great demand for the Royal navy : and, 
 in general, it may with great truth be affirmed that the Company's own exports, 
 together with those of their captains and officers, have been always sufficiently 
 ample to prevent any part of India from ever being in want of any article that 
 can be supplied from Europe, and can be consumed in India. 
 
 By persevering in their exports, though in many important articles without a 
 profit, or at a loss, the exportation of silver has been reduced a vast deal below 
 what it must otherways be, unless we are content to resign the importation of 
 India and China goods into the hands of foreigners, and to let them supply us 
 for our own consumption. 
 
 1) We have seen that the advocates for private trade have promised to carry 
 the exportation of British manufactures to a most prodigious extent, and to fill 
 every port in the wide expanse of the Indian and Pacific Oceans with the pro- 
 ductions of British industry, which is to be fostered to the highest possible ex- 
 tent of encouragement by the patriotic exertions of the new East-India merch- 
 ants ; and, in like manner, they are to bring all the exportable produce of India 
 into the port of London, and consequently the British consumers and manufact- 
 urers, and the foreign merchants, are there to be supplied with Indian merch- 
 andize of every kind, and particularly with raw materials for manufactures, in 
 the greatest abundance, and at much lower prices than they could be got for 
 from the monopolizing Company. 
 
 Let us now descend from the hyperbolical flights of indefinite promises, and 
 attend to the proposition, seriously made by an eminent house concerned in the 
 Indian agency. In the year 1787 the principal partner of this house, by a letter 
 addressed to the Court of Directors, engaged to ship goods for India in the five 
 ensuing years to the undermentioned extent in bulk and value, and to pay 
 freights for them as follows : 
 
 Years. Tunnage. 
 
 i" . . . 6,000 
 
 7,000 
 
 8,000 
 
 9,000 
 10,000 
 
 Value. 
 
 Freight. 
 
 ^500,000 
 
 ^30,000 
 
 • 55°> 000 
 
 . 35,000 
 
 . 600,000 
 
 . 40,000 
 
 . 650,000 
 
 . 45,000 
 
 . 700,000 
 
 . 50,000 
 
 
 and
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 
 
 403 
 
 and the Directors were assured that this very ample exportation was not to affect 
 the regular privilege of the Company's captains and officers. 
 
 This offer apparently influenced the Legislature, though they appear not to 
 have been quite convinced, that a single house could ever export 1 0,000 tuns of 
 goods to India in one year, and induced them in the year 1793 to require 3,000 
 tuns of shipping to be appropriated every year to the service of the private 
 traders. 
 
 3) We now leave promises, and come to facts. After the act was passed, by 
 which the Company wer bound to provide shipping for the private ad- 
 venturers, 
 
 In the first year they occupied only . . . . 9 1 9 tuns, 
 
 whereof 822 were shipped by the gentlemen, who had offered to begin by ship- 
 ping 6000 tuns. The goods consisted of 
 
 250 tuns. 
 174 
 2 
 
 23 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 2- 
 I 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 480 
 
 1 • • • • • • xij.Z 
 
 822 tuns. 
 
 Only one tun, one eight-hundred-and-twenty-second part of the whole shipment, 
 of the favoured manufacture of England, which is constantly brought forward 
 in the most prominent manner in all arguments for the unlimited freedom of 
 the trade with India ! 
 
 In the second year, 1794-5, the private merchants shipped for 
 India ........ 
 
 Beer 
 
 . 116 tuns. 
 
 Iron 
 
 Cochineal 
 
 10 
 
 Lead 
 
 Carriages 
 
 80 
 
 Lines and twine 
 
 Cordage . 
 
 • 24 
 
 Mahogany 
 
 Cabinet ware 
 
 . 16 
 
 Marble . 
 
 Canvas 
 
 . 20 
 
 Oil and paint 
 
 Floor-cloths 
 
 2 
 
 Plated ware 
 
 Glass ware 
 
 • 39 
 
 Pictures 
 
 Hardware 
 
 • l 5 
 
 Saffron 
 
 Horse hair 
 
 1 
 
 Tin 
 
 Ironmongery 
 
 16 
 
 Woolen goods- 
 
 Lamps 
 
 • 3 
 
 
 In the third year, 1795-6, 
 In the fourth year, 1796-7, 
 In the fifth year, 1797-8, 
 
 3 F2 
 
 40 tuns. 
 
 3 1 
 
 252 
 
 none. 
 
 lu
 
 + 04 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 In that year ten thousand tuns of British merchandize were to be shipped 
 for India by one house only *. 
 
 It appears quite unnecessary to say any thing further upon the advantages to 
 be enjoyed by the British manufacturers in consequence of the wonderful extens- 
 ion of the exportation of their fabrics to India. 
 
 The purchasers at the Company's sales consist of many numerous classes of 
 people ; — Manufacturers, who want raw materials for working up in their fabrics; 
 — Dealers, who purchase for supplying the British consumers ; — Foreign and 
 British merchants and agents, who buy for exportation to foreign countries, a 
 trade which was very great and important before the present interdiction of 
 British commerce upon the continent of Europe. All these classes of purchasers 
 have always found a sure and ample supply, without a g/ut, of every article that 
 can be imported from the East, and is in demand in Europe, at the Company's 
 regular sales. If these sales are given up, or interrupted, they must suffer the 
 mortification of having their plans of business deranged, and be utterly at a loss 
 to know where to look for the goods, which they had hitherto found of proper 
 qualities, and conveniently assorted, at the Company's periodical sales. If the 
 sales are too numerous and frequent, as may be expected during the first ardour 
 and rivalry of unconnected open trade, though even in the redundance there 
 must be a want of assortment, the purchasers must suffer a repetition of the 
 miseries, which, as we have already seen (p. 160) flowed from the unbounded 
 open trade about the end of the seventeenth century. 
 
 The manufacturers must also be exposed to very great injury from an un- 
 limited and uncontrouled importation of those species of cotton and silk goods, 
 which are now imported only for exportation, and which the manner of landing 
 them, and the obligation of warehousing them and selling them by public sale, 
 render it next to impossible to smuggle ; whereas in a loose and open trade it 
 would be impossible to prevent great quantities of such goods from being smug- 
 gled into this country, and being consumed in it, to the great damage and dis- 
 couragement of British industry f. 
 
 * An Account of the tunnage actually oc- for, says he, * Would not, in this case, the vigil- 
 
 cupied by the private trade from the season ' ance of the excise officers be proportionately 
 
 1793-4 to 1807-8 will be found in the Append- ' increased?' — An increase of the vigilance of 
 
 ix, N° XII. the excise officers can only mean an increase of 
 
 f The writer of a pamphlet, called ' A de- their numbers: but surely the armies of revenue 
 
 ' monstration of the necessity and advantages of officers, and the fleets of revenue cruisers, are 
 
 ' a free trade to the East Indies,' finds no diffi- already sufficiently chargeable. 
 eulty whatever in guarding against smuggling : 
 
 Nobodv
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 4 c 5 
 
 Nobody can suppose that the supply of raw materials, such as cotton, silk, 
 indigo, sunn hemp, saltpetre, &c. will be continued by the private traders, un- 
 less they can get a profit by them. The disinterested patriotism of carrying on 
 the unprofitable or losing branches of a trade along with the profitable ones, 
 for the benefit of the Nation at large, can only be expected from a great Com- 
 pany, whose trade is of sufficient magnitude to bear a loss on some branches of 
 it, while they find it profitable upon the whole, and who are so numerous that 
 the loss falls light upon each individual. 
 
 The new East-India merchants are those actually engaged in the trade as prin- 
 cipals or agents. The reader has already seen the origin of their trade, and the 
 prospects they have held out of a vast extension of the exports of British manu- 
 factures and the imports of India merchandize : and these great improvements 
 of the India commerce, they say, can only be effected by the use of India-built 
 shipping, the low freights of which can enable them to carry out British goods 
 so cheap, that the consumption of them in India will be greatly increased. 
 
 It is, however well known, and has, indeed, been acknowleged by some of 
 the India agents in London, that it is impossible by any reduction of prices to 
 extend the consumption of European goods among the native Hindoos * : and 
 thence it appears, that all the mighty advantage of carrying goods to India at less 
 expense (though it has been demonstrated that freight, and insurance, taken 
 together, cost more in India-built ships than in British ones) for the attainment 
 of which the Legislature are called upon to abolish the privilege of the East- 
 India Company, and to subvert the beneficial system of trade, which has been 
 matured by the wisdom and experience of a succession of men of the first com- 
 mercial knowlege and talents during the efflux of two centuries, would consist 
 in letting the resident Europeans, whose number it is not professedly intended 
 to increase f, and the few Mohamedan and Hindoo consumers, have the small 
 quantity of goods they require at prices somewhat reduced, which would be a 
 very trifling advantage to them, but none at all to the persons concerned in pro- 
 curing it for them : nor can the advantage, if any, be perceptible, unless when 
 the rashness of the concurrent traders makes a glut in the market, which has 
 been stated by one of the gentlemen, examined by the Committee of the House 
 of Commons in May 1809, to be actually the case at that time. Thus the 
 exertions of the new traders, by running into all the minute branches of trade, 
 hitherto resigned to the captains and officers of the Company's ships, can only 
 
 * See above, p. 362 note. not profess to follow Smith in his scheme of 
 
 f The present advocates of free trade do colonization. 
 
 supersede
 
 4 o6 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 supersede and ruin the trade of a very meritorious class of British navigators, 
 with great damage to themselves. 
 
 Piece goods constitute a branch of the Company's trade, with which the 
 private merchants were expressly prohibited by the act of Parliament from inter- 
 fering, unless with the express consent of the Company, and with which they 
 declared at the commencement of their trade, that they had no desire to inter- 
 fere. Nevertheless, they soon applied for, and obtained, leave to deal in piece 
 goods of every kind ; and the manufacturing districts of India were immediately 
 overspread with their agents, who seduced the weavers to employ the money they 
 had received in advance, as usual, from the Company's agents, in making up 
 goods of inferior quality, and deficient of the standard lengths and breadths, by 
 which means they collected great quantities of very indifferent goods : and we 
 shall presently see the consequence of their eagerness to supplant the Company 
 in their purchases. 
 
 Upon an average of twenty-five years, preceding 1798, the Company, con- 
 ducting their trade in all its branches upon the prudent mercantile principle of 
 regulating the imports in proportion to the experienced demand, imported an- 
 nually 643,993 pieces of Bengal piece goods, which sold at the average price 
 of £1 14 8. But when the inordinate importation of the private merchants 
 began to deluge the market, the prices fell, and continued falling lower and 
 lower till the year 1806, when the average price was brought 
 down to ..... £0 14 9 
 
 The private-trade goods, being of inferior quality, averaged in 
 the March sale of 1803 only . . . • . . 0126 
 
 and afterwards continued falling in the three subsequent years to 0102 
 and only twice in these years averaged so high as . . . 0120 
 
 The same pernicious effects were felt in the sales of the Coromandel and 
 Surat piece goods, the raw silk, pepper, &c. *. Frequently vast quantities of 
 goods were laid aside, because no buyers could be found at any price f : and 
 more than half of the private-trade goods, apparently sold, were bought in by 
 the agents, in hopes of afterwards finding an opportunity of disposing of them 
 to better advantage, for want of which vast quantities of them lay in the ware- 
 houses so long after the time limited for the exportation of them, that the agents 
 were repeatedly obliged to petition the Privy Council for orders to prolong the 
 time allowed by act of Parliament, in which they were always indulged. 
 
 * Smith would have rejoiced to see this f For the sales of Bengal piece goods during 
 
 ' great benefit of the consumers.' ten years see the Appendix, N° IX. 
 
 Now
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 
 
 407 
 
 Now was demonstrated, what had perhaps not been apprehended by the san- 
 guine declaimers, that it was possible to overdo the trade of India, and that the 
 importation of any quantity of goods, much beyond what experience has proved 
 to be sufficient for the demand, must be attended with pernicious consequences 
 to the importers, without any considerable advantage to the consumers. 
 
 If the Company were entirely laid aside, the effects of the unconnected im- 
 portations, and the rival sales, each importer selling his own goods, would be 
 still more ruinous ; and all, or almost all, the private merchants would be glad 
 to abandon the envied trade of India. 
 
 The national revenue, and the Nation at large, are much more interested, in a 
 pecuniary point of view, in the prosperity or distress of the Company, than the 
 members of the Company themselves are. 
 
 The income of all the members of the Company, derived from their property 
 in the capital joint stock, is, with the present deduction of income tax, only 
 ^567,000. 
 
 The tax paid from their income to the revenue is . . £ 63,000 
 
 The duties upon their trade amount to about . . . 4,000,000 
 
 a sum far greater than what is raised by the land and malt taxes 
 of the whole kingdom *. 
 
 Their trade enables their servants, and the many thousands 
 depending upon or connected with them, to pay in taxes at 
 least . ......... i,ooo,ooG' 
 
 The Company have paid to the Public at various times out of 
 their own treasury very large sums, amounting to above eight 
 millions, of which only a small part remains as a debt payable to 
 them, and payable only in case of refusing to renew their priv- 
 ilege of exclusive trade ; and for this small remainder they re- 
 ceive interest only at the rate of three per cent, whereas Govern- 
 ment have paid above six per cent for some of the money bor- 
 rowed since the year 1793. The annual difference of interest 
 between three per cent and five may be valued at least at . 90,000 
 
 Besides these great sums, the Public would be entitled to a part- 
 icipation of the Company's revenue to the large annual amount 
 of ......... • » 500,000 
 
 * To the duties upon the Company's own 
 trade may be added the greatest part of the 
 
 large sum paid for duty upon sugar, the chief 
 consumption of it being in using it with tea. 
 
 if
 
 4o8 A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS FOR 
 
 if not prevented by the extraordinary expenses of war, or preparation for war. 
 
 (See the act 33 Geo. Ill, c. 52, § 1 22) 
 
 The Company support a fleet of capital ships, and between twenty and thirty 
 thousand seamen : and, as all their ships are constructed, armed, and equipped, 
 so that they may act as ships of war, they make a most important addition to 
 the maritime strength of the British empire : and, instead of drawing great sums 
 from the national purse, as other ships of war do, they are the means of pouring 
 vast sums into it. If the Company's trade is abolished or contracted, the mar- 
 itime defence of the kingdom must be proportionally impaired. 
 
 The Company's Indian territories, for which some envy them, and others 
 affect to ridicule them under the witty appellation of counting-house Kings *, 
 though of little or no benefit to themselves, are of prodigious importance to the 
 State : for, if they were not occupied by the Company, they would pretty cert- 
 ainly be occupied by some other European Power, and most probably France, to 
 whom they would prove a great acquisition of opulence and strength, and part- 
 icularly of maritime strength, in consequence of which the opulence and mar- 
 itime power of Great Britain must decline in proportion. 
 
 In a political view some articles of the Company's imports are of the highest 
 importance to the State. Saltpetre is regularly supplied to the Public, and at a 
 price which does not repay the cost and the charges of importing it. Sunn hemp 
 has also been imported at the desire of Government, but with a loss to the 
 Company. Will private traders oblige themselves to supply these articles, so 
 essentially necessary in time of war, unless at prices far above what have been 
 paid to the Company ? Can they be depended upon for a regular supply at any 
 price ? 
 
 We have seen that innumerable individuals derive a comfortable support from 
 being employed by the Company in their immediate service, from providing the 
 variety of goods required for their vast exportation, and from manufacturing, 
 supplying to the consumers at home, and exporting to foreign countries, the 
 goods produced and manufactured under the direction of the Company, which 
 
 * Hiram, King of Tyre, ' the renowned perhaps to India, by which those Royal mer- 
 
 ' city, which was strong in the sea, whose mer- chants acquired great riches. Their example is 
 
 ' chants were Princes, whose traffickers were not, however, to be recommended to the imit- 
 
 ' the honourable of the earth,' in company with ation of Sovereigns in the present state of the 
 
 Solomon, King of Israel, was concerned in world, 
 commercial voyages upon the Indian Ocean, 
 
 are
 
 AND AGAINST A COMPANY. 409 
 
 are imported with steady regularity, and sold at lower prices than they could 
 be obtained at from other quarters. The wealth, acquired by all these respect- 
 able and important classes of the community, is spread by the innumerable 
 channels of their expenditure through all the descriptions of industrious people 
 in every part of the country, and enables them to pay their contributions to the 
 national revenue, which must therefor be diminished, if the Company's trade 
 were abolished or contracted. 
 
 The Company, though grievously afflicted by the pressure of wars in India 
 and in Europe, have continued to send their fleets to sea, and to conduct their 
 vast business, with almost uniform regularity, to the great advantage of the State 
 and the Nation in general ; whereas all the other European Companies, except 
 the Dutch in the first vigour of their youth, have sunk under the calamities of 
 warfare, or have absolutely laid up their ships at the commencement of war : 
 and most of them have turned out heavy burthens upon their national treasuries, 
 as was particularly the case with the East-India Company of France. It can 
 never be expected that the ships of private traders, if they were even as strong as 
 those of the Company, would keep together in fleets for mutual protection. 
 Every one would run to get first to a market, and thereby be exposed to the 
 danger of being carried into an enemy's port : the owners, shippers, and under- 
 writers, would lose their property ; and the whole Nation would suffer by the 
 derangement of the trade. 
 
 Those, who desire to put themselves in the place of the Company, have not 
 said one word about advancing large sums for the public service under the usual 
 rate of interest. They promise, indeed, a prodigious increase of the revenue 
 from the great extension of the trade. But an unlimited extension must infal- 
 libly produce an unreasonable depression of prices, though with a very trifling 
 augmentation of the sales, the consequence of which must be a great falling oft* 
 in the amount of those duties, which are rated ad valorem : and the practice of 
 buying in private goods at very low prices at the Company's sales, and selling 
 them afterwards by private contract at higher prices, has already the same effect 
 in lessening the revenue. As it is, moreover, certain that a permanent very great 
 extension of the trade is utterly impossible, and that, on the contrary, a very 
 great diminution of it, if the Company's privilege were abolished or invaded, is 
 extremely probable, or rather certain, seeing the exports and imports of articles, 
 which do not yield a profit, would be totally given up, it is evident that the re- 
 venue of the Public and the political service of the Public, must be very much 
 injured, and the great body of the people must suffer severely by the change. 
 
 3 g The
 
 4 io A REVIEW OF THE ARGUMENTS, &c. 
 
 The great revenue arising from the East-India trade may be considered as 
 certain and permanent *, if the Company's privilege is duely supported: and it 
 can scarcely be supposed that the great Guardians of the Nation will think such 
 a revenue an object to be sported with by way of experiment., if, indeed, a pro- 
 ject, which has already failed, can any longer be called an experiment. 
 
 THE CONCLUSION. 
 
 If the productions and manufactures of the East were unnecessary or prejudi- 
 cial, every friend to his country would desire that the importation of them should 
 be totally prohibited. But, if they cannot be produced in other parts of the 
 world, and our habits have rendered them necessary to us, and if it is more ad- 
 vantageous, in respect to national interest, that we should import them ourselves, 
 than that we should buy them from other European importers, the trade must 
 be continued : and it must be continued in the way that will render it perman- 
 ently beneficial to the importers, to the State, and to the people at large. It 
 may be presumed that the reader, who has favoured the preceding pages with 
 his attention, and has observed the causes which effected the decline and fall of 
 the India trade in the other countries of Europe, and the regular progress, the 
 general success, and the stability, of it in this country, will not hesitate to de- 
 cide, that the intercourse with the Oriental countries can be conducted advant- 
 ageously only by a great Company, duely supported by the authority of the 
 supreme Government, and capable of maintaining forts, and garrisons, and 
 strong armed ships, for the protection of their commerce. 
 
 » 
 
 It may probably be thought prudent, on the diminution of revenue will be less in reality 
 
 the return of peace, to lower the duties upon than in appearance, as money, it is hoped, will 
 
 tea, and perhaps upon some other articles, in recover some part of the value it has lost during 
 
 order to prevent smuggling : but in that case this long-protracted war.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 OF 
 
 AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTS. 
 
 3 G 2
 
 CONTENTS OF THE APPENDIX. 
 
 N° I. Account of ships fitted out at Lisbon for India from the year 1497 to 1640. 
 II. Account of money paid to the Public by the English East-India Company. 
 
 III. Indigo sold at the Company's sales, 1786 — 1810. 
 
 IV. Tea sold at the Compsmy'6 sales, 1765 — 18 10. 
 V. Tea shipped at Canton, 1782-3 — 1810-11. 
 
 VI. Prime cost of woolen goods exported by the Company, 1781 — 1810. 
 
 VII. Annual Account of ships employed by the Company, of merchandize and bullion ex- 
 ported, and merchandize imported and sold by them, 1710 — 1810. 
 
 VIII. Rates of insurance from Bengal to England. 
 
 IX. Sales of Bengal piece goods, for account of the Company, and for account of private 
 merchants, 1797 — 1806. 
 
 X. State of American trade in British India, 1802 — 1807. 
 
 XI. Exports from Calcutta and Madras by British individuals and by foreigners, 1796-7— 
 1805-6. 
 
 XII. Tunnage of goods shipped by private merchants in London and in India, 1793-4 — 
 1807-8. 
 
 In making up the East-India Company's Accounts sometimes one day, and sometimes another, 
 is assumed, by established official custom, for the commencement of the year, for example, 1st 
 March, 1 st May, 1st September, &c. and thence it happens that two Accounts, which ought ap. 
 parently to be the same, as being dated in the same year, may be somewhat different.
 
 APPE NDIX, N°I. 
 
 4i3 
 
 An Account of the number of ships in every fleet f tied out at Lisbon for India, from the disco-very of the 
 passage by the Cape of Good Hope to the year 1 640 ; extracted from the copious account given by 
 Manuel de Faria y Sousa in his Asia Portuguesa, V. iii, pp. 530 et sequ. 
 
 The fleets always sailed between February and April. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Years. 
 
 1 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Ships. 
 
 >497 
 
 3 
 
 1521 
 
 3 
 
 1555 
 
 5 
 
 1590 
 
 5 
 
 1619 
 
 4 
 
 1500 
 
 l 3 
 
 1522 
 
 4 
 
 1556 
 
 5 
 
 
 3' 
 
 
 5 
 
 1501 
 
 4 
 
 J 5 2 3 
 
 9 
 
 '557 
 
 5 
 
 IJ9I 
 
 6/ 
 
 1620 
 
 4 
 
 
 9 
 
 1524 
 
 •7 
 
 1558 
 
 4 
 
 15^2 
 
 4 
 
 
 2 
 
 1502 
 
 5 
 
 1525 
 
 6 
 
 1559 
 
 6 
 
 '593 
 
 5 
 
 
 2 
 
 i5°3 
 
 5 
 
 1526 
 
 5 
 
 1560 
 
 6 
 
 •594 
 
 10 
 
 1 62 I 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 
 
 1527 
 
 5 
 
 1561 
 
 5 
 
 '595 
 
 5 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 1528 
 
 1 1 
 
 1562 
 
 6 
 
 .596 
 
 5 
 
 1622 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 
 
 1529 
 
 5 
 
 1563 
 
 4 
 
 •597 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 1504 
 
 J 3 
 
 '53° 
 
 6 
 
 1564 
 
 4 
 
 1598 
 
 5g 
 
 1623 
 
 3 
 
 1505 
 
 2 2 
 
 1531 
 
 5 
 
 J 5 fi 5 
 
 4 
 
 '599 
 
 4 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 6 
 
 1532 
 
 5 
 
 1566 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 
 
 162 + 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 •533 
 
 7 
 
 1567 
 
 4 
 
 1600 
 
 4 
 
 
 6 
 
 1506 
 
 16 
 
 
 10 
 
 1568 
 
 5 
 
 1601 
 
 4 
 
 1625 
 
 2 
 
 
 6 
 
 1534 
 
 5 
 
 1569 
 
 4 
 
 
 Si 
 
 1626 
 
 3 
 
 1507 
 
 4 
 
 ! 535 
 
 7 
 
 1570 
 
 4 
 
 1602 
 
 6 
 
 1627 
 
 2 
 
 
 4 
 
 1536 
 
 5 
 
 
 1 
 
 1603 
 
 5 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 7 
 
 '537 
 
 5 
 
 
 3 
 
 1604 
 
 5 
 
 1628 
 
 3 
 
 1508 
 
 4 
 
 
 6 
 
 i57i 
 
 7 
 
 
 2 
 
 1629 
 
 3 
 
 l 5 c 9 
 
 •3 
 
 
 8 
 
 1572 
 
 4 
 
 1605 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 16 
 
 1538 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 1630 
 
 2 
 
 1510 
 
 4 
 
 1539 
 
 6 
 
 1573 
 
 4 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 63 I 
 
 2 
 
 
 7 
 
 1540 
 
 4 
 
 '574 
 
 6 
 
 1606) 
 
 1607 y 
 
 3» 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 1541 
 
 5 
 
 J 575 
 
 4 
 
 1632 
 
 3/ 
 
 1511 
 
 6 
 
 1542 
 
 4 
 
 1576 
 
 5 
 
 1608 
 
 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 1512 
 
 9 
 
 '543 
 
 5 
 
 J 577 
 
 4 
 
 
 8 
 
 l6 33 
 
 2 
 
 
 4 
 
 '544 
 
 6 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 1 
 
 1545 
 
 6 
 
 
 3 
 
 1609 
 
 5 
 
 • 6 34 
 
 3 
 
 '513 
 
 4 
 
 
 1 
 
 .578 
 
 3 
 
 1610 
 
 3 
 
 l6 35 
 
 2 
 
 1514 
 
 5 
 
 1547 
 
 6 
 
 
 2 
 
 1611 
 
 3 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 '579 
 
 5* 
 
 
 2 
 
 '63* 
 
 2 
 
 '515 
 
 '7 
 
 
 3 
 
 1580 
 
 4 
 
 
 1 
 
 lf 37 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 1548 
 
 5 
 
 1581 
 
 5' 
 
 ! 
 
 1 
 
 1638 
 
 4 
 
 1516 
 
 5 
 
 
 3 
 
 1582 
 
 5 
 
 1612 
 
 3 
 
 1639 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 '1*3 
 
 5 
 
 1 61 3 
 
 4 
 
 1640 
 
 Number 
 
 1517 
 
 6 
 
 1549 
 
 5 
 
 1584 
 
 6 
 
 1614 
 
 5 , 
 
 
 left blank 
 by Faria. 
 
 1518 
 
 12 
 
 1550 
 
 5 
 
 1585 
 
 5 
 
 1615 
 
 4 
 
 
 IJI9 
 
 H 
 
 J 55 l 
 
 8 
 
 1586 
 
 6</ 
 
 1616 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 1552 
 
 6 
 
 1587 
 
 6 
 
 1617 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 1520 
 
 10 
 
 '553 
 
 S« 
 
 158S 
 
 5 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 1521 
 
 12 
 
 1554 
 
 6 
 
 1589 
 
 5 
 
 1618 j 
 
 Si 1 
 
 
 
 a Camoens, the Portuguese epic poet, sailed to India in 
 this fleet. 
 
 f The Mad re de Dios, the admiral ship, was taken by the 
 English on her return from India. 
 
 g This fleet did not sail, the mouth of the Tagus bein* 
 blocked up by an English fleet. 
 
 h The admiral ship was taken by the Dutch at Saint 
 Helena. 
 
 i These ships were got ready in 1606. But the Tagus 
 being then blocked up by the Dutch, they did not sail till 1607. 
 
 k The admiral gave a great deal of money to some English 
 ships at the Cape of Good Hope to let him pals. (Trigautius, 
 a Jefuit missionary, states the sum at 8o,oOOpatacas.) 
 
 / These ships appear not to have sailed. 
 
 All the notes in this Appendix are from Faria, except what is within paremln ■-.. 
 
 6 Faria wonders that so many as five ships could be fitted 
 out in the distressed state of the country after the loss of 
 King Sebastian. 
 
 c- This, and all the subsequent fleets in this account, 
 were fitted out by the Kings of Spain, as Sovereigns of Port- 
 ugal ; or by farmers or temporary Companies acting under 
 their licence. 
 
 d One of these ships was taken by Drake. (See above, p. 76.) 
 e The admiral ship was taken by the English insight of 
 Lisbon. 
 
 N. B.
 
 4'4 
 
 APPENDIX, N* II. 
 
 An Account of the sums of money paid to the Public by the United Company of 
 Merchants of England trading to the East Indies, for their privilege, &c. 
 
 1708 
 
 The value of the interest, reckoning it 
 
 173° 
 
 '744 
 
 1750 
 1767-8 
 
 '793 
 
 Lent without interest ^1,200,000. 
 
 at 5 per cent. . • 
 
 At this time the legal interest of money in England was six per cent. 
 Paid into the Exchequer without interest or stipulation for repayment 
 Defalcation of ^32,000 of annual interest, value at 20 years purchase 
 Lent upon a renewal of the privilege, of which twenty -five years were yet to 
 run, £1,000,000, at three per cent. Excess of the capital beyond the 
 value of the interest . . • • • 
 
 besides the value of the advance for 25 years at compound interest. 
 
 Value of a further defalcation of £32,000 of annual interest 
 Paid for the territorial revenue being secured for two years 
 1769-73 Paid for . . d° . . . for five years 
 
 1769-73 Paid as indemnity on tea duties . . . . • 
 
 1781 Paid on renewal of the privilege . 
 
 Paid on d° . . . 
 
 and further by cancelling a debt owing by Government for expeditions un- 
 dertaken by desire of his Majesty's Ministers, for prisoners, &c. 
 Difference between the value of £2,992,440 in three-per-cent annuities, now 
 declared by Parliament to be redeemed, and the money really paid by the 
 Company to the Public, reckoning ,s£6o the real value of an annuity 
 
 of*£3 .; 
 
 This redemption consisted in making the proprietors of the annuities go to 
 the Bank, instead of the India house, to receive their dividends. 
 
 To these sums may be added the following voluntary gifts made by 
 the Company to the Public. 
 Expense of raising 6,000 seamen, and of building, arming, and 
 completely equipping, three ships of 74 guns, for the Navy g£ 
 
 Paid in bounty to seamen for the Navy .... 
 
 Expense of 10,000 tuns of shipping for six months, presented 
 to the Public 
 
 And also the following charges brought upon the Com- 
 pany by acts of Government. 
 
 Extraordinary expenses of wars since the commencement of 
 the Company, impossible now to be estimated. 
 
 Those occasioned by the American war were estimated at 
 
 Cost of tea destroyed and lost in America in 1 7 74 
 
 Paid for victualing his Majesty's ships, and charges on his 
 troops in India in 1789 and 1790 .... 
 
 The extraordinary expenses of the present war must be much 
 above ....-•• 
 
 Sums expended on Government account beyond what have 
 been refunded' to the Company 
 
 and also 
 
 The obligation to deliver saltpetre at a limited price. The 
 difference between that and the market price has amounted to 
 
 The sum lost by importing sunn hemp at the desire of Govern- 
 ment in 1800 and 1803. 
 
 1779 
 
 1794 
 1803 
 
 109,002 
 57,000 
 
 3,858,666 
 15.819 
 
 500,000 
 
 1 0,000,000 
 
 2,092,984 
 
 436,689 
 
 £1,200,000 
 
 200,000 
 640,000 
 
 400,000 
 
 640,000 
 800,000 
 
 I .3 6 9»399 
 483,049 
 
 400,000 
 500,000 
 
 443> 6 32 
 
 1,196,976
 
 APPENDIX, N°III. 
 
 4«5 
 
 Account of Indigo sold at the East India Company's Sales in the following Tears ; 
 being the whole quantity imported from the East Indies by the Company ■, the 
 Officers of the Company's Ships, and Private Merchants ; including also the 
 Neutral Property and Prize Indigo, the amount of which is stated in a separate 
 Column. 
 
 1786 
 
 1787 
 
 1788 
 
 .789 
 1790 
 1791 
 1792 
 
 •793 
 1794 
 
 •795 
 1796 
 1797 
 1798 
 1799 
 1800 
 i8ci 
 1802 
 1803 
 1804 
 1805 
 1806 
 1807 
 1808 
 1809 
 1810 
 
 Total quantity sold including Private Trade and 
 Neutral Property and Prize. 
 
 Neutral Property and Prize Indigo, included 
 in the total quantity sold. 
 
 Weight. 
 
 Sale Amount. 
 
 Weight. 
 
 Sale Amount. 
 
 lbs. 245,011 
 
 415,625 
 416,687 
 460,697 
 
 578,5I3 
 559.309 
 509,732 
 
 999. 1 65 
 
 858,516 
 
 2,644,710 
 
 2,923,848 
 
 2,533,305 
 2,847,602 
 4,571,420 
 
 2,432,075 
 2,097,049 
 
 2,259.555 
 2,068,990 
 
 2,352,7 '4 
 3.485,567 
 2.299.736 
 5. J 3 I » I 52 
 3,068,758 
 
 4,727.595 
 5,570.824 
 
 £ 61,533 
 95,067 
 
 86,437 
 
 io 5»35° 
 137,107 
 209,564 
 183,351 
 
 335,668 
 274,620 
 614,285 
 505,878 
 558,803 
 
 735.575 
 1,024,983 
 
 774,955 
 805,993 
 
 878,575 
 770,908 
 
 1,081,140 
 •.393>o55 
 
 774,523 
 1,861,283 
 
 803,862 
 
 1,102,309 
 
 1,942,328 
 
 lbs. 
 
 l6,6l6 
 126,134 
 
 22,440 
 
 59,596 
 
 10,337 
 
 2,446 
 
 587,166 
 
 4,553 
 17.837 
 95.244 
 
 3 1 7.33 5 
 
 £ 
 
 4.074 
 24,685 
 
 4.547 
 
 10,598 
 2,598 
 
 839 
 239.539 
 
 ] 37 
 
 7,465 
 
 V9.709 
 
 87>337
 
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 4 i8 
 
 APPENDIX, N u VI. 
 
 An Account of the net prime cost of the Woolen goods, exported to the following countries 
 by the United Company of Merchants of England trading to India, in the under- 
 mentioned years. 
 
 
 1781 
 
 1782 
 
 •783 
 
 I784 
 
 I 7 8 S 
 
 1786 
 
 1787 
 
 1788 
 
 Bengal 
 
 ,£61,829 
 
 £ 56,279 
 
 £ 35,329 
 
 •*" 32,305 
 
 £ 17,930 
 
 £ 21,177 
 
 £ 39,732 
 
 £ 41,367 
 
 Madras 
 
 20,742 
 
 23,256 
 
 22,362 
 
 24,654 
 
 18,807 
 
 23,008 
 
 29.049 
 
 20,876 
 
 Bombay 
 
 118,176 
 
 43.3 '2 
 
 36,810 
 
 34.4-2 
 
 36,554 
 
 78,238 
 
 39.112 
 
 56,837 
 
 Bencoolen 
 
 
 
 84 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 675 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Saint Helena 
 
 79 
 
 9°3 
 
 760 
 
 774 
 
 717 
 
 286 
 
 495 
 
 369 
 
 China 
 
 129,179 
 
 94,992 
 
 1 '3.763 
 
 146,741 
 
 224,612 
 
 202,023 
 
 323,107 
 
 335,392 
 
 Total 
 
 330,005 
 
 218,826 
 
 209,024 
 
 238,946 
 
 299,295 
 
 324,732 
 
 431.495 
 
 454,841 
 
 
 1789 
 
 I79O 
 
 1791 
 
 1792 
 
 1793 
 
 *794 
 
 !795 
 
 1796 
 
 Bengal 
 
 £ 37,121 
 
 £ 35,934 
 
 £ 42,939 
 
 £ 39.564 
 
 £ 40,418 
 
 £ 27,107 
 
 £ 48,818 
 
 £ 54,139 
 
 Madras 
 
 18,600 
 
 19.545 
 
 21,917 
 
 18,476 
 
 18,544 
 
 19,669 
 
 37,457 
 
 39,286 
 
 Bombay 
 
 23.935 
 
 19,226 
 
 29.730 
 
 29,344 
 
 51.896 
 
 22,088 
 
 79,725 
 
 89,363 
 
 Bencoolen 
 
 
 
 29 
 
 29 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 952 
 
 2,021 
 
 1,120 
 
 Saint Helena 
 
 528 
 
 409 
 
 773 
 
 480 
 
 982 
 
 951 
 
 1,415 
 
 1,076 
 
 China 
 
 354,717 
 
 431,385 
 
 484.705 
 
 587,421 
 
 628,582 
 
 642,405 
 
 527,020 
 
 402,827 
 
 Total 
 
 4 3 4,9° ' 
 
 506,526 
 
 580,093 
 
 675.285 
 
 740,442 
 
 713.172 
 
 696,456 
 
 587,811 
 
 
 1 797 
 
 1798 
 
 *799 
 
 1800 
 
 l8oi 
 
 1802 
 
 1803 
 
 1804 
 
 Bengal 
 
 £ 58,141 
 
 £ 80,779 
 
 £ 86,229 
 
 £ 71,872 
 
 £ 85,687 
 
 £ 67,408 
 
 £ 72,236 
 
 £ 72,986 
 
 Madras 
 
 10,75* 
 
 5-532 
 
 38,640 
 
 53,678 
 
 108,660 
 
 113,322 
 
 49.267 
 
 46,940 
 
 Bombay 
 
 69,471 
 
 80,96c 
 
 90,865 
 
 96,044 
 
 86,258 
 
 66,726 
 
 59.i°o 
 
 37.899 
 
 Bencoolen 
 
 
 
 : 
 
 
 
 2,540 
 
 2,193 
 
 2,325 
 
 3.329 
 
 3.C38 
 
 Saint Helena 
 
 726 
 
 1,464 
 
 1,480 
 
 1.615 
 
 2.-39 
 
 755 
 
 623 
 
 2,348 
 
 China 
 
 402,3-6 
 
 709,650 
 
 746,130 
 
 801,536 
 
 930,913 
 
 1,027,061 
 
 1,047.-53 
 
 915,984 
 
 Total 
 
 551.566 
 
 878,385 
 
 96.3.344 i 
 
 1,027,285 
 
 1,215.750 
 
 1,277,597 
 
 i,232,3c8 
 
 1,079.195 
 
 
 1805 
 
 1806 
 
 
 
 1807 
 
 1808 
 
 1809 
 
 1810 
 
 
 
 
 Bengal 
 
 
 £ 81,976 
 
 £ 75.830 
 
 £ 51,816 
 
 £ 61,214 
 
 Bengal 
 
 £ 57,203 
 
 £ 52,494 ' 
 
 Madras 
 
 
 I2,8lO 
 
 • 4.425 
 
 18,829 
 
 30,613 
 
 Madras 
 
 25,3-4 
 
 23,708 , 
 
 Bombav 
 
 
 102,692 
 
 103,179 
 
 9i,593 
 
 116,787 
 
 Bombay 
 
 76,177 
 
 140,499 
 
 Bencoolen 
 
 
 5.015 
 
 2,353 
 
 1.306 
 
 4,276 
 
 Bencoolen 
 
 3.9=7 
 
 3.9>r , 
 
 Saint Helena 
 
 
 2,954 
 
 939 
 
 883 
 
 445 
 
 N.tint Helena 
 
 2,376 
 
 2.3' 1 • 
 
 Prince of Wi 
 
 les' Island 
 
 46,783 
 
 13,336 
 
 177,845 
 
 11,069 
 
 China 
 
 1,042,795 
 
 1,032,099 
 
 China 
 
 
 977,79 6 
 
 877,569 
 
 745.244 
 
 8 9.4=9 
 
 Total . . 
 
 1,207,762 I 
 
 1,255,028 j 
 
 i,23:,026 1 
 
 1,087,631 
 
 1,087,516 
 
 1,038,813 
 
 N'. B. The exports for the little rock of Saint Helena 3re not so much inferior, as might perhaps be expected, by those who 
 look for n great consumption of British good-N in all populous countries, to those for Bencoolen, which is the port for the supply 
 of Sumatra, one of the largest islands in the world. So very few are the articles of woolen clothing required by the indigenous 
 inhabitants of the Torrid zone. 
 
 The great increase of the exportation to China shows that the woolen manufacturers continue to enjoy the benefit of the 
 Commutation act, when the consum :rs of tea are deprived of it by the increase of the dutv.
 
 APPENDIX, N°VII. 
 
 +19 
 
 An Account of the Ships employed by the United Company of Merchants of England 
 trading to the East Indies, of the Merchandize and Bullion exported by them, and of 
 the Merchandize imported and sold by them, since the year 1 7 1 o, as far as can be 
 ascertained from Accounts already made up. 
 
 Seasons. 
 
 SHIPS 
 
 EXPORTS. 
 
 Seasons. 
 
 SHIPS. 
 
 EXPORTS. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 sailed. 
 
 Merchan- 
 dize. 
 
 Bullion. 
 
 Total. 
 
 
 Sailed. 
 
 Arrived. 
 
 Merchan- 
 dize. 
 
 Bullion. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1710 
 
 ■5 
 
 200,515 
 
 375,405 
 
 575,920 I 
 
 '743 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 228,562 
 
 552,678 
 
 781,240 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 162,292 
 
 327,705 
 
 489,997 
 
 4 
 
 16 
 
 — 
 
 218,008 
 
 463,056 
 
 681,064 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 109,042 
 
 223,162 
 
 332,204 
 
 5 
 
 22 
 
 — 
 
 •-'7,5" 
 
 481,097 
 
 698,608 
 
 13 
 
 11 
 
 85,206 
 
 263,000 
 
 348,206 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 — 
 
 188,529 
 
 564,978 
 
 753,507 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 79.364 
 
 364,871 
 
 444,235 
 
 7 
 
 24 
 
 — 
 
 128,252 
 
 786,120 
 
 9M,372 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 60,866 
 
 422,726 
 
 483,592 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 — 
 
 165,73' 
 
 713,142 
 
 878,873 
 
 16 
 
 '3 
 
 68,547 
 
 489,636 
 
 558,183 
 
 9 
 
 '5 
 
 — 
 
 275,890 
 
 909,136 
 
 1,185,026 
 
 17 
 
 13 
 
 88,036 
 
 608,118 
 
 696,154 
 
 1750 
 
 16 
 
 — 
 
 305,068 
 
 816,310 
 
 1,121,378 
 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 107,470 
 
 659,006 
 
 766,476 
 
 1 
 
 20 
 
 — 
 
 341,633 
 
 944,471 
 
 1,286,104 
 
 19 
 
 18 
 
 134,353 
 
 522,637 
 
 656,990 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 — 
 
 410,968 
 
 840,417 
 
 1,251,385 
 
 1720 
 
 20 
 
 121,958 
 
 454,546 
 
 576,504 
 
 3 
 
 21 
 
 16 
 
 418,015 
 
 95 ' ,95 1 
 
 1,369,966 
 
 1 
 
 18 
 
 147,615 
 
 629,929 
 
 777,544 
 
 4 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 281,429 
 
 674,672 
 
 956,101 
 
 2 
 
 17 
 
 '35, '°4 
 
 609,768 
 
 744,872 
 
 5 
 
 '5 
 
 21 
 
 245,030 
 
 625,485 
 
 870,515 
 
 3 
 
 12 
 
 n8,457 
 
 466,468 
 
 584,925 
 
 6 
 
 20 
 
 '9 
 
 341,43° 
 
 801,807 
 
 i,M3,237 
 
 4 
 
 ■3 
 
 96,992 
 
 597,652 
 
 694,644 
 
 7 
 
 21 
 
 14 
 
 310,786 
 
 459,841 
 
 770,627 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 
 79,987 
 
 466,421 
 
 546,408 
 
 8 
 
 24 
 
 13 
 
 358,949 
 
 174,099 
 
 533,048 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 76,573 
 
 488,351 
 
 564,924 
 
 9 
 
 22 
 
 16 
 
 366,974 
 
 144,160 
 
 511,134 
 
 7 
 
 13 
 
 10 r, 403 
 
 368,389 
 
 469,792 
 
 1760 
 
 21 
 
 18 
 
 520,719 
 
 91,924 
 
 612,643 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 102,102 
 
 519,606 
 
 621,708 
 
 1 
 
 22 
 
 16 
 
 5M,76i 
 
 27,327 
 
 542,088 
 
 9 
 
 17 
 
 134,583 
 
 635,77' 
 
 770,354 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 '9 
 
 473,794 
 
 47,293 
 
 521,087 
 
 '73° 
 
 13 
 
 136,573 
 
 539,755 
 
 676,328 
 
 3 
 
 28 
 
 16 
 
 495,643 
 
 39,500 
 
 535,143 
 
 1 
 
 16 
 
 149,626 
 
 619,226 
 
 768,852 
 
 4 
 
 23 
 
 17 
 
 510,025 
 
 369,831 
 
 879,856 
 
 2 
 
 12 
 
 141,232 
 
 597,342 
 
 538,574 
 
 5 
 
 23 
 
 20 
 
 538,813 
 
 317,963 
 
 856,776 
 
 3 
 
 14 
 
 116,008 
 
 406,762 
 
 522,770 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 26 
 
 582,420 
 
 955 
 
 583,375 
 
 4 
 
 M 
 
 125,293 
 
 495,421 
 
 620,714 
 
 7 
 
 28 
 
 25 
 
 563>472 
 
 ■ 
 
 563,472 
 
 5 
 
 16 
 
 185,695 
 
 487,327 
 
 673,022 
 
 8 
 
 32 
 
 19 
 
 653,000 
 
 163,568 
 
 816,568 
 
 6 
 
 17 
 
 237,537 
 
 562,881 
 
 800,418 
 
 9 
 
 30 
 
 28 
 
 614,585 
 
 244,956 
 
 859>539 
 
 7 
 
 18 
 
 147,736 
 
 497,110 
 
 644,846 
 
 '77° 
 
 31 
 
 28 
 
 520,262 
 
 305,630 
 
 825,892 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 163,141 
 
 478,637 
 
 641,778 
 
 1 
 
 26 
 
 28 
 
 506,840 
 
 202,110 
 
 708,950 
 
 9 
 
 '9 
 
 <33,'°4 
 
 431,682 
 
 564,786 
 
 2 
 
 26 
 
 33 
 
 491,072 
 
 40,824 
 
 531,896 
 
 1740 
 
 ■9 
 
 257,452 
 
 489,160 
 
 746,612 
 
 3 
 
 '5 
 
 27 
 
 4/1,499 
 
 11,867 
 
 483,366 
 
 1 
 
 '9 
 
 160,250 
 
 441,360 
 
 601,610 
 
 4 
 
 ■5 
 
 19 
 
 474»5?6 
 
 10,200 
 
 484,796 
 
 2 
 
 '5 
 
 281,419 
 
 585,957 
 
 867,376 
 
 5 
 
 '9 
 
 '4 
 
 5'0,958 
 
 10,080 
 
 521,038 
 
 H 2
 
 42 o 
 
 A P P E N D I X, N« VII— {continued.) 
 
 Seasons. 
 
 SHIPS. 
 
 EXPORTS. 
 
 IMPORTS SALE AMOUNT. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Sailed. 
 
 Arrived. 
 
 Merchan- 
 dize. 
 
 Bullion, j Total. 
 
 Company's 
 Goods. 
 
 Private 
 Trade. 
 
 Neutral 
 Property. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1776 
 
 23 
 
 15 
 
 559.466 
 
 109,422 
 
 ! 
 
 668,888 
 
 3,098,818 
 
 172,559 
 
 _ 
 
 i 3,263,377 
 
 7 
 
 21 
 
 20 
 
 515.033 
 
 10,896 
 
 525,929 
 
 3,325,678 
 
 248,527 
 
 — 
 
 3,574,205 
 
 8 
 
 22 
 
 21 
 
 526,262 
 
 10,722 536,984 
 
 3,412,898 
 
 1 76,956 
 
 — 
 
 3,589,854 
 
 9 
 
 25 
 
 16 
 
 59".967 
 
 10,002 601,969 
 
 2,693,217 
 
 160,311 
 
 — 
 
 2,853,528 
 
 1780 
 
 20 
 
 2 
 
 386,152 
 
 15,014 401,166 
 
 3,171,623 
 
 206,511 
 
 — 
 
 3,378,134 
 
 1 
 
 30 
 
 2/ 
 
 666,322 
 
 — 666,322 
 
 2,738,326 
 
 130,104 
 
 — 
 
 2,868,430 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 
 •j 
 
 547.C92 
 
 — 547,092 
 
 3,031,894 
 
 321,280 
 
 — 
 
 3,353,174 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 10 
 
 405,442 
 
 — 405,442 
 
 3,000,978 
 
 144,176 
 
 — 
 
 3,145,154 
 
 4 
 
 2? 
 
 31 
 
 418,747 
 
 — 4i8,747 
 
 4,204,981 
 
 400,784 
 
 — 
 
 4,605,765 
 
 5 
 
 43 
 
 28 
 
 5 29. l 65 
 
 -24.3 '7 1,253,482 
 
 4,647,974 
 
 611,205 
 
 — 
 
 5,259> I 79 
 
 6 
 
 34 
 
 27 
 
 551.317 
 
 749,833 
 
 1,301,150 
 
 4,667,049 
 
 547,337 
 
 — 
 
 5,214,386 
 
 7 
 
 3° 
 
 36 
 
 767,627 
 
 646,798 
 
 '.414,425 
 
 4,874,745 
 
 918,389 
 
 — 
 
 5,793.134 
 
 8 
 
 32 
 
 40 
 
 772,262 
 
 489,192 
 
 1,261,454 
 
 4,256,518 
 
 8 1 0,5 1 6 
 
 — 
 
 5,067,034 
 
 9 
 
 3* 
 
 34 
 
 924.204 
 
 787,078 
 
 1,711,282 
 
 4,417,823 
 
 838,484 
 
 — 
 
 5,256,307 
 
 1790 
 
 : - 
 
 32 
 
 928,783 
 
 532,705 
 
 1,461,488 
 
 5,104,508 
 
 930,930 
 
 — 
 
 
 6,035,438 
 
 1 
 
 28 
 
 33 
 
 974,959 
 
 530,557 
 
 1,505,516 
 
 5.141,532 
 
 709,455 
 
 — 
 
 
 5,850,987 
 
 2 
 
 43 
 
 22 
 
 1,031,262 
 
 '°.943 
 
 1,042,205 
 
 5,050,819 
 
 703,578 
 
 — 
 
 
 5,754,397 
 
 3 
 
 55 
 
 30 
 
 1.255,746 
 
 10.290 
 
 1,266,036 
 
 4,886,927 
 
 882,620 
 
 — 
 
 
 5,769,547 
 
 4 
 
 39 
 
 39 
 
 '.'37,537 
 
 — 
 
 i.i57,537 
 
 5,521,858 
 
 1,053,462 
 
 — 
 
 
 6,575,320 
 
 5 
 
 76 
 
 60 
 
 1,260,771 
 
 38,150 
 
 1,298,921 
 
 6,528,969 
 
 1,189,296 
 
 380,230 
 
 8,098,495 
 
 6 
 
 45 
 
 40 
 
 1,091,499 
 
 220,999 
 
 1,312,498 | 
 
 6,153,3 'O 
 
 1,174,155 
 
 924,844 
 
 8,252,309 
 
 7 
 
 26 
 
 47 
 
 1,111,652 
 
 627,858 
 
 i,739,5io 
 
 4,718,822 
 
 1,204,901 
 
 129,678 
 
 6,053,401 
 
 8 
 
 43 
 
 49 
 
 T ,4i6,754 
 
 1,217,748 
 
 2,634,502 ! 
 
 8,337,o66 
 
 1,629,959 
 
 348,231 
 
 io,3 '5.256 
 
 9 
 
 33 
 
 33 
 
 1,559,682 
 
 261,463 
 
 1,821,145 
 
 7,367,727 
 
 2,336,980 
 
 455,903 
 
 10,160,610 
 
 1800 
 
 49 
 
 S3 
 
 1.702,810 
 
 601,976 
 
 2,304,786 
 
 7,602,041 
 
 2,382,092 
 
 339,319 
 
 10,323,452 
 
 1 
 
 39 
 
 38 
 
 2,077,184 
 
 435,S9S 
 
 2,512,779 
 
 6,627,501 
 
 2,305,235 
 
 220,775 
 
 9,153,5 'I 
 
 2 
 
 * 
 
 50 
 
 2,116,812 
 
 1,709,938 
 
 3,826,750 
 
 6,048,028 
 
 3,5 '2,3 75 
 
 67,739 
 
 9,628,142 
 
 3 
 
 55 
 
 44 
 
 1,874,256 
 
 986,781 
 
 2,861,037 
 
 5,877,569 
 
 2,542,245 
 
 5,454 
 
 8,425,268 
 
 4 
 
 51 
 
 54 
 
 1,825,689 
 
 1,933,538 
 
 3,759,227 
 
 5,267,578 
 
 2,776,814 
 
 — 
 
 
 8,044,392 
 
 5 
 
 49 
 
 5° 
 
 1,897,068 1 
 
 699,986 
 
 2,597,054 
 
 5,999,96' 
 
 2,780,474 
 
 10,935 
 
 8,791,370 
 
 6 
 
 46 
 
 35 
 
 2,317,594 
 
 — 
 
 2,317,594 
 
 5,i93o'67 
 
 1,721,087 
 
 24,298 
 
 6,938,952 
 
 7 
 
 46 
 
 53 
 
 2,045,527 
 
 200,163 
 
 2,245,690 
 
 5,267,271 
 
 2,781,331 ! 
 
 9',847 
 
 8,1 40,449 
 
 8 
 
 43 
 
 5° 
 
 ',915, '8° j 
 
 — 
 
 1,915,180 
 
 5,754,876 
 
 ',794,453 
 
 483,886 
 
 8,033,215 
 
 9 
 
 47 
 
 35 
 
 ',724,479 | 
 
 — 
 
 1,724,479 
 
 5,989,275 
 
 1,916,101 
 
 3. ; 1.659 
 
 8,237,035 
 
 1810 
 
 S3 
 
 48 
 
 1,876,872 
 
 " 
 
 1,876,872 
 
 5,977,058 
 
 3,259,900 
 
 335,400 
 
 9,572,358 
 
 Packets and vessels taken up in India are not included in this Account. 
 
 N.B. Before the year 1799 the duties upon all goods sold wishes to compare the sales after that year with those before it, 
 
 by the Company, except tea since the year 1784, being paid by must add the duties, which may be taken, on an average, at thirty 
 
 the Company, made part of the sale prices; but since that year per cent on the sale amount, 
 the duties have been paid b\ the purchasers. Therefor whoever
 
 APPENDIX, N°VIII. 
 
 421 
 
 Rates of insuring £100 from Bengal to England on ships of the following descrip- 
 tions, distinguishing the risk on a single ship, expressly named, from the risk on 
 ship or ships not ascertained. 
 
 
 
 
 Premium 
 
 Return for convoy 
 
 Company's regular ship 
 
 01 
 
 1 shij 
 
 . 
 
 on goods. 
 
 from Bengal to 
 St. Helena. 
 
 from St. Helena 
 to England. 
 
 £l 
 
 7 
 
 O 
 
 £7 O 
 
 
 
 Company's regular ship or ships 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 O 
 
 700 
 
 
 
 Company's extra ship, and f 
 
 9 
 
 9 
 
 O 
 
 
 £ \ O 
 
 ^ I O 
 
 also ship or ships . . L 
 
 
 
 
 900 
 
 19 
 
 19 
 
 Indian ship, and also ship or ~» 
 ships . . . . / 
 
 
 
 
 15 15 O 
 
 2 10 O 
 
 2 10 O 
 
 Ship or ships generally 
 
 
 
 
 IS '5 ° 
 
 
 
 with return, if 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a regular ship of j£8 and 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 • • * 
 
 I 
 
 I O O 
 
 an extra ship . 6 and 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 . . . 
 
 IOO 
 
 I O O 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 2 IO O 
 
 2 IO 
 
 N. B. In case of capture or other total loss, no returns are made, consequently the 
 difference between the premium of ^15 15 on ship or ships generally, and j£j on re- 
 gular ships, amounts to ^8 15 o on the j^ioo. 
 
 The above rates are copied from a paper delivered on the I st of June 1809 to the 
 Committee of the House of Commons on Indian affairs by M r Grant Allen, and after- 
 wards shown by the Committee to M r William Bell, a merchant and underwriter, who 
 confirmed the correctness of it.
 
 + 22 
 
 APPENDIX, N°IX. 
 
 An Account of the number of pieces, the amount of the proceeds, and average prices, 
 of the Bengal piece goods, sold at the East-India Company's sales in the under- 
 mentioned years, for account of the Company, and for account of private 
 merchants. 
 
 Sold for account of the Company. 
 
 Average price. 
 
 Pieces sold. 
 
 Amount. 
 
 35°»3 2 9 
 
 j£ 648,756 
 
 723,127 
 
 1,219,818 
 
 334> IJ 5 
 
 508,584 
 
 450,500 
 
 548,256 
 
 1,129,501 
 
 1,406,879 
 
 838,712 
 
 1,179,447 
 
 437,862 
 
 660,019 
 
 242,164 
 
 293,832 
 
 3 8l >477 
 
 378,199 
 
 442,952 
 
 424,456 
 
 518,019 
 
 493,106 
 
 i74»3 2 1 
 
 •42,157 
 
 None sold. 
 
 
 410,196 
 
 336,453 
 
 199,500 
 
 146,466 
 
 j£\ 17 
 
 1 14 
 
 1 10 
 
 1 4 
 
 1 5 
 
 1 10 
 
 1 4 
 o 19 
 o 19 
 o 19 
 o 16 
 
 o 16 
 
 o T4 
 
 Years. 
 
 1797 
 1798 
 
 1799 M* 
 
 S 
 1800 
 1801 
 1802 
 
 1803 M 
 
 Sf 
 
 1804 M 
 
 S 
 
 1805 M 
 S 
 
 1806 M 
 S 
 
 Sold for account of private merchants. 
 Pieces sold. Amount. Average prices. 
 
 136,761 
 127,810 
 
 79,727 
 152,870 
 
 3°4>53° 
 396,444 
 
 1,252,503 
 742,193 
 343,546 
 548,186 
 
 43 , ,° 1 3 
 
 320,727 
 None sold. 
 
 "3,233 
 96,264 
 
 ^151,942 
 182,594 
 
 r 33,33 6 
 M5>5°3 
 317,828 
 379,569 
 960,864 
 462,757 
 202,452 
 306,886 
 220,082 
 193,665 
 
 67,453 
 61,602 
 
 £1 
 1 
 1 
 o 
 1 
 o 
 o 
 o 
 o 
 o 
 o 
 o 
 
 '3 
 
 ■9 
 o 
 
 19 
 
 '5 
 12 
 
 1 1 10 
 
 1 1 2 
 
 o 
 6 
 6 
 
 o 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 6 
 
 10 
 12 
 
 01110 
 o 12 o 
 
 The account is brought no lower than the year 1806, because in the subsequent years 
 the very depressed prices might be ascribed to the operation of the exclusive system, 
 which has been enforced against the British commerce upon the continent of Europe. 
 
 * M stands for the March sale, and S for the 
 September sale. 
 
 \ At this sale 494,648 pieces of the Com- 
 pany's, and 501,293 of the private merchants', 
 goods were offered to the purchasers. The 
 
 quantity was more than could be taken off; and 
 113,171 pieces of the Company's goods, and 
 157,747 of the private goods, were laid aside 
 for want of buyers. In some other sales quant- 
 ities still larger have been laid aside.
 
 ( 4^3 ) 
 
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 .8 
 
 13 
 
 S 
 
 v. 
 
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 ■2 
 
 Pw 
 
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 53 
 
 
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 5 
 
 
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 2|
 
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 A 
 
 P P E N D I X 
 
 N°XI. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A Statement of the Sorts 
 
 and Value of Merchandize exported from Calcutta by British 
 
 
 To London. 
 
 To America. 
 
 
 Piece 
 Goods. 
 
 Indigo. 
 
 Sugar. 
 
 Raw 
 
 Silk. 
 
 Sundries. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Piece 
 Goods. 
 
 Indigo. 
 
 Sugar. 
 
 Sundries. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 1796-7 
 
 12,94,222 
 
 30,56,592 
 
 4,77,00° 
 
 12,471 
 
 2,39,055 
 
 50,79,340 
 
 20,77,886 
 
 50 
 
 3,34,284 
 
 1,48,085 
 
 25,60,305 
 
 
 1797-8 
 
 11,87,710 
 
 53,73,86i 
 
 1,82,650 
 
 — 
 
 2,27,308 
 
 69,71,529 
 
 14,38,667 
 
 — 
 
 5,19,833 
 
 6 7,102 
 
 20,25,602 
 
 
 1798-9 
 
 8,85,058 
 
 23,71,941 
 
 3,75,999 
 
 4,800 
 
 4,70,036 
 
 4I,07,8.U 
 
 8,30,459 
 
 — 
 
 1,70,860 
 
 1,61,858 
 
 11,63,177 
 
 
 i799 _ '8oo - 
 
 15.23.479 
 
 35,28,416 
 
 6,98,667 
 
 4,20,598 
 
 6,20,246 67,91,406 
 
 28,44,333 
 
 — 
 
 6,59,340 
 
 2,82,264 
 
 37,85,937 
 
 
 1 800- 1 
 
 30,97,165 
 
 39,84,744 
 
 1,19,406 
 
 1,26,400 
 
 11,59,621 84,87,336 
 
 52,36,364 
 
 — 
 
 5,50,513 
 
 3,19,856 
 
 61,06,733 
 
 
 1801-2 
 
 66,68,290 
 
 37,71.407 
 
 2,17,899 
 
 1,70,906 
 
 25,68,918 1,33,97,420 
 
 41,52,244 
 
 — 
 
 3,io,379 
 
 1,03,205 
 
 45,65,828 
 
 
 1802-3 
 
 64,70,203 
 
 27.79. I °° 
 
 2,30,727 
 
 2,95,050 
 
 13,70,181 
 
 1,11,45,261 
 
 40,21,943 
 
 66,256 
 
 5,04,594 
 
 3>'7,H2 
 
 49,09,905 
 
 
 1803-4 
 
 48,72,016 
 
 42,29,921 
 
 672 
 
 9>56,444 
 
 7,59,492 
 
 1,08,18,545 
 
 54,50,835 
 
 33,7i6 
 
 8,53,313 
 
 4,22,192 
 
 67,60,056 
 
 
 1804-5 
 
 12,28,637 
 
 60,28,524 
 
 116 
 
 12,23,363 
 
 4,35,528 
 
 89,16,168 
 
 24,89,599 
 
 77,386 
 
 6,53,33* 
 
 1,24,276 
 
 33,44,593 
 
 
 1805-6 
 Total 6a R' - 
 
 3,3 1,582 
 
 45,23,'24 
 
 54,478 
 
 7,87,106 
 
 4,02,775 
 
 60,99,065 
 
 47,63,132 
 
 2,13,890 
 
 11,69,261 
 
 i,3i,77* 
 
 62,78,055 
 
 
 2,75,58,362 
 
 3,96,47,630 
 
 23,57,614 
 
 1 
 39>97.'38 82,53,160 
 
 8,18,13,904 
 
 3,33,05,462 
 
 3,91,298 57,25,709 
 
 20,77,772 
 
 4,15,00,191 
 
 Statement of the Sorts and Value of Merchandize exported from 
 
 1802 to 
 
 1802 .... 
 
 1803 .... 
 
 1804 .... 
 
 1805 .... 
 
 Total Sicca Rupees 
 
 To London. 
 
 
 Piece Goods. 
 
 Sundries. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Sicca Rupees 
 
 10,71,193 
 
 18,28,570 
 
 7.11.647 
 
 I ,35>4?6 
 
 Sicca Rupees. 
 5,",578 
 
 7,56,172 
 3,04,022 
 3,40,i-: 
 
 Sicca Rupees. 
 15,82,771 
 
 25,84,742 
 10,15,669 
 
 4,75,648 
 
 37,46,886 
 
 I9.H.944 
 
 56,58,830 
 
 For some account of the -American exports of tea from China, see the Appendix, 
 N° V. — Of the other branches of their trade in China I find no account;
 
 APPENDIX, N" XI. 
 
 425 
 
 individuals and Foreign Europeans and Americans for the Tears 
 
 1796-7 to 1805-6 inclusive 
 
 
 
 Tc 
 
 Foreign Europe. 
 
 
 Total London, America, and Foreign Europe. 
 
 Piece 
 Goods. 
 
 Indigo. 
 
 Sugar. 
 
 Sundries. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Piece 
 Goods. 
 
 Indigo. 
 
 Sugar. 
 
 Raw Silk. 
 
 Sundries. 
 
 Grand Total. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 Sa. Rs. 
 
 «.'3.9 I 4 
 
 1,54,220 
 
 2,92,260 
 
 1,62,818 
 
 31,23,212 
 
 58,86,022 
 
 32,10,862 
 
 11,03,544 
 
 12,471 
 
 5,49,958 
 
 1,07,62,857 
 
 16,10,315 
 
 82,543 
 
 50,700 
 
 1,15,026 
 
 18,58,584 
 
 42,36,692 
 
 54,56,404 
 
 7,53,i83 
 
 — 
 
 4,09,436 
 
 1,08,55,715 
 
 788,460 
 
 4,830 
 
 2,15,397 
 
 1,34,453 
 
 H,43,I40 
 
 25,03,977 
 
 23,76,771 
 
 t 7,62,256 
 
 4,800 
 
 7,66,347 
 
 64,14,151 
 
 40,18,606 
 
 — 
 
 1,33,953 
 
 2,09,603 
 
 43,62,162 
 
 83,86,418 
 
 35,28,416 
 
 14,91,960 
 
 4,20,598 
 
 11,12,113 
 
 1.49,39,505 
 
 24,78,641 
 
 no 
 
 40,032 
 
 2,53,978 
 
 27,72,761 
 
 1,08,12,170 
 
 39,84,854 
 
 7,09,951 
 
 1 ,26,400 
 
 ■7,33,455 
 
 1,73,66,830 
 
 i6,39,595 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 51,846 
 
 16,91,441 
 
 i,24,6o,;29 
 
 37,71,407 
 
 5,28,278 
 
 1,70,906 
 
 2 7, 23,969 
 
 1,96,54,689 
 
 30,63,583 
 
 27,543 
 
 2,822 
 
 2,61,935 
 
 33,55,883 
 
 ■,35,55,729 
 
 28,72,899 
 
 7,38,143 
 
 2,95,050 
 
 19,49,228 
 
 i,94,i l , 049 
 
 19,81,147 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 10,525 
 
 29,91,672 
 
 !, 33,03,998 
 
 42,63,637 
 
 8,53,985 
 
 9,56,444 
 
 11,92,209 
 
 2,05,70,273 
 
 41,73,100 
 
 — 
 
 2,629 
 
 1,21,504 
 
 42,97,233 
 
 78,91,336 
 
 61,05,910 
 
 6,56,077 
 
 12,23,363 
 
 6,81,308 
 
 1,65,57,994 
 
 i5,96>4i5 
 
 1,81,062 
 
 54,804 
 
 3,73,272 
 
 22,05,553 
 
 66,91,129 
 
 49,18,076 
 
 12.78,543 
 
 7,87,106 
 
 9,07,819 
 
 1,45,82,673 
 
 1,48,63,776 
 
 4,50,308 
 
 7,92,597 
 
 16,94,960 
 
 2,78,01,641 
 
 8,57,27,600 
 
 4,04,89,236 
 
 88,75,920 
 
 39,97,138 
 
 1,20,25,842 
 
 i5,n,i5,736 
 
 ladras by British Individuals and Foreign Europeans and America/is for 
 805 inclusive. 
 
 - 
 
 To America. 
 
 Piece Goods. 
 
 sicca Rupees. 
 
 1,46,755 
 
 2,38,714 
 
 1,37,027 
 
 11,11,018 
 
 16,33,514 
 
 Sundries. 
 
 Sicca Rupees. 
 14,685 
 
 45,097 
 47,438 
 
 1,07,220 
 
 Total. 
 
 Sicca Rupees. 
 1,61,440 
 
 2,38,714 
 
 1,82,124 
 
 11,58,456 
 
 17.40,734 
 
 To Foreign 
 Europe 
 
 Piece Goods. 
 
 Sicca Rupees. 
 1,12,610 
 
 Total London, America, and 
 Foreign Europe. 
 
 Piece Goods. 
 
 Sicca Rupees 
 
 13,30,558 
 
 20,67,284 
 
 8,48,674 
 
 12,46,494 
 
 1,12,610 I 54,93,010 
 
 Sundries. 
 
 Sicca Rupees. 
 5,26,263 
 
 7,56,172 
 
 3,49,H9 
 3,87,610 
 
 20,19,164 
 
 Grand Total. 
 
 Sicca Rupees. 
 18,56,821 
 
 28,23,456 
 
 n,97,793 
 
 i6,34,ic4 
 
 75,12,174 
 
 * The suspension of Exports to Foreign Europe during these three years was occasioned by the Danes 
 exporting their Goods from Tranquebar, and by the other European Nations remitting the Produce 
 of their Import Cargoes to Bengal, by Bills on that Presidency. 
 
 3 »
 
 4 z6 APPENDIX, N"X1I. 
 
 An Account of the tntinage of goods shipped in London for India, and in India for 
 London, by private merchants in the following seasons. 
 
 From London, 
 
 Seasons. From India, 
 
 tuns. 
 
 
 tuns. 
 
 9> J 9 
 
 1793-4 
 
 
 40 
 
 1794-5 
 
 2,424 
 
 3 1 
 
 ! 795- 6 
 
 6,817 
 
 252 
 
 1796-7 
 
 4,190 
 
 
 
 1797.8 
 
 3>7 2 7 
 
 374 
 
 1798-9 
 
 14,679 
 
 196 
 
 1799-1800 
 
 9,782 
 
 130 
 
 1 800-1 
 
 14,348 • 
 
 53 6 
 
 1801-2 
 
 14,862 ( 
 
 1,872 
 
 1802-3 
 
 14.7*7' 
 
 820 
 
 1803-4 
 
 6,866 
 
 1,3*2 
 
 1804-5 
 
 4,022 
 
 1.174 
 
 1805-6 
 
 7,062 
 
 773 
 
 1806-7 
 
 6,818 
 
 
 
 1807-8 
 
 3> 8l 9 
 
 
 
 
 exclusive 
 of rice. 
 
 8,499 "4,133 
 
 The quantity of shipping, required by the 87 th section of the act 33 Geo. Ill, 
 c. 52, for the above fifteen seasons, is forty-five thousand tuns.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 N. B. The word Company occurring very frequently, it is generally contracted to Co. which, when not 
 under the head of any other Company, means the English East-India Company. 
 
 E. I. signify East-India or East Indies. 
 
 ABERCROMBIE [General) defeats the 
 French in Egypt . . . .p. 
 
 Acheen, the King of, receives the Co's Admiral 
 kindly . ... 
 
 the King set against the English by the Dutch 
 
 the King favours the English 
 
 Aden, antiently Arabia Felix, trades to Ma- 
 lacca . . ... 
 
 supplies Egypt, &c. with Oriental goods 
 
 repulses the Portuguese 
 
 Africa receives colonies from Sabasa 
 
 factories settled on the west coast by mer- 
 chants of Dieppe 
 
 west coast explored and colonized by the Port- 
 uguese . ... 
 
 east coast subjected by the Portuguese . 19, 
 
 and made a separate government 
 
 Albuquerque [Alfonso) a victorious and bene- 
 ficent governor of Portuguese India . 23, 
 
 Alexandria, the entrepot between the East and 
 the West, becomes the commercial capital 
 
 30 
 
 81 
 87 
 9 1 
 
 9 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 21 
 
 3 1 
 25 
 
 of the Roman empire 
 
 3 
 6, 9 
 
 :o n. 
 
 its trade declines and again revives 
 
 America discovered about the year 1000 
 
 the discovery (or rediscovery ) by Chr. Colon, 
 
 a new asra in the history or commerce . 1 o 
 
 Americans of the United States, nature of Brit- 
 ish trade with . . . 360 
 allowed to trade with British India, and have 
 thereby reaped great advantages in conse- 
 quence of the war . . . 226 
 their trade facilitated by the Co's establish- 
 ments . . . . . 376 
 sell ships in India . ... 379 
 statements of their trade 378 ;;. Append, x, xi. 
 Angria's piratical state subdued . .181 
 Anne (Quern) takes a concern in uniting the 
 
 two E. I. Co's . . . 161, 167 
 
 Antwerp, the emporium of Europe, ruined 41, 42 
 Arabians, the first traders with India . I 
 
 supply Egypt, &c. with Oriental goods 1, 2, 3 
 their. commerce extended by their conquests 5 
 
 182 
 204 
 
 239 
 335 
 33« 
 
 Arabians, supply Egypt with Oriental goods 
 in the present day . . . 4"n 
 
 See Moors. 
 Arcot, revolutions of . . 178,179,182 
 
 part of the revenue transferred to the Co. in 
 
 compensation for assistance of their army 
 Nabob distressed by Hyder Ally 
 agreements with the Nabob for the protection 
 
 of his dominions and payment of his debts 
 Arguments for and against India trade 
 Arguments for and against exclusive Companies 
 
 for and against the Dutch Company 339 
 French Company 342 
 English Company 346 
 Arkiuright's machinery brings the labour of 
 Britain upon cotton goods nearer to a level 
 with that of India, and reduces the demand 
 for silk . ... 136, 223 
 
 Assada, a settlement proposed at . .119 
 
 Athenians exported silver . . . 337" 
 
 Bali, a mart for Oriental goods 
 Bank of England Directors must not be Direct' 
 
 ors of the E. I. Co. 
 Bank of Paris, projected by Law, is suc- 
 cessful . . ... 
 taken into the King's hands and proprietors 
 
 paid off with Mississippi shares 
 Government, against Law's advice, inundate 
 
 the kingdom with notes 
 bank made over to the Co. of the Indies . . 
 gold banished from circulation, and money di- 
 minished ... 
 Bantam, E. I. Co's Admiral favourably re- 
 ceived at, and a factory settled 
 Co's ships load -pepper 84, 85, 86, 88, 89, 90, 
 
 9'>94 
 is the Company's chief factory . . 125 
 
 Co's servants expelled from it by the Dutch 138 
 Bassora enriched by the Oriental trade 
 Bencoolen, a settlement made at 
 reduced from a presidency to a residence 
 Bengal visited by Fitch in the 1 6th century 
 
 9 
 
 167 
 
 265 
 
 26S 
 
 269 
 269 
 
 270 
 
 82 
 
 9 
 139 
 
 I 2 
 
 IS 
 Bengal,
 
 428 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bengal, retrospect of transactions in it .140 
 
 Co's servants distressed by Jaffier Khan . 168 
 
 revolutions in Bengal . . 183, 185 
 
 Surajah Dowla deposed, — Meer Jaffier made 
 Subahdar . . . .185 
 
 Jaffier attacked by the- Mogul — Cossim Ally 
 
 made Subahdar . . .186 
 
 Cossim flies — Jaffier reinstated . .187 
 
 Nujum made Subahdar . . .188 
 
 revenues assigned to the Co. by the Mogul . 189 
 Company's other territories made subordinate 
 
 to B. ' . • • • -197 
 
 happy condition of the natives . 190, 384, 392 
 Bethencourt colonizes the Canary islands . 7 
 
 Biscavans expert whale-fishers . . 9S 
 
 Bolts (William) establishes the Imperial Co. 
 of Trieste, &c. — his disputes with his 
 partners. \c. . . • 3 ' 3 
 
 Bombay got from Portugal by K. Charles II, 
 
 who" sells it to the E. I. Co. . . 127 
 
 Boschower, the means of a Danish expedition 
 to India . ... 285 
 
 Boughton [Mr.) obtains privileges in India 140 
 Bourbon island occupied by the French E. I. 
 Co. . . . . . . 259 
 
 sovereignty assumed by the King . . 275 
 
 regulations for the trade of the island . 280 
 
 Brazil discovered by Cabral A.D. 1 590 for 
 
 Portugal . . . 17 
 
 taken by the Dutch, and recovered by the 
 
 Portuguese . . . • 5 1 
 
 enriched bv the demand for cotton, and be- 
 comes the residence of the Portuguese 
 Royal family . . . . 40 
 
 Buckingham (Duke of) extorts £10,000 from 
 E I. Co. .... 107 
 
 Bullion has in all ages been sent to India . 336 
 depredation retarded by the India trade . 337 
 
 exported by the antient Athenians . . 337 n 
 
 quantities sent to India by the English Co. at 
 various tim.s Si, 92, 95, 104, no, 134, 164, 
 21 1, 386, Append, vii 
 Burman Emperor in friendship with the Co. 252 
 Cabot. See dfr tt 1 
 
 Cairo, a mart for Oriental goods . . y 
 
 Calcutta, origin of the English settlement at 1 42 
 much improved, and made a presidency . 168 
 
 taken by Surajah Dowlah, who murders most 
 
 of the chief English inhabitants . .183 
 
 retaken by Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive 184 
 made the seat of s.ipreme government of Brit- 
 ish India . . . . 197 
 
 Calicoes and muslins of India lessen the con- 
 sumption of foreign linens, &c. 109, 124, 136, 
 
 146 
 printing upon calico introduced by the Com- 
 pany's trade . . . -136 
 Calicut trades .vith Malacca . 8 
 transactions of the Portuguese at Calicut . 14 
 the Zamorin in friendship w th the English . 96 
 
 Cambay trades with Malacca 
 Canary islands colonized by Bethencourt 
 Cape of Good Hope passed by Diaz 
 voyage to India by it first accomplished 
 a colony settled at it by the Dutch 
 settlement taken by the British, and restored 
 Cape merchant., a principal officer in the early 
 voyages 
 
 8 
 
 7 
 1 1 
 
 '3 
 68 
 
 ship. 
 
 38, 
 
 7+ 
 
 s eminent m 
 
 I, 2 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 9 
 1 
 
 9 
 IS 
 2 5 
 
 285 
 
 66 
 68 
 
 74 
 
 Capper (Col.nel) quoted 
 Captains and officers of Co' 
 
 nautical science . . . 109, 399 
 
 are hurt by overtrading, and by concurrence 
 
 of private traders . . . 3630,374 
 
 are provided for in old age, if needful . 399 
 
 Caravans carry Oriental goods from Arabia 
 to Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria, and Mesopo- 
 tamia . . ... 
 Carthage gets Oriental goods from Arabia . 
 Cashgar, a mart for Oriental goods . 
 Catalonians get Oriental goods in the Levant 
 Ceylon probably resorted to by the Saba;ans 
 a market for cinnamon and rubies in the 15th 
 century . ... 
 visited by Fitch in the 16th century 
 the cinnamon engrossed by the Portuguese 
 the Rajah solicits assistance against the Port- 
 uguese . . . 
 the Portuguese are expelled by the Dutch 35, 5$ 
 the whole coast, and monopoly of the pro- 
 duce, ceded to the Dutch 
 taken by the British forces, and retained 
 Chancellor ( Captain) arrives on the north coast 
 of Russia .... 
 Charles I (King) charters Courten for trading 
 
 to India . . . .112 
 
 renews the charter to his son, and protects 
 
 him . . . . . 1 1 5 
 
 buys die Company's pepper , . 116 
 
 borrows money from them . . 116 n 
 
 accuses them of neglecting colonization 1 12,364 n 
 Charles II (King) and his brother receive 
 
 gifts from the Co. . . 
 
 gives the Company a charter 
 gets Bombay from Portugal, and sells it to 
 
 the Co. 
 writes to the Emperor of Japan 
 gives the Company a new charter 
 embargoes Sands's ship, and sends a ship to 
 
 seize interlopers 
 gives the Company another charter 
 Charters granted to the English East-India 
 Company. 
 
 1600 to 1615 . p 
 
 1600 perpetual 
 > the Protector 
 
 160 1 perpetual 
 1677 do. 
 1 '.83 d... 
 id.;; do. 
 if,/.', the 
 
 12J 
 
 127 
 
 '43 
 136 
 
 138 
 l 39 
 
 New Co 
 to 
 
 Co. I 
 I7t4 J 
 
 79 
 
 1:08 the 
 
 87 
 
 
 124 
 
 1712 
 
 12^ 
 
 I730 • 
 
 136 
 
 ■744 • 
 
 139 
 
 1781 . 
 
 148 
 
 1793 • 
 
 156 
 
 
 Jnited Co.} 
 
 to 1 729 J 
 
 to 1736" 
 
 10 1769 
 
 to 1783 
 
 to 1794 
 
 to 1814 
 
 166 
 
 168 
 
 173 
 174 
 203 
 
 "7 
 
 Child
 
 INDEX. 
 
 425, 
 
 Child ( Sir Josiah ) quoted 
 
 China, and the Chinese. 
 
 Chinese trade with Malacca . . i 
 
 Portuguese send an embassy to China 
 
 Portuguese permitted to trade at Sancian,and 
 afterwards to settle at Macao 
 
 English ships sail for China, but are lost 
 
 Dutch Co. send an embassy to China 
 
 Chinese carry goods to Batavia 
 
 Emperor takes no concern in the fate of sub- 
 jects who leave their country . . 
 
 English factors in Japan attempt to trade 
 with China . . . . 
 
 Courten's ships force their way into Canton, 
 whereupon the English are declared ene- 
 mies of the empire 
 
 English Co. send a ship to China 
 
 they send ships to several ports in China 
 
 l 33> 35° 
 
 • 8,24 
 . 26 
 
 27 
 76 
 
 53 
 
 53 
 
 65 
 
 90 
 
 "3 
 
 136 
 .64 
 
 . 264 
 
 215 
 
 264 
 266 
 
 French ships trade at Emouy 
 
 vast improvement in the sale of British 
 
 goods .... 
 
 Lord Macartney sent as Ambassador to the 
 
 Emperor .... 
 
 China Company of France send two ships to 
 
 China . . . . 
 
 are incorporated with the Co. of the West 
 
 China ware, or porcelain, quite new in England 
 
 in 1609 . . • .88 
 
 C/ive {Colonel, afterwards Lord), his actions 
 
 in India . 179, 182, 184, 185,187, 190 
 
 Cochin, the first European factory settled at 19, 20 
 Colon [Christopher) attempting to sail to Ind- 
 ia by a western course, discovers the Ame- 
 rican islands . . . .11 
 Company, perhaps a Sabaean one in antient 
 times . . . 2 
 See Dutch, English, French, CSV. 
 Consequences of E.I. trade being thrown open 1 1 J, 
 
 123, 124, 159, 396 
 Constantinople receives Oriental goods by over- 
 land conveyance . . -4 
 is resorted to by Italian merchants . 6, 7 
 Copper recommended for sheathing rudders by 
 
 Captain Peyton . . . 96 n 
 
 exportation of it enjoined to the Co. . 218 
 
 and afterwards prohibited . . 230, 402 
 
 Cornwallis (Earl and Marquis) Governor- 
 general, defeats Tippoo . .214 
 makes a favourable treaty with the Nabob of 
 
 Arcot . . ... 239 
 
 his advice against colonizing in India . 365 
 
 Cotton imported from India . . 389 
 
 Country trade in India . • 367, 391 
 
 Courten (Sir William) and Co. chartered to 
 
 trade to India . . . .112 
 
 their piratical and disastrous voyages, and 
 
 heavy losses . . • • 1 13 
 
 Courts of justice established in the Co's chief 
 settlements . • - • '74 
 
 203 
 
 1 1 
 56 
 58 
 
 121 
 
 121 
 124 
 
 185 n 
 
 100 
 
 99 
 237 
 
 238 
 
 285 
 
 285 
 
 Courts of justice. 
 
 their jurisdiction restricted 
 
 Covi/lam (Pedro) travels from Portugal to 
 India 
 
 Coxinga drives the Dutch from Tyvvan 
 
 is slain — his brother and son retain Tywan 
 
 Cromwell (Oliver), Protector, passes the Nav- 
 igation act, and humbles the Dutch 
 
 borrows from the Co. — permits violations o 
 their privilege 
 
 gives them a charter 
 
 Crore explained . . . 
 
 Cuningham (Sir James) obtains a patent fo 
 trading to India from Scotland 
 
 Dale (Sir Thomas) sent to India with an am 
 pie commission 
 
 Dance ( Captain)beats off a fleet of ships of war 
 
 he, his officers, and men, are rewarded by thi 
 Co. .... 
 
 Danish East-India Company, said to be chart 
 ered in 1612, settle at Tranquebar 
 
 another account of their first settlement 
 
 settlement flourishes — prudent conduct o 
 their servants 
 
 Co. surrender their property to the King — 
 Tranquebar besieged by the Rajah of Tan 
 jore, is relieved by the English 
 
 a new Company chartered . . 
 
 Co. enlarged — India house opened at Altona 
 and shut up 
 
 Co. receive a new charter 
 
 establish a fixed and circulating capital 
 
 divide their shares — statement of their trade 
 
 receive a new charter, and unite their 
 capitals .... 
 
 their stock 25 to 30 per cent premium, divid- 
 ends 10 per cent 
 
 their trade, chiefly in tea, declines in conse- 
 quence of the British commutation act 
 
 Denmark involved in war 1807, and their trade 
 suspended .... 
 
 number of their ships loaded at Canton 
 
 Darien. See Scotland. 
 
 Davenant's statement of the national gain by 
 the Co's trade . ... 
 
 Dead stock, i. e. forts, buildings, &c. not circ- 
 ulating in trade . See pp. 124, 126, 162 
 Deccan, wars and 
 the Nizam obtain; 
 
 nions .... 
 
 De Witt (John), his argun ents against 
 
 Dutch Co. . 
 
 Diaz passes the Cape of Good Hope 
 Dieppe, people of, have factories on the west 
 coast of Africa, and colonize the Canary 
 islands . . . .7 
 
 Digges (Sir Dudley) writes in defence of the 
 Co. ... - 94 
 
 Diu 
 
 two 
 
 286 
 287 
 
 287 
 287 
 
 288 
 289 
 
 290 
 
 291 
 
 292 
 
 292 
 
 292 
 2 93 
 
 '45 
 
 revolutions in 178, 179, 
 a part of Tippoo's demi- 
 
 the 
 
 228 
 
 339 
 1 1
 
 4S° 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 28 
 
 1769 — 11 
 
 . 196 
 
 177O 12 
 
 . 196 
 
 1771 — taj 
 
 . 196 
 
 1773— 6 
 
 . 198 
 
 1777 — 7 
 
 . 200 
 
 1778 — 8 
 
 . 202 
 
 1793 — '-! 
 
 . 220,221 
 
 ships 
 
 . 24O 
 
 Diu acquired by the Portuguese 
 
 Dividends of the United East- India Company. 
 
 ,, g — 5 percent, p. 167 1766 — to per cent. p. 191 
 
 8 . • 168 
 
 1709 — 9 • 168 
 
 1711 — 10 . • 168 
 
 1722 — 8 . . 17 1 
 
 1732 — 7 ■ ■ '74 
 
 1743 — 8 • -174 
 
 1755 — 6 • • '" 6 
 
 Docks made for East-India ships 
 
 Dow (Colonel; when he wrote his History 
 
 Pref. p. vi. 
 his testimony in favour of British government 
 
 in India . ... 
 
 Drake (Sir Francis) has some trade in India 
 
 — takes a ship with documents of India 
 
 trade onboard 
 Dudley (Sir Robert) sends 3 ships to China — 
 
 they are all lost 
 Dundas (Mr.) See Melville. 
 Dutch, state of the, before 1580 
 revolt from the dominion of Spain . 33, 
 sail to Lisbon under foreign flags — are seized 
 
 and prohibited 
 acquire trade and population by the fall of 
 
 Antwerp .... 
 
 resolve to trade direct with India, and try to 
 
 find a northern passage . 33 
 
 some merchants, advised by Houtman," send 
 
 4 ships by the Cape in 1595 
 the same and others send 8 ships, and others 
 
 send many ships 
 they raise the price of India goods on the 
 
 English .... 
 
 defeat a great Spanish fleet 
 make a truce with Spain 
 invade Spanish America 
 make an alliance with the Portuguese, but, on 
 
 losing Brazil, go to war with them 
 make peace with Spain 
 Dutch East-India Company, comprehending 
 
 the several small partnerships, chartered in 
 
 1602 . .... 
 
 six chambers of the Co. established 
 dispatch 14 ships, and keep up a succession 
 
 of strong ships 
 assisted by the English ships, they expell the 
 
 Portuguese from the Moluccos, &c. 
 disregard the truce with Spain 
 obtain the trade of Japan 
 become powerful in India, and oppress the 
 
 English factories 
 massacre the English at Amboyna, expell 
 
 them from Java, and build Batavia 
 get their charter renewed — their trade verv 
 flourishing .... 
 
 send an Ambassador to Jajian — extraordinary 
 
 consequences of the embassy 
 take Malacca — get their charter renewed 
 
 3 8 4 
 
 76 
 
 4' 
 
 4i 
 
 42 
 
 42 
 
 43 
 
 44 
 
 77 
 44 
 46 
 48 
 
 5 1 
 52 
 
 45 
 45 
 
 45 
 
 46 
 46 
 
 +6 
 
 47 
 47 
 48 
 48 
 
 Dutch Ea/l-India Company. 
 
 their Indian acquisitions and navigation se- 
 cured to them by the peace with Spain . 51 
 
 make a settlement at the Cape of Good Hope 52 
 
 send an embassy to China — expell the Port- 
 uguese from Ceylon . . -53 
 
 expell them from Celebes — are driven from 
 Tywan by Coxinga . • ■ 55 
 
 join the Tartars of China against Coxinga . 58 
 
 expell the Portuguese from Malabar — con- 
 quer Macassar . . -59 
 
 get their privilege prolonged, and confute 
 their opponents . . .60 
 
 an account of their settlements . . 61 
 
 get possession of Bantam, and expell the 
 English and Danes . . -64 
 
 take Pondicbery, but are obliged to restore 
 it . . . . -64 
 
 get their charter renewed — suppress a con- 
 spiracy at Batavia . . -64 
 
 quell a conspiracy, real or pretended, of the 
 Chinese . . . 6 J 
 
 get their charter renewed . . 66 
 
 impose very hard terms upon the king of 
 Ceylon . . . .66 
 
 complete the conquest of Java . . 67 
 
 get their charter prolonged — reduce their 
 dividend . . . "67 
 
 suffer by the war with Britain and decline of 
 spice trade . . . -67 
 
 lose most of their settlements — suspend pay- 
 ment of dividends . .68 
 
 get all their settlements restored, except 
 Ceylon . . . .68 
 
 causes of their prosperity and decline . . 68 
 
 Egypt gets Oriental goods from Arabia 1, 2, 3 
 
 becomes the entrepot between Arabia and the 
 West . . ... 3 
 
 being subject to Rome, the Egyptian-Greeks 
 begin to trade to India . . 3 
 
 the notion of earlier direct trade unauthorized 3 a 
 
 is enriched bv the transit of Oriental goods . 9 
 
 the Sultan, assisted by Venice, attacks the 
 Portuguese . . . . 23 
 
 the Pacha sent by the Turkish Emperor 
 against them . . . .28 
 
 more expeditions against them, all unsuccess- 
 ful . • . -3° 
 
 conquered by the French, and recovered by 
 the British forces . . .229 
 
 Elizabeth (Queen) writes to the Emperor of 
 China . . ■> -76 
 
 charters the East-India Company . - 79 
 
 gives their Admiral the power of martial law, 
 and introductions to the Kings of Acheen 
 and Bantam ■ . . .81 
 
 her judicious conduct towards the Com- 
 ;■; y . . . 8c, 356 
 
 The
 
 INDEX. 
 
 43' 
 
 The English have a favourable balance in track- 
 with Venice . . . ■ 1 " 
 
 Gavotta sails in search of a western passage 
 to India . . . 72 
 
 a chartered Co. with a capital of £6,oco, at- 
 tempt a voyage to India . -73 
 
 repeated attempts to discover a northern pas- 
 sage . _ . . . 75,98 
 
 Drake and Candish make a beginning of 
 India trade . . . . 76 
 
 Three ships sail for India — voyage un- 
 fortunate . . . 76 
 
 Three ships sail for China — all lost . 76 
 
 India goods got from Dutch and Portuguese, 
 and the Levant . . • 11 
 
 Mildenhall, sent to India by merchants of 
 London, obtains a grant of privileges from 
 the Mogul . . . .77 
 
 the merchants subscribe a capital for trading 
 to India . . ... 77 
 
 English East-India Company. 
 
 partners, having subscribed a capital, petition 
 for a charter . . . -78 
 
 which, after some delays, they obtain 3 1 Dec. 
 1600 . . . -79 
 
 subscribe a larger capital, and dispatch their 
 first fleet . . . .81 
 
 the Queen and Ministry urge a second voyage 83 
 
 distressed in the sale of their first imports, 
 make dividends in pepper . . 83 
 
 their second voyage — are injured by Michel- 
 borne's piratical voyage . . 84 
 
 are inclined to drop the trade . . 84 
 
 their trade represented as prejudicial . . 85 
 
 their third voyage — the King writes to the 
 great Mogul . . . . -85 
 
 their fourth voyage — regulation of votes — 
 voyage unfortunate . . .86 
 
 settle the accounts of first and second voyages 87 
 
 their fifth voyage, very beneficial . . 87 
 
 obtain a perpetuation of their privilege . . 87 
 
 build the largest ship hitherto built in Eng- 
 land . . . . . 87 
 
 their fixth voyage — hostilities in Red Sea 
 and of the Portuguese . . 88 
 
 their seventh voyage . . 88 
 
 their eighth voyage — one of the ships sails to 
 Japan — a factory settled there . . 89 
 
 their ninth voyage . . .90 
 
 their tenth voyage — Captain Best obtains a 
 charter from the Mogul — repeatedly de- 
 feats the Portuguese . . 90 
 
 their eleventh and twelfth voyages . 9 1 
 
 the capitals and profits of the twelve voy- 
 ages . . . 92 
 
 they resolve to desist from separate voyages, 
 and subscribe a joint stock for four years 93 
 
 first joint-stock fleet, attacked by the Portu- 
 guese, and defeat them . . -93 
 
 9+ 
 
 95 
 
 95 
 
 English East-India Company. 
 
 are attacked by the Dutch in India, and by 
 
 enemies at home . ' 
 
 statement of the national advantages of the 
 
 trade . . . . 
 
 the attempts of some interlopers are frus- 
 trated ... 
 send Sir T. Roe, in the King's name, as Am- 
 bassador to the Mogul, who grants him 
 privileges . . . . Q j 
 a list of their factories in India, &c. . 96 
 Commissioners appointed to settle the quarrels 
 
 with the Dutch . . .96 
 
 they reject the Dutch proposal for an union 
 
 and offensive war . . •9"' 
 
 their trade flourishing till distressed by the 
 
 Dutch . . . -97 
 
 engage in the whale fishery . . 08 
 
 raise a new capital, the greatest ever sub - 
 
 scribed . . . .98 
 
 reject anew Dutch proposal for an union . 98 
 send a strong squadron against the Dutch and 
 piratical English — the King gives the com- 
 mander an ample commission . . 09 
 obtain the suppression of a proposed India 
 
 trade in Scotland . . .100 
 
 enter into a treaty with the Dutch, who im- 
 mediately violate it . . . ico 
 their factors are massacred at Amboyna by 
 the Dutch, who drive their people from all 
 the Spice islands . . .102 
 view of the India trade by M r Munn . 103 
 view of it laid before Parliament by the Co. 104 
 a rival Company chartered, apparently inef- 
 ficient . . . . . 105 
 give up the factory in Japan . . 1 05 
 their ships often attacked by the Portuguese, 
 
 always defeat them . . .106 
 
 their forces, allied with the Persians, expell 
 
 the Portuguese from Ormus , . 106 
 
 their fleet embargoed by the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham . . . .107 
 are attacked in Parliament — their defence 107 
 national advantages of their trade . .109 
 abstract of it for four years . .110 
 having suffered losses to the amount of 
 j£2,ooo,coo by the malice of the Dutch 
 and the neglect of Government, they pro- 
 pose to give up their business . .111 
 permit their members to trade to Persia on 
 
 separate account . . .111 
 
 petition Parliament to support their trade or 
 
 abolish it . . . .Ill 
 
 their stock is depressed . . . 1 1 1 
 
 subscribe for particular voyages to Persia and 
 
 India . . . .111 
 
 make gun-powder . . . 1 1 1 « 
 
 subscribe a third stock . . .112 
 
 are distressed by Courten's trade and piracy 1 12 
 
 they
 
 45* 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 English East- India Company. 
 
 they estimate the damage at ^£100,000 . 115 
 
 the King buys all their pepper — loss by that 
 
 transaction . . . .116 
 
 a fourth stock proposed ineffectually — stock 
 
 depressed . . . .116 
 
 a capital raised for a single voyage . -117 
 
 a fourth stock subscribed — ships lost by 
 
 treachery and wreck . . 117 
 
 Madras settled — state of Company's affairs 118 
 
 subscribe a new stock — are authorized by 
 Parliament to trade on a joint stock . .119 
 
 Saint Helena settled . . .119 
 
 are chartered by Parliament to trade to 
 Guinea . • . .120 
 
 some members desire to trade on separate ac- 
 count . . . .120 
 
 after a sanguinary war, the Dutch become 
 bound to punish the perpetrators of the 
 massacre of Amboyna, and to pay £85,000 
 to the Company . . .121 
 
 receive Pulo Roon from the Dutch, who soon 
 reoccupy it . . . .122 
 
 petition the Protector to confirm their 
 privilege — he borrows money from them, 
 and allows their privilege to be violated . 122 
 
 the trade ruined by separate traders, who seek 
 to be incorporated . . . 123 
 
 advertise their privilege and stock for sale . I 24 
 
 are chartered by the Protector — their capital 1 24 
 
 are obliged by the glut of the loose trade to 
 reduce their importation of calicoes . .124 
 
 regulate their settlements in India . 125 
 
 present gifts to K. Charles II, who gives 
 them a charter . - .125 
 
 their stock depressed, but appears to be 30 
 
 per cent above par . . . 126 | 
 
 their trade being hurt by the King's servants 
 at Bombay, they purchase the island from 
 him . . . .127 
 
 they settle new factories — their contest with 
 Skinner . . . -127 
 
 import tea from Bantam ( See Tea) . • 128 ! 
 
 obtain additional privileges in India — send 
 men to. Bombay . . • '33 
 
 by their profits double their stock, which 
 rises to 245 per cent . . • 133 
 
 state of the trade and national advantages of it 133 
 
 best mode of conducting it . ■ '35 
 
 get a new charter — send a ship to China . 136 
 
 are attacked by calico printers, silk-weavers, 
 and Turkey Co. . . . 1 36 
 
 state of the Company — forts and garrisons 
 cost £100, oco annually . . 137 
 
 the King embargoes the ship of T. Sands, 
 and sends a ahip to India 10 seize the in- 
 terlopers . . . . 138 
 
 their people expelled from Bantam, settle at 
 Bencoolen . . . . 139 
 
 English East-India Company. 
 
 get a new charter — disturbance at Saint 
 Helena — stock 500 per cent 
 
 their own servants and the Indian princes 
 alienated by interlopers 
 
 involved in hostilities with the Mogul and 
 Nabob of Bengal, send two strong fleets to 
 India . . 
 
 obtain a charter of free trade from the Mo- 
 gul, and fortify their settlement at Calcutta 142 
 
 are supported by K. James II, who gives 
 them a new charter 
 
 their attempts to establish a trade with Japan 
 
 state of their affairs in 1689 and national be- 
 nefit by the trade 
 
 House of Commons petition K. William to 
 dissolve the Co, and charter a new Co. 
 
 the contending interests convulse the whole 
 kingdom .... 
 
 House of Commons again pray the King to 
 dissolve the Co. . ... 
 
 Co. neglect paying a tax imposed on their 
 stock . . ... 
 
 they get a new charter and new regulations 
 
 are subjected to an inquiry respecting special- 
 service money . ... 
 
 the India house is assaulted by the silk-weavers 153 
 
 the captures of their ships, and licenced viol- 
 ation of their charter, disable them from 
 making dividends 
 
 they offer to lend £700,000 at 4 per cent to 
 Government, who prefer £2,000,000 at 8 
 per cent, offered by the separate traders, 
 and prepare a bill for incorporating them 
 
 they offer to lend £2,000,000, but are re- 
 fused . . ... 
 
 Parliament empower the King to incorporate 
 the separate traders 
 
 the subscription is filled in three days, mostly 
 by foreigners . . . . 
 
 most of the lenders are incorporated as a joint- 
 stock Co. .... 
 
 a part of the new stock subscribed by the old 
 Co. 
 
 four rival sets of traders to India now legal- 
 ized, and the trade ruined 
 
 the consumption of India silks, &rc. in England 
 is prohibited . . . . 
 
 stock depressed — ruinous contest of the two 
 Companies, who at last unite 
 
 factories of the Old Co. made over to the 
 United Co. 
 
 a view of the trade for three years 
 
 separate traders delay their return to England 165 
 
 the war obliges the Company to borrow 
 
 they become bound to land their goods in 
 England .... 
 
 they lend £1,200,000 to the Public without 
 interest, and get a new charter 
 
 '39 
 
 '39 
 
 140 
 
 H3 
 H3 
 
 '44 
 146 
 
 '47 
 
 '47 
 
 '47 
 148 
 
 149 
 
 '53 
 
 •54 
 '55 
 i5J 
 .56 
 
 '57 
 
 •59 
 
 J59 
 
 160 
 
 161 
 
 162 
 164 
 .65 
 165 
 
 165 
 
 166 
 
 English
 
 INDEX. 
 
 433 
 
 English East-India Company. 
 
 the accounts of the two Cos. adjusted, and 
 their union completed . . .167 
 
 Co. and Bank must not interfere — dividends 
 and price of stock . . .167 
 
 their privilege prolonged — amount of their 
 exports . . . .168 
 
 they obtain privileges from the Mogul . 169 
 
 their stock blown up by the South-Sea 
 scheme, but are distressed by British sub- 
 jects engaging in the Ostend Co. . 171 
 
 courts of justice are established in their chief 
 settlements . . . . 1 7 1 
 
 a proposal made to Parliament to abolish the 
 Co. . . . . .172 
 
 they pay sStoo,ooo and I per cent per annum 
 for a new charter . . . 173 
 
 they lend a£ 1,000,000 at 3 percent, and get 
 a new charter . . . . 174 
 
 the interest of money lent to Government is 
 reduced to 3 per cent, and the dividend is 
 reduced . . . .176 
 
 they borrow money at 3 per cent, and reduce 
 their dividend . . .176 
 
 their forces in India engaged in war 176 — 180 
 
 their ships and the King's ships destroy An- 
 gria's piratical state . . 181 
 
 further military operations in India . 183 — 191 
 
 they acquire the revenues of Bengal, Bahar, 
 and Orissa from the Mogul, and make a 
 certain provision for him . .188 
 
 unwarrantable conduct of some of their serv- 
 ants in Bengal . . .190 
 
 dividend raised to 10 per cent, and stock 
 raised by stock-jobbing . .191 
 
 they propose a dividend of 12$ percent — 
 Ministry interfere and claim the territorial 
 revenue . . . .192 
 
 acts paised to prevent splitting votes, to re- 
 strict dividends, and to oblige the Co to 
 pay £400,000 annually to the Exchequer 193 
 
 they suffer by an alteration of duty on tea 194 
 
 the restriction of dividends continued by Par- 
 liament . . . . 194 
 
 the Co. bound to pay £403,000 annually, and 
 allowed to increase their dividends gradu- 
 ally . . • 19J 
 
 send supervisors to India, who are lost at sea 196 
 
 dividends raised to 12 and 12^ per cent, and 
 reduced to 6 . . . 196 
 
 being distressed by many drains of treasure, 
 they ask a loan from Government — their 
 constitution is new-modeled . .196 
 
 are licenced to send tea to America . .198 
 
 sales of tea diminished by the high duty . 199 
 
 the factory at Balambangan destroyed . 1 99 
 
 the Co. acquire Benares and Salsette . 200 
 
 debt owing to the Public paid — dividend 
 raised to 7 and 8 per cent . . 200 
 
 their forces take all the French settlements 200 
 
 English East-India Company. 
 
 they promote the cultivation of indigo . 20O 
 
 their dividends limited to 8 per cent . 202 
 
 they present 3 ships of 74 guns, and 6,000 
 seamen to Government . . 202 
 
 the Minister threatens to abolish their priv- 
 ilege .... 202 
 
 charter renewed on paying ^400,000 — divid- 
 end allowed to rise gradually to 1 1\ per 
 cent ..... 203 
 
 government of Bengal embroiled with su- 
 preme court ... 203 
 
 the separate fund established . . 203 
 
 they are involved in a war with Hyder Ally 204 
 
 M r Fox's two bills for regulating the Com- 
 pany . . . . 205 
 
 M r Pitt's two bills — the second passed — a 
 board of commissioners for the affairs of 
 India established, &c. . . . 207 
 
 peace in India in consequence of peace in 
 Europe . . . 208 
 
 duty on tea being reduced, Co. buy all the tea 
 of foreign Cos. . . . 209 
 
 beneficial consequence of the reduction at 
 home and in China . . .210 
 
 their capital increased to £4,000,000 . 211 
 
 are obliged to pay four regiments sent to Ind- 
 ia against their consent . . 213 
 
 revive the export of tin — capital increased to 
 ^5,000,000 . . . 213 
 
 increase their exports, and the privilege of 
 their servants, &c. . .214 
 
 war with Tippoo — he cedes half of his domi- 
 nions . . . .214 
 
 merchants of Liverpool attempt to subvert 
 die Co. . . .214 
 
 Lord Macartney is sent Ambassador to 
 China . . . . 21 J 
 
 management of the annuities transferred to the 
 Bank . . . . 216 
 
 the capital increased to £6,000,000 . .216 
 
 they get a new charter — regulations for Board 
 of Controul, government of India, shipping 
 for private trade, &c. . . . 217 
 
 all the settlements of the French are taken 223 
 
 they raise seamen for the Navy . .223 
 
 they improve the quality of Bengal silk . 223 
 
 act passed for increasing the capital — not 
 acted upon -225 
 
 Americans and other foreigners allowed to 
 trade to British India . . . 226 
 
 the Co. propose a positive light duty on their 
 imports . . . 227 
 
 act for warehousing India goods, and for new 
 duties ... . 228 
 
 war again with Tippoo — his dominions shared 
 by the Co. and their allies . . 228 
 
 the Co. formerly obliged to export copper, 
 now prohibited . . 218, 230 
 
 retrospect of private trade . . . 230 
 
 3 
 
 English
 
 434 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 English East-India Company. 
 many friends of the new private trade aie 
 stock-holders . . . 234 
 
 Co. engage ships expressly for private trade, 
 and give other indulgences . -236 
 
 they present the use of 10,000 tuns of ship- 
 ping to Government . . . 237 
 
 their China ships beat off a fleet of French 
 ships of war .... 237 
 
 docks made for E. I. shipping, regulations, 
 &c. . . . • 240 
 
 exertions of the Co. to promote the use of 
 sunn hemp .... 241 
 
 their governments engaged in war with the 
 Mahrattas . . .243 
 
 they are distressed by the expenses of the 
 war, and the advance of large sums for his 
 Majefty's service . . . 244 
 
 and also by extraordinary loss of ships and 
 deficiency of sales . . . 245 
 
 they nevertheless keep up their exports . 246 
 
 make several applications to Parliament for 
 payment of the sums owing by the Public, 
 receive some payments, and discharge a 
 part of the India debt transferred to 
 London . ... 246 
 
 borrow money upon bonds . . 247 
 
 receive a loan of Exchequer bills till their 
 claims on the Public are adjusted . 249 
 
 the interest on part of the India debt is re- 
 duced .... 250 
 
 they borrow more money upon bonds rather 
 than increase the capital . . 250 
 
 the stability of the Co. under the extreme 
 pressure of India debts, how much superior 
 to that of other Companies . .251 
 
 condition of their territories in India . 252 
 
 Factories possessed by the E. I. Co. in 1 616 96 
 
 made over by the Old Co. to the United Co. 162 
 
 Firmus, an Alexandrian merchant, seeks to be 
 an Emperor . . . .40 
 
 Fitch {Mr) sent to India . . 75 
 
 Formosa. See Tywan. 
 
 Fort George. See Madras. 
 
 France {Isle of) is peopled by the French 
 Co. .... 273 
 
 the sovereignty is assumed by the King . 275 
 
 regulations for the trade of the island . 280 
 
 Franllin {Doctor) quoted . . 6 n 
 
 The French, an opulent people about the year 
 1500 . . • -254 
 
 after an unfortunate attempt to trade to India, 
 some merchants of Dieppe said to have 
 made good voyages . . . 254 
 
 merchants of Saint Malo make an unfortunate 
 voyage . . . 254 
 
 French East-India Companies. See China Com- 
 pany, Maljuiiu, Mississippi Company, Pon- 
 dichery 
 
 a Co. chartered — remain inefficient . 255 
 
 French East-India Companies . 
 
 other merchants joined with them — dispatch 
 some ships .... 25$ 
 
 merchants of Saint Malo and Dieppe trade to 
 India .... 256 
 
 a new Co. chartered, build forts in Madagas- 
 car, trade at Surat, are ruined . . 257 
 
 a Co. chartered for China, &c. . . 257 
 
 Co. of the East Indies formed, with ample 
 privileges . . . 257 
 
 their capital not fully paid in . . 25S 
 
 they make settlements at Madagascar, Surat, 
 &;c. . . . 25S 
 
 after a failure in Ceylon, they settle at Pcn- 
 dichery . . . 259 
 
 make a dividend — receive money from the 
 King . . . . 260 
 
 their poverty makes them licence others to 
 trade in their ships . . 260 
 
 distressed by extravagance and war — small 
 amount of their sales . . . 261 
 
 new regulations — three quarters of their stock 
 lost .... z6l 
 
 many partners failing in their payments, new 
 ones are put in by the King — they make 
 two dividends . . . 262 
 
 they licence Jourdan to trade to China . 262 
 
 receive another donation from the King — still 
 unwilling to pay in their subscriptions . 262 
 
 distressed by Government — licence the Ma- 
 louins (See Malouins) . . 263 
 
 nine tenths of the India goods consumed in 
 France bought from foreigners . . 264 
 
 a China Co. chartered. (See China Com- 
 pany) .... 264 
 
 the E. I. Co. have their term prolonged — are 
 swallowed up in the Mississippi Co. (See 
 Mississippi Company) . . .264 
 
 after the explosion of the Mississippi system, 
 the Co. settle New Orleans, and attend to 
 commerce . . .272 
 
 their India trade very successful till depressed 
 by war .... 273 
 
 they licence traders to Guineas-dividend re- 
 peatedly reduced . . . 274 
 
 obtain permission to manage their own affairs 
 — King gives them his shares and loan 
 bonds, relieves them from the sovereignty of 
 the Isles of France and Bourbon — their 
 stock and dividends are enlarged . . 274 
 
 their trade appears flourishing — stock decay- 
 ing — licence private ships . . 275 
 
 amount of their annual payments . 275 
 
 their privilege is suspended . . 275 
 
 new duties established — dissolution of the Co. 
 proposed .... 276 
 
 they surrender their property to the King for 
 an annuity .... 276 
 
 bad consequence of their stock being held by 
 loose billets . • . 277,282 s 
 
 many
 
 INDEX. 
 
 43 J 
 
 French East- India Company. 
 
 many merchants rush into the India trade and 
 slave trade . . . . 277 
 
 contradictory accounts of their success — 
 many are ruined . . . 278 
 
 amount of sales of private trade . . 279 
 
 the King sends a ship to China on his own 
 account . ... 279 
 
 he creates a new Co. of China — lends them 3 
 ships . . . . . 279 
 
 he creates a new Co. of the Indies . . 280 
 
 the capital is engrossed in Paris . .281 
 
 the Co. buy India goods in Europe, and make 
 a sale . . . .282 
 
 send 8 ships to India and China — make an- 
 other sale . . . 282 
 
 send out 10 ships and enlarge their capital 282 
 
 are hurt by stock-jobbing, which brings them 
 into discredit . . . 283 
 
 they are abolished by the National Assembly 283 
 
 Gadir (now Cadiz) gets Oriental goods from 
 Arabia . . .2 
 
 Gama (Vasco da) accomplishes the first voy- 
 age from Europe to India . 13 
 
 sails a second, and a third time, to India, and 
 dies there . . . 19, 27 
 
 Gavotta [ Giovanni} sails in search of a western 
 passage to India . . 72 
 
 Gavotta (Sebastian) forms a Co. for trading 
 to India . . . -73 
 
 his judicious regulations for the voyage . 74 
 
 Genoa, a French ship from China arrives at 264 
 
 Genoese get Oriental goods at Saint John de 
 Acre, Constantinople, &c. . . 6 
 
 their commerce declines . 7 
 
 Gltmham (Charles). See Hey don. 
 
 Goa taken by the Portuguese, and made their 
 Indian capital . . 23 
 
 Gombroon gets the trade of Ormus, and Eng- 
 lish Co. have half of the Customs . 106 
 
 Great Mogul, or Emperor of Hindoostan, grants 
 privileges to the English . . 77, 86, 90 
 
 Aurengzebe, after a quarrel with the Co, 
 grants them entire freedom of trade 140, 142 
 
 Furrukshir grants them many privileges . 1 69 
 
 the power of the Great Mogul declines . 176 
 
 Shah Aulum is protected and put in posses- 
 sion of revenue by the Co, to whom he as- 
 signs the revenues of Bengal, &c. . 188 
 
 sketch of his disastrous life — his family sup- 
 ported by the Co. . . . 240 
 
 Guinea trade, E. I. Co. chartered for . 1 20 
 
 Gun-powder made by the E.I. Co, aDd fur- 
 nished to the King . . . 155 
 
 Hastings (Warren) first Governor-general of 
 British India . . . 197 
 
 detaches the Mahrattas from Hyder Ally . 204 
 
 called home, prosecuted, and acquitted . 212 
 
 Hawkins (Captain) carries a letter from K. 
 James I to the Great Mogul . . 85 
 
 Hearne's journey in America proves the im- 
 practicability of a north-west passage 
 
 Henry, Prince of Portugal, prosecutes disco- 
 very in hope of finding a passage to India 
 
 Heydon (Sir William) andC. Glemham get a 
 charter to trade to India 
 
 Holy wars increase the demand for Oriental 
 goods in the western parts of Europe 
 
 Hoogly subordinate to Surat, and afterwards to 
 Madras ... 
 
 Houtman induces the Dutch to trade to India 
 by the Cape, and embarks as director 
 
 Hudsons-Bay Company, origin of 
 
 Imperial Company of Trieste, &c. formed by 
 M r Bolts, and chartered by the Empress of 
 Germany .... 
 
 Bolts assumes partners at Antwerp, and sails 
 to India . ... 
 
 gets a charter from the Duke of Tuscany — 
 accuses his partners of treachery 
 
 his ships and cargoes are arrested at Leghorn 
 
 new arrangements with his partners — they 
 open subscriptions 
 
 they send ships to China, India, Africa, &c. 
 
 Bolts fits out a large ship on his own account 
 — voyage frustrated 
 
 75 
 
 10 
 
 105 
 
 5 
 
 125 
 
 43 
 
 75 
 
 3'3 
 
 3H 
 
 3H 
 3'5 
 
 3>5 
 
 316 
 
 316 
 
 the Co. fit out ships at Trieste and Leghorn 316 
 five ships arrive from China at Ostend . .317 
 one of their ships is arrested — the Co. bank- 
 rupt . . . . . 317 
 number of their ships loaded at Canton . 318 
 India, See the several Companies. 
 early commerce of the Arabians with India . I 
 the Egyptian-Greeks trade to India . . 3 
 over-land trade with India . . 4 
 discovery of the route by sea a new sera in 
 
 commercial history . . .10 
 
 state of the natives respecting manufactures, 
 trade, and subsistence 190, 252, 361, 363, 366, 
 
 384, 388, 399 
 Indigo cultirated more extensively than 
 formerly, under the patronage of the 
 Co. . . . • 200 
 
 success of the cultivation ascribed to private 
 
 traders ... . 388 
 
 quantity sold 1786 — 1810 . Append, iii 
 
 Insurance between Bengal and London, rates 
 
 of Appendix viii 
 
 Interest of money in India limited to 1 2 per 
 
 cent . . • • 197 
 
 Italians trade to the east part of the Mediter- 
 ranean . . . .6 
 make no attempts for discovery, though su- 
 perior navigators . . .8 
 James I (King) charters Michelborne to trade 
 
 to Cathaia . . . .84 
 
 charters Penkevel and others . . 85 n 
 
 writes to the Great Mogul . . 85 
 
 commissions Sir T. Roe as his Ambassador 
 
 to the Mogul . . .95 
 
 3 k 2 
 
 Jame.
 
 43<5 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Jamet I (King) 
 
 gives the Co. an ample commission for the 
 
 commander of their fleet . . 99 
 
 grants a patent for India trade in Scotland, 
 
 and revokes it . . .100 
 
 ratifies the treaty of the English and Dutch 
 
 Cos. . . . .101 
 
 charters Heydon and Glemham to trade to 
 
 India . . .105 
 
 James II (King) encourages the Co. to send 
 a strong fleet to India, and sends a frigate 
 with them . . . 141, 143 
 
 gives the Company a new charter . . 143 
 
 Japan discovered and traded to by the Port- 
 uguese . . . . 29 
 who are supplanted by the Dutch . 36, 46 
 spirited conduct of Japanese merchants, and 
 wise and spirited conduct of the Govern- 
 ment . . . . 49 
 the Dutch trade to it from Tywan . . 55 
 the Emperor grants charters of trade to the 
 
 English . . 89,90,96, 106 
 
 a massacre of the English said to be intend- 
 ed by the Dutch, and prevented bv the 
 Japanese . . . .106 
 
 the English factory is withdrawn . .105 
 
 subsequent attempts to obtain trade . . 143 
 
 English factors in China directed to attempt a 
 
 trade • . . .165 
 
 Jewels more in request formerly than now . 75 n 
 Job's account of Arabian trade, science, &c. 1 
 Lack explained . . 1 85 n 
 
 Lancaster (James) sails to India — loses his 
 
 ship . . . ' 1& 
 
 sails as Admiral of the Co's first fleet — takes 
 
 a large Portuguese carrack . .81 
 
 Lascars, brought to England, wander about 
 
 as beggars . . . . 236 
 
 more expensive than British Seamen . 235, 379 
 Law (John) projects the Mississipi system . 265 
 Leedes, a jeweler, sent to India . . 75 
 
 Macartney (Lord) sent Ambassador to China 2 15 
 Mackenzie's journies in America prove the im- 
 possibility of a north-west passage . . 75 
 Macpherson ( Sir John) advises a settlement in 
 
 Pulo Penang . . . 238 
 
 Madagascar, repeated attempts of the French 
 
 to settle in . . 254 — 258 
 
 Madras settled — made a chief presidency 1 18, 
 
 125 
 taken by the French and restored . . 177 
 
 Magalhanrs, commands a Spanish fleet in a 
 
 voyage to India . . . 319 
 
 Mahrattas, character of . . 229 
 
 the forts taken from Angria delivered to them 1 8 1 
 are detached from Hyder by M r Hastings . 204 
 allied with the Co. against Tippoo . . 214 
 
 obtain a share of his dominions . . 228 
 
 the Mogul oppressed by Scindia, a Mahratta 
 chief, till relieved by a British army . 240 
 
 Mahrattas. 
 
 war with them, and distressing consequence 
 
 of the victory . . . 243 
 
 ^Malacca the chief emporium of India . 8 
 
 taken by the Portuguese, and made a second 
 
 capital . . 23, 24 
 
 taken by the Dutch, and by the British 51, 68 
 Malouin merchants licenced by the French E.I. 
 
 Co. . . . . 263 
 
 contradictory accounts of their success — nat- 
 ure of their trading voyages . . 263 
 were an association or company . . 264 
 Mandarin, a corrupted name for a Chinese 
 
 magistrate . .114 
 
 Manila built — history of the trade . -321 
 
 the inhabitants unfriendly to the Philippine 
 
 Co. .... 328 
 
 Europeans permitted to import Asiatic 
 
 merchandize . . . 329 
 
 Medici, an illustrious mercantile family 1 29 n, 
 
 382 n 
 Melinda, the Portuguese kindly treated at 13,1 6, 
 
 •7 
 
 Mehille (Lord) quoted . 234, 385, 394 
 
 Mesopotamia receives Oriental goods from 
 
 Arabia . . . .a 
 
 Michelborne ( Sir Edward) sails to India, and 
 
 plunders some Chinese and Indian vessels . 84 
 Middleton (Sir Henry) his transactions in India 
 
 and the Red Sea . 84, S8, 89 
 
 Mildenhall (M r ) sent to India, obtains priv- 
 ileges from the Great Mogul . . 77 
 Military officers in the service of the Co. 
 
 allowed to retire on full pay . . 399 
 
 Mississippi Company, or Co. of the West, or of 
 
 the Indies. 
 formed by the advice of J. Law . . 266 
 
 many other Companies united with them . 266 
 frantic jobbing in their stock . 267 — 270 
 
 they lend the King j£i, 200, 000,000, and are 
 made farmers of the revenue and tobacco, 
 and coiners of money . 268, 271 
 
 the Bank united with the Co. . . 269 
 
 many thousand families ruined by stock- 
 jobbing . . . . 271 
 a vast number of the shares burnt — other 
 arbitrary reductions bring the number 
 down to 56,000 . . . 271 
 they obtain exclusive trade in coffee, lotteries, 
 
 slaves, gold dust, in. . . . 271 
 
 many accounts cancelled and the papers burnt 272 
 they establish a discount office . . 272 
 
 give up Louisiana and some branches of trade 273 
 For later events see French East-India 
 Company . 
 Mogul. See Great Mogul. 
 
 Molucca or Spice islands trade with Malacca . S 
 are discovered and occupied by the Port- 
 uguese . . . 24, 28 
 the Portuguese are expelled by the natives . 31 
 
 Molucca
 
 INDEX. 
 
 437 
 
 Molucca or Spice islands. 
 
 ships of English Co. trade at the islands 83, 84, 
 
 86, 87 
 natives, desirous of dealing with the English, 
 
 prevented by the Dutch . . 89 
 
 the English are expelled by the Dutch . 102 
 
 are taken by the British forces, restored, and 
 
 taken again . . . . 68 
 
 Monson (Sir William) defends the Company . 94 
 Mmtesquieu quoted . . . 34J 
 
 Moors, or Arabians, their conquests and trade 
 
 in India . . j 
 
 their hostility to the Portuguese at Calicut 14 — 18 
 are obliged to have Portuguese passports for 
 
 sailing . . • 2 5 
 
 they cruise against the Portuguese . 27, 3 1 
 
 Morcllet (Abbe) attacks the French E. I. 
 
 Company .... 342 
 
 Mornington (Lord) See Wellesley. 
 Munn's view of the India trade . . 103 
 
 Muslin. See Calicoes. 
 
 Myers (M r ) quoted . . -385 
 
 Mysore, Hyder Ally, Sultan of, distresses 
 
 Madras and the Nabob of Arcot . . 204 
 
 Tippoo, his son, continues the war . 204,208 
 he is obliged to cede half of his dominions . 214 
 he is slain, his dominions divided, an.i a de- 
 scendant of the antient Rajahs restored . 228 
 Nabob, nature of the office . 169 n, 176 
 
 Navigation aS passed . . .121 
 
 is a monopoly, but very beneficial . . 350 
 
 Necker (M r ) answers Abbe Morellet . 343 
 
 Nelson (Admiral) defeats the French fleet . 2^9 
 Netherlanders debarred from trading to India 294 
 Neiubery '. M r ) sent to India . 75 
 
 Norwegians the oldest whale-fishers . . 98 
 
 Nuyts (Peter) curious history of his transact- 
 ions . . . .48 
 Opium, a strange story concerning it . .381 
 Ormus trades with Malacca . " 8 
 sends Oriental goods to Armenia, the Mediter- 
 ranean, &c. . . .9 
 is taken by the Portuguese . . 23 
 the English and Persians take it from them . 106 
 Ostend, a French ship from China arrives at . 264 
 Ostend East-India Company trade under the 
 
 Emperor's passport . . . 295 
 
 some of their ships seized by the Dutch and 
 
 the British .... 295 
 
 British and Dutch ministers remonstrate 
 
 against the Co. . . 296,297 
 
 the trade supported by British capital . 170, 297 
 Co. chartered by the Emperor — subscription 
 
 instantly filled . . . 297 
 
 French and Spaniards prohibited from being 
 
 concerned . . . .298 
 
 the Company very prosperous . . 299 
 
 but their privilege is suspended by the Em- 
 peror . . . 300 
 
 Ostend East-India Company. 
 
 they shelter their trade under foreign flags . 301 
 but sink under a powerful opposition . 30a 
 
 account of ships fitted out by them . -303 
 
 Oude (Nabob of) defeated by the Company's 
 
 forces . . . 187 
 
 his dominions protected by the Company . 25 a 
 Palmyra, an intrepot of India merchandize . 5 
 Paterson (William), who planned the Banks 
 of England and Scotland, projects the 
 Scottish colony at Darien . . iro, 
 
 Persia (King of) sends an Ambaflador to Eng- 
 land . . . -01 
 is in friendship with the Company . .252 
 Peyton (Captain) recommends copper sheath- 
 ing for rudders . . . 96 n 
 Phcenicians receive Oriental goods from 
 
 Arabia . . . .2 
 
 Philippine Company. See Spain. 
 Pliny's complaint of the drain of silver for 
 
 India goods . . . j?6 
 
 Polo (Marco) excites a spirit of discovery in 
 
 Europe . . . .6 
 
 Pondichery settled and fortified by the French 259 
 is taken by the Dutch, is restored, and 
 
 flourishes ... . 260 
 
 contains 70,000 inhabitants . . 273 
 
 is repeatedly taken by the English 191, 200, 223, 
 
 274 
 The Portuguese explore the coast of Africa . 10 
 
 agree with Spain to divide all new-found 
 
 countries between them . .12 
 
 accomplish the passage to India . . 14 
 
 make conquests and establish colonies . 17 — 34 
 India trade is the property of the King 17, 18, 20, 
 
 21, 26 
 Lisbon becomes the market for Oriental goods 22 
 Faria's boasting account of the Portuguese 
 
 power . . . 25 
 
 the King's officers injure his trade — the trade 
 
 in India engrossed by private traders, who 
 
 become pirates . . .26 
 
 the dominions in the East divided into three 
 
 governments . . 3 1 
 
 King Sebastian disappears, and Portugal is 
 
 united to Spain . . • 3 ' 
 
 the King of Spain transfers his India trade to 
 
 a Co. . . . '. 32 
 
 profits and piracies of the King's officers and 
 
 others . . . 32 
 
 the natives of India persecuted by order of 
 
 the Pope and the King . 33 
 
 the Portuguese empire declines upon the 
 
 arrival of Dutch and English ships in the 
 
 Indian seas . . -34 
 
 extreme corruption of government in India 34, 35 
 many settlements and ships taken by the 
 
 Dutch — the Co. are disabled from paying 
 
 the King's annuity . . 35 
 
 The
 
 438 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 The Portuguese. 
 
 the Portuguese driven from Ceylon and Japan 
 
 by the Dutch . . -35 
 
 number of ships sent to India 141 2-1 640 — 
 
 many lost . . . 36 
 
 Portuguese revolt from Spain — many of 
 them in India go into the service of the 
 English . . . .37 
 
 Co. suppressed, and a new one chartered for 
 
 one voyage . . -37 
 
 the inquisition at Goa abolished, and other 
 
 abuses corrected . . -37 
 
 foreign vessels licenced to sail from Lisbon to 
 
 Surat . . -38 
 
 retrospect of the trade, and present state of 
 
 the settlements . . . 38 
 
 the Portuguese now receive Oriental good6 
 
 from Great Britain . . -39 
 
 they trade to the British ports in India . 40 
 
 Portuguese Royal Family remove to Brazil . 40 
 Annual account of fleets from Lisbon to India 
 
 1497- 1 640 . . Append, i 
 
 Prince of Wales' s island, formerly Pulo Penang, 
 purchased and settled — population, pro- 
 duce, and trade — made a regular govern- 
 ment . ... 238 
 Private traders with India commit piracy in 
 
 the Indian seas , . -99 
 
 obliged to find security not to injure the Co. 120 
 are connived at by the Protector, and bring 
 distress upon themselves and the Co. — ask 
 to be incorporated . . -123 
 
 Skinner's unfortunate voyage, and extraord- 
 inary consequences . . . 127 
 Sands's ship embargoed, and a ship of war sent 
 
 to seize interlopers . . 138 
 
 in India they pretend to be the real Co. . 139 
 
 they acknowlege the evils of open trade, and 
 
 ask to be incorporated . . 1 46 
 
 they lend Government ^2,000,000, and are 
 
 incorporated . . . 155 
 
 most of them join their capitals, and are chart- 
 ered as a joint-stock Co. (and are after- 
 wards united with the Old Co.) . . 157 
 unconnected traders are allowed to finish their 
 
 voyages . . . 159, 165 
 
 Private trade in a certain degree authorized 
 
 by the charter act in 1793 . .218 
 
 retrospect of modern private trade — claims for 
 the admission of India-built ships, and for 
 leave to import all the surplus produce of 
 India by means of capital to be transmitted 
 from Britain . . 230,374 — 378 
 
 several private traders are members ot the 
 
 Co. . . . .234 
 
 ships are appropriated to their trade, and other 
 
 concessions made to them, by the Co. . 236 
 
 they propose to trade to every part of the 
 Indian Ocean . . . .368 
 
 Private traders with India. 
 Smith prophecies that the Co. will be in- 
 capable to trade in competition with them 370 
 the contrary proved from experience . .371 
 they desire to exclude all foreigners from 
 
 India ... 
 
 they buy their goods dearer and pay higher 
 
 charges than the Co. do . 37 1, 
 
 their promises and performance . 402, 
 
 pernicious effects of excessive importation 
 Prussian China Company established, trade un 
 
 profitable 
 Prussian Bengal Company established 
 they send out only two ships 
 ships under Prussian colours loaded at Canton 
 Pulo Penang. See Prince of Wales's island. 
 Qualification of a voter in East-IndiaCompany's 
 
 capital. 
 A.D. 1608 . =£500 p. 86 II 1698 . aCjoo . p. iss 
 1661 . jeo us '773 • 1,000 
 1693 . 1,000 148 I 
 Quid stock, i. e. property circulating in trade. 
 
 See pp. 1 19, 126, 144 
 Raymond (Captain) commands 3 ships fitted 
 
 out for India — is lost at sea 
 Raynal quoted . . . . 
 
 Rennell (Major) quoted 
 Revenue derived from the Co. and their trade 
 
 155. 
 
 377 
 
 397 
 
 4°3 
 406 
 
 3" 
 3" 
 312 
 312 
 
 158 
 
 197 
 
 76 
 
 349 
 384 
 138, 
 
 407 
 
 335 
 
 95 
 
 3 6 7 
 
 9 
 
 74 
 
 74 
 98 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 Review of arguments 
 
 Roe (Sir Thomas) sent Ambassador to India 
 
 notices the impolicy of having too many fact- 
 ories . . . . 
 
 Russia receives Oriental goods by land carriage 
 
 north coast of it discovered 
 
 Russia Company spring from a Co. for dis- 
 covery of a northern passage to India 
 
 join the E. I. Co. for the whale-fifhery 
 
 Saltans, eminent traders with India and other 
 countries . . 
 
 have colonies in Africa, &c. 
 
 N. B. These commercial Sabxans must not 
 be confounded with the Sabjean robbers, 
 who plundered Job For a clear dis- 
 tinction of them see Bocharti Geogr. 
 Sacr. col. 222. 
 
 Saint Helena occupied by the E. I. Co. 
 
 a disturbance in the island 
 
 Saint John de Acre, the emporium of the 
 Mediterranean 
 
 Saint Thomas, Christians of, trade to Melinda 
 
 they join the confederacy against the Port- 
 uguese . . . .30 
 
 Saltpetre furnished to Government at a loss 162, 
 
 408 
 
 Amount of the loss . Append, ii 
 
 Saracens, extension of the name . ■ 5 " 
 
 Scotland, a patent for trade to India granted, 
 and withdrawn. . . .100 
 
 Scotland, 
 
 119 
 "39 
 
 6 
 '3
 
 INDEX. 
 
 439 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 the King and Parliament establish a Co. for 
 the trade of Africa and the Indies, and 
 colonizing Darien . .150 
 
 transactions and disasters of this devoted 
 Co. 151 — 153 
 
 Seamen, 2,500 employed by the E. I. Co. in 
 1621, their widows and children relieved by 
 the Co. . . .104 
 
 their numbers increased by the E. I. trade J09, 
 
 33 8 
 about 30,000 employed by the Co. . 368 n 
 
 . See Captains. 
 
 Sheffield {Lord) quoted . . 3 jo 
 
 Ships. 
 
 of Gama's fleet from 50 to 120 tuns . . 13 n 
 
 of Magalhanes, which iirst sailed round the 
 
 world, 90 tuns . . . 320 
 
 of Willoughby's fleet 90 to 120 . 74 
 
 of first English E. I. fleet 240 to 600, the best 
 
 in England . . .81 
 
 a ship of 1000 tuns built by the Co. the largest 
 
 ever built in England . . 87 
 
 the Co. build their own ships . . 92 
 
 they employ 10,000 tuns of shipping . .104 
 the great size of their ships complained of • 107 
 their ships worn out during an interruption of 
 
 their trade 
 
 125 
 
 they employ 30 to 35 ships of from 300 to 
 600 tuns . . . . 133 
 
 they employ chartered ships . . 136, 166 
 
 they build larger ships than formerly, 900 to 
 1300 tuns . . . 1 v,8, 144 
 
 three ships of 74 guns presented by the Co. to 
 Government . ... 202 
 
 seven of their ships taken into Government 
 service . . . ■ 2 S l 
 
 India built ships come to London on an 
 emergency . . . 231 
 
 some more are licenced by the Governor-gen- 
 eral . . . . . 234 
 
 their owners desire to have them established 
 in the trade . . . 231,376 
 
 they are said to sail cheaper than British ships 
 
 234. 378 
 proved to sail at more expense 01 wages, vic- 
 tuals, and insurance 232, 235, 379, Ap- 
 pend, viii. 
 one of them called the Adam Smith . 358 n 
 
 extra ships engaged by the Co. for private 
 
 trade .... 236 
 
 the Company's ships beat off a French Ad- 
 
 miral 
 
 237 
 
 superiority of the Company's ships 400, Append. 
 
 viii. 
 Company's ships, sailed and arrived 1710 — 
 
 1810 . . . Append, vii. 
 
 shipping employed for private trade 1793 — 
 
 1808 . . . 403, Append, xii. 
 
 shipping of all England, 1700, 1760, and, 
 
 1800 .... 400 n 
 
 Ships. 
 
 docks made for India ships . . 240. 
 
 Sidonians receive Oriental goods from Arabia 2 
 
 Silver. See Bullion. 
 
 Silk imported from Persia . . 103, 108 
 
 imported by the Turkey Company . 137 
 
 silk manufacture increased by silk imported 
 
 from India .... 138 
 
 quality of Bengal silk improved, and some or- 
 ganzined . ... 223 
 
 : alleged to be neglected by the Company . 390 
 
 Skinner {Thomas) sails to India, settles on an 
 island, whence he is expelled — his complaint 
 occasions a violent contest between the two 
 Houses of Parliament . . . 127 
 
 Slave ships, great mortality in . . 338 
 
 Smith [Doctor Adam) when he published his 
 
 Inquiry . . . Pref. vi n 
 
 reprobates monopolies 346 and thenceforth 
 
 throughout, 
 his notion of the immensity of Indian com- 
 merce ... . 3J9 
 he apparently proposes to colonize India 363 
 his prediction of the incapacity of the Co. 370 
 his name given to an India-built ship . 358 n 
 Smith {SirThomas) a principal member of the 
 Turkey Co. and other members, propose to 
 engage in an over-land trade to India, and 
 send proper persons to discover the nature 
 of the trade . . • • 75 
 is first Governor of the East-India Company 79 n 
 Solomon receives spices, &c. from the Queen of 
 
 Sabaea or Sheba . . .2 
 
 South-Sea frenzy raises the Company's stock 171 
 Spain, and commerce of the Spaniards in India. 
 the Sovereigns equip Colon for a voyage of 
 
 discovery . . . .12 
 
 they get a grant of the new-found lands from 
 the Pope, but agree to divide them with 
 Portugal . . .12 
 
 various attempts to find a western passage to 
 
 India . . . . 319, 320 
 
 the King sells a resignation of the India trade 
 
 to Portugal .... 320 
 
 trade between Mexico and the Spice islands 320 
 conquest of the Philippines — foundation and 
 
 trade of Manila . . .321 
 
 origin and progress of the trade with Aca- 
 
 pulco . . . . 321 
 
 the King prohibits Chinese and India silk and 
 
 cotton goods . . . 322 
 
 the prohibition is repealed . . 323 
 
 the Co. of the Philippine islands chartered — 
 
 are inefficient . . . . 323 
 
 the King's ships 6ail to India by the Cape 324 
 
 anew Co. of the Philipines chartered . 324 
 
 they are ill received at Manila . . 328 
 
 European vessels allowed to carry Asiatic 
 
 goods to Manila . . . 329 
 
 the Co. contract with the English Co. for 
 India goods . . . • 329 
 
 Spain
 
 440 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Spain, &c. 
 
 accounts of the transactions of the Co. . 330 
 
 their trade deranged by the war — their chart- 
 er renewed . . -333 
 their business is suspended by the revolution 
 
 in Spain . . . • 334 
 
 Spices, long the chief article imported from 
 
 India . . . .22, 45, 103 n 
 
 the demand for them is diminished . 67, 103 n 
 Stock-holders, number of, in the E. I. Co. 352 n 
 Storie, a painter, sent to India . . 75 
 
 Subahdar, nature of the office . 169 n, 176 
 
 Sugar imported from India, . 388 
 
 Sunn hemp imported, and the use of it recom- 
 mended at a great expense, by the Co. 241 
 is supplied to Government by the Co. . 242 
 the Co. are accused of opposing the introduc- 
 tion of it . . . 391 
 Sural, the Company's chief settlement . 125 
 Swedish Co. for trade with Africa, Asia, &c. 
 
 incorporated . . . 305 
 
 Swedish East-India Co. established on the fall 
 
 of theOstend Co. . . . 306 
 
 they fit out two ships— one is seized by the 
 
 Dutch . ... 307 
 
 the Swedes grumble at the trade . .308 
 
 the Co. get a new charter — render their stock 
 
 permanent . . . 309 
 
 Government oblige them to lend money . 309 
 their trade, chiefly in tea, declines in conse- 
 quence of the British commutation act . 309 
 number of ships dispatched by them, &c. . 310 
 Syria receives Oriental goods from Arabia 2 
 
 Tea first imported by the Co. from Bantam 128 
 history of tea . . 128 — 132 
 
 progress of duties on tea . . 1 30, 1 3 1 
 
 it is a chief support of the smuggling trade 
 
 131, 208 
 duty lowered, but Co. bound to make up the 
 
 deficiency . . • "94 
 
 tea sent to America . . .198 
 
 the sale depressed by the high duty . -199 
 
 which operates as a premium for smuggling, 
 
 and counterfeiting . . . 208 
 
 duty lowered on tea, and increased on windows 209 
 duty increased in 1795. and frequently since, 
 
 but consumption still increased . . 224 
 
 beneficial effect of the commutation act upon 
 the woolen manufacture, &c. even after it 
 is virtually annulled 210, 224, Append, vi 
 
 Amount of sales of tea, and duty on it Append, iv 
 Quantity of tea shipped at Canton for Europe 
 
 Append, v 
 Tin carried to China . 211,213,401 
 
 Tranquebar. See Danish East- India Company. 
 Turkey Company chartered in 158 1 . . 75 
 
 Turkey Company 
 
 some of the members attempt to establish an 
 
 over-land trade with India 
 the chief members fit out three ships for India 
 the over-land trade with India vested in the 
 
 Co. 
 they import India goods from the Levant 
 they demand leave to send ships to the Red 
 
 Sea by the Cape « 
 
 Tyrians receive Oriental goods from Arabia 
 Tywan, or Formosa, a Dutch settlement in 
 the Dutch are expelled from it 
 a factory settled by the English E. I. Co. 
 the island resigned to the Emperor of China 
 Udney (Mr) quoted . . 371, 
 
 Ustariz. quoted 
 The Venetians trade to Saint John de Acre 
 
 Constantinople, &c. 
 have the whole trade of the Levant 
 make no voyages of discovery 
 their extensive commerce, shipping, &c. 7 
 their trade ruined by the Portuguese 
 assist the Sultan of Egypt against the Port 
 
 uguese 
 offer to buy pepper from the King of Port 
 
 ugal 
 Warehousing act passed in 1 799 
 Watte/ quoted 
 Wellesley (Marquis) Governor-general, sub 
 
 dues Tippoo 
 licences India-built ships 
 his account of the British possessions in India 
 West Indies, state of the trade with 
 William III (King) addressed to dissolve the 
 
 E. I. Co. . 
 
 gives them a new charter with many regul 
 
 ations 
 charters theDarien Co. of Scotland 
 issues proclamations hostile to them 
 charters a new E. I. Co. and subscribes 
 
 ^£10,000 of their stock . . 155, 
 
 Willoughby (Sir Hugh) commander of a voyage 
 
 of discovery, is frozen to death in the 
 
 Northern Ocean 
 Woo! of England, formerly the best in Europe 
 
 35* » 
 Woolen goods exported by the E. I. Co. 95, 211, 
 
 387, Append, vi 
 great increase of exports to China since the 
 
 commutation act 
 vast number of people employed in making 
 
 them for the Co. 
 small quantity exported in private trade 
 Woolen manufacture, a monopoly, but cher- 
 ished by the Legislature . -35° 
 
 75 
 76 
 
 76 
 77 
 
 J 37 
 
 2 
 
 48 
 55 
 
 127 
 
 59 
 
 378" 
 
 345 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 8 n 
 
 22 
 
 2 3 
 
 26 
 328 
 
 342 
 
 228 
 2 34 
 385 
 360 
 
 146 
 
 148 
 149 
 152 
 
 156 
 
 75 
 
 . -211 
 4OI 
 
 4°3 
 
 THE END. 
 
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