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East India Company.

a handful of crafty, hardy, and unprincipled Europeans wrested a mighty empire from the feeble grasp of the timid, artless, and effeminate 'Hindoos. Leaving out, therefore, all military details, which in justice ought never to matary details have formed a part of the history of the East India Company, we shall confine ourselves principally to the civil transactions of this association.

The first attention to the India trade appears to have been attracted by the success of the Dutch merchants. These rapacious traders, having supplanted the Portuguese, in that part of the world, had an entire monopoly of the trade, and availing themselves of the exclusive possession of the market, exacted exorbitant prices for the pepper and other productions of the East. To frustrate their avarice, and obtain some share in this lucrative traffic, the merchants of London despatched a mission to the Great Mogul to obtain from him a grant of commercial privileges to the English. The success of this mission was not known till the year 1606; but, in the mean time, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and other principal merchants of the city, to the number of 101, assembled on the 22d of September, at Founders'-hall, and established an association for trading to India, for which they subscribed a capital of £33,133 6s. 8d. This may be considered the first germ of our Indian empire. Po Lara

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On the 31st of December, Thomas Smith, alderman, and a great number of other merchants, were incorporated by Queen Elizabeth, under the name of" The Governor and Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies, with the usual privileges to trade exclusively to all parts of Asia, Africa, and America, for 15 years. The capital of this Company amounted to about £70,000. They fitted out four, ships, the best in England, of the burden of 240, 260, 300, and 600 tons. The value of the ships' stores and provisions, of the merchandize forming the cargoes, and of the bullion, was restimated at £68,379.

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This expedition appears to have been tolerably successful, brought home valuable cargoes of nutmegs, pepper, and mace, and succeeded in establishing several factories at Bantany, and on the Molucca Islands. But, notwithstanding the success of this undertaking, no great effort appears to have been made to follow it up, and for several years after, the trade and capital of the Company gradually declined. In 1606, only three ships were fitted out. In 1608, the Company having subscribed a capital of £33,000, for a fourth voyage, the whole of their ships were either wrecked in India or on their voyage home. Next year they were more fortunate, and their

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East India Company.

ships bringing home a valuable cargo of mace and nutmegs, they divided a profit of 211 per cent. Encouraged by this success, the Company solicited the renewal of their charter, and seemed resolved to push the trade with spirit. They built the largest ship that had ever been constructed in England for commercial purposes, being no less than 1000 tons burden. King James and his court attended the launch, and named her The Trade's Increase. Peopardue at den

Unfortunately, this vessel was lost, and Sir Henry Middleton, her commander, soon after died of grief. The next voyage was undertaken with a capital of only £15,364. The eleventh voyage was limited to a single ship, and a capital of £10,689. The twelfth voyage was limited to a single ship of 240 tons, and employed only a capital of £7,142. This was the last voyage as a separate concern. It yielded a profit of £138 18s. 4d. for every £100 capital.

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Various causes may be assigned for this declension in the Company's affairs. Their rivals, the Dutch and Portuguese, made use of every expedient their malice and treachery could suggest, to impede their success; besides which we may add the erroneous principles on which the different Voyages we have mentioned were undertaken. Instead of the trade being conducted upon a joint-stock, on account of the whole company, every individual was privileged by the charter, to subscribe as much or as little as he pleased, or nothing at all, for every voyage. The inconvenience and absurdity of this principle had become obvious; and, in 1613, it was determined to have no more separate voyages, but to open a subscription for a joint capital, to continue for four years. Under this system the affairs of the Company soon assumed a new aspect; and in a very short time they had established more than twenty factories, in different parts of the Mogul's dominions, and the islands in the Indian seas. vď Lox,logoge at

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In 1616, when they proposed to raise a new capital, all ranks crowded into the subscription, which, at the time of closing it, amounted to £1,629,040, being the largest capital that had ever been subscribed in any part of Europe, for a joint-stock trade. Among the subscribers were 15 dukes and earls, 13 countesses, 82 knights, including judges and privy counsellors, 18 widows and maiden ladies, besides clergymen, physicians, merchants, tradesmen, and others without any denomination; in the whole 954 subscribers. The stock of the Company sold for 203 per cent. The total value of their property, at this time, was estimated at £400,000.

East India Company.

And it was stated by the deputy governor, that they gave employment to (10,000 tons of shipping, 2500 seamen, 500 ship carpenters, and 120 factors in India.bug o`

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9nOwing to a variety of untoward circumstances their affairs again declined, and at the time of the protectorship of Cromwell, their stock was so l low as £80 per cent. The civil war which broke out in the reign of Charles the First, and the subsequent unsettled state of the government, had entirely disorganized their affairs. Private individuals were permitted to trade to India, which caused much confusion. Cromwell granted them a new charter, but very little capital was subscribed; and it was not ill the Greign of Charles the Second the Company's affairs assumed a more settled sappearance. That monarch renewed their charter; and the King having obtained the island of Bombay, from Portugal, as part of the Queen's marriage portion, he granted it to the Company, on condition of paying him a fee-farm rent of. ten pounds, at the Custom-house, on the 30th of September in each year for ever.

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225 In 1669 the Company received two canisters containing 1434 pounds of Jatea, which is supposed to have been the first importation of this article froh any part of the Indies. It was partly given away in presents, and -partly expended in the India House for the refreshment of the committees.

Im 1676, the trade of the Company having been very successful for many Lyears, they were enabled, out of their accumulated profits, to double their -capital to £739,732: 10:;0; upon which the market price of their stock, s which had been under par, immediately rose to £245 per cent. The to ships in their employ amounted to from 30 to 35, of from 300 to 600 tons, band carrying from 40 to 70 guns. In the year 1680, the Company sent

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a ship to trade with China. The whole of that trade had heretofore been monopolized by the Dutch and Portuguese. About this time they bsacquired the privilege to coin money, not resembling British money, at of Bombay and other places in India. The Company consisted of 600 va members, who were entitled to votes in proportion to their shares; hence čit happened that some had to the amount of sixty votes :-every member ymoreover had liberty to carry on trade on his own private account, to enthe extent of one-fifth of his stock in the Company's capital. The stock srof the Company, clear of all debts, amounted to £1,700,000. The expense of the Company's forts in India was estimated at £100,000 a 00 year

In 1698, the English factory obtained permission to purchase three small

East India Company.

villages, extending in all about three miles along the cast bank of the Ganges, and about one mile back from it, for which they agreed to pay annually to the Nabob 1195 rupees. This paltry acquisition was the com mencement of the territorial aggrandizement of the Company, and by which they were afterwards enabled, assisted by fraud and force, to extend theme selves over the whole Mogul empire. The ground on which these villages stood forms the site of the great city of Calcutta, containing 800,000 inhabitants. Some jealousy about this time began to be entertained at the increasing power of the Company; and in 1698 the government intimated to the odd Company, that a large sum would be expected for the public service, in conser sideration of a parliamentary confirmation of their privileges. The Company offered to advance £700,000 at an interest of 4 per cent provided their charter were fully confirmed by parliament. Meanwhile several opuléntica individuals offered to advance £2,000,000, provided they were invested 19 » with all the privileges of the India trade, as heretofore enjoyed by theƆ Company. Parliament accepted the larger sum, though at double interestand and a bill was ordered to be prepared for incorporating the subscribers.900 The Company, not to be outdone by their opponents, then proposed a loan of £2,000,000, but this availed them nothing. The government wasul favourable to the opposing interest, and they prevailed. On the 5th of July the royal assent was given to an act incorporating the new subscribers sq with powers and privileges similar to the chartered Company. So great werelt the advantages anticipated by the nation from the new association, that thes subscription of two millions was filled up within a few days after the books sh were opened. The greatest part of this sum was subscribed by foreigners. The King himself was an adventurer to the extent of £10,000. to culto ad I The charter of the original Company had not yet expired, and almost od ruinous contest ensued betwixt the rival associations. More than sixty ships ob are said to have beer employed by the contending interests in the Judia¬dl trade. The glut of India goods, joined to other causes, produced by this iq rivalship, reduced the value of the stock of the old Company, which had to been as high as 500 per cent., to 39 per cent. Both parties at length seeno79 to have discovered the ruinous tendency of this contest, and an union wasten effected in 1702, by a tripartite indenture, wherein Queen Anne, the oldds Company, and the new Company, were partners. According to this instruedło ment, the two Companies bind themselves to have at least one-tenth of their loy exports in English manufactures, and after the expiration of seven years 00 they are to be called The United Company of Merchants of England,pr❗A

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East India Company.

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trading to the East Indies which is the present designation of the Comilliy pany of b9919s voit douw tot di word Jesu Leds has g After this union, there are not many facts in the history of the Company till the middle of the eighteenth century, deserving of notice. The Com pany about this period began to be as actively engaged in making territoriaPl} acquisitions as in the pursuits of commerce. Among the various expedients → by which our Indian empire has been acquired, we may mention the adventure of Mr. Hamilton. This gentleman, a surgeon in the service of the honourable Company, being sent to the coast of Delhi, obtained someo valuable cessions from the Great Mogul, by curing him of and obstinate venereal complaint, which had long baffled the skill of his physicians♫odbebe Ins 1766, the Company, in consequences of their territorial acquisitions, fo raised their dividends from 6 to 10 per cent, and shortly after to 124 per cent. In 1779, the time for the renewal of the charter approaching, ther Company prudently prepared for that event, by a present to the public of three seventy-four gun ships, besides a large sum of money in bounties to>> 6000 seamen Notwithstanding this bonus, in 1780 notice was given to the Company by government, that on the expiration of their charter their ex clusive privileges should cease, unless they would agree to pay £1,000,000£6) into the Exchequer, restrict their future dividends to 8 per cent. and st pay three-fourths of the surplus profits, over and above that dividend, into the Exchequer After much discussion, the demand for the renewal of their arter was reduced to £600,000. This renewal was to continue till the 1stdi day of March, 1791, when, on the payment of the debt due by govern d'a ment to the Company, their exclusive privileges should expire. anggo 91ɔw The affairs of the East India Company, and the transactions in Hindostan,...! I began deeply to interest the public, and every session of parliament pro duced some new investigation on this important subject. From merchants, the Company had risen into sovereign princes, and, instead of being occu-T pied with the ginger and pepper trade, they were wholly absorbed in schemes of territorial aggrandisement. Occupied unceasingly in war-buying and exchanging territory-making treaties of partition-hiring troops to a the native princes-establishing monopolies--and fomenting wars among the o nabobs and subahdars, that these short-sighted-princes, after weakening eacholis other by their mutual animosities, might fall an easy prey to the superiono policy of the common invader. These avocations ill-comported with the commercial character, and it was a little inconceivable how gren, whose knowledge, it may be supposed, was principally confined to anaking out

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