CHAPTER III.

From the Formation of the third Joint-Stock, in 1632, till the Coalition of the Company with the Merchant Adventurers, in 1657.

IN 1631-32, a subscription was opened for a third joint-stock. This amounted to 420,7007. Still we are left in darkness with regard to some important circumstances. We know not in what degree the capital which had been placed in the hands of the Directors by former subscriptions had been repaid; not even if any part of it had been repaid, though the Directors were now without funds to carry on the trade.

With the new subscription, seven ships were fitted out in the same season; but of the money or goods embarked, no account remains. In 1633-34, the fleet consisted of five ships; and in 1634-35, of no more than three, the money or goods in both cases unknown.2

During this period, however, some progress was made in extending the connexions of the Company with the eastern coast of Hindustan. It was thought advisable to replace the factory at Masulipatam not long after it had been removed; and certain privileges, which afforded protection from former grievances, were obtained from the King of Golconda, the

1 Papers in the Indian Register Office. Sir Jeremy Sambrooke's Report on the East India Trade. Bruce, i. 306.

BOOK I.

СНАР. 3.

1632.

CHAP. 3.

1634.

BOOK I. Sovereign of the place. Permission was given by the Mogul Emperor to trade to Piplee in Orissa ; and a factor was sent from Masulipatam. For the more commodious government of these stations, Bantam was again raised to the rank of a Presidency, and the eastern coast was placed under its jurisdiction. Despairing of success in the contest with the Dutch for the trade of the islands, the Company had, for some time, despatched their principal fleets to Surat; and the trade with this part of India and with Persia now chiefly occupied their attention. From servants at a vast distance, and the servants of a great and negligent master, the best service could not easily be procured. For this discovery the Directors were indebted, not to any sagacity of their own, but to a misunderstanding among the agents themselves; who, betraying one another, acknowledged that they had neglected the affairs of their employers to attend to their own; and, while they pursued with avidity a private trade for their private benefit, had abandoned that of the Company to every kind of disorder.1

As pepper was a product of the Malabar coast, a share was sought in the trade of that commodity, through a channel, which the Dutch would not be able to obstruct. A treaty was concluded, between the English and Portuguese, in 1634-35, and confirmed with additional articles the following year, in which it was ordained that the English should have free access to the ports of the Portuguese, and that the Portuguese should receive from the English factories the treatment of friends.2

Bruce, i. 306, 320, 324, 327.

2 lb. 325, 334.

СНАР. 3.

The Company, like other unskilful, and for that BOOK I. reason unprosperous, traders, had always competitors, of one description or another, to whom they 1635. ascribed their own want of success. For several years they had spoken with loud condemnation of the clandestine trade carried on by their own servants; whose profits, they said, exceeded their own. Their alarms, with regard to their exclusive privilege, had for some time been sounded; and would have been sounded much louder, but for the ascendency gained by the sentiments of liberty, the contentions between Charles and his parliament being already high; and the hope that their monopoly would escape the general wreck, with which institutions at variance with the spirit of liberty were threatened, only if its pretensions were prudently kept in the shade. The controversy, whether monopolies, and among others that of the Company, were injurious to the wealth and prosperity of the nation, had already employed the press: but, though the Company had entered boldly enough into the lists of argument, they deemed it their wisest course, at the present conjuncture, not to excite the public attention by any invidious opposition to the infringements which private adventure was now pretty frequently committing on their exclusive trade.

An event at last occurred, which appeared to involve unusual danger. A number of persons, with Sir William Courten at their head, whom the new arrangements with the Portuguese excited to hopes

Some inaccuracy of expression occurs in the text. There was not any parliament from 1628 to 1640, but there was much public discontent at the time in question, especially on the subject of Ship-money.-W.

СНАР. 3.

BOOK I. of extraordinary profit, had the art, or the good fortune, to engage in their schemes Endymion Porter, 1635. Esq., a gentleman of the bedchamber to the King, who prevailed upon the sovereign himself to accept of a share in the adventure, and to grant his license for a new association to trade with India. The preamble to the license declared that it was founded upon the misconduct of the East India Company, who had accomplished nothing for the good of the nation, in proportion to the great privileges they had obtained, or even to the funds of which they had disposed. This was, probably, the general opinion of the nation; nothing less seeming necessary to embolden the King to such a violation of their charter. Allowing the contrariety to the interests of the nation, the consequences were not so ruinous, but that the stipulated notice of three years might have been given, and a legal end been put to the monopoly. The Company petitioned the King, but without success. They sent, however, instructions to their agents and factors in India, to oppose the interlopers, at least indirectly. An incident occurred, of which they endeavoured to avail themselves to the utmost. One of their ships from Surat reported that a vessel of Courten's had seized and plundered two junks belonging to Surat and Diu, and put the crews to the torture. The latter part at least of the story was, in all probability, forged; but the Directors believed, or affected to believe, the whole. In consequence of the outrage, the English President and Council at Surat had been imprisoned, and the property of the factory confiscated to answer for the loss. A memorial was presented to the

СНАР. 3.

King, setting forth, in the strongest terms, the BOOK I. injuries which the Company sustained by the license

to Courten's Association, and the ruin which threa- 1635-7. tened them unless it were withdrawn. The Privy Council, to whom the memorial was referred, treated the facts alleged, as little better than fabrication, and suspended the investigation till Courten's ships should return.1

The arrival of Courten's ships at Surat seems to have thrown the factory into the greatest confusion. It is stated as the cause of a complete suspension of trade on the part of the Company, for the season, at that principal seat of their commercial operations. The inability early and constantly displayed by the Company, to sustain even the slightest competition, is a symptom of inherent infirmities.

2

In 1637-38, several of Courten's ships returned, and brought home large investments, which sold with an ample profit to the adventurers. The fears and jealousies of the Company were exceedingly raised. They presented to the crown a petition for protection; placing their chief reliance, it should seem, on the lamentable picture of their own distresses. Their remonstrance was, however, disregarded; a new license was extended to Courten's Association, continuing their privileges for five years; and, to form a line betweeu them and the Company, it was ordained, that neither should they trade at those places where the Company had factories, nor the Company trade at any places at which Courten's Association might have erected establishments.3

1 Bruce, i. 329, 387.

2 Ib. 342.

3 Ib. i. 345, 349.