CHAP. V.

From the Project of forming a new and rival Company, till the Union of the two Companies by the Award of Godolphin, in the year 1711.

THE Company were now again threatened by that competition with their CHAP. V. fellow-citizens which they have always regarded as their greatest misfortune. 1685.

From the renewal of their charter, shortly after the accession of Charles II., their monopoly had not been disturbed, except by a few feeble interlopers whom new East India Company. they had not found it difficult to crush. In the year 1682-83, the design was disclosed of opening a subscription for a new joint-stock, and establishing a rival East India Company. The scheme was so much in unison with the sentiments of the nation, and assumed an aspect of so much importance, as to be taken into consideration by the King and Council.

The project had so much effect upon the views of the Company, though for the present the Council withheld their sanction, that, in Mr. Bruce's opinion, it introduced into their policy of 1682-83 a refinement, calculated and intended to impose upon the King and the public. It induced them to speak of the amount of their equipments, not, as usual, in terms of exact detail, but in those of vague and hyperbolical estimate. What we know of their adventure of that year is only the information they.forwarded to their Indian stations, that the stock to be sent out would exceed one million sterling. In the course of the next season they equipped four ships to Surat. Of that year we only further know that 100,000/. in bullion was intended for Bengal. In 1684-85, information was forwarded to Surat, in general terms, that the tonnage and stock would be considerable: Five ships sailed for Fort St. George and Bengal, with 140,000l. in bullion Of other circumstances nothing is adduced: And for several succeeding years no statement of the tonnage and stock of the annual voyages appears.† Under the skill which the Court of Directors have all along displayed in sup- Debts of the Company.. pressing such information as they wished not to appear, it is often impossible to collect more than gleanings of intelligence respecting the Company's debts. At

* Bruce, ii. 475.

+ Ib. 476, 481-496, 506-528, 531.

1685.

Book I. the present period, however, they appear to have been heavy and distressing. In 1676, it was asserted by their opponents in England that their debts amounted to 600,000l.;* and we have already seen that, in 1674, the debt of Surat alone amounted to 135,000l. † In 1682-83, the Directors authorized the Agency in Bengal to borrow 200,000l., and, in 1683-84, it is stated that the debt upon the dead stock at Bombay alone amounted to 300,000l. It seems highly probable that at this time their debts exceeded their capital.

Loss of Bantam, and re

George.

In a war between the King of Bantam and his son, in which the English moval of the sided with the former, and the Dutch with the latter, the son prevailed; and in Presidency to Fort St. consequence expelled the English from the place. The agents and servants of the factory took shelter at Batavia, and the Dutch Governor made offer of his assistance to bring the property of the Company from Bantam. As the English, however, accused the Dutch of being the real authors of the calamity, they declined the proposal, as precluding those claims of redress which the Company might prosecute in Europe. Various efforts were made to regain possession of Bantam, but the Dutch from this time remained sole masters of Java. §

Powers of Admiralty Jurisdiction ex

tended to the Company.

Revolt of
Keigwin.

Upon the loss of Bantam, the Presidency for the government of the Eastern Coast, which had hitherto, with a fond desire for the traffic of the islands, been stationed at that place, was removed to Fort St. George. ||

The nation becoming gradually more impatient under the monopoly, the numbers multiplied of those who ventured to break through the restraint which it imposed upon the commercial ardour of the times. The Company, not satisfied with the power which they had already obtained of common and martial law, and of seizing, with their property, and sending to England, as many of their countrymen as their interests or caprice might direct, still called for a wider range of authority; and, under the favour with government which they now enjoyed, obtained the powers of Admiralty jurisdiction, for the purpose of seizing and condemning, safe from the review of the courts of municipal law in England, the ships of the interlopers.** The servants of the Company were now invested with unlimited, that is, despotic power, over the British people in India. Insurrection again appeared at Bombay, and assumed a very formidable aspect. The causes were such as have commonly, in the Company's affairs, been attended with similar effects. Efforts had been made to retrench expenses; and this was very unpleasant to the Company's servants. The earliest experi

1687.

ment of the Company in territorial sovereignty agreed with the enlarged experi- CHAP. IV. ence of succeeding times: the expense of the government exceeded the revenue which the population and territory could be made to yield. The Directors, new to the business of government, were disappointed; and having first laboured to correct the deficit by screwing up the revenue, they next attempted the same arduous task by lessening the expense. By the two operations together, all classes of their subjects were alienated: First, the people, by the weight of taxation; next the instruments of government, by the diminution of their profits. Accordingly Captain Keigwin, commander of the garrison at Bombay, was joined by the troops and the great body of the people, in renouncing the authority of the Company, and declaring by proclamation, dated December 27, 1683, that the island belonged to the King. Keigwin was by general consent appointed Governor; and immediately addressed letters to the King and to the Duke of York, stating such reasons as were most likely to avert from his conduct the condemnation to which it was exposed.*

The President and Council at Surat, conscious of their inability to reduce the island by force, had recourse to negotiation. A general pardon, and redress of grievances were promised. First three commissioners were sent, and afterwards the President repaired to Bombay in person. But neither entreaties nor threats were of any avail.t

As soon as intelligence arrived in England, the King's command was procured, directing Captain Keigwin to deliver up the island: and instructions were forwarded to proceed against the insurgents by force. When Sir Thomas Grantham, the commander of the Company's fleet, presented himself at Bombay, invested with the King's commission, Keigwin offered, if assured of a free pardon to himself and adherents, to surrender the place. On these terms the island was restored to obedience. And for the more effectual coercion of any turbu- Bombay elelent propensities in future, the expedient was adopted of removing the seat of government from Surat to Bombay. Nor could the humble title and pretensions power over of a President and Council any longer satisfy the rising ambition of the Com- pany's estapany. The Dutch had established a regency at Batavia and Columbo. It was India. not consistent with the grandeur of the English Company to remain contented

Bruce, ii. 512. Governor Child is accused by Hamilton of wanton and intolerable oppressions; and that author states some facts which indicate excessive tyranny. New Account of the East Indies, i. 187-199.

† Bruce, ii. 515.

vated to a re

gency, with

all the Com

blishments in

{

1687.

War with the
native powers
in Bengal.

事

Book I. with inferior distinction. In 1687, Bombay was elevated to the dignity of a
Regency, with unlimited power over the rest of the Company's settlements.
Madras was formed into a corporation, governed by a mayor and aldermen.*
The English had met with less favour, and more oppression, from the native
powers in Bengal, than in any other part of India.† In 1685-86, the resolution
was adopted of seeking redress and protection by force of arms.
The greatest
military equipment the Company had ever provided was sent to India. Ten
armed vessels, from twelve to seventy guns, under the command of Captain
Nicholson, and six companies of infantry, without captains, whose places were to
be supplied by the Members of Council in Bengal, were dispatched, with instruc-
tions to seize and fortify Chittagong as a place of future security, and to
retaliate in such a manner upon the Nabob and Mogul as to obtain reparation
for the injuries and losses which had been already sustained. In addition to this
force the Directors, in the following year, made application to the King for an
entire company of regular infantry with their officers; and power was granted
to the Governor in India to select from the privates such men as should appear
qualified to be commissioned officers in the Company's service. By some of
those innumerable casualties inseparable from distant expeditions, the whole of
the force arrived not at one time in the Ganges; and an insignificant quarrel
between some of the English soldiers and the natives was imprudently allowed
to bring on hostilities before the English were in a condition to maintain them
with success. They were obliged to retire from Hoogly, after they had cannon-
aded it with the fleet, and took shelter at Chutanuttee, afterwards Calcutta, till
an agreement with the Nabob, or additional forces, should enable them to re-
sume their stations. The disappointment of their ambitious schemes was bitterly
felt by the Court of Directors. They blamed their servants in Bengal in the

* Bruce, ii. 526, 540, 584, 591. It was debated in the Privy Council, whether the charter of incorporation should be under the King's or the Company's seal. The King asked the Governor his opinion, who replied, "that no person in India should be employed by immediate commission from his Majesty, because, if they were, they would be prejudical to our service by their arrogancy, and prejudical to themselves, because the wind of extraordinary honour in their heads would probable make them so haughty and overbearing, that we should be forced to remove them." Letter from the Court to the President of Fort St. George, (Ib. 591). Hamilton, ut supra, (189-192). Orme's Historical Fragments, 185, 188, 192, 198.

+ Mr. Orme is not unwilling to ascribe part of the hardships they experienced to the interlopers, who, seeking protection against the oppressions of the Company, were more sedulous and skilful in their endeavours to please the native governors. Hist. Frag. 185.

1687.

severest terms, not only for timidity, but infidelity, as having turned the re- CHAP. V. sources of the Company, which ought to have been effectually employed in obtaining profitable and honourable terms from the Nabob and Mogul, to their own schemes of private avarice and emolument. A hollow truce was agreed to by the Nabob, which he only employed for preparing the means of an effectual attack. The English, under the direction of Charnock, the Company's agent, made a gallant defence. They not only repulsed the Nabob's forces in repeated assaults, but stormed the fort of Tanna, seized the island of Injellee, in which they fortified themselves, and burnt the town of Balasore, with forty sail of the Mogul fleet; the factories, however, at Patna and Cossimbuzar were taken and plundered. In September, 1687, an accommodation was effected, and the English were allowed to return to Hoogley, with their ancient privileges. But this was a termination of the contest ill-relished by the Court of Directors, who repeating their accusations of Charnock and their other functionaries, sent Sir John Child, the governor of Bombay, to Madras and Bengal, for the purpose of reforming abuses, and re-establishing, if possible, the factories at Cossimbuzar and other places, from which they had been driven by the war. A large ship, the Defence, accompanied by a frigate, arrived from England under the command of a captain of the name of Heath, with instructions for war. The Company's servants had made considerable progress by negotiation in regaining their ancient ground; when Heath precipitately commenced hostilities, plundered the town of Balasore, and proceeded to Chittagong, which he found himself unable to subdue. Having taken the Company's servants and effects on board, agreeably to his orders, he sailed to Madras; and Bengal was abandoned.*

government,

voked, threa

These proceedings, with the rash and presumptuous behaviour of Sir John The Mogul Child on the western side of India, exasperated Aurengzebe, the most powerful rashly proof all the Mogul sovereigns, and exposed the Company's establishments to ruin tens the exin every part of India. The factory at Surat was seized; the island of Bombay the English. pulsion of was attacked by the fleet of the Siddees; the greater part of it taken, and the governor besieged in the town and castle. Aurengzebe issued orders to expel the English from his dominions. The factory at Masulipatam was seized; as was also that at Visigapatam, where the Company's agent and several of their

* These events occurred under the government of the celebrated imperial deputy Shaista Khan; "to the character of whom (says Mr. Stewart, Hist. of Bengal, 300.) it is exceedingly difficult to do justice. By the Mohammedan historians he is described as the pattern of excellence; but by the English he is vilified as the oppressor of the human race. Facts are strongly on the side of the Mohammedans."