1630.

Notwithstanding the terms on which the English stood with the Dutch, they CHAP. II. were allowed to re-establish their factory at Bantam after the failure of the attempt at Lagundy: a war in which the Dutch were involved with some of the native princes of the island lessened, perhaps, their disposition or their power to oppose their European rivals. As Bantam was now a station of inferior importance to Surat, the government of Bantam was reduced to an agency, dependent upon the Presidency of Surat, which became the chief seat of the Company's government in India. Among the complaints against the Dutch, it was one of the heaviest, that they sold European goods cheaper, and bought Indian goods dearer, at Surat, than the English; who were thus extruded from the market. To sell cheaper and buy dearer is competition, the soul of trade. If the Dutch sold so cheap and bought so dear, as to be losers, all that was wanting on the part of the English was a little patience. The fact, however, was, that the Dutch, trading on a larger capital and with more economy, were perfectly able to outbid the English both in purchase and sale. The English at Surat had to sustain at this time not only the commercial rivalship of the Dutch but also a powerful effort of the Portuguese to regain their influence in that part of the East. The Viceroy at Goa had in April, 1630, received a reinforcement from Europe of nine ships and 2,000 soldiers, and projected the recovery of Ormus. Some negotiation to obtain the exclusive trade of Surat was tried in vain with the Mogul Governor; and in September an English fleet of five ships endeavoured to enter the port of Swally. A sharp, though not a decisive, action was fought. The English had the advantage; and, after sustaining several subsequent skirmishes, and one great effort to destroy their fleet by fire, succeeded in landing their cargoes.*

*Bruce, i. 296, 304, 300, 302.

1635. Third jointstock.

CHAP. III.

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

to 420,700/.*

BOOK I. IN 1631-32, a subscription was opened for a third joint-stock. This amounted 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 so much as whether any part of it had been repaid, though the Directors were now without money to carry on the trade.

With the funds which the new subscription supplied, seven ships were fitted out in the same season; but of the money or goods embarked in this voyage no account remains. In the following year, 1633-34, the fleet consisted of five ships, the amount of the capital or cargoes in like manner unknown. In 1634-35, it amounted to no more than three ships, the money or goods unstated as before.†

During this period, however, some progress was made in extending the connexions of the Company with the eastern coast of Hindustan. It was thought adviseable 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 sovereign of the place. Permission was given by the Mogul Emperor to trade to Pipley in Orissa; and a factor was sent to it 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. Under the hopeless prospect of contending with the Dutch for the trade of the islands, the Company had, for some time, dispatched their principal fleets to Surat; and the trade with this part of India and with Persia now chiefly engaged their attention. From servants at a vast distance, and the servants of a great and negligent master, the best service could not be easily procured. For this discovery the Directors were

* Papers in the Indian Register Office. Sir Jeremy Sambrooke's Report on the East India Trade. Bruce, i. 306. + Bruce, i. 306, 320, 323.

1635.

indebted, not to any sagacity of their own, but to a misunderstanding among CHAP. III. 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.*

As pepper was a product of the Malabar coast, a share in the trade of that commodity was now aimed at, through a channel, which the Dutch would not be able to obstruct: There was concluded, between the English and Portuguese, in 1634-35, and confirmed with additional articles the following year, a treaty, according to which it was ordained that the English should have free access to the ports of the Portuguese, and the Portuguese should be treated as friends by the English factories.†

The Company resembled other unskilful, and for that reason unprosperous, traders, in this; that they always had competitors, of one description or another, to whose proceedings they 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, too, with regard to their exclusive privilege, had for some time been sounded; and would have been sounded much louder, but for the ascendancy which the sentiments of liberty (the contentions between Charles and his parliament were already high) had gained in the nation, and the probability 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 not injurious to the wealth and prosperity of the nation, had already been agitated through 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.

sociation.

An event at last occurred which appeared to involve unusual danger. A Courten's Asnumber of persons, with Sir William Courten at their head, whom the new arrangements with the Portuguese excited to hopes of extraordinary gain, had the art, or the good fortune, to engage in their schemes one Endymion Porter, Esq., a gentleman of the bedchamber to the King, who prevailed upon

VOL. I.

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

+ Ib. 325, 334.

G

1638.

BOOK I. 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 grant 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 the funds of which they had disposed. This was not only true, but, it is highly probable, was the general opinion of the nation; as nothing less seems to have been necessary to embolden the King to such a violation of their charter. Allowing that instrument to have been contrary to the interests of the nation, it was not productive of consequences so ruinous, but that the stipulated notice of three years might have been given, and a legal end put to the monopoly. The Company petitioned the King, but without success. They sent instructions, however, to their agents and factors in India to oppose the interlopers, at least indirectly. After a little time an incident occurred of which they endeavoured to avail themselves to the One of their ships from Surat reported that a vessel of Courten's had seized two junks belonging to Surat and Diu, had plundered them, and put the crews to the torture. The latter part at least of the story was, in all probability, false; but the Directors believed, or affected to believe, the whole. The consequences of the outrage were, that 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 King, setting forth, in the strongest terms, the injuries which the Company sustained by the license to Courten's Association, and the ruin which threatened 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.*

utmost.

The arrival of Courten's ships at Surat seems to have thrown the factory into an extraordinary state of 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 apt to excite a suspicion, in those who distrust the voice of interested praise, that the system labours under inherent infirmities.

: 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 now raised to the greatest height. They pre- CHAP. III. sented to the crown a petition for protection; placing their chief reliance, it. 1638. should seem, in the lamentable picture of their own distresses. Their remonstrances were, however, disregarded; for a new grant was issued to Courten's Association, continuing their privileges for five years; and appointing, as a boundary between them and the Company, that neither should they trade at those places where the Company had factories, nor the Company at the places where Courten's Association might form their establishments.*

The Directors were thrown into dejection; and, as if they abandoned all other efforts for sustaining their affairs, betook themselves to complaint and petition.† They renewed their addresses to the throne: They dwelt upon the calamities which had been brought upon them by competition; first, that of the Dutch, next that of Courten's Association: They endeavoured to pique the honour of the King, by remarking that the redress which he had demanded from the States General had not been received: And they desired to be at least distinctly informed what line of conduct in regard to their rivals they were required to pursue. The affairs of the King were now at a low ebb; which may account in part for the tone which the Company assumed with him. They were heard before the Privy Council, of which a committee was formed to inquire into their complaints. This committee had instructions to direct their attention, among other points, to the means of obtaining reparation from the Dutch, and the measure of a union between the Company and Courten's Association. One thing is remarkable; because it shows that, in the opinion of the Privy Council of that day, the mode of trading to India by a joint-stock Company was not good: The committee were expressly instructed, " to form regulations for this trade, which might satisfy the noblemen and gentlemen who were adventurers in it; and to vary the principle on which the India trade had been conducted, or that of a general joint-stock, in such a manner as to enable each adventurer to employ his stock to his own advantage, to have the trade under similar regulations with those observed by the Turkey and other English Companies." ‡

The committee of the Privy Council seem to have given themselves but little concern about the trust with which they were invested. No report from them. ever appeared. The Company continued indefatigable in pressing the King by petitions and remonstrances. At last they affirmed the necessity of abandoning the trade altogether, if the protection for which they prayed was withheld.

* Bruce, i. 345, 349.

Ib. 349, 350, 353.

Ib. 353, 354.