They finally required the English to pay their share of the expenses they had incurred in building forts in the Spice Islands. The English objected that a large part of this expense had been unnecessary, and that they had only bound themselves for the future expenses. The Dutch, in fine, carried matters with so high a hand, that the English members of the Council of Defence at length wrote home to say that the trade must be abandoned, unless measures were adopted in Europe to check the oppressive proceedings of the Dutch. Finally, the tragedy at Amboyna, which we shall presently relate, brought affairs to a crisis between the two parties.

Meantime, on the other side of India, the English were gaining on the Portuguese, to whom they were superior in every conflict on the sea. In 1620, two English ships which sailed to the port of Jasques, in Persia, found it blockaded by a Portuguese fleet. They went back to Surat, and, being there joined by two other ships, they forced their way into the port. The Portuguese, having refitted at Ormuz, returned to seek for revenge; but, though greatly superior in strength, they met with a complete defeat. This victory served to convince the Persians of the naval superiority of the English, and in 1622 a joint attack by the English naval and Persian land forces was proposed and effected, and the city and castle were taken. The English got half the plunder, and they were also granted half the customs of the opposite port of Gombroon, which became their principal station in the Persian Gulf.

The facts of the massacre of Amboyna (as it is rather improperly termed) were as follows. The Dutch had in that island a fort, in which there were about 200 men, while eighteen English were residing in a house in the town for purposes of trade. The Dutch, conceiving some suspicion of one of their Japanese soldiers, put him to the torture, and made him confess that he and others of his nation had conspired to seize the fortress. Others were then arrested and tortured. An English surgeon, named Price, who was confined in the fort for intoxication, was then told that his countrymen were also in the plot, and, on his denying it, he too was racked, and made to confess whatever was desired. A message was then sent to Captain Towerson and the other members of the English factory, requesting them to visit the governor. On their coming, they were arrested, and when they denied all knowledge of the plot they were put to the torture, and, of course, they confessed every thing. When released from the rack, they denied all that they had confessed when under it; but that mild persuader was again employed, and they again confessed. The issue was, that Towerson and nine others were condemned to death, and the rest were pardoned. The condemned received the sacrament from the hands of Dutch ministers, fervently protesting their innocence, and their heads were stricken off with a sword. A black pall was by way of distinction provided for the captain, and the price of it was actually charged to the English Company. Nine Japanese and one Portuguese were executed at the same time (1623).

In England the account of these executions was received with horror and indignation. The Company, to increase it, had a large picture painted, in which the sufferings of the victims were repre

sented in the most exaggerated manner, and numerous pamphlets on the subject appeared every day. The Dutch merchants in London found it even necessary to apply to the government for protection from the excited populace. A commission of inquiry was appointed by the king, and in its report it recommended that an order should be issued for seizing the Dutch East India ships, till satisfaction should have been obtained. The Dutch government, when applied to, coolly replied, that they had sent out orders to allow the English to retire from the Dutch settlements without paying any duties, that they might build forts, but not within less than thirty miles of a Dutch fort; but that all legal and judicial powers should be in the hands of the Dutch, in such places as acknowledged their authority, and that such were the Moluccas, Banda, and Amboyna. The Company caused their servants to withdraw from the Dutch settlements, and so the matter rested for the present; but it never ceased to rankle in the public mind.

When we consider the unscrupulous character of traders when free from restraint, it will appear far more probable that the conspiracy was a mere pretext for getting rid of the English, than that eighteen men should have hoped to master 200; some weight is also to be attached to the declarations of dying men. But, on the other hand, before such wanton and fiendish barbarity is laid to the charge of the Dutch, we must suppose the possibility of their having acted in error, and viewed the case through the discoloured medium of commercial jealousy. They may have persuaded themselves that there was a conspiracy, and that they had a right to punish those engaged in it; but, under all extenuating circumstances, their conduct was barbarous and inhuman.

CHAPTER III.

Courten's Association-Settlement at Madras-At Balasore -Union of Companies-Defence of the factory at SuratDisobedience of their Servants-Conflict with the Native Powers, and Abandonment of Bengal-Rival CompanyUnion of the Two Companies-Organization of the Company at Home and in India-Privileges obtained in Bengal.

THE affairs of the Company were not by any means in a prosperous state at this time. The private trade of their servants was very injurious to them, and the Dutch undersold them every where. In 1635, an event occurred, which they deemed would be their utter ruin. An association, headed by Sir William Courten, obtained from the crown permission to trade to India, under the pretext that the Company had done nothing for the good of the nation. They never ceased to petition the crown, but to no purpose. Courten's adventures were successful, his licence was renewed for five years, and it was directed that his association should not trade to any places where the Company had factories, nor the Company to where they had establishments. At length, on the Company's engaging to raise a new joint-stock, so as to carry on the trade on a sufficient scale, Courten's licence was withdrawn. But still the affairs of the Com

A. D. 1639-86.

pany languished, and the war which ensued between King Charles and the Parliament indisposed men from engaging their money in distant trade.

In the year 1639, the Company got their first permanent settlement on the coast of Coromandel. They had already a station at Armegaon, but, not finding it convenient, they obtained permission from the rajah of Chandragheri to erect a fort at Madraspatam, which they named Fort St. George.

As early as 1620, an attempt was made to establish a factory at Patna in Bahâr; and in 1624 permission was given to the English to trade to the port of Piplee in Midnapore of Bengal. At length, when Shâh Jehân was in the Deckan, one of his daughters happened to be severely burnt; and, as the English surgeons were in high repute in India, one named Boughton was sent for from Surat. He succeeded in curing the princess, and, by the favour which he acquired by this and other cures, he had influence enough to obtain the privilege of free trade to Bengal for the English. A factory was therefore established at the port of Balasore (1642).

When the power of England fell into the vigorous hands of Cromwell, a war ensued with the Dutch, which, though highly advantageous to the English in Europe, was almost ruinous to the Company in India. At the conclusion of the peace in 1654, the Dutch engaged to make compensation for the affair of Amboyna, and a joint commission was appointed for the purpose. Each party made immense claims, and it ended in a sum of 85,000l. being awarded to be paid to the English Company by the Dutch. A sum of 36157. was awarded to the representatives of those who had suffered at Amboyna, all the satisfaction ever given for that

massacre.

There was at this time awful confusion in the affairs of the Company. A union had been effected between the original body and Courten's association, now called the Assada Merchants, from their settlement on an island of that name. The stock of the former was joint-stock, while that of the latter and of some other proprietors was called the united joint-stock. The former wished to keep the trade on its original footing; the latter, who are called the Merchant Adventurers, required that the company should be an open one, like the Turkey, Russia, and Levant Companies. The Council of State, however, decided in favour of joint-stock management, and the two bodies were then united by a charter (1658).

In 1661, King Charles II. enlarged the powers of the Company considerably, by a charter which empowered them to make peace and war with any prince or people not being Christian, and to seize unlicensed persons within their limits and send them to England. By these last are meant what the Company called interlopers, that is, private English traders, who visited India on their own account, in defiance of the Company's monopoly. When the island of Bombay was given to that same monarch, as part of the dower of the princess Catherine of Portugal, he transferred it to the Company (1668) at an annual rent of 101. in gold. We may here also notice, that the servants of the Company had impressed the natives with a favourable idea of their valour, by their gallant defence of the factory of Surat, when Sevajee, the Maratta, attacked that town in 1664 and 1670. On

59

the former occasion, the people of the quarter in which the factory stood were profuse in their terms of gratitude for the protection which they had thus experienced, and the governor presented Sir G. Oxenden, the chief of the factory, with a dress of honour; and, on his report to Aurungzîb, a remission of duties was granted to the Company.

An instance of disobedience on the part of one of their servants occurred also about this time. With all their efforts, they had not been able to put down the private trading of these men, though they rigidly punished it. Sir Edward Winter, the chief of the factory of Madras, being strongly suspected of it, was recalled in 1665; but when his successor came out he had the audacity to cast him into prison, under the pretext of his having used disloyal language; and he held the government till 1668, when a command of the king to him to resign came out. He then retired, and took refuge with the Dutch at Masulipatam. Mr. Mill on this occasion candidly owns that, all things considered, the Company's servants have been at all times more obedient than was reasonably to have been expected.

In 1664, the great Colbert formed the French East India Company. The English Company were of course alarmed; but when (1672) a French fleet of twelve ships came to Surat, the inconsiderate way in which they traded soon convinced the Company's agents that they had little to apprehend from their rivalry.

In consequence of a civil war between the king of Bantam and his son, the English, who had probably taken the side of the former, were expelled by the latter, when victorious, from that place. All their efforts to effect a return proved abortive, and the Dutch, who not improbably were at the bottom of the affair, remained omnipotent in Java.

The Presidency, which had hitherto been at Bantam, was now transferred to Fort St. George.

The number of the interlopers was now continually on the increase, and they were even making efforts to obtain permanent settlements on the coasts of the Deckan. The Company therefore, not content with the powers which they already possessed for protecting their monopoly, sought and obtained powers of admiralty jurisdiction, to enable them to seize and condemn their ships. Their servants thus possessed nearly unlimited power over all British subjects in the East, and much injustice was of course perpetrated in the case of the interlopers, whose own conduct, however, was not by any means irreprehensible, for many of them made trade but the pretext for piracy.

Nothing, as experience at all times has shown, is so unpalatable to the Company's servants as retrenchment. It being found at this time impossible to make the revenues of Bombay equal the expenditure, the expedient of reducing the latter was adopted. Forthwith Captain Keigwin, the commandant of the garrison, joined by the soldiers and people, renounced the authority of the Company and proclaimed that of the king (1683). All efforts to induce them to submit proved unavailing, till a royal command was obtained. Keigwin then surrendered on condition of a free pardon for himself and his adherents. In order to prevent the recurrence of such an event, the seat of government was removed from Surat to Bombay, and in 1687 it was made a regency, with unlimited power over the

rest of the Company's settlements; Madras at the same time was made a corporation, with a mayor and aldermen. A couple of years later, Tegnapatam, to the south of Madras, was purchased from a native prince and fortified, and named Fort St. David.

In Bengal, which was destined to be the great seat of the British power, the avarice and oppression of the Sûbahdâr Shaista Khân weighed so heavy on the Company, that in 1686 they came to the resolution of seeking redress by force of arms. Ten armed vessels, carrying six companies of infantry, who were to be commanded by the members of the council, came out with instructions to seize and fortify Chittagong, and to carry on hostilities against the Nabob and the Mogul, till reparation had been made for all the losses sustained. But the ships did not arrive together in the Ganges, accident led to a premature commencement of hostilities at the town of Hooghly, whence, after defeating the native troops, and cannonading the town, they retired, as it was an open place, to Chutanuttee (not far from Calcutta), where, when attacked by the Nabob, they made a gallant defence, under the command of the agent Charnock. They also took the fort of Tanna and isle of Injallee, and burnt the town of Balasore with forty sail of shipping. In return, their factories at Patna and Cossimbazar were taken and plundered. In the following year an accommodation was effected and they returned to Hooghly, and Sir John Child, the governor of Bombay, came to Bengal to try to effect the re-establishment of the other factories. But, meantime, a ship of war and frigate, under Captain Heath, came from Europe with warlike instructions. Heath forthwith plundered Balasore, and, having failed in an attempt on Chittagong, he took the Company's servants and effects on board and sailed for Madras, and thus Bengal was for the present abandoned. Aurungzîb, in a rage, seized the factory at Surat, and his fleet attacked and nearly reduced Bombay. The factories at Masulipatam and Vizagapatam were also seized, and the emperor declared his determination of driving the English out of his dominions. Mutual interest, however, effected an accommodation, the Company made the most abject submissions, and the emperor was aware of the value of the English trade. The factory at Surat was restored, and the fleet ordered away from Bombay (1687).

During these transactions, the French were engaged in fortifying Pondicherry, a place between Madras and Fort St. David, where they had obtained an establishment.

The directors now saw or thought they saw the necessity of the acquisition of territory, and becoming, as they termed it," a nation in India " In their instructions to their agents, they praise the conduct of the wise Dutch, who in all their despatches, have ten times as much on the subject of government and revenue as on that of trade.

During the whole of the seventeenth century, the progress of the English nation in the acquisition of wealth had been remarkable. Men's notions of freedom had also expanded, and they could not see the justice of excluding the whole nation from India, because the crown in a despotic period had thought fit to give the monopoly of the trade

6 Though Mill would seem to insinuate the contrary, they could only have meant districts about their factories.

thither to a particular association. Various attempts, as we have seen, were made to have this monopoly dissolved, but in vain. After the Revolution, as was to be expected, these efforts were renewed with greater vigour, and applications were made to parliament on the subject, and in 1690 a committee of the House of Commons recommended that a new company should be established. The Company, however, as it seems had always been their custom, bribed largely, and in 1693 the crown renewed their charter for twenty-one years. This charter, however, the Commons disallowed. The system of bribing individuals being found now to be unavailing, both parties resolved to try that of bribing the nation itself. The Company offered to lend the government 700,000l. at four per cent., their rivals proffered a loan of 2,000,000l. at eight per cent., if they got the monopoly free from the joint-stock obligation. The arguments of both parties being heard, parliament decided in favour of the highest bidders, who were incorporated as a regulated company, under the title of the General Society, and when the greater part of the proprietors desired to trade on a joint-stock, another charter formed them into a joint-stock company, named the English Company trading to the East Indies.

Perhaps a greater legislative blunder never was committed than this of the parliament allowing the Company, as it were, to strip itself of the whole of its capital. It was, in fact, insuring its ruin ; for on what funds was it to trade? The old, or London Company, was treated with manifest injustice; for, though it was to have the benefit of the three years' notice, the other was allowed to commence operations immediately. It, however, lost not courage. It wrote out to its agents, calling on them vigorously to second their efforts against the interlopers, as it termed the others. In such case, they had no doubt of the victory, as one or other must fall, for "two East India Companies in England," said they, " could no more subsist than two kings regnant at the same time in the one kingdom." Accordingly, in 1699, they sent out thirteen ships with goods to the value of 525,000l., while their impoverished rivals could only send out three ships with a stock of 178,000l. They also managed to obtain from the Mogul government a grant of the towns of Chutanuttee, Govindpore, and Calcutta, at which last place they began cautiously to construct a fort, which they named Fort William, in honour of the regnant sovereign.

The two Companies proceeded at first in the usual way in India, trying by lies and calumnies to supplant each other in the favour of the native princes. But people at home, who still had exaggerated notions of the value of the Indian trade if properly conducted, were anxious for a union between them. The new Company also wished for it, but the old Company held back, hoping for revenge, till the three years were nearly run out. They then came to terms, and a union was effected, by which it was arranged that there should be a

7 The books of the Company being examined by order of parliament, it appeared that they had always been in the habit of giving bribes to great men. Their annual expense this way had hardly ever exceeded 12001. before the Revolution, but after that event it gradually increased, and in 1693 it had risen to 90,000l.-See Mill, i. 134.

A. D. 1702-15.

court of twenty-four directors (twelve from each) to direct the general affairs, and at the end of seven years the funds of the two companies should be formed into one great joint-stock (1702). The title of the Company now became "The United Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies." They now went on together, bickering and jarring till 1708, when the government called on them for a loan of 1,200,000l. without interest. Fearing lest, if they should hesitate, another set of adventurers might come forward, they resolved to lay aside all private views, and make the best terms they could with the government. All matters were referred to Lord Godolphin, the lordtreasurer, whose award was to be final. The 6th Anne, c. 17, containing this award, was then passed, and the Company permanently formed. The 1,200,000l. with the former advance of 2,000,000l. was to form a loan to government at five per cent., and their privileges were to continue till three years after March 25th, 1726, and repayment of their capital, &c. &c.

The Company having now assumed its final form, and its affairs for some years to come being only the routine of trade, we will here take a view of its constitution and organization at home and in India.

Accident or design formed the Company into a body modelled in the same manner as the British nation; for it consisted of a monarchy, an aristocracy, and a democracy.

This last was what was termed the Court of Proprietors, in which each holder of stock to the amount of 500l. and upwards, had one vote. They elected annually the directors and the chairman. All laws and regulations and all dividends of the profits of trade were made by this court. This court met regularly four times a year; the directors might summon a court whenever they deemed it necessary, and they were obliged to summon one on a requisition signed by nine proprietors qualified to vote.

The twenty-four directors, one of whom was chairman, and another deputy-chairman, formied another court, being the aristocracy of the Company. A director was required to possess at least 2000. of stock; he held his seat for only a year, but might be re-elected. Thirteen members were required to form a court, and they met as often as they deemed it expedient. They were divided into Committees ten in number, namely, of Correspondence, Lawsuits, Treasury, Warehouses, Accounts, Buying, House, Shipping, Private Trade, and Preventing the Growth of Private Trade. Most of these names explain themselves; of the three last it is to be observed that the Company used originally to employ a portion of its capital in building ships, but that it now adopted the plan of chartering, that is hiring, ships for its trade; that it permitted a private trade to be carried on to some extent in the ships which it chartered, and that it sought to limit that trade as much as possible.

The chairman represented the monarchic principle in the Company. He or his deputy presided in all courts of directors or proprietors.

The exports to India consisted of bullion, lead, quick-silver, hardware, and woollen clothes. The imports were calicoes and other cotton goods (piecegoods as they were termed), raw silk, tea, diamonds,

61

porcelain, pepper, drugs, and salt-petre. The mode of selling was, and continued to be, by auction, both in India and England.

vants.

The factories of the Company consisted of warehouses for the reception of goods, with countinghouses and apartments for their agents and serAs the country was always more or less in an unsettled state, these were built strong, so as to be able to resist a sudden attack, and the inmates were all trained to the use of arms. As large manufactures were unknown in India, and the weavers who furnished the piece-goods lived in the villages, and were so poor that they could not work unless advances were made to them, an agent of the Company was sent to each district on this account, and the subdivision of all labour being carried to an extreme extent, this person had no less than five functionaries, with their underlings between him and the weaver. There were the banyan or secretary, the gomashta or broker, with his peons or armed servants, and hurcarahs, or letter-carriers, and he transacted with the weavers through the dallâls and pycars, or inferior brokers. It is manifest, to any one who knows the native character, how the poor weaver must have been plundered by all these vultures.

The English settlements in India formed now three presidencies, namely, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, each absolute within its own limits. Each was composed of a president or governor, and of a council, the latter composed of the senior civil servants; and all were appointed by the directors at home. Every measure was decided by a majority of votes in the council. The president alone corresponded with the princes of the country, and he had the command of the troops of the presidency.

The civil servants of the Company in India were the writers, factors, and junior and senior merchants. The first were, as their name denotes, merely clerks. At the end of five years they became factors, and in three years more junior merchants. A further period of three years (that is, eleven years in India) raised them to the rank of senior merchants, from which were taken by seniority the members of council, and in general the presidents.

The small bodies of troops which it was found necessary to maintain for defence were composed of Europeans, that is, of English, Dutch, French, and Portuguese; the first usually recruits from England, the mere refuse of the large towns; the rest, very frequently, deserters. To this rabble was joined another, named Topasses by the natives, from their wearing a hat. These were the native Christians, the descendants of the Portuguese and their converts. They were armed, disciplined, and clad in the European manner; but they always made wretched soldiers. Finally, at a later period, bodies of the native troops were taken into pay, and armed and trained in the European manner; but they wore their own dress and were manded by their own officers. These were called Sepoys, from the Persian word sipahi, a foot-soldier. Those native troops which used their own arms and their own mode of fighting were called Peons.

com

Justice was administered to the Europeans at each presidency by the Mayor's court, from which there was an appeal to the Council. There was also a Court of Requests, or of Conscience, for deciding small money matters. For the native popu

lation in the Company's limits there were the Foujdery court for criminal, the Cutchery for civil, and the Collector's for revenue cases; each presided over by a servant of the Company, who decided by the rules of the native laws.

During nearly the whole of the first half of the eighteenth century, the Company were engaged at home in repelling the efforts of the partizans of free trade. Their dividends to the proprietors were usually eight or ten per cent. on their stock. In India the most important event was the acquisition of territory and some important privileges from the emperor. The occasion was as follows. In 1715, the president of Calcutta, with the permission of the directors, sent two factors on an embassy and with presents to the court of Furokhsîr Shah. But their labour and presents would have been thrown away, were it not that the emperor, who was suffering from disease, was advised to consult their medical man, Mr. Hamilton. This gentleman's treatment of the disease was successful, and the emperor desired him to name his reward. Hamilton showed a nobleness of spirit rarely emulated by the English in India. Instead of seeking to enrich himself, he asked for privileges for the Company. The emperor granted, but the vizîr resisted, and then sought to render the grants invalid; but a seasonable bribe to the favourite eunuch, and the dread of the vizîr lest the English should, as in the time of Aurungzîb, avenge themselves on the Mogul shipping, caused them to be confirmed. The principal articles were, that the Company should be allowed to purchase the zemîndaries of thirty-seven towns in Bengal, and that their dustuck, or pass, signed by the president of Calcutta, should exempt the goods under it from examination by the native revenue officers.

The principal object of the Company in seeking for those towns, which would have given them a district extending for ten miles from Calcutta on each side of the Hooghly, is said to have been to establish there a colony of native weavers. This the Sûbahdâr of Bengal obviated by preventing the holders of land from selling to the Company. But the affair of the dustucks gave him more trouble, as it actually injured to a great extent the revenues of the province. For nothing could keep the servants of the Company from private trading, and they had now got into their hands the greater part of the native or country trade, not merely that between the different ports of India and the countries to the east, but also of the internal trade of the province; and the president, who was of course himself engaged in this trade, used to grant his dustucks for it. This the Sûbahdâr declared his determination to suppress; and the servants of the Company, not yet able to dictate, could only murmur and submit.

CHAPTER IV.

French Settlements in India-M. de Labourdonnais- M. Dupleix-Taking of Madras-Treaty Broken by Dupleix -Attempt on Fort St. David-Siege of Pondicherry.

IN 1744, a war commenced between France and England, and the former power resolved to extend

it to the settlements of the two nations in India. In that country, France now possessed, beside Pondicherry, a factory at Caracol, on the Coloroon river, on the same coast, and another at Mahi, on the Malabar coast; she had also one at Chandernagore on the Hooghly, in Bengal. The islands named of France and of Bourbon, to the east of Madagascar, had also been colonised by her, and under their present governor, M. de Labourdonnais, they were rising into importance.

The governor of the islands was, as we have said, M. de Labourdonnais, a very remarkable man. Born at St. Malo in Brittany, and sent to sea at the age of ten years, he contrived to acquire a knowledge of mathematics and other sciences, and having been two or three voyages to India, and learned the nature of the trade of that part of the world, he resolved to engage in it on his own account. In a few years he realised a considerable fortune. Being invited by the viceroy of Goa to enter the service of the king of Portugal, he accepted the offer, and was for two years the agent of that government on the coast of Coromandel. He then returned to France, where the ministry at once fixed on him as the person most likely to be able to raise the people of the isles of France and Bourbon from the state, little beyond that of nature, in which they were living. He went thither in 1735, and in the space of eleven years he gave these islands roads, vehicles, beasts of burden, and handicrafts, not one of which had they previously possessed. He introduced the culture of indigo and the sugar cane; that of the coffee-plant had been accidentally introduced a few years earlier. In all these improvements he had had no one to aid him, and he had to contend against the natural inertness and prejudices of the French character in the colonists, and the malignity of the shipcaptains, to whose enormous prices and demands he set limits, and who therefore filled the ears of the directors at home with complaints against him. In 1740, wearied with the opposition he encountered, he wished to resign, but the minister, who knew his worth, would not accept his resignation.

The governor of Pondicherry at this time was M. Dupleix. His father was a director of the India Company, who after giving him a suitable education, and sending him some voyages to India and America, by his influence with the Company, had him sent out in 1720 as first member of the council to Pondicherry. Here, having made himself well acquainted with the nature of the commerce of the country, he engaged in it on his own account, being almost the first Frenchman who did

So.

About ten years after, he was sent to superintend the factory of Chandernagore, which he raised from depression and languor to activity and importance, and he formed a new establishment at Patna. On his own account he entered largely here into the country trade, and he had not less than twelve ships at sea, belonging to himself and his partners. He was afterwards appointed governor of Pondicherry, where he exerted himself to strengthen the fortifications, as he had reason to think the town might have to sustain an attack.

Labourdonnais, when in France in 1740, had stated to the ministry, that, with a sufficient number of armed vessels, he would undertake to sweep the Eastern seas of the English commerce, before a fleet could arrive for its protection. His plan was