A Company Was Projected With This View; Which
Obtained A Charter In 1553, From Philip And Mary, Under The Name Of
Merchant Adventurers For The Discovery Of Lands, Countries, Isles, &C.
Not Before Known To The English.
This company, of which Sebastian Cabot
was governor, in the last year of Queen Mary, had extended its trade
Through Russia into Persia, to obtain raw silks, &c. In the course of
their proceedings, the agents of this company met with merchants from
India and China, from whom they acquired a knowledge of the productions
of these countries, and of the profits which might be derived from
extending the trade of England to these distant regions.[77] In 1581,
Queen Elizabeth gave an exclusive charter to the Levant or Turkey
Company, for trading to the dominions of the Grand Signior or Emperor
of Turkey. In the prosecution of this trade, of which some account has
been given in our preceding chapter, the factors, or travelling
merchants, having penetrated from Aleppo to Bagdat and Basora, attempted
to open an overland trade to the East Indies, and even penetrated to
Agra, Lahore, Bengal, Malacca, and other parts of the East, whence they
brought information to England of the riches that might be acquired by a
direct trade by sea to the East Indies.[78] The circumnavigations of Sir
Francis Drake in 1577-1580, and of Mr Thomas Cavendish, or Candish, in
1586, of which voyages accounts will be found in a future division of
this work, who brought back great wealth to England, obtained by making
prizes of the Spanish vessels, contributed to spread the idea among the
merchants of England, that great profits and national advantages might
be derived from a direct trade to India by sea.[79]
[Footnote 77: Ann. of the H.E.I. Co. I. 107.]
[Footnote 78: Ann. of the Hon. E. India Co. I. 108.]
[Footnote 79: Id. ib.]
In consequence of these views, a memorial was presented to the lords of
council in 1589, requesting a royal licence for three ships and three
pinnaces to proceed for India, which gave rise to the expedition of
Captain Raymond, in 1591, already related. In 1599, an association of
London Adventurers entered into a contract for embarking, what was then
considered as a large joint stock, for the equipment of a voyage to
the East Indies. The fund subscribed amounted to L30,133: 6: 8, divided
into 101 shares or adventures, the subscriptions of individuals varying
from L100 to L3000.[80] This project, however, seems to have merged into
the East India Company, at the close of the next year 1600, as already
mentioned.
[Footnote 80: Id. III. - From the peculiar amount of this capital sum,
the subscriptions were most probably in marks, of 13s 4d. each. - E.]
On the 30th September, 1600, a draft of the patent, already said to have
been subsequently sealed on the last day of that year, was read before
the seventeen committees, such being then the denomination of what are
now called directors; and being approved of, was ordered to be
submitted to the consideration of the Queen and Privy Council. "In this
early stage of the business, the lord-treasurer applied to the Court of
Committees or Directors, recommending Sir Edward Mitchelburne to be
employed in the voyage; and thus, before the Society of Adventurers had
been constituted an East India Company, that influence had its
commencement, which will be found, in the sequel, to have been equally
adverse to the prosperity of their trade and to the probity of the
directors."[81] Yet, though still petitioners for their charter, the
directors had the firmness to resist this influence, and resolved Not
to employ any gentleman in any place of charge, requesting to be
permitted to sort their business with men of their own quality, lest
the suspicion of employing gentlemen might drive a great number of the
adventurers to withdraw their contributions.[82]
[Footnote 81: Ann. of the H.E.I. Co. I.128.]
[Footnote 82: Id. ib.]
In the commencement of its operations, the East India Company proceeded
upon rather an anomalous plan for a great commercial company. Instead of
an extensive joint stock for a consecutive series of operations, a new
voluntary subscription was entered into among its members for each
successive adventure. That of the first voyage was about L70,000. The
second voyage was fitted out by a new subscription of L60,450. The
third was L53,500. The fourth L33,000. The fifth was a branch or
extension of the third, by the same subscribers, on an additional call
or subscription of L13,700. The subscription for the sixth was
L82,000. The seventh L71,581. The eighth L76,375. The ninth only
L7,200.
In 1612, the trade began to be carried on upon a broader basis by a
joint stock, when L429,000 was subscribed, which was apportioned to the
tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth voyages. In 1618, a new
joint stock was formed by subscription, amounting to L1,600,000.[83]
[Footnote 83: Ann. of the H.E.I. Co. Vol. I. passim.]
In the year 1617, King James I. of England and VI. of Scotland, granted
letters patent under the great seal of Scotland, dated at Kinnard, 24th
May, 1617, to Sir James Cunningham of Glengarnock, appointing him, his
heirs and assigns, to be governors, rulers, and directors of a Scottish
East India Company, and authorizing him "to trade to and from the East
Indies, and the countries or parts of Asia, Africa, and America, beyond
the Cape of Bona Sperantia, to the straits of Magellan, and to the
Levant Sea and territories under the government of the Great Turk, and
to and from the countries of Greenland, and all other countries and
islands in the north, north-west, and north-east seas, and other parts
of America and Muscovy." Which patent, and all the rights and
privileges annexed to it, was subsequently, for a valuable
consideration, assigned by Sir James Cunningham to the London East India
Company.[84]
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