[Footnote 120:

Ann.

Of the Hon. E.I. Co, I. 162.]

This difference, which is not at all material, may have arisen from Purchas having considered some of the ships belonging to single adventurers or subscriptions, which made separate voyages or parts of voyages, as separate adventures. We come now to a new era in the mode of conducting the English exclusive trade to India, of the motives for which the Annals give the following account.[121]

[Footnote 121: Id. I. 165.]

"The inconveniences which had been experienced from separate classes of adventurers, partners in the East India Company, fitting out equipments on their own particular portions of stock, induced the directors, or committees, to resolve, in 1612, that, in future, the trade should be carried on by a joint stock only; and, on the basis of this resolution, the sum of L429,000 was subscribed: and, though portions of this joint stock were applied to the equipment of four voyages, the general instructions to the commanders were given in the name, and by the authority, of the governor, deputy-governor, and committees of the company of merchants in London trading to the East Indies, who explained that the whole was a joint concern, and that the commanders were to be responsible to the company for their conduct, both in the sale and purchase of commodities in the East Indies, and for their general conduct, in extending the commerce, within the limits of the company. The transition, therefore, from trading on separate adventures, which has been described as an imitation of the Dutch, to trading on a joint stock, arose out of the good sense of the English nation, which, from experience, had discovered the evil consequences of internal opposition, and had determined to proceed on a system better calculated to promote the general interest of the East India Company.

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