THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 3915, 30 May 1874, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

[fjjom the "kaimvay news."] Tiie List shadow of a, mighty institution, long one of the great powers of the world, passed away this week in a Times advertisement, signed "Grant Duff." Just two hundred and seventy-four years ago, in September 1599, there appeared another advertisment in tho ThiKisoi that period, the London GazetU, inviting all the merchants and traders of London interested in extending our commerce with the East, and in taking at least a small share of it from the Dutch and Portuguese, to assemble on a certain day for discussion on the subject. The meeting took placQ at Founders' Hall on the day appointed, the 22nd .September, 1591), and was attended by the most eminent merchants of London in a body, there being present one hundred and one persons, including the Lord Mayor, who presided, and the chief aldermen. A resolution was come to, by unanimous consent, to form a "company of adventurers for trading to the East Indies," and iu earnest of the resolution a sum of £30,130 Gs Sd was subscribed on the spot to further the object, the primary execution of which was entrusted to a committee elected at tho same time. The committee-men, or "managers, "as they were called, not loug after presented a petition to the Lords of Privy Council, setting forth that stimulated by the success which has attended the voyage to the East Indies by the Dutch, and finding the Dutch are projecting another voyage, for which they have bought ships in England, the merchants, having the same regard to the welfare of this kingdom that the Dutch have to their Commonwealth, have resolved upon making a voyage of adventure, and for this purpose entreat Her Majesty will grant them letters patent of incorporation and succession, for that the trade, being so far remote from hence, cannot be managed but by a joint and united stock." In reply to this petition, the subscribers were informed, under date of October 10, 1599, that Her Majesty had expressed her gracious approbation of the intended voyage, and that the Lords of the Council desired some of the principal "adventurers' would attend them to receive orders for their further proceedings. After somewhat lengthened negotiations, Spanish politics interfering for a while with the projected scheme, the "adventurers" obtained all they desired. On the 31st December, KiOO, a Koyal charter was granted to " the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies," the charter constituting them a body corporate, with a common seal. The company thus formed consisted of two hundred and fifteen members, including the most distinguished merchants of London, as well as a few men of high rank, —among the latter, George, Earl of Cumberland. Seventy-two thousand pounds sterling was the total subscribed capital of this company—destined to be by far the greatest company ever formed in this or anv country. Joint-stock has dune wonderful things since the time the Elizabethan charter was granted to the India adventurers, joint-stock has given us railways, telegraphs, and all other features of material progress on which we justly pride ourselves ; but joint-stock has not, nor probably ever will again, do anything like to what was achieved by that 'joint and united stock' resolved upon at Founders' Hall, in September, l.T.)!). Perhaps in ages to come, when future Macaulays write English annals for our great grand-children they will dwell ujon the story of how a private company, witu a capital of only seventy-two pounds, gave us the command of an *;in|.iic inhabited by two hundred millions of hum;iu beings, as the marvel of marvels in ail oiiv history.

The romance of the Ea.it India Company, beginning with an advertisement in the LondtjH, Gazr.ite of Queen Elizabeth, and ending with an advertisement in the Timet of Queen Victoria, was startling every way, from the very outset. There is ■ enterprise,' no doubt, in our age, enterprise enough nnd to spare ; yet it takes one's breath, nevertheless, to read of the enterprise of these adventurers in the time of Elizabeth. As they thought a. capital of £72,000 sufficient iwrcun rerurii to open up the Indian empire to English commerce, so they held vessels of a few hundred tons, mere cockle-shells in size, powerful enough to brave the dangers of navigation round the Cape of Good Hope and in distant seas, all but unknown to our mariuers. The first act of the East India Company was the purchase of four small veaaels, called the Dragon, Hector, Susan, and Ascension, of an aggregate burthen of i,400 tons, that is, an overage burthen of 350 tens, and these having been stocked with provisions and merchandise, among the latter ' eighty pieces of broadcloths of all colors, eighty pieces of Devonshire kerseys, and 100 pieces of Norwich stuffs', tho tiny lleet, under Captain James Lancaster, as eoniniander-in-chief, set sail from billingsgate on the 13th of February, 1001. Tlu- immense dangers nd difficulties to be overcome in going to a comparative terra incuijnita with so toy-like an equipment, are indicated by the fact that it took Captain Lancaster no less than sixteen months to reach the Indian a: euipelago. His tirst landing-place, wheie j.c .arivedin June, 1002, was at Atcheen, ths king of which territory—ancestor of the poor sovereign now terribly battered by tlu: Diitc'i— received the English visitors with (!;■. kindne3S and courtesy, sigued a treaty of eternal

friendship with Queen Elizabeth, and gave Capt. Lancaster all that he wanted, including loads of pepper, the great look-out of the adventurers. But it appears there "was not a sufficiency of pepper," at Atcheen, the adventurers sailed on to Bantam, where likewise they were received in the friendliest manner, and it seems, were peppered to their heart's content. Sailing homeward—and taking possession of the island of St. Helena on the way back—Captain Lancaster with his four vessels safely reached London again on the 13th September ICO3, after an absence of exactly 31 months. The prolits of this first voyage turned out to be upwards of 100 per cent., and there was jubilation accordingly among the adventurers. Who knows how different the course of history might have shaped itself but for this profitable ending of Captain Lancaster's expedition, apparently the merest bit of planless good luck. Perhaps we should have never ad an India empire but for this first distribution of cent, for cent, upon a trading venture.

It is curious to obserre how anxious the early members of the East India Company showed themselves to obtain immediate profits, regardless of almost everything else. For many years after'tlie establishment of the company there was no permanent capital ia existence, but all rested on what may be called a floating basis of ever renewed and ever-varying subscriptions. The plan was for the members of the company to subscribe a certain sum for each " adventure"—that is, each voyage to India—the total returns of which, whether large or small, were divided as soon as return cargoes had been disposed of. Thus, while the capital raised for the first voyage was £72,000, the second subscription, undertaken in IGO4, amounted to no more than £00,450. This however, was deemed amply sufficient for another "adventure," the result of which was the distribution of 95 per cent, profit. The third capital, raised in 100G, amounted to £53,500, and the result of the adventure in which this sum was invested, proved so good as to give a distribution of 234 per cent. Most of the original subscribers, it would seem, were either men of small means, or men in favour of small stakes. In the first and second voyages, out of a total of 237 subscribers, 212 were in sums under £300, and in the third adventure, which found 200 subscribers, 10S were under £200, and thirty-sjx under £100. It was resolved afterwards, when the fourth capital was about to be raised, that no subscription shguld be taken for less than £500; but this rule could not be carried out, and therefore a modification of it was adopted, under which subscribers for £500 and upwards were allowed to divide their shares or "to take under-sub-scribers." But this arrangement was accompanied by an important condition laid down by a by-law, enacting that " while an under-subscribers shall be entitled to a share in the profits attaching to the principal subscriber, ia proportion to such under, subscription, they shall have no voice in the management of affairs, which shall be confined to the subscribers of £500 and upwards." This regulation, passed after hard debating, marks a prominent phase in the early history of the East India Company—a struggle between two classes of "adventurers," possessed of different interest, to get the upperhand. Before Captain Lancaster started on his first voyage, the significant resolution had been passed by the governor and directors of the company not to employ any gentlemen in any place of charge, and the rule was acted upon during at least the fust three adventures to India. Then, however, came the change. The '' gentlemen" would not be kept out. Bit by bit and step by step, they made their way, paying their £500 subscription, sharing profits with "under-subscribers" but not sharing government with them. If it was mere desire of gain—the hankering after the cent, per cent.—that sent the first English ships to India, there followed something else, in motives and aim of far different nature that anchored the ships finally on the Indian shore, and set the flag of our little islaiid floating over two hundred millions of the human race.

But history is the serpent biting its tail. The beginning was in the " cash nexus," and the end is in the "per cent, per annum." As the advertisement in the London Gazette, appealing to merchants to stake their golden guineas, started the East India Company, so the advertisement in the Times, offering final division of the stakes, the "stock," aptly closes its career, to the extinguishing even of the name of the allpowerful corporation. Still, though a mere matter of money, there is a something pathetic in the funeral dirge—paid for at so much per line —sent by Mr. Grant Duff to the Times, under date of January 3, 1574: — ' The Secretary of State for India in Council hereby gives notice, that under the provisions of the Act 36 Vict., chap. 17, providing for the redemption or commutation of the dividend on the capital stock, i>2oo reduced £3 per cent annuities, or £200 India £4 per cent stock, and so on in proportion for any greater or less amount of the said capital stock; the India £4 per cent. Stock being redeemable at par on or after the loth October IS9B, upon one year's previous notice having been given in the London Gazette, by the. Secretary of State for India in Council. The total amount so offered is £3,000,000 reduced £3 per cent, annuities, and £2,000,000 India, £4 per cent, stock. The assents of proprietors to such offer must be signified to the Secretary of State for India, in Council, in a form to be obtained at the Financial Department of the India office, Westminster, or at the Cliief Cashier's Office at the Bank of England; and such assents must be delivered at the Financial Department of the India Oilice, Westminster, on or before the 31st January, 1874."

The 31st of January has not yet come, and already the offered bargain is closed, so eager are '-proprietors of East India Stock" for the final windhig-up. Mr. Grant Duff steps forward once more in a Times advertisement for a dual adieu:—"To the Proprietors of East India Stock, India Office, January 13, 1574. With reference to the advertisement issued from this office on the 3rd hist., the Secretary of State for India in Council hereby gives notice, that the full amount of £2,000,000 India £4 per cent, stock therein mentioned has been applied for.'

And so Finis Poloniai. Henceforth history only knows the East India Company.