pore, and Malacca ...... Recruits for the Company's European Forces......... 490 BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY. THE discovery of a passage by sea to India, at the close of the fifteenth century, was embraced by the Portuguese, who persevered in acquiring seats of trade and dominion in that distant country, where they maintained an ascendancy and engrossed almost the whole of the Asiatic commerce until the year 1595, when the Dutch, who had revolted against the authority of the United Kingdom of Spain and Portugal under Philip the Second, followed the Portuguese to India, soon becoming their rivals, and subsequently the subverters of their power in the East. Attempts had been made about the same time by various merchants of London, under the sanction of Queen Elizabeth, to prosecute the trade with India. Their efforts proving unsuccessful, a charter was granted by Her Majesty, on the 30th December 1600, in the forty-third year of her reign, incorporating the London East-India Company, whose affairs were to be managed by a governor and twenty-four committees. They were to enjoy the exclusive privilege of trading to all parts of Asia, Africa, and America, beyond the Cape of Good Hope, eastward of the Straits of Magellan. In the early period of the Company's existence they encountered a series of difficulties of no ordinary character. Abroad they had to contend with their powerful European enemy the Dutch, who opposed every obstacle to their establishing any settlement in the Eastern seas. Notwithstanding the charter granted by Elizabeth and confirmed by her successor, licenses were issued to individuals for private trade, which, at the period of the civil wars, involved the Company in a series of losses and disasters. Soon after the restoration of Charles II., the rights conferred by charters from the crown, irrespective of Parliament, were called in question. This circumstance induced speculative adventurers, then termed interlopers, to embark in opposition to the Company. Notwithstanding these vicissitudes and discouragements, the Company formed by degrees factories in India, and ultimately reached such a degree of prosperity, that various attempts were made to induce the Crown and Parliament to revoke their charter, with no other object than that the petitioners themselves should be erected into an exclusive Company. Those efforts were ineffectual; but a circumstance arose which gave the Government an opportunity to determine the Company's charter. The Company having failed in 1693 in the payment of a duty of five per cent. on their capital stock, imposed by the 4th and 5th of William and Mary, the charter was rendered void. Their privileges were, however, revived by a new charter; but they were obliged to submit to a condition, that it should be determinable on three years notice. In 1698, the necessities of the state, caused by the wars in which Great Britain was engaged, induced Parliament to authorize the incorporation of a new society for trading to India. The 9th and 10th of William and Mary was accordingly passed, |