EAST INDIA COMPANY. On the 31st Dec., 1600, a charter was granted by queen Elizabeth to a number of London merchants, under the title of " The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies." From the time when Vasco da Gama effected the eastern passage to India, by doubling the cape of Good Hope, in 1497, the Portuguese carried on an extensive trade with that country, unaffected by rivals until nearly a century afterwards, when the Dutch and the English began to compete with them. This competition became formidable when two " East India companies" were established, one at Amsterdam and one in London. It is of the latter of these that we here treat. The charter was exclusive, as is usual in such cases; prohibiting the rest of the community from trading the limits assigned to the w company. Those limits were enormous, comprising the whole space, land and sea, from the cape of Good Hope eastward to cape Horn—i.e., the whole of the Indian and Pacific oceans. The charter was for fifteen years. The company speedily sent out. ships to Java and Sumatra, which returned with calicoes, silk, indigo, and spices. It was then determined to make some kind of settlements on the coast of Ilindustan itself; and about 1612, the company obtained permission from the native princes to establish factories or agencies at Surat, Ahmedabad, Cambay, and Gogo., The company's charter was renewed from time to time, with various modifications, but not without much contention and difficulty. Gradually establishments were formed in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, Malacca, Siam, the Banda islands, and other places in the east; as well as on the Coromandel and Malabar coasts of India itself. The first beginning of Madras dates in 1640, of Calcutta in 1645, and of Bombay in 1665, as chief establishments of the company. In 1662, Charles II. gave them permission " to make war and peace on the native princes"—a privilege of which they largely availed them selves for nearly 200 years.
In 1698, the crown granted a charter to a new E. I. C., who offered a loan of £2,000, 000 to the state; but this naturally led to wranglings, and the two companies were united into one by an act of parliament passed in 1702. The constitution then established was. maintained with little alteration as long as the company existed. Every shareholder
who held £500 of the company's stock became a member of the court of proprietors; and this court had legislative functions in all that related to the company's affairs. The proprietors annually chose 24 to form a court of directors, from those of their number who held not less than £2,000 of stock. Six of the directors went out of office every year; they retired in rotation, so that each had four years of office. It was a general custom with the proprietors to elect the same persons as directors over and over again, The court of proprietors was to meet once a year, or oftener if necessary; the court of directors as often as the directors chose, provided 13 were present. Theoretically, the constitution of the company was very democratic; but practically the affairs were in the hands of the directors; for the proprietors took little other interest than in receiving their half-yearly dividends. The proprietors had from one to four votes each, according to the amount of stock held by them. The board of control, of later formation, bore relation to the governmental affairs of India.
Properly speaking, the company were only merchants: sending out bullion. lead, quicksilver, woolens, hardware, and other goods to India; and bringing home calicoes, silk, diamonds, tea, porcelain, pepper, drugs, saltpeter, etc., from thence. Not merely with India, but with China and other parts of the east, the trade was monopolized by the company; and hence arose their great trade in China tea, porcelain, and silk. By degrees, avarice and ambition led the company, or their agents in India, to take part in the quarrels among the native princes; this course gave them power and influence at the native courts, from whence arose the acquisition of sovereign powers over vast regions. India thus became valued by the company, not only as commercially profitable, but as affording to the friends and relations of the directors opportunities of making vast for tunes by political or military enterprises. It is not the purpose of the present article to trace the political affairs of the company, or the rise of a British empire in India; that will be done under INDra., Bnrrisu; it will suffice here merely to state, that no national or patriotic motive marked the beginning of this course.