EAST INDIES. This immense and im portant country is deeply interesting to us it an industrial and commercial point of view both for its natural riches, and for the influ ence which an English company has so long exerted in that quarter. We shall touch briefly on both these characteristics, so far as is con sistent with the scope of the present volume. The East Indies are usually considered to include the peninsula of Hindustan lying to the east of the river Indus, and thence east ward as far as the boundary of the Chinese empire, by which empire, and by Tartary, India is also bounded on the north. The East Indies include also the islands of the Indian Ocean which lie between Hindustan and Australia as far north as the Philippine Islands, and as far east as Papua, but without including either the Philippines or Papua. It is not in so wide a sense that the term is used when speaking of the operations of the East India Company ; but in truth the names India, East Indies, British India, and Hin dustan, are all vague in their geographical limits.
Our power in those regions has wholly risen through the intermedium of the East India Company. This association—the most remarkable which commerce has yet known— was first formed in London in 1599, when its capital, amounting to 30,000/., was divided into 101 shares. In 1600 the adventurers obtained a charter from the crown, under which they enjoyed certain privileges, and were formed into a corporation for fifteen years, with the title of ' The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies.' The first adventure of the association was commenced in 1001 ; and this, as well as seven or eight subsequent voyages, yielded a commercial profit of 100 to 200 per cent. The charter was renewed for an indefinite period in 1600, subject to disso lution on the part of the government upon giving three years notice to that effect. In 1611 the Company obtained permission from the Mogul to establish factories at Surat, Ah medabad, Cambaya, and Goga. The capital was increased by a new fund of 1,000,0001. in 1617. Tho functions of government were first exercised by the Company in 1024, when authority was given to it by the king to punish its servants abroad either by civil or by martial law, embracing even the power of taking life.
In 1632 a third fund of 420,7001. was raised. The king encouraged the formation of a rival company in 1636, but the rivals coalesced to form a joint company in 1650.
In 1652 the Company obtained from the Mogul, through the influence of a medical gentleman, Mr. Broughton, the grant of a licence for carrying on an unlimited trade throughout the province of Bengal, without payment of duties. An increase of capital, ar extended charter, and a successful attempt to keep down a new rival company, marked the next ten years. Factories were established at Bantam in 1602, Surat in 1612, Madras in 1639, Bengal in 1652, and Bombay in 1668.
The first occasion on which the Company was brought into collision with any of the native powers of India occurred in 1661, when Sevajee, the founder of the Mabratta States, attacked the city of Surat. The aid which the Company's servants gave on this occasion to the inhabitants won for them the good will of the Mogul ; and the Company gradu ally obtained increased power, both from the Mogul and from Parliament. In 1693 the Company obtained a new charter by gross bribery of the highest officers of state; but the House of Commons refused to sanction it. Another new company was formed about the same time, and another amalgamation took place, which left the United Company on the footing which it maintained from 1702 till 1833. The capital has been gradually increased to 6,000,0001., on which dividends are paid.
The home government of the Company consists of the Court of Proprietors, the Court of Directors, and the Board of Control, be tween whom it has been sometimes difficult to maintain harmonious relations. The act of Queen Anne gave the Company exclusive trading powers to the East, which lasted with little alteration till 1813. In this year much of the trade was thrown open by a new char ter for twenty years: that with China being however retained as a monopoly. In 1833 another renewal for 20 years was granted, which took away from the Company the right of trading either to its own territories or the dominions of any native power in India or in China, and threw the whole completely open to the enterprise of individual merchants. The time is now rapidly approaching when another charter will be applied for, and its terms canvassed.