the Free-Traders with singular Kindness they protect them in their Ports as they did the Ship Success the last Year at Surrat from the French who brought into that Port two of the Company 's Ships they had taken at Sea They have offered Phirmands to particular Free-Traders inviting them to Traffick with most endearing Motives These with the Humanity of the Indians are great Security to us in our Trade with them and are sufficient But Forts and Castles are none at all in Cafe the Great Mogul or other Princes in India will at any time Offend us And for others the French and Dutch c. if they be our Enemies they cannot hurt us in any Port of the Indies because there the Government c. will Protect us And if they meet us at Sea our Forts and Castles if we have them cannot defend us So that Forts in India are at best no better to us in point of Security or Defence against Enemies than Castles in the Air but may do us much Hurt for that they are likely to create a Jealousy of us in the Great Mogul and other Princes of India c. and tempt us as it did the Now Company to Contests which will be fatal to us 〈…〉 Reas 1. The Wisdom of our Nation in Parliament for time out of Mind hath been against the Being or Continuauce of any Grant of Trade exclusive to Others the Subjects of England as appears in many Statutes Un-repealed And it hath been unusual with Parliaments to allow as Motive or Reward unto Invention or Discovery more than 14 Years exclusive of Others because they would not have them longer excluded Yet this Company tho'not Discoverers of this Trade have enjoyed it 37 Years And if Examples be of force we have many Companies which have had their determination for publick Good tho' they reaped not what they sowed as the Canary-Company in King Charles the Second's Time which if particular Interest must be considered will be found much severer than to have this Company expire after so profitable an Enjoyment and so long Reas 2. The Members of the Now Company being under an Oath which maybe interpreted obliging of them to do nothing to the prejudice of the Joint-Stock during the continuance of it the Company must be dissolved or the Members cannot be Free to do any thing that may lessen the Gain of the Joint-Stock tho' the publick Good should require it Nay one would think that they may hold themselves bound by the Oath to do what is for the Gain of the said Stock tho' it be to the damage of the Publick if we may judge now by their past Practice of sending to India Dyers Weavers and Throwsters with Instruments for setting up of our Manufactures there Also the Robberies and Murders abroad and the great Oppressions at home which in the House of Commons were proved done upon the Order of the greater number of the then Regents of the Company Wherefore if they obtain an Act of Parliament there will be one Monopoly establish'd by Law and Additions to it will spring from the said Oath the Law will impower them to seek and to serve onely themselves and the Oath will oblige them to be kind to no Body else Reas 3. The Stock to be grafted upon if there be any being in part acquired by an unjust War made upon the innocent Indians and by other Acts of Unrighteousness cannot be joined with in hope of any Good from it and being thus Leprous it should remain alone according to the old Law And for that some of the evil Deeds were done in the East-Indies by the pretended Authority of the King of England if their Majesties in Parliament should dissolve the Now Company we may reasonably conclude That people here and the Indians there will interpret it Justice in their Majesties in Parliament to be faithful Guardians to their own Rights and to their Peoples and to recover the Honour of our Religion and of our Nation depress'd by those evil Deeds I do not foresee any thing that can be objected against a Dissolution of the Now Company but what may be fairly answered from what I have already suggested and will further say The Innocent who have subscribed anew and were not afore-concerned in the old Joint-Stock will see Cause to be thankful for a Dissolution if their Majesties in Parliament provide That the old Stock shall pay all it oweth both at home and abroad and make Restitution to the Indians c. according to the Great Mogul's Phirmand The Company say They have value undivided to do all this and much more But in case it prove otherwise the Stock hath it in Debts which may be soon recovered being du◠from the old Adventurers unto whom Dividends have been made whose Accompts are all stated in the Companies Books For every one is Debtor to the Stock for so much as hath been divided or paid to him and so he stands in the Companies Books And what his Share of the Stock for which he stand Creditor in the Companies Books wants to ballance the Dividends made to him he ought to repay being so much Debtor to it And this every honest Man doth without any compulsion in all like Cases Tho' all this may be done and with great ease yet to have it well done none can or will I believe think it ill if the Parliament notifying at present the said Dissolution and providing against the Companies Illegal Powers do suspend the said Dissolution for three Years In which time the true state of the old Stock may be known all Debts if ever may be paid the Demands of the Indians may be adjusted and farther Experience had of the best way to carry on the Trade for publick Good And for that the said Suspension of a Dissolution is undeserved Grace to the Members of the old Stock and will add great value to it And the new Subscribers by it will have the start of all other Subjects in the Trade because their Ships are ready to sail and they have which others are denied Protection for their Men And their Stock of 1500000 l. being ascertained they may be taxed for the ease of the Nation and for the defence of it and of themselves during the War And for that it is a bare Suspension for a time and other Subjects not excluded the Trade the Guilt and Mischiefs of a Monopoly will be avoided and the Nation will escape a double Tax For such Monopolists buy the Native Growth and Manufacture cheap at home and sell the Foreign which they Import dear to the Subject which Practice in both kinds can be proved upon the present East-India and Africa-Companies And however Joint-stocks in Trade may have been used here in the Infancy of Foreign Trade and granted by Kings to a number of Subjects named the Intention whereof was not particular but to them in Trust for the general Good and in prospect of a future opening unto National Benefit Yet now when we of this Kingdom are arriv'd at the utmost degree of Experience in Commerce with all Countries even the most distant and that our Mariners are the most expert in the Universe and we having Stock enough to carry on as well as to encrease our Trade I cannot see any reason why the Subjects should lose their Right or should be clogg'd by Joint Stocks to the great damage of the Nation as I have before made evident FINIS
〈◊〉 Humbly Offered against Establishing by Act of Parliament THE East-India-TRADE IN A COMPANY with a JOINT-STOCK EXCLUSIVE Of Others the Subjects of England Reas 1. MEN being reasonable Creatures Framed for Society and the whole Earth being given unto them I do take it to be a Dictate of Nature that mutual Traffick or Commerce is free and of Right doth belong to every Man so soon as any Place or People is discovered to him wherewith to Trade Therefore exclusive Establishments of Trade are Malum in se Monopolies at Common Law for that they Give and Appropriate that to some onely which is the Common Right of all And in the Instance now before us doth make but one Buyer for what is Exported and but one Seller for what is Imported to the Value of near One half of the Foreign Trade of this Kingdom which must be of evil Effect to us Reas 2. It may and most likely will endanger the Peace and Being of the English Monarchy For it is Obvious in the Thing it self as well as in Example That great Treasure and influencing Management will gain Dominion And where such Treasure and Power is in a few Subjects the Prince is not safe Reas 3. It is a pernicious Contraction of Trade for that it cannot be extended to Persons so as to make it National Of the now East-India Stock 744000 l Old and two Thirds of the value New Subscription is extended to no more than to 482 Persons on the Printed List of Adventurers and divers of them are small Sums Now if the Trade of the Nation were Contracted as this to India is it would soon Nationally perish for that the whole then in proportion would scarce enrich 160 Persons and maintain very few Adventurers or Traders And if this would have very ill Effect in the whole a Contraction in this great Trade of India must in proportion be of like ill Effect on the Glory and Prosperity of our Nation And it is to be noted That the Adventurers in the now India joynt-Stock are at present more numerous than in time they will be For if by opening this Trade to China Japan c. it become double or treble what it is the desire of Gain will effect a paucity of Sharers It having gradually so done since the present Company 's Stock began to Advance Anno 1665 no Man's Share exceeded 4000 Pounds But now in the Old and in the New Subscription several have 20 to 30 40 50 and some 60 thousand Pounds in it And although it be limited that no one shall subscribe at first or have in it above 10000 Pounds yet the Father may be in the Son or one Friend in another So that three Fifths of the Gain may come to be divided among less than 40 Men and the Administration lodg'd in whom they please Whence a Particular Interest will be carried on not the Publick Reas 4. If the Trade be thus settled for One and twenty Years it will for many of those Years exclude from Trade the greater number of Merchants and many other of the Subjects of England For that some are now Minors some are not in present Cash to subscribe and others will have their Trades 〈…〉 Reas 5. It will cause the Dutch to surmount us in this Trade As Sir Jos Child well observes in his Discourse of Trade Pag. 82. Nothing in the World says he Can enable us to Cope with the Dutch in any Trade but encrease of Hands and Stock which a general Admission will effect And Pag. 83. The Dutch who have no East-land Companies yet have ten times the Trade to the Eastern-parts as we have And for Italy Spain and Portugal where we have no Companies we have yet left full as much if not more Trade than the Dutch And for Russia and Greenland where we have Companies and I think established by Act or Acts of Parliament our Trade is in effect wholly lost while the Dutch without Companies encrease theirs to above Forty times the Bulk of what the Residue of ours now is Therefore to excel them we must do in this Trade as we do in others where the Subjects trade with equal freedom Grotius in his Annals of the Low-Countries Assigns two Causes of the Rise of a joynt Stock in Holland for carrying on the Dutch-India and Guinea Trade which before being free he owns was best managed to the Profit of People in general 1. The buying Goods cheap both at home and abroad and the selling of them dear 2. To enable the States the better to carry on a War they then had with the Spaniard and Portugueez who at that time were very Powerful in the Indies and Guinea Of the former I shall need to say nothing and of the latter I will give it in the Words of one of the chief and most knowing of our own Merchants discoursed in a Letter to his Friend The Trade to India and Guinea in Holland had both of them their Original in the Minority of that State when they strugled with the mighty Power of Spain in a long and bloody War And the Spaniard and Portugueez who were then under the same Monarch being Masters of the whole Trade of both the Indies and Guinea the States to weaken their Enemies encourag'd Merchants to send Ships into those Seas by giving them Comissions of War and they effectually did it by taking considerable Booties from them and augmenting their Force had great Success at Sea and seiz'd on some of their Fortifications This brought the Merchants of Amsterdam to joyn with those of other Towns whereby prosecuting their Trade and Privateering several Years they became very considerable when the States politickly united them further that they might yet be more serviceable to annoy their Enemies and brought the whole Trade and War for so it was to both Indies and Guinea into joynt Stocks and gave them mighty Priviledges especially to the East-India Company that of paying no Customs In or Out which they enjoy to this Day And this was the Reason that induced the States so long ago to settle these two Companies and not that they thought it was best so to do for the general good of the Trade or that it could not be as well managed by a Regulation if their Circumstances had been otherwise but as an Engine of War and depredation on their Enemies And the East-India Company being thus establish'd as it were by Conquest and thereby incumbring themselves with a great many Fortresses and Islands in the South-Sea and Ceylon to maintain to themselves the Spice-Islands there seems a kind of necessity upon them to drive that Trade in a Joynt Stock For indeed their Establishment in India is another Commonwealth which howsoever useful the States may think it to them and that because many of them are concerned in the Stock they still keep it upon the old Foundation yet I think we have no cause to envy them their manner of carrying it on nor
indeed could we imitate them were it ever so desirable And this is a certain truth That from the Year 1653 to 1656. while our Trade to India lay open to all the Holland East-India Company sunk greatly in their Stock and Credit for we under-sold them in all East-India Commodities and brought home Spice in spight of them procured at Macassar and elsewhere which gave them such Apprehensions of losing their Trade To prevent it as I have been informed from good Hands they employed some Persons to Influence Oliver Cromwell to Establish this present Joynt-Stock which he did in 1656. And they gave a Pension to Two of the then Committee of 500 Pounds a Year each to prevent our possessing Polleron or any other of the Spice-Islands we had a just claim to Wherefore it is not to be wondered that the Dutch East-India Company are at this time so very apprehensive that we shall lay open the Trade to India since they will so sensibly feel the Effects of it by our vast Importation and Exportations of all Commodities and the affording them at so much a cheaper Rate than they can possibly besides all Combinations with Colleagues here to inhance the Prices will be removed as well as the Opportunity of bribing in order to do good Offices The same Consequences happen'd to the Holland Guinea or West-India Company in the Year 1660. when we had that Trade also open their Stock was then worth but Eight per Cent. But no sooner was the Trade to Guinea limited here by a Joynt Stock but that Company began to Flourish again and their Actions are now worth Eighty per Cent. So that whatsoever Reason the Dutch have for the keeping the Trade to the Indies and Guinea in Joynt-stocks the onely Monopolies they have it is evident 〈…〉 people and Ruinous too Corrupting Men's Morals will be fatal to Us in the present Age and to our Posterity in future And the loss in Estates that will be sustained by Cheats this way and by the Monopolists double Tax One Buyer and One Seller in so great a Trade as this is will in less than Twenty Years exceed the Value of the now Joynt-stock What shall it profit us then to borrow one Million at present to pay it again and lose more in few Years The very Proposal to ease our own Lands in Taxes by Raising of Money on the Grant of this Trade to some exclusive of Others is an Admission that the Nation needs it to Compensate its future Damage by it For otherwise especially now when the Publick wants Money all our Foreign Trade should be alike Granted and Persons who seek only their own Profit are as desirous of the One as of the Other and would pay for the Grant of it But I hope never to see that done For should it be the Grant will soon lessen the Value of our Lands or Rid us of them which I take to be a very ill Way of making us easie in them Reas 7. The Benefits to our Nation if the Trade to India be Free or in a Regulated Company without a Joint-Stock are many I will mention some few Ingenuity and vertuous Industry will be encouraged new Places of Trade some of them will be applied to being known to us tho' hitherto neglected and others may be discovered where our Growth and Manufacture may be vended More of the Sons of our Gentry upon generous Terms may be sent factors and gain Estates Whereas the now Company do send few of them Factors And those they do send are starved with small Salaries of 10 or 20 l. per Annum And are cramp'd with Oaths and Orders so that they rarely live to bring Estates home with them And if any do they are vexed with the unjust Demands and Delays of the Company in passing of their Accompts And Dying abroad their Relations or Executors are worse Treated because less able to defend themselves And in these and the like Disputes with such Companies the Defendants Remedy is mostly worse than the Disease they are and will be their own Judges But when we are to accompt with single Persons or with Persons Incorporated with a Soul that is with no Joint-Stock neither Plantiff nor the Defendant must be their own Judges And further the great Stocks of some Men now only in one Channel of Trade and the worst to us tho' now the greatest of any may be in divers if the Trade be free and thereby will subserve other Trades such as that to Turkey which be more beneficial to the Nation in general It will Increase the Exportation of our own Manufacture and Growth It will enable us to furnish Europe with all the Commodities of those Countries much cheaper than any other People especially the Dutch It will add greatly to our Navigation and augment the King's Customs Stock-Jobbing with its Mischiefs will cease And it will prevent the Method used by Companies with a Joint-Stock in taking up vast Sums of Money at Interest on a Common Seal no Member being obliged for Payment which is not only Indirect and Dangerous in that they seldom have in England the Value they Owe and their Ships may miscarry but also very unequal to the Subject the Company reaping great Profit thereby when the Lender hath but 5 per Cent. for Interest and for Hazard too Reas 8. The India Trade will be drove with Vigour on all Hands now the Company and Free-Trader are Vying who shall do it best And that the Trade can be driven without a Joint-Stock is confirmed by Fact of much later Date than that before-mentioned From 1678 to 1685 many Ships were sent to India and returned hither with the Commodities of those Countries upon private Accompts And the Cargo's that several of those Ships brought were better in Sortment and in Quality than the Companies And then Callicoes and Salt-Peter were sold here very Cheap Long Cloth at 20 s. per piece better Cloth than what the Company soon after upon stopping Mr. Sands his Ship fold at 32 to 34 s. and since gradually advanced to near 50 s. per piece Salt-Petre the like from 32 s. to 8 l. and in like proportion other India Goods And then the Dutch were so mean in the Callicoe-Trade that they bought them of us And in truth they do scarce in any Trade cope with us but where we are cramp'd in Companies with a Joint-Stock exclusive of others the Subjects of England Anno 1685. Capt. Put now a Member of Parliament and others were kept from Trading to India by the then dispensing Power and prosecuted in the Crown-Office when the Dutch finding that King James did espouse the Now Company began to project the Encrease of their Trade in Callicoes and have since 1688. so succeeded that they now excel us therein even in the Bay of Bangal the Flower of our India Trade and upon the North-Coast of India where the Dutch have no Fortress The Governours and Natives in India have always treated