Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	great_a	king_n	portugal_n	2,727	5	10.0707	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32839	A treatise wherein is demonstrated, I. That the East-India trade is the most national of all foreign trades, II. That the clamors, aspersions, and objections made against the present East-India company, are sinister, selfish, or groundless, III. That since the discovery of the East-Indies, the dominion of the sea depends much upon the wane or increase of that trade, and consequently the security of the liberty, property, and protestant religion of this kingdom, IV. That the trade of the East-Indies cannot be carried on to national advantage, in any other way than by a general joynt stock, V. That the East-India trade is more profitable and necessary to the kingdom of England, than to any other kingdom or nation in Europe by Philopatris.	Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699.	1681 (1681)	Wing C3866; ESTC R19413	24,211	48

from and to any Port or Place within the Limits of their Charter except to and from Europe Whereas on the contrary the Dutch tho they are a People known to be as tenacious and as obstinate defenders of their Liberty as any People in Europe do restrain all those that serve them in India from all the most profitable trades from place to place within the limits of their Charter and indulge no kind of private or permissive trade whatsoever to or from Europe Now let any indifferent Man judge besides that whatever the Company doth in the case of stated Damages every private man may do that can Freight a whole Ship by himself and Partners whether it be not highly reasonable that seeing the Company are at above 100000 l. yearly charge in East-India and England that whoever participates of that Trade should proportionably contribute to the Expences that necessarily attend the preservation of it Object 5. They say besides Raw Silk the Company imports Wrought Silk to the prejudice of the Silk Manufacture in England Answ. 1. This Objection lies as much and more against all other Wrought Silks imported into England from Italy Holland or any other part of the World 2. The Silks which the Company commonly bring in are the main part of them Taffaties and other plain or striped Silks and Pelongs such as are not usually made in England but imported from France Italy and Holland where lately when Pelongs were scarce many were made and imitated at Harlem and from thence imported into England So this importation works upon our Neighbours preserves the ballance of our Trade and consequently encreaseth the Capital of our Nation 3. And which is beyond all contradiction as will appear by the Entries at the Custom-house a great part of the Wrought Silks imported by the East-India Company are again shipt out to France Holland and other foreign parts which is a great and growing advantage to the King and Kingdom in general to the King because for all Foreign Goods re-exported his Majesty hath in consequence the half Custom paid him by strangers without taking a penny out of his Subjects Purses and to the Kingdom by preserving and meliorating the ballance of our Trade as aforesaid Besides the gain of Freight Portage Wharfage Ware-house-room and all other petty Charges amongst which may be reckoned the advantage accrewing by the expence of such Foreigners while they stay here as the Companies Sales do necessarily draw over hither Object 6. Some Clothiers complain that the East-India Company hinders the vent of Cloth Answ. 1. This indeed is a fine practice and deserves a thorow inspection 1. Who they are that complained 2. When and how they began to complain 3. Why they complain 1. For the time when it was in the year 1674 or 1675 as I remember Then they had the confidence to tell the Parliament the Company would spoil the trade of Cloth and bring the price of Wooll to nothing But in fact the Company hath now stood Five or six years since that time and much augmented their trade for India but Wooll is advanced in price above 50 per Cent and such a trade there is and hath been for woollen Manufactures as England never see in any former Age. 2. Who they were that complained not the poor Kentish Clothiers that have lost their Trade nor the Suffolk men that have lost their Manufacture of Blew Cloth but the Worcestershire Glocestershire and Somersetshire men that do now make and vend above twenty times the quantity of Cloth which they did before this Company was erected 3. How they began to complain which as I have been informed was thus Their first Petition was drawn only against the Turkey Company for making but one Cloth Shipping in a year but entertaining a certain Council since famous for other matters he told them for some reasons best known to himself they should draw their Petition against the East-India Company likewise which accordingly they did but whether they were Dutch or English that paid the best Fees that I could never discover 4. Why they complained That I believe few of them understood It could not be because their Trade sunk for that was manifestly and wonderfully increased It could not be because the East-India Company as a Company sent out less Cloth than was sent for India in the open trade for the Entries at Custom-house will evidence that the Company since their last Incorporation have sent out in some one year above ten times as much Cloth as was ever sent out in the time of open trade But why then did they complain Really I cannot tell but peradventure their Council aforesaid or some Turkey Merchants their Customers might inform them that if the Trade of India were open there would be a new world for Cloth that would vent as much as the old World And if they had any Dutch or French Customers no question they would not be backward to encourage so good a work Object 7. They complain that the present Stock is ingrossed into a few hands some single Adventurers having 16 or 17000 l. principal Stock in their own names An. 1. If this be true the Complaint of it would sound better out of the mouth of an old Leveller than a Merchants living under a free and Royal Monarchy And yet to give the maddest of men their due neither the late English Levellers nor their Elder Brethren the Tribunes of the People of Rome nor yet the more Ancient Lacedemonians or other Greeks none of them had ever that Excess of Indiseretion as to pretend to Stint much less to Level Personal Estates Which if they could be made even at noon would be unequal before night 2. If there were any thing in this Objection certainly the Dutch being a Republick would have found a Remedy for it before this time Whereas on the contrary they think whoever adventures most in their Joynt Stocks doth most oblige the Common-wealth tho he be a stranger insomuch as one Swasso a Jew now or late living in Amsterdam I am Informed hath had at one time in their East-India Stock above the value of 300000 l. Sterling 3. The more any Adventurer hath in the Stock the more he is engaged to study and promote the good of it by all possible means within his power An Adventurer that hath the smallest interest may be as just and true to the Stock as he that hath the greatest but I can never believe that a small interest will awaken a man so often in the night nor keep him so long from sleeping in the meditation of any business as a very great and principal concern may do 4. Notwithstanding the largeness of any of the Adventurers Stocks there are yet Five hundred fifty six Adventurers which is a greater number than are to be found in any trade that hath not a Joynt Stock Object 8. There are many other Ports and Places within the limits of the Companies Charter where English

Loss which they did and do continue notwithstanding out of a Zeal they have to promote the Consumption of our Woollen Manufactures in a Climate not altogether so hot as most parts of India are Which probably may in some time turn to the publick advantage of this Kingdom when those raging and bloody Wars are ended between the Chineses and Tartars II. That the Clamors Aspersions and Objections made against the present East-India Company are sinister selfish or groundless BEfore I engage into the Discourse of Objections against the present East-India Company I shall not stick to declare though it be against the Sense of most of the now Adventurers that in my judgment I am for a New Stock provided we can come honestly by it that is without Injustice to the now Adventurers who will be found to have deserved worthily of their Countrey when their Actions and Themselves shall come to be impartially considered and without Detriment to the Kingdom in general Which notwithstanding is a Matter of great difficulty it being in Trade as with Trees great care is to be taken in removing an old one least upon the removal it die or at least suffer a shrewd stunt Yet if the Wisdom of our Nation in that august Assembly of Parliament now convened shall incline to any a teration of the present Constitution I think this time may be as opportune as any 1st Because our Neighbours are not now at leasure the French being very low in India and the Dutch not altogether so Rampant as formerly to make their Advantage of our Unsettlement during the Transition from one Stock to another 2ly Because the Profits of the East-India Trade were never so much cried up as now they are So that I hope the Subscriptions may prove the larger to the ensuing Stock And yet I must desire to be excused if I think those that complain most of the Old will not be found the forwardest Subscribers to a New Stock 3ly Because when we tell Gentlemen or others they may buy Stock and come into the Company when they please They presently reply They know that but then they must pay 280 l. for 100 l. And when we say the intrinsic Value is worth so much which is as true as 2 and 2 makes 4 yet it is not so soon Demonstrated to their apprehensions notwithstanding it is no hard task to make out that the quick Stock of the English East-India Company is at this time more than the Dutch quick Stock proportionable to their respective first Subscriptions and yet their Actions now are currant at 440 l. or 450 l. per Cent. In truth I that have reason to inspect and know as much of it as any Man had rather buy in this Stock now it is at 300 l. for 100 l. then come into any New Stock at even Money Therefore for general satisfaction I could wish the Experiment of a New Subscription were tried 4ly If a New Stock were now establish'd to please the Generality of the Kingdom I should not despair but that such New Stock would have a Parliamentary Sanction which this only wants to be as strong in its Foundation as it is in all other Nations and which being obtained I am persuaded would in less than an Age render his Majesty as indubitably Sovereign of the Ocean as he is now of Great Britain and Ireland and the Seas adjacent 5ly If an English Company were settled upon such a Foundation there would be more Encouragement to maintain and defend some Trades by Arms which cannot otherwise be enjoyed or secured Which no Company built upon an uncertain Basis can be supposed to adventure the Charge or Hazard of while they are not sure to enjoy their Acquests in case of Success But to return to my Theme and muster up all the Objections I can remember to have heard against the present Company Object 1. The first that comes to my Mind is that of some of the Turkey Merchants They say The bringing in of so much Silk and so cheap is a publick Nusance and destroys their Trade which depends wholly upon the Exportation of Woollen Manufacture whereas the East-India Company send out little Manufacture and much Bullion c. Answ. 1. Lanswer First That it 's strange Doctrine to any sort of Men skill'd in the Political part of Trade That the making of a Material cheap that is to be Manufactured at Home or Exported again into Foreign Countreys should be to the publick Damage of any Countrey 2. That the Turkey Merchants do Ship out much Cloth I deny not but as true it is that they have Shipt out more Yearly since the great encrease of the East-India Trade and since themselves have made this Complaint than they did in former Years So that in Fact it doth not follow that the encrease of the East-India Trade and particularly of their Importation of Silk doth hinder or diminish the Exportation of Cloth to Turkey but rather the contrary 3. The question is not now Which Company sends out most Woollen Manufactures but which is the most profitable Trade to the Nation Which I hope I have proved the East-India Trade to be especially if the before-mentioned Consideration be taken in that what English Commodities the East-India Company exports would not be exported at all if the English had no Trade thither Because other Nations that Trade thither are under Joynt-Stocks and Political Councils and consequently would send none of our Manufactures But as long as there is a Market for our English Cloth in Turkey if the English did not send it thither the Dutch would because in Holland there is no Turkey Company but any Man Native or Foreigner may send what Commodities and when they please for Turkey except they be staied for Convoy by some Act of State And where all Men have liberty to Trade at Discretion they will naturally deal in those Commodities they can get most by be they Foreign or Domestick 4. If Bullion be exported and that hinder not the exportation of our English Manufactures as in fact doth appear And if for every 10 s. value sent out 30 s. be brought in Bullion at the long run which is most evident in the course of the East-India Trade who can doubt but the exportation of Bullion in such a Trade is a real and great advantage to the Kingdom 5. Besides their Cloth the Turkey Merchants do send out a great deal of Bullion themselves as appears by their Entries at the Custom-House In which they do well for themselves and their Countrey but not well in complaining of others at the same time for the same thing 6. The truth of the Case at bottom is but this The Importation of better and cheaper Raw Silk from India may probably touch some Turkey Merchants profit at present though it doth benefit the Kingdom and not hinder the exportation of Cloth What then Must one Trade be interrupted because it works upon another At that rate

Commodities would vend which the Company do not trade unto Answ. 1. I believe there can never be any Society that will more industriously expatiate and enlarge the Trade of this Kingdom in those parts of the World than this hath done by all peaceable means I am sure 100000 l. will not excuse them for the losses they have sustained in such attempts Many Factories they haue settled and after a vast loss have been forced to with-draw them Tywan Tonqueen Siam and Amoy before-mentioned they settled within these Six or seven years past and lost a year or two before 50000 l. in their attempt of a settlement at Japan 2. As there be many Ports in England but a Foreigner that trades to and from London may if he will participate of all the English Trade without having particular Factories in the Out-ports So in East-India a Factory at Suratt will share in all the Trades of the Red Sea as well as Moca and other parts within the Correspondency of that Presidency The same may be said of Bantam and many other places as well as Suratt 3. In very many places of India where the Company do prudently avoid settling English Factories they do notwithstanding carry on a Trade and Correspondency by Bannians Vakeels and other Natives By which means they avoid the charge of Presents to Governours and that ostentatious expensive way which the Companies Factors are necessitated to appear in in all places where they settle according to the mode of that Countrey and for the honour of the English Nation and the East-India Company Object 9. It is said if the Company were not in a Joynt Stock many more Ships might be imployed in India from one Port to another in trading Voyages Answ. 1. The Company want neither Stock nor Skill or will to imploy as many Ships as they can gain by and have almost doubled the quantity of their Stock and Tunnage within these ten years and are like yearly to increase to the Nations greater advantage if they be not interrupted 2. The Company have now 25 Ships and Vessels trading in the East-Indies from Port to Port besides 11 great Ships sent out last year hereafter particularly mentioned which are abundantly enough to answer all the Companies occasions of that kind the rather because the Company do generously allow not only to their President Agents Factors and Merchants but to all the English Nation living in any places within their Charter being the King of Englands Subjects of which there are many hundred of Families free liberty of Trade to and from all Ports and Places in India and in any Commodities whatsoever without exception By which means many scores of small Ships and Vessels are imployed in those trades and the trade fully supplied By this means our Native Commodities are dispersed and all India Goods collected from the several less considerable Ports of India do at length center in the principal Ports where the Company have Factories Forts Cities and Garisons and from thence do come for Europe in the Companies returned Ships And if this be not directly after the Dutch mode I am apt to think in a few years more if the Company be not interrupted it will be found to be a better And I have been told their late Ancient Learned and Experienced General of Batavia Matsuker did before his Death write to the Committees of the Dutch East-India Company to this or the like purpose Obj. 10. Since the East-India Company was Incorporated Coinage hath abated in England Answ. This is a meer groundless Chimaera and will appear so if the old Mint-Master as well as the new ones be Examined The proportion of Coinage except when we Coined the King of Spains Money for his Wars in Flanders having generally in my observation born a proportion to and followed the Price of Corn in England viz. when Corn was dear we had little Coinage in all cheap years of Corn the Mint hath been greatly supplied I can remember no more Objections against the East-India Company or Trade and therefore must proceed to the next particular viz. III. That since the Discovery of the East-Indies the Dominion of the Sea depends much upon the wain or increase of that Trade and consequently the security of the Liberty Property and Protestant Religion of this Kingdom THe first part of this Proposition is meerly Historical and so well known to all that look beyond the present Age we live in that the proof of it will require little pains While the Spaniards had Portugal and with it the Trade of India they were able to invade England with a Navy by them called Invincible and so it was as to mans understanding if the strength of it be barely considered but their Skill was not good nor their Ships of a Fabrick fit for our Seas their Cause was naught and the Providence of Almighty God blasted them The Dutch since the Portugals sunk in the East-India Trade have grown so potent in and by the Trade of the Indies that they have in three great and bloody Wars contended with us for the Dominion of the Sea and yet secretly do not allow us the predominancy Tho they are not now at leisure to try the fourth War for it yet if through the folly or madness of a few unthinking or self-interested men we should deprive our selves of the Trade of the East-Indies which God in mercy to England forbid we should certainly save them the experiment of fighting with us the fourth time They would carry the Dominion of the Sea clear and hold it for ever or until their Common-wealth should be destroyed by Land force or intestine Broils If any man shall say Why then Are the East-India Ships of such a mighty auxiliary Force that without their aid we cannot over-ballance the Dutch in Naval Power I answer Those Ships and the Men in them are of very great Force as will hereafter appear But he that looks no further than into the bare force of the Ships and Men now employed by the Company doth not see the tenth part of the way into this great Business For if we should throw off the East-India Trade the Dutch would soon treble their strength and power in India and quickly subdue all other European Nations in that Trade as they lately did the French notwithstanding their great strength at Home and have since I hear quarrelled the Danes By means whereof they would become sole Masters of all those rich and necessary Commodities of the East and make the European World pay five times more for them than now they do as they have already done by Cloves Mace Cinnamon and Nutmegs Which would so vastly encrease their Riches as to render them irresistible All Wars at Sea and in some sense Land-Wars since the Artillery used is become so chargeable being in effect but dropping of Doits that Nation that can spend most and hold out longest will carry the Victory at last with indifferent Counsels If

it be said Where shall they have Men I answer If they have Trade and Money enough they cannot want Men. Seamen are Inhabitants of the Universe and where ever they are bred will resort to the best Pay and most constant Employment especially in a Countrey where they cannot be prest or compelled into any Service against their Wills But it must be further considered That all other Foreign Trade in Europe doth greatly depend upon East-India Commodities and if we lose the Importation of them into Europe we shall soon abate in all our other Foreign Trade and Navigation and the Dutch will more than proportionably increase theirs The proportion of our Decay and their Increase in such a Case would indeed be exactly the same but that the excess of price which they would make the European World pay for East-India Commodities more than now they do would cause a disproportionable and greater increase of their Riches The augmentation whereof would further enable them to overballance us and all others in Trade as well as in Naval strength If it shall be said Admit all that is writ upon this Head to be probable is not the Consequence viz. the security of the Liberty Property and Protestant Religion of this Kingdom far fetcht and brought in as popular phrases to gain and please a Party as the Clothiers and Artificers Petition was formerly on the other side I answer I cannot hinder Men from thinking their own way but God Almighty that knows my Heart knows that I scorn to use any such sacred terms to or for any such sinister or selfish respect or to please any sort of Men living All that I have or shall write in this Treatise is what I do really and stedfastly believe upon very long and serious Meditation and many Years conference with almost all sorts of Men English and Strangers And if notwithstanding I do err in some things as humanum est it is for want of better understanding But to return to the Matter Can any man that looks abroad into the World doubt of the truth of that Observation viz. That Trade never thrives in any Countrey that is not Protestant though not in all that are so for reasons which I could offer but that they are not necessary here Is it not obvious to every Man's understanding that since Queen Elizabeth's time our Customs are encreased from 14000 l. per Annum to above 700000 l. per Annum Is it not evident that the People of the United Netherlands since their being Protestant are increased more in Trade and Wealth in 100 Years than the ancient and fortunate Romans did in 400 Years after the foundation of their flourishing Commonwealth Have not the French since they were but Partie par paile part Protestants and part Papists increased more in Trade and Shipping in 100 Years then they did in 500 Years before I once discoursed a Popish Lord soon after his Majestie 's happy Restauration who is since dead who told me it was never well in England nor would be while we kept such a stir about promoting of Trade I confess I liked his Lordship the worse for that expression but I thought the better of his Parts A Naval Power never affrights us Seamen never did nor ever will destroy the Liberty of their own Countrey They naturally hate Slavery because they see so much of the misery of it in other Countreys All Tyrannies in the World are supported by Land-Armies No absolute Princes have great Navies or great Trades very few of them though they have large Territories can match that little Town of Hamburgh in Shipping The Kingdom of France is powerful and populous and is arrived to the height of Military Vertue by which they are become formidable to us as well as to our Neighbours Who do we fear may destroy our Liberty Property and Religion which three are one in substance but the Papists and the French which likewise are two names for one thing and so we should have found it if God Almighty had not disappointed them Now under God's Providence what can best secure us from them but our Naval Strength and what doth especially increase and support that but our East-India Trade which I think I have sufficiently proved to the conviction of every impartial and unbiassed Englishman And if so the Consequence in this Proposition is most natural and irrefragable But if notwithstanding it shall be replied upon me that in the former part of the Discourse on this Inference I say That Trade thrives in Protestant Countries therefore the Protestant Religion is the cause of our so great increase in Trade and Navigation and not the Trade of the East-Indies I answer First That the great increase of Trade is not a constant and infallible consequence of the Protestant Religion because it proves not so in all Protestant Countreys But whatever Nation increaseth in the East-India Trade never fails proportionably to increase in other Foreign Trade and Navigation Secondly Admit that our Reformation to the Protestant Religion were one principal cause at first of our advance in Trade and Navigation yet now it is manifest that the increase of our Trade and Navigation is a great means under God to secure and preserve our Protestant Religion Foreign Trade produceth Riches Riches Power Power preserves our Trade and Religion they mutually work one upon and for the preservation of each other As was well said by the late learned Lord Bacon though in a different Case in his History of Henry the 7th That that Kings Fortune work'd upon his Nature and his Nature upon his Fortune IV. That the Trade of the East-Indies cannot be carried on to National Advantage by a Regulated Company or in any other way than by a Joynt Stock BEfore I ingage in this Argument it will be necessary to explain What 's the Constitution of a Regulated Trade such as the Turkey Company and other like Companies of Merchants of London are 2ly What a Company United in a Joynt-Stock is To begin with the first A Regulated Company is hard to define and harder to resemble It s the Confinement of a Trade to a certain number of the People exclusive to above 99 parts of 100 with power in the major part to hinder the lesser from shipping out any Goods but when the greater number think fit and to levy a Tax upon the Trade at the discretion of the greater number of Votes In brief it is a Heteroclite unto which out of England there is nothing now in the World like in any other Kingdom or Commonwealth whatsoever that ever I could read or hear of All those Trades that are regulated and confined to certain Persons in England being open and free to all People in all other Kingdoms and States Their Courts are perfect Democracies where one that trades but for 100 l. per Annum hath as good a Vote as another that trades for 20000 l. per Annum In those Courts they appoint the time

there would be nothing but confusion in a Nation ad infinitum The Italian Merchants may quarrel the Portugal Merchants because they do now in a plentiful Year Import from Portugal 4000 Pipes of Oyl per Annum as formerly they did not use to import above 100 Pipes annually The Shoemakers pull down the Coblers those that make Red Herrings destroy those that dry Sprats because quantities of the latter pull down the price of the former Of the same kind was the late project of the Inn-keepers to pull down the Haokney Coaches and so might peradventure with much more probability of truth the Portugal Merchants pretend that our Plantation Sugars spoil their Trade and hinder the exportation of our Woollen Manufactures to Portugal Of which in reality the first part only is true Our Plantation Sugars have brought down their Lisbon Sugars from 8 l. 10 s. per Cent. to 2 l. 10 s. per Cent. within my memory and yet the exportation of Woollen Manufactures to Portugal is now greater than ever it was since England was a trading Nation Just as it is and will prove in the Turkey trade the Similie holds and will hold thorowout 7. If those Turkey Merchants think the East-India Trade so good why do they not come into it themselves The door is open always to them and all the Kings Subjects buying and selling there is daily and some Noblemen Gentlemen and others of quality and place have lately bought Stock and the East-India Company have taken nothing for their Freedom The most they can take is 5 l. But if any East-India Merchants desire to trade for Turkey they must answer several hard questions before they can be let in 1. How old are you 2. Are you a Freeman of London 3. Are you no Shopkeeper or a Legitimate Merchant When you have answered all these questions to their content if you are above 25 years of age there 's 50 l. to pay before you can trade which is a great deal of money to part with before one knows whether he shall get or lose by the Bargain Obj. 2. They say there is not above 80 Legitimate Merchants in the East-India Company Answ. First I answer First By Legitimate Merchants I suppose they mean such as have served Apprenticeships to Merchants in the number whereof I believe they reckon short above half 2. That it matters not two straws to the Kingdom whether they be legitimate in their sense or illegitimate In the whole they are now Five hundred fifty and six which is more by a great many than the Turkey Merchants and more by above half then they would be if the Trade were not managed in a Joynt Stock Object 3. They say the Company have half the known World in their Charter and that 's too much for any Company c. Answ. I answer First This Company have no more in their Charter than all the East-India Companies in Christendom have in their Charters and from thence infer that either so much as is in the Charter ought to be for publick Utility or elle all Christendom except those few Gentlemen that complain are mistaken in their Politicks 2. Tho the Charter run in the stile of The Merchants of London trading to the East-Indies yet in truth the Company is a Company of all or so many of the Kings Subjects as did desire to be concerned in that Trade or yet do they buying the Stock of any dead Person or other that is willing to sell. Object 3. But it s dear buying at 280 l. per Cent. Answ 1. It 's less than the intrinsique value if the Stock were now to be broke up if I can calculate aright 2. If it be too dear I know not but any Man may be as justly compelled to sell his House or Land at the Buyers price or else be disseized of it as his Stock in the East-India Company Object 4. They say the Charter hath exorbitant and illegal Clauses in it Answ 1. I believe no Charter in Europe hath less of that kind 2. It 's absolutely necessary for the Publick Good that who-ever governs a Trade so remote from England and by such a multitude of hands as the Company are forced to imploy should have some extraordinary Power committed to them 3. Whatever is in the Charter I never knew or heard of any arbitrary Act that ever the Company did nor any Ships or Goods that ever they seized by vertue of their Charter tho they have had cause often Object 4. They say the Company hath imposed and exacted great Fines Mulcts and Forfeitures to an immense value Answ. I never knew them take any Fine or Forfeiture but what any man might do in the same case without a Charter What they do take in any case being either by submission of the party by agreement with the Master and Owners in Charterparty or by Arbitrations and always in pursuance of Legal Obligations sealed and delivered The manner whereof is briefly this They agree with all their Factors and Servants and also with Masters of Ships before they entertain them into their Service that they shall not carry or bring home prohibited Goods and if they do they shall subduct out of their Freight a certain rate for each piece or sort of prohibited Commodities which they do accordingly subduct out of the Freight which in effect is from themselves for most of the Owners of the Ships imployed by the Company are East-India Adventures Which I know by experience being a Part-Owner my self of a considerable number of Ships employed by them And yet to do the Company right I must acknowledge that the Ships imployed by them such deductions notwithstanding make better Voyages and gain more Mone●jeor their Owners than any Ships whatsoever that sail out of England And the Commanders and Officers of such Ships generally grow much richer in a short time than any others of any Trade or Nation whatsoever And so indulgent are the Company to common Seamen that they allow every Man or Boy that will in their several Ships to bring 5 pieces free of stated Damage erroneously called Mulct And if any Seaman happen to bring 10 or 15 Pieces the Committees entrusted with that Affair commonly stretch that Order to the allowing the Seaman 5 Pieces for himself 5 Pieces for his Wife and 5 Pieces for his Child if he have any and if he have none they usually ask the party whether he have not a Father Mother or other Relation so that they invent ways to favour him above the Companies Rule afore-said of only 5 Pieces to one Person To encourage likewise the importation of Gold from China from whence small quantities do come every year and very great quantities will come in a few years the Company do not only permit the entrance of it free of stated Damage but give the Fraight of it gratis The Company do likewise allow to all their Commanders President Agents Factors and Servants all kind of Trade in India