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A57014
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A reply on behalf of the present East-India Company, to a paper of complaints, commonly called, The thirteen articles delivered by their adversaries, to the members of the honourable House of Commons.
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East India Company.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing R1049; ESTC R219054
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6,571
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4
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A Reply on behalf of the Present East-India Company to a Paper of Complaints commonly called The Thirteen Articles delivered by their Adversaries to the Members of the Honourable House of COMMONS ARTICLE I. THat they did procure Illegal Commissions from the late King for Martial Law whereby some Persons have been Executed ANSWER HOW far a Power to grant Commissions of Martial Law in Foreign Plantations in the Case of Rebellion is by Antient Prerogative vested in the Crown is not fit here to be debated much less determined though the Author of this Article here presumes so to do But this is true That the Commission here stiled Illegal was no other than what hath been from time to time granted to the said Company more particularly at its first Institution in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. As doth appear by the Original Commissions ready to be produced That the said Commission was grounded on the same Power with their Charter and their Charter on the same Power with all the Charters of the respective Plantations in the West-Indies Upon which Charters several Persons have been Executed both by Civil and Military Judicatures and never yet call'd in Question and is no more than what all the European Joynt-Stocks make use of in India That the Governour of St. Helena caused to be put to Death two Men before any Commission was obtain'd What the Governour of St. Helena did before the Commission arriv'd was without the Order or Privity of the Company here and so they not answerable nor blame-worthy for the same Art II. That the Company did procure of the late King the Ship Phoenix to be sent to India to seize the Ships and Goods of their Fellow-Subjects And also gave Orders to the Commanders of their own Ships to do the same Answ These Fellow-Subjects here mentioned are such as did break in on the Trade of the Company contrary to His Majesties Charter and are usually stiled Interlopers Now it being generally granted and likewise declared by the Honourable House of Commons That the East India Trade will be best manag'd by a Joynt-Stock exclusive to all others It 's humbly submitted to the Judgment of all Persons unconcern'd what other Measures the Company could have then taken or can be taken for the future by this or any other Company on such an Exigency for the preservation of the Trade to the Nation and themselves than those which the Objection would render Criminal Art III. That they did procure their late Majesties Proclamations for the putting the Powers granted to them by their Charters in Execution and commanding all persons from their Employments and Settlements in those Parts to repair to the Companies Garisons in India or return home Answ This Article is no more than that they did procure from their late Majesties their respective Proclamations for the Confirmation of their Charters and putting the Powers therein given them in Execution which is usual and hath been the practice of most if not all Companies established by Charter Nor was it ever until now objected as a thing Criminal so to do nor had they done it now but to restrain Interloping Art IV. That they did in the two last Reigns commence vexatious and chargeable Suits against their Fellow-Subjects Answ The Company being as they humbly conceive in Possession of a Right it was never yet accounted Criminal by any Persons to maintain that Right in Westminster-Hall Art V. They have caused several Ships fitted and design'd for India to be Illegally stopt and also one Ship homeward bound to be unladen at Portsmouth In order to which they procured a Letter from the late King to the Judge of the Admiralty commanding him to order the said Cargoe there to be Landed Answ As to this that as is before hinted in answer to the second Article It being generally agreed on and declared by the Honourable House of Commons That the East-India Trade will be best managed by a Joynt-Stock exclusive to all others It 's humbly conceiv d it was no ways Criminal for them to apply to His then Majesty and His Courts of Admiralty for such assistance as that Court could afford them to preserve the Trade to themselves exclusive to others according to their Charter But as to any such Letter as is here suggested it being matter of Fact it must rest upon them to prove it by producing the same Art VI. That the Company have expended great summes of Money under the title of secret Services and presented to the two late Kings several ten thousand Guineys Answ This were much more proper to be objected by the Present Members of the Company than by those some of whom at least wise were the chief Promoters of it And having since sold themselves out would render the present Managers Criminal for those very Actions which they committed while Members of the said Company And as to these ten thousand Guineys which were presented to the late Kings it was alwayes Paid into the Exchequer for the Publick Service and was at first introduced not by the present Managers but by some of those who as aforesaid have sold themselves out and do now complain against it But it hath been since taken off by a Present of Seven Thousand Pound â—tock in the said Company which his present Majesty whom God long preserve doth now enjoy Art VII Some of the prevailing Members in the Committee have sold to themselves great part of the Companies Goods by Private Contract to the Prejudice of the Buyers and the Defrauding the other Adventurers Answ This Objection likewise had been much more proper to have come from the Present Members than from those who had no Interest in the Company when these Private Contracts were made Nor were these Contracts so private but first by the allowance of the General Court of Adventurers and then Publication made that such Contracts were proposed and all Persons both Members and others had full freedom to bid for the Goods intended to be Exposed to Sale And it is humbly conceiv'd That it is the Property of every individual Person and of all Communities to dispose of their Effects as they do think most conducing to their present Advantage Nor is it contrary to the Companies present Constitution But if it be thought inconvenient for the future This as all other Regulations is by the Companies Petition humbly submitted to the Honourable House of Commons Art VIII They have not for many Years past made up their Books and valued their Stock although by the General Preamble subscribed by every Adventurer on his admission into the Company they are obliged so to do every seven Years Whereby the late Managers have engrossed a great part of the said Stock in opposition to the Interest of the Publick Answ This Obiection is not true in fact The Company having made up their Books and a Valuation of their Stock in the Year 1685 which is yet within the seven Years Nor
is it true as is further suggested That the late Managers have thereby ingrossed a great part of the Stock in opposition to the Interest of the Publick Art IX That they have of late made over-large Dividends whereby they have not only divided their Profit but the very Stock it self And that it hath been urg'd as an Argument so to do in their Publick Courts That it was the only way to put themselves out of the Power of a Parliament Answ This Article consisting of several Particulars huddled up together without any due connexion must notwithstanding to render the Answer to it intelligible be brancht into several particulars As to the making the late Dividends it was occasion'd for want of Liberty to send out Shipping for India The Company having made several earnest applications for the same which by reason of the Pressing occasions for Seamen to Man Their Majesties Fleet could not be obtain'd And also they have had certain Advices from India that by reason of the Great Moguls Warring upon the King of Gulconda and the grievous Famine and Sickness happening on the Coast of Choromandel most of the Handicrafts-men being destroy'd The Companies Agents and Factors could not procure Callicoes for their Money By which ways the Companies Stock then lying dead both in England and India the said Dividends were made And not as is falsly suggested to put themselves out of the Power of a Parliament And that thereby they have not left a Fund sufficient to carry on their Trade But that by these Dividents there is not left a Fund sufficient to carry on the Trade is deny'd and being matter of Fact must rest upon the Perusal of the Accompts of the Companies ordered and intended to be delivered into the Honourable House of Commons But are become necessitated to Farm it out to their Fellow-Subjects As to the Permission Ships there was a necessity for it during the time of the War when Trade might be carried on by private Management of particular Persons with less noise or notice taken of it than could then be done by the Company But that being ceased by the Peace made They are now restrain'd by the present Company and therefore ought not to remain an Objection against them And likewise to the Armenians This was principally design'd for the encreasing the Exportation of the Woollen Manufacture They being the only Persons that can greatly increase the vent of English Cloth by carrying it into the Upland and Northern parts of Persia and Tartary whereby new Markets for the same may be obtain'd The Factors and Agents of the said Company being never able to penetrate so far into the Country And by permitting them to send out not only our Manufactory but also Foreign Commodities which used alwayes to go with the Caravans for Turkey it would have brought great advantage to Their Majesties Customs and increased our Navigation and may in time bring hither all the Fine Callicoes expended in Italy and other parts that used to go overland by the great Caravans to the increase of our and diminution of their Trade And further that they have permitted the Jews to Establish themselves in India and made them a part of their Government there which has in a manner given them the intire Possession of the Diamond Trade to the great discouragement and loss of the English Subjects As to the Jews being permitted to settle in India It is no more than what is done in England and they may as well accuse the Government here as the Company there And for their being part of the Government it was admitted to them as to all other Nations thereby to encourage persons of all Perswasions to settle among them for the greater strengthning of the Place and increase of the Trade thereof Art X. That they have for many Years past carried on their Trade in an irregular manner by sending out Ships at improper seasons and keeping them abroad longer than was requisite by which mismanagement together with the War they have occasion'd the loss of several considerable ships and the mortality of some thousands of Seamen and Souldiers Answ The taking of Ships for a longer time than was formerly practised was occasion'd by the War with the Great Mognl in which it was absolutely necessary to have a strong force of English Shipping on the place to secure the English Interest there and if they staid longer than the time limited in Charter-Party it was their own voluntary action they having it in their power by Charter-Party to return Nor was the loss of the English Seamen more in proportion than of the Inhabitants of the Country there being then such a Contagion in those parts as depopulated whole Cities nor can the Company be more Reasonably accused for the death of their Seamen and Souldiers than the Government of this City can for the loss of its Members in times of Contagion Art XI That the Company have commenced an unjustifiable War against the Great Mogul and under that Answ The War with the Great Mogul was occasion'd by pure necessity and that necessity did arise from the breaking in of the Interlopers upon them in their Trade when by dividing the English Interest in India the Natives there took advantage of the said division to extort very great and most unreasonable Sums of Money pretence committed many great Depredations on the Subjects of that Prince from the Company contrary to their Phirmaunds given to them as has been more at large demonstrated by the Company in Print Besides the War was neither commenced nor prosecuted but by the Direction and Commissions of the late King under his hand And it was alwayes believed that the sole Power of making War and Peace was vested in the Crown so that this War being commenced by and under the then Soveraign Power of this Nation can't in Reason be accounted an injustifiable War as is Objected Whereby the English are render'd in all Parts of India odious and contemptible and esteemed rather Pyrats than Merchants As to that which is further Objected That the English are in all parts of India render'd odious and contemptible by the War the quite contrary is true For should they have tamely submitted to these Exactions and Insults without endeavouring to vindicate themselves they had then become absolutely contemptible with the Natives VVhereas now by their endeavour to right themselves they have gain'd Reputation and Respect more than any other European Nation in India They have been likewise guilty of a notorious breach of Faith by making Prize of divers Ships to which they had given the protection of the Companies Passes And also have seiz'd the Goods and Moneys which were laden on Freight on board the Companies own Ships for which Bills of Loading are still standing out As to the first branch of this part of the Objection it 's utterly denyed For what Ships had the Companies Passes were either not seiz'd at all or upon their bringing up to