embassy of Sir Thomas Rowe to the Court of Jehangeer, and the consequent conclusion of the treaty of amity and commerce with that monarch. In the last chapter, the origin of the trade of the Dutch to India, the manner in which it was at first carried on by several unprivileged companies, the formation of their settlements, their wars with the Portuguese and Spaniards, and their continual dissentions with the English settlers in the Eastern Islands, have been concisely related; the causes of the rapid prosperity of those companies, of the immense influx of Indian commodities into Holland, and of the temporary stagnation of the Dutch Indian trade, have been explained; the manner in which those circumstances led to the establishment of the chartered company of the Dutch, and the principles, forms, and policy of that institution, have been examined; and the progress of the Dutch trade and settlements in India, under the government of the exclusive company, till the foundation of the city of Batavia, has been carefully investigated and detailed,

The relative state of the English and Dutch India Companies, in A. D. 1619, both with regard to their domestic concerns and to the footing which they had obtained in India, attests the superiority of the latter in opulence and power. The long established carrying trade of the Dutch, and those habits of industry and frugality which it had impressed upon their character, filled the nation with money, and thereby enabled their India Company to prosecute their commerce with unexampled activity and prodigious success. The capital stock with which the chartered company ommenced their trade, in 1602,

was 600,000. sterling-a sum which appears small, when considered in the proportion that it bears to the great wealth of the individual merchants of whom the company was composed but trading on a small capital was suitable to the prudential maxims of their commercial policy, which regulated, without restraining, their spirit of adventure, and of which the efficacy was abundantly proved by the large and frequent dividends that they made. So great and rapid was the prosperity of this company, that, in the course of the first seventeen years, they made nine dividends on their capital stock. After the return of their first fleet from India, they divided 15 per cent. ; in two years more, (1605) they again divided 15 per cent.; and in 1606 their returns were so immense as to enable them to make a dividend of 75 per cent.; so that the original subscribers were reimbursed 90 per cent. of their subscription, exclusive of the first dividend of 15 per cent. which arose not from the regular profits of trade, but the accidental circumstance of prizes captured from the Portuguese. In the next year, 1607, they divided 25 per cent.; in 1608, 40 per cent.; and in 1609, 20 per cent. and in this last year, the institution of the bank of Amsterdam, as it facilitated the general operations of commerce, greatly contributed to augment and strengthen the resources and power of the company. In the following year they divided 50 per cent.; in 1613, 37 per cent.; and in 1616, 624 per cent. The vast wealth which the company had thus acquired, and the diffusive benefits which the nation derived from their trade, could not fail to give them an extraordinary

degree

degree of influence throughout the United Provinces, whose maritime commerce was the chief occupation of the people, and therefore the main source of national strength and greatness. Hence the States General were induced to sanction the company in the assumption of that sovereign and independent power which they established in their Indian dominions; and though the erection of such a power was incompatible with the principles, if not an absolute violation, of the constitution of the Dutch commonwealth, and though it consequently excited great discontent amongst the patriotic party, and drew from the most distinguished leaders of that party very strong and spirited remonstrances; yet the government yielded to the plausible arguments of the company, who insisted that a large military force was necessary for the security of their numerous possessions in India, and that the magnificence of sovereign authority was essential to the preservation of that respect and obedience of the Indian people, on which the stability of those possessions principally depended. A comprehensive and systematic plan was, therefore, formed by the company, for the government of their settlements, which, after the building of Batavia, was carried into effect. The full delineation of that plan will appear in a subsequent chapter of this History; but some account of its prominent parts is necessary, in this place, to illustrate the state of the Dutch dominions in India, at the period of which we are treating.

All the company's territories, settlements, and factories, were placed under the government of a supreme council, which was denominated the "Council of India ;"

and the seat of which was fixed in the city of Batavia. This council was composed of a president and twenty counsellors. The president was the governor and captain-general, and, in his executive capacity, the first magistrate of the government. The sole administration of public affairs was thus vested in the governor-general and council, to whose superintendance and control the governors and factors of all the subordinate possessions and residencies were subject, to whom they regularly transmitted annual accounts of their proceedings, and to whom they were accountable for their public conduct. Regular military and naval establishments were formed, of which the governor-general was the head, and possessed the absolute direction. These extensive powers were supported with an authority, and embellished with a splendor, which partook of the dignity and magnificence of regal state. But, in the exercise of his authority, the governor-general was overlooked by an independent council, called "the Council of Justice." In this council was vested the judicial power, together with the distinguishing prerogative which they derived from the StatesGeneral, of arraigning the company's government, for the commission of any act inconsistent with their allegiance to the sovereignty of their country. The Council of Justice was composed of a president and eight counsellors, all doctors of the civil law, and its jurisdiction extended over the whole of the company's dominions. The commercial department held the next place in the government, in point of rank as well as of importance; and the director-general, who presided at that department,

B 2

had

had the special management of the details of trade. The military establishment consisted of 6000 regular European troops, and a welldisciplined militia, principally composed of Malays, officered by the junior civil servants of govern

ment. The whole of this force was commanded by a major-general, who resided at Batavia, where the main body of the regulars were consequently stationed. Each respective settlement had its own militia; but the fortresses by which those settlements were defended were garrisoned exclusively by detachments of the regular troops. The naval power of the company was likewise considerable: it consisted of about forty ships, each mounting from 16 to 30 guns. These ships, which were employed in the company's trade, were kept in a high state of equipment, and under the command of a commodore, who had been regularly trained in the service. Besides this fleet, there were ten or twelve ships, of a smaller description, stationed at Batavia, which were reserved exclusively for warlike operations*.

The possessions of the company, for which this splendid system of government was framed, were numerous and valuable; and being chiefly situated in the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and some of them still more widely separated, their progressive prosperity resulted no less from the security and encouragement derived from that system, than from the abundance of their natural resources. Considerable portions of territory had been obtained in the islands of Amboyna,

Banda, and Ternete; at Malacca, in the Malayan peninsula, and at Cotiarum, in Ceylon. Some of these territories had been ceded to the Dutch by the native princes, and some of them had been wrested from those princes by the force of arms; each settlement had its little fortified capital, at once its ornament and defence; and all of them were governed by a president and council, under the presiding control of the Batavian council, after the manner of which 'those inferior governments were modeled. But though the dominions of the Dutch Company were almost entirely confined to the Indian Archipelago, yet their commerce extended to all the maritime nations of Asia. At Japan, Tonquin, and Siam, on the eastern and western coasts of the great peninsula of India, and on those of the Persian and Arabian gulphs, they carried on a busy and lucrative trade; and in these countries they had been permitted to erect factories, and station commercial agents, who were appointed by the governor-general and council at Batavia, and formed a branch of the general system of management for the company's mercantile concerns. Thus the Dutch Company, by a course of wise policy, aided by unremitting industry, and animated with the most enterprising energy, not only attained, in,the space of seventeen years, the highest commercial pros perity, but reared and consolidated a

powerful dominion in the Indian islands; which, while it effectually secured to them almost the whole of the spice trade, enabled them to

seize and improve every advantage which the falling fortunes of the Portuguese presented, and to contribute by stratagem, as well as by arms, to subvert the once flourishing establishments of that na-‍

tion.

The English Company, equally sensible with the Dutch of the various benefits that the India trade was capable of yielding, and equally active, zealous, and industrious, in the pursuit of it, were less experienced than them in the details of commerce, less supported by the government of their country, and less gifted, as it would seem, with that large thought, and those comprehensive views, which systematised and guided the speculations of their more successful rivals. Dispirited in their exertions by the languid government of James the First, the English Company extended not their views to the formation of any regular plan for the acquisition of territory, and the attainment of a dominion in India. The naval victories which had been gained over the Portuguese, and the embassy of Sir Thomas Rowe, had, indeed, raised the character of the English nation in Hindustan; and the company thereby obtained many important advantages in their intercourse with the Mogul empire, which the Dutch had long sought for in vain. But they were principally indebted for those advantages to the circumstance of their appearing in India purely in the character of merchants, to the strict probity and unassuming manners with which they supported that character, and to the striking contrast which their whole conduct

presented to that of the Portuguese and Dutch. It is only as merchants, therefore, that the company are to be considered at this period of their history.

The profits of the company's trade were greatly disproportioned, both to the zeal and industry with which it was carried on, and to the capital employed in it. In the year 1612, when the individual shares of the proprietors were formed into one general capital, or joint stock, the sum amounted to 1,500,000, which exceeded by 900,0001. the joint stock of the Dutch Company. Yet, in the course of fifteen years, from 1617 to 1632, the profits of the English Company amounted only to twelve and a half per cent. on their capi tal; so that at the time of which we are now treating (1619), seven years after the formation of their joint stock, they could not have divided more than six per cent.The comparison of these profits with those of the Dutch in the same period of time, after making an adequate abatement for the dif ference between the capitals of the rival companies, shews a striking disparity in the progress of their mercantile prosperity, whilst it exhibits an eminent example of the efficacy of an uniform and rigid system in the economy and conduct of commercial affairs. There was, however, a considerable annual balance in favour of the English Company. In the course of nineteen years which elapsed since their original establishment, they had exported 548,000,907. in Spanish silver; and in woollen cloths, tin, lead, and iron, to the value of 292,000,2864

292,000,2861.*; amounting in all to 840,000,3761. and making, on an average, the annual sum of 44,000,221. In the same period of time, the company imported, in pepper, cloves, mace, nutmegs, raw silk, muslins, and precious stones, to the value of 621,000,255.† which, when deducted from the amount of their exports, leaves a balance in their favour of 219,000,1217.-In the year 1618 the company had sustained some severe losses by the depredations of the Dutch, notwithstanding the complaints and remonstrances which the former had so repeatedly made. Under pretence of the English traders interfering with some of their assumed and ideal privileges in the Indian islands, the Dutch attacked and captured twelve ships, seven of which they actually condemned and sold. The company, however, had still twenty-one ships in constant employment, the collective burthen of which was 10,000 tons, and which engaged the service of 2500 seamen. In India they employed 120 factors or super-cargoes, who were stationed at the different places where they had erected. erected warehouses, and other buildings, for the purposes of their trade. Of these places, and of the commercial connection which the English established with them, a brief account has been given in the third chapter of this History; and the nature and importance of that connection does not here demand a fuller description. The company

possessed not any portion of territory, or any sort of dominion in India, except in the island of Lantore, of which they had obtained a grant from the native Malay chiefs, and in which they had begun to form a settlement, and to exercise some degree of authority. That authority was founded both on a feeling of interest in the benefits which the natives derived from the European trade, and on the favourable opinion which they entertained of the English: it was maintained by a sense of mutual advantage, and with that good understanding which grew out of the nature and circumstances of its origin. The island was governed by a commercial agent of the company, who had under him thirty other Englishmen, in the capacity of clerks, overseers, and warehousemen; and these, together with about 250 armed Malays, constituted the only force by which it was protected. In the islands of Amboyna, Banda, and Poolaroon, the company possessed extensive factories, in each of which there were stationed ten agents. At Macassar, at Acheen, in the island of Sumatra, and at Bantam, in the island of Java, they likewise possessed factories, though of an inferior description to those in the Molucca islands §. Such was the footing of the English Company in the Indian Archipelago, where the dominion and ascendancy of the Dutch were now so firmly established.

From the view which has been

+ Id. ibid.

Id. ibid.

taken