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 commenced their trade, in 1602,

was 600,0001. 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, 62 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. 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.

A

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 government. 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 prosperity, 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