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 Chap. II.]

PROGRESS OF THE COMPANY'S TRADE.

259

Arms of East India Company, cir. U>00 50. Fiom Minutf U^oksof the (on >iki>y-

At this time the a new joint-

stock com-

they attempted to prevent the establisliment of an Engli.sh factory at Sm-at, a.d. 1617,

appear to have satisfied the Company and their agents that Portuguese hostility

was rather to be courted than feared, as, in all probability, a rich harvest of

prizes would be made. The event proved as had

been anticipated. The Portuguese, now in a

state of rapid decline, made pretension.?, and

endeavoured to support them by hostilities, which

only led to their discomfiture, and they had the

mortification of seeing the English not only secured

in their trade, but in hiorh favour at the Persian

court, and formally leagued with its monarch in

an offensive and defensive alliance.

The favourable aspect which the affairs of the Company now bore had a visible effect in filling up the subscri})tion to a new joint stock, which started in 1617-18, with the large capital of £1,600,000

number of proprietors of stock amounted to 954, and the number of shii)s pany possessed by them is stated at thii-ty-six, of 100 to 1000 tons burden. The capital subscribed was allotted to three voyages, the first con.sisting of nine, and each of the other two of eight ships. Before the last of these voyages was undertaken, a remarkable change took place in the arrangements of the Company.

In the Eastern islands the Dutch not only claimed supremacy, but had OHwsition actually established it. They had, however, tacitly acknowledged the Company's i^>itch. right of traffic, at least to a limited extent, and nutmegs, mace, and cloves formed part of the usual returns imported from the East into England. The larger scale on which the Company's operations were now about to be carried on having afforded the Dutch a pretext for interfering, they plainly intimated their determination to reserve the trade in the finer spices as an exclusive monopol}'. They rested tiieir claim on the fact that they had conquered the Spice Islands fi-om the Portuguese, and being in actual possession of them, had a right recognized by the very charter of the London East India Company to debar all other parties from frequenting them. So satisfied were they with the validity of this claim, that, instead of regarding them.selves as unlawful aggi-es- sors in the violent steps which they had taken to exclude the English, they assumed the character of complainers, and in 1618 presented a memorial to King James, in which, after stating what they called their gi'ievances, they prayed for redress of past, and a prohibition of future encroachments. The Mutual

compl&mta.

London East India Company told a very different tale ; and after enumerating the various forms of obstruction and op]iression to which they had been sub- jected in cixrrying on their trade at Bantiim, where their right of factory could not be disputed, and in endeavouring to extend it to islands over which the Dutch could not pretend to have established any exclusive authority, they