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 Chap. V.]

THE EAST INDIA COMPANY,

309

CHAPTER Y.

Resumption of the history of the East India Company — New general charter by Charles II. — Con- stitutional question raised by the Company's proceedings — Grant of the island of Bombay.

Effect of domestic l)olitic8 on the Com- pany's pro- ceedijigB.

HE reigns of tlie Mogul emperors, Shah Jehan and Aurungzebe, ad. less. together with the rise and progress of the Mahrattas, are so closely interwoven that it was necessary to link them together in a continuous narrative. In this way many years of the ^•^i^p^rsp^r^rrTsn^ liistory of the London East India Company have been left behind. It will now be proper, therefore, to retrace our steps and return to the period of Cromwell's death, which took place in 1658, the very same year in which Shah Jehan ceased to reign. Tlie effects, direct or indirect, which both events produced in regard to the Company must now be detailed.

After Cromwell, on the recommendation of his coimcil of state, had decided that the trade to the East Indies should in future be carried on by one joint stock, the Company now united with the body designated sometimes as Assada Merchants, and sometimes as Merchant Adventurers, rai.sed the large subscrip- tion of £786,000, and despatched five ships, three of them consigned to Surat, Persia, and Bantam, one to Fort St. George, or Madras, and one to Bengal. The civil war which the contending claims of the sons of Shah Jehan had produced in India had a most injurious efiect on trade. At Surat in particular the operations of the Company were almost entirely suspended, and the president and council were greatly perplexed as to the course which they ought to pursue ; because, as they themselves expressed it, " it was equally dangerous to solicit or to accept of protection, it being impossible to foresee who might ultimately be the Mogul."' In England similar results were occasioned by the uncertainty which prevailed while the protectorate, feebly and almost reluctantly continued by Richard Cromwell, was gradually supplanted by the re- establishment of monarchical institutions under Charles li. During this anxious interval the servants of the Company abroad were left very much to their own discretion. When the homeward bound vessels were about to return, the council of Surat. after consultation with the different captains, endeavoiu*ed to provide for all contingencies by entering into an an-angement by which the captains agreed to sail as a fleet, and bound themselves undei- a penalty of £6000 each to keep together as far as practicable. On an•i^^ng at St. Helena, which had now become the Company's principal intennediate