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UISTOltV OF lI>fA.

[Book J I.

Old Com- pany still confident.

Groiuids of confidence.

AD. iTuo. to them Jis interest. This wa,s wholly iruulefiuate; nnd lience, at the very outset, their pecuniary resources began to fail. Their subscription list had been rapidly filled up, but as the instalments fell due, the defaulters became numerous, and the stock, which had at first brought a premium, with difficulty found purchaiiers at a considerable discount. Wiiile the new Company was thus hampered, the old Company still kept the field with its resources unimpaired, and all the advan- tages arising from pre-occupation. The result of a competition carried on under such circumstances could scarcely be doubtful ; and it is therefore ea«y to under- stand how the old Company, in addressing their agents abroad on the recent changes, instead of using desponding terms, speak almost with exultation of the approaching contest, expressing themselves as follows : —

"Two East India Companies in England could no more subsist, without destroying one y® other, than two kings at the same time regnant in the same kingdom. Now, a civil battle was to be fought between the old and new com- pany ; two or three years must end this war, as the old or the new must give way. Being veterans, if their servants abroad would do their duty, they did not doubt of the victory ; if the world laughed at the pains the two companies took to ruin each other, they could not help it, as they were on good ground, and had a charter. "'

The confidence thus expressed was founded, not merely on the superior advan- tages which they possessed in a trade which had long been established, and for the protection of which various fortified stations had been pro'ided, but on the important interest which they had secured in the stock of the General Society. The act of parliament left it open for them, as for any other corporation, t^) become subscribers to the £2,000,000 loan, and no less than £315,000 stood in the subscription list, in the name of Mr. Dubois, for their behoof The conse- quence was, that instead of being extinguished when the three years of grace allowed them should expire, they would still be entitled to trade annually to India to the amount of the above subscription. There was, however, one gi*eat difficulty. As the law stood, their existence as a coi-poration and joint-stock company would terminate in 1701, and they would thereafter be obliged to trade, not as an united body, but as individuals, each in proportion to the amount which he had subscribed to the loan. The first object, therefore, now, was to prodde against this emergency by endeavouring to secure a prolongation of their cor- porate character. In this they were completely successful, for in the beginning of 1700 a private act of parliament was passed, "for continuing the governor and Company of the merchants of London trading into the East Indies a corpo- ration." This act, after referring to the privileges confeired on the subscribers to the £2,000,000 loan, and stating that " John Dubois, of London, merchant, hath, by the direction, and in trust for the governor and Company of merchants trading into the East Indies, subscribed and paid the sum of £315,000, as pai't of the said sum of £2,000,000, in order to entitle the said governor and Company