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 BOOK III.

FROxM THE UNION OF THE COMPANIES TO THE ACQUISITION OF

BENGAL, BEHAR, AND ORISSA.

CHAPTER I.

Actual position of the United Company — Political state of India — The immediate succesaorB of Aurunsjzebe — The Mahrattas and other native states — The invasion of Nadir Shah.

A.D. 170S.

Difficulties with the Mogul.

Acquisitions of the Company in Bengal.

SiHILE parliament was discus.sing the best mode of estab- I lisbing the trade to the East, the trade itself had been >l almost suspended, particularly on the west coast of I India, by an embargo which Am-ungzebe had laid on all European ships in the harbour of Surat. Yarioas "^^^^^^ acts of piracy had been committed, and the Mogul. xN-fe^r instead of endeavouring to discover the guilty parties, took the more compendious method of throwing the responsibility on the different Em^opean nations on whom he had conferred pri'ileges of trade. An imperial mandate accordingly was issued, obliging the English, Dutch, and French not only to pay the damage which had been sastained, but to give security for the payment of any similar damage which might be sustained in futm"e. Remonstrances against this despotic proceeding proved unavailing ; and the different companies saw themselves reduced to the neces- sity of saving their trade by submitting to injustice. Under an aiTangement which boimd them to clear the seas of pirates, the Dutch engaged for that pm'pose to cruise in the Red Sea, the French in the Persian Gulf, and the English along the Indian coast. The hardship thus inflicted entailed a serious loss on the London Company, at a time when the threatening aspect of their affairs at home made retrenchment and rigid economy more than ever desirable. It says much for their spirit and foresight, that in these untoward circum- stances they even ventured on a heavy outlay, in order to make a valuable acquisition in another part of India.

This acquisition is described in the inventory above quoted as " the Foil; William and the factor}^ of Chuttanuttee, with a large territory thereto belong- ing." The factory of Chuttanuttee had, it wiU be remembered, been estabHshed some years before, when, after the humiliating result of the war rashly entered into with the Mogul, an insulting permission was given to re-.ume the trade;