Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/307

 METHOD OF PROMOTING NEW VOYAGES 243 association under the Companies' Acts this system bristles with divided interests. As a matter of fact, it in time developed a complexity which ultimately destroyed it. But to its Elizabethan founders it seemed simple enough. When the money subscribed for a par- ticular voyage had been invested, and the ships sent out, the company usually rested awhile from its labours. Then the " Committees," or some enterprising member, started a project for another voyage, and a general court was held to consider the proposal. If agreed upon, " a title or preface " to a new " book of con- tribution " was drawn up setting forth the objects of the voyage and the capital required for it. Members present who wished to join the fresh venture put down their names for various sums; and the book was then delivered to the beadle " to be carried to all the several freemen of this fellowship to set down their several adventures in " the " voyage." The beadle went round with the book, and if he brought it back with a full subscription list, good and well. If not, certain influ- ential brethren, practically the directors or committee- men, were appointed to take it round again to the mem- bers, and " to persuade and encourage them to proceed in the said adventure." In some cases the contributors to one voyage were induced or compelled to provide the capital for another. Thus, the subscribers of the first voyage had to submit to a pro rata levy for the second; and the subscribers of the third voyage had to take up the fifth and share the profits of the two. The capital for a further voyage having been pro-