Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/320

 256 THE FIRST ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY gotten arms of the company displayed three ships in full sail, with a pious pun as motto, Deus Indicat, God points the way. We are now in a position to understand the mech- anism and the methods by which the first English East India Company was to make its bid for the Asiatic trade, as against the more powerful Dutch corporation, and the united forces of Portugal and Spain. To re- capitulate, it was at once a company for regulating the English trade to the East, and also for conducting that trade by subscriptions raised from successive groups of adventurers, who were generally members of its own body, or were admitted to it as subscribers. In one respect it resembled the mediaeval trade guild now represented by the London City Companies and " Lloyd's " ; in another respect it resembled the mod- ern limited liability company. From the first there was a tendency to divided interests between the suc- cessive groups of subscribers who found the capital and the permanent company who administered it. The conflict of these divergent forces determined the in- ternal history of the company from its first charter of Elizabeth in 1600 to its reconstitution by Charles II in 1661. From 1600 to 1612 there was a period of so-called Separate Voyages, each of which was theoretically complete in itself, and was to be wound up on the return of the ships by a division of the profits. During this period the power of the central company was supreme over each separate group of subscribers sub-