Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/220

 174 THE COMPANY AND THE KING tary aggression on sea and land, and he had to main- tain it by the royal power in what went near to a pirat- ical warfare on the ships of friendly Christian nations. The Crown expected in return, not only the stipu- lated customs which it would in any case have received from successive groups of adventurers, but also a com- plaisance to its creatures, and loans or gifts of money. This necessity for paying for what was in fact a curtail- ment of the trade-liberties of the nation continued long after the power of curtailment passed from the Crown to Parliament. Such payments grew, indeed, from rare and grudging benevolences to the first Stuart kings, into large and frequent loans to the constitu- tional government. In dealing with the Company James I might scold, Charles I might sigh, and Charles II might laugh; but they all understood their power and were equally re- solved to profit by it. " Did I deliver you from the complaint of the Spaniards and do you return me noth- ing? " James I replied angrily to the directors when they refused the two-tenths of the £100,000 worth of booty seized at Ormuz. The directors took legal advice, wriggled long on the hook, but in the end paid the £20,000 to his Majesty and the Lord High Admiral. James, indeed, was as ready to share the misfortunes of the Company as he was determined to profit by its successes. During the darkest days of Amboyna he offered to become a freeman of the Company, and to support it with the royal authority and the right of carrying the royal flag. The Company foresaw, how-