Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/334

 276 APPENDIX I intended the Protector's funeral in 1658. It was on this tried friend that Oliver chiefly leant for advice " in what manner the East India trade might be best man- aged for the public good and its own encouragement.' ' Colonel Jones was specially charged " to take care thereof." His prompt action indicates that Cromwell had already made up his mind on the evidence before him. In six weeks Colonel Jones and his colleagues accom- plished what the Council of State had failed to do dur- ing two years— they arrived at a settlement for the India trade. The committee's report was signed by only three members: one of whom, Colonel William Sy- denham, had lately stood forth in Parliament as Crom- well's mouthpiece for religious toleration; another, Colonel Philip Jones, already mentioned, was the con- troller of his household; while the third, Sir Charles Wolseley, was his most intimate confidant. They were of the opinion that the India trade should be carried on by one company on the basis of a United Joint Stock, yet they sent the matter back to the Council of State as being too high for them to decide. The Council of State again procrastinated, but under severe pressure, as we shall see, adopted the report, and referred it for final orders to the Protector. To the decision of this great issue Cromwell brought a slow but effective training. He had been a member of the Commission of Trade and Plantations in 1643, at the moment when the commercial prerogatives of the Crown passed in reality from the king to the Par-