Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/343

 CROMWELL'S CHARTER TO THE COMPANY 283 formed the last word of the Commonwealth on the three sets of proposals which had so long divided English merchants: namely, for an open commerce to India, for a Kegulated Company, and for a Joint Stock Com- pany. He reconstituted the India trade on the basis of " One Joint Stock." The words " Joint Stock " do not occur in the charters of Elizabeth or James I, nor, indeed, in any royal charter until that of 1686. The Company's so called " Joint Stocks " had been merely successive subscriptions for separate sets of voyages; each set being a distinct and several adventure to be wound up at the end of a fixed number of years. The idea of a united joint stock, which emerged in the Par- liamentary settlement of 1650, developed under Crom- well's charter of 1657 into a united and continuous joint stock. The change was wrought not by Cromwell alone, but by Cromwell representing the spirit of the times. If the Protector prescribed unity, the Company inter- preted unity to imply also continuity and permanence. The very day that the charter passed the Broad Seal, a General Court held at the India House laid down the conditions under which it should be carried out. These conditions, as finally settled, threw open the freedom of the Company to the public for the nominal sum of £5. They admitted not only the members of the vari- ous groups who had made up the old East India and Assada Companies, together with their servants and apprentices, but also all those Merchant Adventurers and private traders in India who might be willing to