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30 for injuries, especially for the "bloodie business of Amboyna," and with the effect of defining the situation of the English on the Indian littoral.

Nevertheless, although the enmity and the encroachments of the Dutch in Asia by no means ceased, the proposals made to Cromwell for dissolving the Company 's monopoly and throwing open the whole Asiatic trade were so tempting to a ruler who was in sore need of ready money that he was hardly dissuaded from it by the combined weight of the arguments and liberal subsidies of the London Company. Yet it was absolutely clear that free-traders in Asia would have fallen an easy prey to the common enemy, for the power of the Dutch was again on the increase. They now maintained large military and naval forces in the East Indies, obstructed our trade, harassed our agencies, and disregarded all treaties. They drove the English off the coast of Eastern Asia, seized Ceylon, blockaded Bantam – the Company's headquarters in Java – and once more tried to exterminate the English factories in the Spice Islands.

Meanwhile, trade was much disturbed, and the Company's settlements were put in jeopardy by the civil war that broke out in India among the sons of Shah Jahan in 1658 during that emperor's life. By 1660, however, Aurangzib's triumph over his brothers had restored tranquillity. The beginning of his long reign, full of importance to Anglo-Indian history, synchronizes with the Restoration of Charles H, an event which changed the political connections of England and ma-