Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/193

 for one summer, undertaking to continue the payment annually. This personal bribe to the King did not, however, render the proceedings of the Dutch more palatable to the parties who conceived themselves damnified.

Sir William Monson states that the shipping of the port of London had so augmented during the first fifteen years of the reign of Charles I. that it was now able to supply a hundred sail of stout vessels capable of being converted into men-of-war; while ten large ships had during that period been added to the effective force of the Royal Navy; but that, so far as regards the East India Company, there was no improvement. Their commanders in the Indian seas had still to fight their way harassed and outraged by the Dutch and the Portuguese at every point. Whatever may have been the state of the relations of the sovereigns of the various European subjects who trafficked in India, it was the proverb of the sailors of those days, "that there was no peace beyond the line." Sanguinary encounters were constantly taking place, and the trade of the English to India at the period to which we refer had become so precarious that the most enterprising of her capitalists could hardly be induced to embark in it. Even in 1646, when the Company obtained possession of Madras, which for a long period was the chief seat of their commerce and power, only 105,000l. was subscribed for the new stock rendered necessary by this acquisition. It was feared that the Company would not, in their commer-*