Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/506

 The commanders of the ships belonging to the Company (their number was small compared with those on the hired or "maritime service") who had five voyages to perform were each paid, by way of compensation, a sum of 5,000l.; four voyages, 4,500l.; three voyages, 4,000l.; two voyages, 3,000l., and one voyage, 2,000l.; while the officers of these ships received compensation according to the situations they filled. Nor were they less liberally dealt with in the way of pensions when the commercial affairs of the Company were brought to a close. Each commodore then received 400l. per annum; each commander 300l.; and each officer, from the chief down to the warrant officer, was granted a pension for life, ranging from 200l. to 30l. per annum. Widows were allowed two-thirds of their husbands' pensions during their widowhood. Nor were the children overlooked, for they too received pensions according to their wants.

We should have been at a loss to understand the cause of the very liberal conduct of the East India Company to its servants, had the Directors themselves not derived emoluments far beyond what they were entitled to receive by the conditions on which they had agreed to serve, and our readers also might have been puzzled to understand why they displayed such extraordinary liberality. No