Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/234

 21 S COMMERCE WITH as sufficiently appears by tlieir titles and designa- tions. They consisted of " dukes and earls, knights, judges, the king's council, privy-counsel- lors, countesses, and ladies, doctors of divinity and physic, widows, and virgins !" When the nations of the north of Europe began to adventure in the India trade, no military navy existed to protect their distant adventurers from the hostility of European and native enemies, and of necessity tlieir fleets must have combined military and commercial ob- jects. In India factories were to be established, and forts constructed, for the security of trade. This the legitimate government of the state want- ed ability or inclination to do ; and the only re- medy was, to invest the companies with a portion of sovereign authority. This explains the true origin of the monopolies granted of the India trade. The two most commercial nations of Eu- rope set the example, and were humbly imitated by the rest. How institutions, having their origin in the barbarism of the early part of the seven- teenth century, have been prolonged to more en- lightened ages, it is not difficult to explain. The public, excluded from an intercourse with India, were necessarily denied the means of obtaining the requisite knowledge respecting its trade and resources. The only knowledge that reached them was contained in the perverted facts brought for- ward by the monopolists themselves in defence