Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/236

 2^0 COMMERCE WITH entered upon the system of coercion and vir- tual spoliation, which continued ever after to mark their progress. Appearing as armed trad- ers, they did not fail to use the power which they had in their hands to possess themselves, on their own terms, of the produce or property of the native states with which they traded. The com- mercial factories which they held within the terri- tories of the native states, they converted into forts to overawe the native governments. The treaties which they entered into with these go- vernments had for their object to exclude all ri- valry or competition, to obtain the staple pro- ducts of industry at their own prices, and to possess the exclusive monopoly of the native mar- ket for their own imagined advantage. Most of these treaties were either violently or sur- reptitiously obtained ; but every attempt on the part of the natives to evade the flagrant injus- tice, as well as absurdity, which an adherence to them implied, was construed by the traders of Eu- rope exercising sovereign authority as a perfidious violation of their rights, and, accordingly, punished to the utmost of their power. This gave rise to the long train of anarchy and war which I have sketched in the historical part of this work. In the struggle which ensued, the independence of most of the natives of the Archipelago was sub- verted, and their commerce and industry subjected