EAST IMDIA COMPANIES. 



775 



Tlie great Portuguese prince Henry, surnamed the 

 Kuvigator, directed this energy towards the ocean ; 

 and not half a century had elapsed from the taking 

 of Constantinople, when Vasco da Gama (1498) 

 landed in Hindostan, on the coast of Malabar, and 

 the Portuguese successfully established themselves 

 on those distant shores. The whole commerce of 

 the East Indies was in their hands for nearly a 

 century the golden age of Portugal. The efforts 

 of Alphonso Albuquerque, Nuno da Cunha, and 

 Francis Xavier the latter with spiritual weapons, 

 and the former by force of arms will ever be re- 

 membered with admiration, even had they not been 

 sung in the glorious verses of Camoens. During 

 eighty years, while the transportation of Indian pro- 

 ductions through Genoa, Venice, and the Hanse 

 towns, was constantly diminishing, Lisbon was the 

 India of the north of Europe. The English and 

 Dutch obtained their supplies of Indian spices either 

 from Lisbon or from Portuguese merchants in Ant- 

 werp. Venice also found herself supplanted by the 

 military power of the Portuguese and the subjection 

 of her commercial friends, the Saracens. When, 

 however, Philip II., in 1580, united Portugal with 

 the Spanish monarchy, and soon after commenced 

 his war with England, against whose vessels he 

 closed the ports of his empire, the British merchants 

 were compelled to draw their supplies of Indian 

 produce from the Netherlands. The Dutch took 

 advantage of this circumstance, and raised the price 

 of pepper to three times its former amount. But 

 the revolt of the Netherlands from Spain induced 

 Philip II. to take decided measures against the 

 Dutch commerce also, and the capture of their 

 vessels in'the port of Lisbon compelled the Dutch to 

 engage in a direct trade to India ; the English soon 

 followed their example. Thus, during the last ten 

 years of the sixteenth century, the foundation was 

 laid in England and Holland, nearly at the same 

 time, of those great commercial corporations, called 

 t East India Companies. They are distinguished from 

 the Hanseatic league, and other earlier unions of 

 that kind, in being merely associations of individuals 

 uniting for a common commercial purpose, with 

 transferable shares, and not of political bodies ; and 

 also by having bought their privileges and rights at 

 once from their own governments, while those of the 

 earlier commercial confederacies were obtained, 

 together with their political privileges, by successive 

 treaties. As such an extensive commerce in distant 

 parts of the world requires a political power to pre- 

 serve and protect it, we find the English, Dutch, and 

 other smaller East India companies, engaged, soon 

 after their establishment, in labouring to form a po- 

 litical power on the basis of wealth ; which, even if 

 it succeeded, would not accord with the politics of 

 the mother country, and would not be able, for any 

 great length of time, to resist the reaction that would 

 arise in the conquered countries. 



I. The earliest East India company was the Por- 

 tuguese, although essentially different, in its organi- 

 zation, from the others. By the union of Portugal 

 with Spain, the connexion between the distant Por- 

 tuguese governments in India and the mother country 

 became less close. Abuses of every kind, illicit 

 traffic on the part of the viceroys and officers, smug- 

 gling and piracy became prevalent. The Spanish 

 government perceived that the East India commerce, 

 if continued on account of the crown, would not 

 only be unprofitable, but would occasion an annually 

 increasing loss, and therefore granted the exclusive 

 privilege of the East India trade, in 1587, to a com- 

 pany of Portuguese merchants, in consideration of 

 die annual payment of a considerable sum. This 

 company, in attempting to enforce its privileges, 



became involved in disputes, equally disadvantageous 

 to both parties, with the Portuguese government 

 in India, which was engaged in the smuggling trade ; 

 and the way for the enterprises of the Dutch and 

 English could not have been better prepared than by 

 this weakening of the Portuguese power. To this 

 may be added, the impatience of the Indian nations 

 under the Portuguese yoke, and the jealousy and 

 hatred entertained against both by the Arabians. 

 The English and Dutch companies found every thing 

 in that state of division which is favourable to the 

 establishment of a third party, by means which, in 

 any other case, would be entirely inadequate. This 

 explains their immediate and brilliant success, not- 

 withstanding the great inferiority of their strength. 

 The Portuguese company, on the contrary, on the 

 breaking out of open war between England and 

 Holland and Spain, soon became unable to pay the 

 annual tribute to the crown, and gradually declined, 

 till, in 1640, on the re-establishment of Portuguese 

 independence by king John IV., of the house of 

 Braganza, it was entirely abolished. From that 

 time, the insignificant remains of the Portuguese 

 commerce with the East Indies have been in the 

 hands of the government, if we except the unsuccess- 

 ful attempt to form a new company in 1731. 



II. Eight years after the establishment of the first 

 Portuguese company, the offer of a Dutchman, Cor- 

 nelius Houtman, who had been taken prisoner by the 

 Spanish, and had become acquainted witli the Portu- 

 guese East India trade, induced the merchants of 

 Amsterdam,, who had already made three unsuccess- 

 ful attempts to discover a passage to India through 

 the Northern ocean, to form a company, under the 

 name of the " Company of Remote Parts," and send 

 their first commercial fleet round the cape of Good 

 Hope to India, under the command of Houtman. 

 Four small vessels were equipped with a capital of 

 70,000 guilders, and sailed the 2d of April, 1595, 

 from the Texel. The example of Amsterdam was 

 followed in the other United Provinces ; but these 

 companies soon became aware that they interfered 

 mutually with each other; and, March 20,1602, 

 they were united by a charter from the states general, 

 conferring on them the exclusive privilege of trading 

 to the East Indies for twenty-one years, together with 

 all necessary civil and military powers. The former 

 companies remained, in some measure, distinct from 

 each other, and the six cities of Amsterdam, Middel- 

 burg, Delft, Rotterdam, Horn, and Enkhuysen, which 

 had made the first attempts, were allowed to continue 

 the commerce from their ports. This company began 

 its operations with a capital of 6 millions guilders ; 

 65 directors (Bewindhebbers) divided amongst the 

 different members, in proportion to the amount of 

 shares, so that Amsterdam had twenty-five, Middel- 

 burg twelve, and each of the other cities seven 

 superintended the equipment of the vessels, in their 

 respective ports ; a committee of fifteen directors, 

 apportioned in the same manner, had the general 

 direction of affairs. In 1622, the subject of the 

 renewal of the charter being before the states general, 

 it appeared that, during the twenty years of its 

 existence, thirty millions guilders, that is, more than 

 four times the amount of the original capital, had 

 been divided amongst the stockholders ; besides 

 which, a great amount of capital had been vested in 

 colonies, fortifications, vessels, and other property, 

 on which no dividend could be made. These results 

 will not be surprising, if we consider how much more 

 favourable was the condition of the East Indies, in 

 every respect, for republicans and Protestants, than 

 for Catholics and subjects of a monarchy. The Por- 

 tuguese acted on the principle, that without a strorp 

 military force, and a religion common to the cott 



