662 A. D. 1694, 



dlties, and to fuch value, as a general court {hall direct, provided entry- 

 be firft duely made, as well as cuftom paid, before landing the fame. 



II) To the intent that the company's annual exportation to India of 

 the value of L 100,000 of Englifh goods may truely be proved, a juft 

 account thereof in writing, figned by the governor or deputy, fhall be 

 annually laid before the king and council, attefted on the oaths of the 

 proper officers ; which goods fhall not be relanded, nor carried any- 

 where out of the company's limits. 



III) Neither the governor, deputy, nor committee, fhall lend out the 

 company's money, without the authority of a general court, &c. 



IV) If this and the two lafl charters fhall not appear to be profitable 

 to the crown and realm, either in whole or in part, then, after three 

 years warning, all the three charters fliall be determined and void, and 

 the governor and company fhall no longer continue a corporation, 

 Laflly, ■ 



V) This company (hall, by a writing under their common feal, de- 

 clare their acceptance of, and fubmiflion to, this and the faid two lafl 

 charters^ or elfe they fhall no longer ad as a corporation. 



We may here juft briefly note a temporary law for encouraging the 

 building, of good and defenfible fhips, which grants one tenth part of 

 the tonnage and poundage duty to the builders of three-decked fhips, 

 of at leaft 450 tons burden and 32 guns, for ten years to come, to be 

 allowed only on their firft three voyages. [5, 6 Gul. et Ma?: c. 24.] 



This year the Dutch took from the French the fortrefs of PondL- 

 cherry on the coaft of Coromandel, whereby (as Voltaire in his Age of 

 Louis XIV obferves) the commerce of France declined very much in 

 India. Yet Louis obliged the Dutch, at the peace of Ryfwick in 1697, 

 to reftore Pondicherry to the French company ; and it was thereupon 

 better fortified by that company. They have alfo fince then greatly 

 increafed their commerce to India, as both the Englifli and Dutch com- 

 ;panies know to their coil, . 



By the new fubfcription of L744,ooo which added 781 members to 

 the Englifii Eaft-India company, it might have been imagined, that they 

 had now effedually fectn-ed themfelves againft the future attacks of op- 

 ponents. But as this company had expended vaft fums of money to 

 courtiers, members of parliament, and others, as well for obtaining the 

 laft three charters, as in endeavouring to divide and buy off the inter- 

 lopers ; and more efpecially in endeavouring to obtain an a6l of parlia- 

 ment for their abfolute legal eftablifhment, their enemies found means 

 to influence the houfe of commons fo far againft them, as to enter upon 

 a ftria examination of their pradices. In the courfe of the inquiry 

 they difcovered, that in the year 1693 alone, whilft Sir Thomas Cooke was 

 governor, and Francis Tyflen, Efq. deputy governor, upwards of L8o,ooo 

 were expended for fecret fervices by the former, and by Sir Bafil Fire- 



