44 



THE PREDECESSOKS OF THE 



tion that it was the right of all Englishmen to trade to the 

 East Indies or any part of the world unless forbidden by Act 

 of Parliament. 



In accordance with this Kesolution an Act of Parliament, 

 9th and 10th W. Ill, c. 44, was passed in 1698 " for raising a 

 sum not exceeding two millions upon a fund for payment of 

 annuities after the rate of eight pounds per cent, per annum ; 

 and for settling a trade to the East Indies," by which it was 

 amongst other things enacted that it should be lawful for His 

 Majesty to incorporate all persons subscribing towards the 

 said sum as a body politic and corporate by the name of 

 " The General Society entitled to the advantages given by 

 an Act of Parliament for advancing a sum not exceeding 

 two millions for the service of the Crown of England ;" that 

 all the subscribers should and might for ever thereafter 

 freely traffic and use the trade of merchandize into and from 

 the East Indies ; that it should be lawful for His Majesty to 

 incorporate all such of the subscribers as should be desirous 

 to join together so as they might be able to manage their 

 trade as a Company, and by a joint stock ; and that such 

 persons or corporations as were thereby empowered to trade 

 to the East Indies, should have the sole trade and traffic 

 thereto : Provided always that nothing in the Act should 

 extend to hinder or restrain the Governor and Company of 

 Merchants of London trading into the East Indies to continue 

 to trade within the limits aforesaid until the 29th September 

 1701. 



The General Society was established in pursuance of this 

 Act by a Charter dated the 3rd Serjtember 1698, which em- 

 powered the subscribers to trade on the terms of what was 

 then known as a regulated Company, each subscriber being 

 allowed to trade to the East Indies on his own account, 

 while the Company in its collective capacity was to trade 

 with the Asiatic Potentates, or exact reparation from them, 



