1832.] 
COMMEUCIAL RIVALRY. 
371 
as merchant adventurers, when the charter of the company was 
remodelled. 
' In sixteen hundred and sixty-one, after the death of Cromwell 
and accession of Charles the Second, a petition was presented to 
him for the renewal of the charter, which was granted, confirming the 
ancient privileges of the company, and vesting in them authority 
to make peace or war with any prince or people not being 
Christians, and to seize unlicensed persons and send them to Eng- 
land. This consigned almost the whole power of government to 
the directors and the servants. With all this increase of power, 
the operations of the company were still languid,' and many of the 
out-factories and agencies were suppressed. The wars on the 
Coromandel coast, and the overbearing influence of the Dutch, 
seemed to threaten the extinction of the English trade. In six- 
teen hundred and sixty-four, the French entered into this trade by 
the formation of a company. The Dutch still maintained the 
lead, and the English appear at this time to have made the dis- 
covery, that the numerous factories they supported consumed all 
their profits,— while the Dutch, more economical, traded at various 
points with the natives without the expense of heavy establish- 
ments. The Dutch established a regency at Batavia and Co- 
lumbo. The English aimed at equal grandeur, and in sixteen hmi- 
dred and eighty-seven, Bombay was elevated into the dignity of 
a regency, with unlimited power over the rest of the company's 
settlements. 
In seventeen hundred and eight, a union between all contend- 
ing parties_ was effected, by the decision of Godolphin as um- 
pire ; and the privileges of exclusive trade founded on legislative 
authority ; and thus terminated the rivalship of contending com- 
panies, which gave additional strength and effect to British inter- 
ests in the east. 
Seventeen hundred and forty-nine opened a new scene in the 
affairs of the company. The powers of Europe had been con- 
tending with each other, — particularly Spain and England; and 
their respective colonies and distant establishments had suffered 
severely. 
Until this period, the company had maintained the mere character 
of traders. By humility and submission, they had sustained 
their interests, under the protection, and often the oppression of 
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