pj r 6 ' A juccinci Hiftory of the Rife, Progrefs 3 and Book L 
fane! Florins. Thefe Adions vary in their Price, accord- 
ing as the Dividends made upon the Company's Capital 
rife or fa]f* s but whatever their Price be, a principal Di- 
rector rnuft have two in his oven Poffeffion to qualify him 
for that Poll, and none are capable of giving a Vote in 
an Election, who are not poffeifed of one Adion at lead. 
The Salaries of the Directors vary, according to the Cham- 
bers to which they belong. Thole eighteen that are cho- 
fen by the City of Amjlerdam , have three thoufand Florins 
a Year, but there are others, that have but twelve hun- 
dred. 
The Manner of buying and felling Eajl-India Stock is 
very eafy and expeditious. When the Parties have fettled 
the Price between themfelves, they go together to the 
India Houle, where the Seller applies himfelf to the Clerk 
of the Book in which his Stock is entered, and defires 
him to transfer fo much from his Account to that of the 
Buyer , which being done, he figns it, and afterwards 
figns a Receipt for the Purchafe-money, and the whole 
Tranfadion being performed in the Prefence of a Director, 
he figns the Book likewife * fo that there is not a Poffi- 
bility of any Fraud being committed, yet the whole Ex- 
pence of this Transfer does not amount to more than fe- 
ven Shillings and Sixpence of our Money. 
The Directors, who have the foie Management of the 
Company’s Concerns, fettle not only the Times, but the 
Qualities and Qualities of the Company’s Goods, that are 
to be expofedin their Sales from the Produce of which their 
Dividends are would, and are high and low, according to 
the Profit made by the Company. This, however, mult 
be underltood with feme Reftridion ; for molt certain it 
is, that from their firft 1 Eftablilhment to this Day, they 
have never divided to the full Extent of their Profit, and 
this for very good Reafons. Firft, becaufe long Wars, 
and other chargeable Expeditions, mull be defrayed out of 
this referv’d Stock, to prevent a great Decreafe in their 
Dividends, which would neceflarily occafion a very great 
Fall of -their Adions. Secondly, they have conftantly 
paid the State very large Sums for the renewing of their 
Charters, and they have likewife paid largely for fuch 
other Adis of State as they have procured from Time to 
Time in their Favour. Thirdly, it has been found requi- 
fite lor them to keep large Sums in Bank, to an fiver the 
Exigencies of the State as well as the Company, in Times 
of great Difficulty and Danger. Befides all this, they 
have likewife referved vaft Quantities of Spices, and other 
rich Commodities, that their Sales might not lower the 
Price of them too much ; and upon this Principle, they 
have fometimes burned great Quantities of Spices. They 
have alfo formerly had recourfe to another Method for the 
Benefit of their Proprietors, which has been paying their 
Dividends in Cloves, Mace and Nutmegs, at a very low 
Price, by which thofe who received them, gained very 
confiderable Advantages. 
It may, indeed, be furmifed, that thefe Methods af- 
forded room for the Diredors to make great Advantages 
to themfelves, but when it is confidered, that their gene- 
ral Accounts, upon the Balance of which their Dividends 
have been declared, have been every three Years conftant- 
ly audited by a Committee of the States-General , there is 
no juft Reafon to apprehend, that any Thing of this 
kind has been ever pradtifed. Thus it clearly appears, 
that as the Eajl-India Company in Holland , by a wife and 
prudent Difpofition of their Affairs abroad, have been 
able to erect and maintain a Sovereignty, very little, if at 
all, inferior in Power to the greateft Monarchs in Afia , 
without which it would have been impoffible for them to 
have maintained and fupported that Commerce which has 
been the Source of fuch immenfe Riches fo, on the other 
Hand, by their prudent and exad Oeconomy at Home, 
they have conftantly fuftained the Reputation of the Com- 
pany at the greateft Height, and thereby proved of infi- 
nite Advantage to their Country. 
This indeed is the main Point, and the Thing which of 
all others we have laboured to fet in ‘ the fhlleft and ftrong- 
eft Light in this Sedion. For though it be true, that 
both the Glory and the Profit accruing from the right 
Management of the Affairs of this great Corporation, be- 
long to the Dutch alone, and not to any other Nation, yet 
the example of fo extraordinary a Conftitution as this is, 
by which a Body of Merchants have been able to raife art 
Empire in the Indies , and a kind of new Republick in 
the Bofom of that by which they were eroded, is com- 
mon to all the World, and therefore the entire Hiftory of 
its Rife, Progrefs, and prefent# Condition, concerns not 
only all the reft of Europe , and in a particular Manner 
every maritime Power, but ought likewife to be tranf- 
mitted to Pofterity. This, as it inclined me to take fo 
much Pains, and to turn over fo many Books, in order to 
bring all that has been faid of it into fuch a Method, as that 
the Englijh Reader might clearly comprehend, not only its 
paft and prefent Condition, but the Means by which the 
former was acquired, and the latter is, and probably will 
be maintained as long as the Republick of the States-Ge- 
neral ftiall fubfift : So I hope it will merit a Degree of At- 
tention equal to the trouble it has coft, and inlpire every 
Reader with a fincere and hearty Concern to fee the Af- 
fairs of Englijh trading Companies put into a like Train 
of Management, that as we have not equal only, but 
greater Advantages for the promoting and fupporting an 
extenfive Commerce than the Dutch , we may not be always 
as much behind them in this refped as we are at prefent. 
There remains but one Thing more to compleat the 
Aim and Defign of this Sedion, and that is, to give an 
Account of the Dividends which have been made fines 
the Eftablilhment of this Company, which when I began 
this Enquiry, I thought could not have been brought 
lower than the Year 1717 5 but by a diligent Search I 
have continued them eleven Years further, and have Rea- 
fon to hope, that in the Appendix to the next Volume, X 
fhall be able to gratify the Reader’s Curiofity to its utmoft: 
Extent, by bringing them ftill farther down, perhaps to the 
prefent Year. As they Hand in the next Page, they will ful- 
ly anfwer three very great and ufeful Ends. In the firft Place, 
they will fully fupport, and undeniably prove the Truth, 
not only of the Fads recorded, but alfo of the Gbferva- 
tions made upon thofe Fads through the Courfe of this 
Hiftory, and thereby convince the Reader, that it is not 
an over-weening Paftion for Trade, or any particu- 
lar Fondnefs for the Dutch, that has led me to treat fo 
largely of this Subjed, but an honeft and laudable Zeal 
for Truth, and for the Intereft of my Country. It will 
in the next Place fhew, what incredible Advantages re- 
fult from Commerce, when wifely eftablifhed, and fteadi- 
ly purfued, and how this alone contributes more, not 
only to the enriching, but to the raifing the Power and 
Credit of a Nation, than a)l other Methods taken for that 
Purpofe put together 5 and laftly, it will demonftrate, be- 
yond all Queftion, the Falftiood of that Objedion, which, 
of all others has been thought the ftrongeft againft the. 
Eajl-India Trade, viz. that it exhaufts and impoverishes 
Nation which carries it on, by exporting annually vaft 
Quantities of Silver 5 for, if there had been any Truth 
in this, the Experience of fo long a Courfe of Time, as 
one hundred and thirteen Years, muft have rendered it vifi- 
ble to a Degree beyond all Contradidion 5 whereas, this 
Account of the Company’s Dividends, is the fulleft and 
moft authentick Evidence of the contrary; fo that it is 
to be hoped, we fhall never hear that Objedion urged 
again, or if it be, that it will have as little Weight as an 
Argument built upon Conjedure ought to have, when op- 
pofed to the Lights of Experience, 
A 
