95 ^ The Hiftory of the French Eaft-India Commerce , &c. Book 1 . 
having already had the Pleafurre to fee the Circulation of 
Money wonderfully quickened by the Eftablifhment of 
the Weji-India Company, his Majefty had from thence 
been led to look into the State of the old Companies, 
ereCted before his Acceffion to the Throne and in parti- 
cular into the State of the E aft -India Company, which he 
found to be moil deplorable. In the Space of fifty Years 
they had notwithftanding repeated Afiiftances from the 
Crown, managed their Affairs fo indifferently, as to be 
obliged to abandon their Commerce entirely, and to take 
up with fueh trifling Advantages as could be obtained by 
letting out their Privileges to hire. 
The King declared, he was fatisfied that this did not 
proceed at all from Difadvantages in the Nature of that 
Commerce, but from the Miftakes and ill ConduCt of 
fueh as had been entrufted with the Management of the 
Company’s Affairs, who, in the firft Place, had made their 
Bottom too narrow, and had undertaken the Traffick of 
the Indies upon much too fmall a Capital. That, in the 
fecond Place, to keep up the Credit of their own Admini- 
ftration, and to countenance their taking fueh confiderable 
Salaries to' themfelves, they had made large Dividends, 
where there was no Profits ; and having, by this Means, 
exhaufted the Company’s Stock, they carried on their 
Trade by borrowing as much Money as they could at very 
high intereft. That however, the King his Great-grand- 
father, having always protected and encouraged this Com- 
pany, and even granted them a new Term towards the 
End of his Life, they might have enjoyed it, or, at leaft 
have drawn all the Profits from it they could, if their 
Conduct had not become fo flagrantly bad, that neither 
the Glory of the King, nor the Intereft of his People, 
would permit him to overlook it any longer. On the 
one Hand, there were continual Complaints from the. In- 
dies, that the Company had borrowed vaft Sums of the 
Gentiles , without paying them either Capital or Intereft, 
having in the Space of fixteen Years, not fent fo much 
as one Angle Ship to Surat . On the other, the private 
Merchants carrying on this Commerce in the Name, and 
under the Authority of the Eaft-India Company, were fo 
cramped and oppreffed by the Duty of Ten per Cent, and 
other Gratuities to the Company, that they are unable to 
purfue their Trade with the fame Spirit and Advantages 
which are enjoyed by the Subjects of other Nations ; and, 
befides, being afraid to go to Surat , on account of the 
Danger they were in of having their Ships leized for the 
Company’s Debts, they found themfelves obliged to pur- 
chafe moft of the Indian Commodities and Manufactures 
which they brought into Europe from Foreigners, at a 
very high Price, and this equally to their own and the 
Nation’s Difadvantage. 
For thefe Reafons, and others of the like Nature al- 
ledged againft the China and African Companies, his Ma- 
jefty declares, that the Priviledges of all thofe Companies 
are, by this EdiCt of his, dated in the Month of May 
1719, revoked, extinguifhed, and fupprefled. He grant- 
ed at the fame Time, to the new Company of the Indies , 
an exclufive Priviledge of trading from the Cape of Good- 
hope , to the utmoft Extent of the Eaft- Indies, as alfo to 
the Hands of Madagafcar , of Bourbon, and of France , the 
Coaft of Sojfala in Africa, the Red-fea , Perjia, the Do- 
minions of the Mogul, of the King of Siam , and of the 
Emperors of China and Jap on, as alfo of the South-feas , 
from the Streights of Magellan , or la Maire , to the Eaft- 
Indies that Way, forbidding all the reft of his Subje&s thefe 
feveral Trades, under Pain of the Confifcation of their 
Veflels and Effects. 
He likewife gives and grants to this Company, the 
Poflefiions and EffeCts of the other Companies, at the 
fame Time charging them, however, with all the juft 
Debts which thofe Companies had contracted, and were 
liable to. The better to enable them to difeharge thofe 
Debts, and to carry on the vaft Trade granted them by 
this EdiCf, he creates in their Favour, twenty-five Milli- 
ons of new Adions, to be purchafed only for ready Mo- 
ney, on the fame Terms that the Weft- India Company 
pofleffed one hundred Millions of Actions, and with the 
like Priviledges and Advantages in every RefpeCt. He 
likewife granted full License and Authority to import all 
Sorts of Manufactures of Silk, Silk and Cotton, gold and 
filver Stuffs, died Cottons, as alfo painted and ftriped, 
on Condition, however, that none of theft fh all be vend- 
ed in his Dominions, but be intirely fold and difpofed of 
to Foreigners; for which Reafon they were to be depofited 
in Magazines under double Locks, the Keys of one to be kept 
by the Farmers-generaJ, and the other by the Directors of 
the Company, for the better preventing Frauds and Collu- 
fions. He likewife grants them Leave to import ail forts 
of white Cottons, Raw-filks, Coffee, Drugs, Spices, Me- 
tals, and whatever elfe the Eaft-India Company might 
have imported under their Priviledges. 
This EdiCt had all the EffeCts, and even more than was 
expected from it, and fueh an Eagernefs there appeared 
of fubferibing to this Company, that inftead of twenty- 
five, the Subfcriptions amounted to fifty Millions, which 
encouraged the French Miniftry to venture upon fome new 
Regulations, which were made publick by an EdiCt of the 
Month of June, in the fame Year. The Principal of 
which was, that they fhould take off four Times the Num- 
ber of old Actions, in order to be entitled to the new ; fa 
that in order to purchafe five thoufand Livres of the new 
Actions, the Subfcribers were obliged to take twenty thou- 
fand Livres of the old ones. 
The great End the Government propofed by all this, 
was, as we have hinted before, to find the Means of call- 
ing in and fupprefling that immenfe Quantity of Paper- 
money which was fueh a heavy Burden on the State; and to 
this End Annuities to the Value of twenty-five Millions 
are created, which not anfwering that Intention, the new 
Company of the Indies offered their Afiiftance, and un- 
dertook to difeharge them at the Rate of fifty Millions in 
one Month ; fo that the whole Load of this Paper-credit, 
amounting in the whole to near fixty Millions of our Mo- 
ney, was to be taken away and extinguifhed, by the End 
of July 1721. In Confideration of the Zeal and publick 
Spirit manifefted by the Company in this Propofal, the 
King was pleafed, by his Arret dated in the Month of 
July 1720, to change the Terms on which the Company 
held their Priviledges, and to declare them perpetual, re- 
ftraining himfelf and his Succeffors, from ever treating 
them as other Companies had been treated, in order to 
their Eftablifhment ; and thus this Company acquired that 
Title by which they are now known in France, The perpe- 
tual Company of the Indies, with all the Priviledges of 
the other four Companies confirmed to them for ever. In 
two Years Time it was fettled and declared, that in Con- 
fequence of the Annuities granted and afligned to the 
Company from the Crown, they fhould be able to divide 
annually the Sum of Ten per Cent, which fhould be paid 
duly and exaCtly for ever ; in Confequence of which, the 
DireClors were to be at full Liberty to export and import 
what they thought proper, without being accountable an- 
nually to their Conftituents, becaufe the Dividend was to 
be regular and certain, and they were to manage Things 
fo, as that the Deficiencies of one Year might be made 
up by the Profits of another. 
This Courfe of Management, though it had certainly 
one great Convenience in fixing and afeertaining the In- 
tereft as the Proprietors were to receive it, yet the Cir- 
cumftance of not accounting for the Profits, has proved of 
fueh ill Confequence, that notwithstanding thefe Dividends 
have been all along very duly and regularly paid till lately, 
yet the Proprietors could never be cured of a Sufpicion 
they entertained, that the Eaft-Indis Commerce has not 
been carried for their Profit, but in their Name, for the 
King’s, and this has contributed to keep their Actions 
low, though they had fueh extraordinary Intereft paid 
them, with fueh Regularity. The Grounds of this Suf- 
picion lying in the Annuities paid by the Crown to the 
Company, which are fufficient for ftcuring fueh a Divi- 
dend, without the leaft Afiiftance from the Profits of 
their Trade, made the Thing not altogether incredible, 
efpecially when it was perceived, that for twenty Years 
together, the Dividends remained fixed and fettled, though 
the Trade of the Company has for that Time been appa- 
rently encreafing. 
But to underftand this Point perfectly, as well as the true 
State of the Company’s Affairs, and liow they came to 
2 have 
