COMPANY. 
tiona! dutj’. The principal joint-stock com- 
panies for foreign trade, are the East India 
Company, and the Hudson’s Bay Company ; 
the South Sea Company has long given up 
its commercial undertakings, and the Sierra 
Leone Company has not yet acquired 
much importance. There is, however, a 
multitude of joiot-stock companies esta- 
blished, some w'ith exclusive privileges, 
but in general without any such advantage, 
for carrying on the banking business, for 
the different kinds of insurance, for grant- 
ing and purchasing annuities, for making 
docks, navigable canals, tunnels, roads, or 
rail- ways, and for working mines. 
The utility of joint-stock companies for 
many of these purposes, and the success 
which some of them have experienced, has 
frequently produced a disposition for the 
multiplication of such establishments, and 
an opinion that they might be extended 
to almost every branch of trade and ma- 
nufactures. The rage for forming public 
coinpanies was, in 1720, carried to a degree 
of infatuation, which led thousands to sub- 
scribe to projects the most useless or im- 
practicable, and gave rise to such a spirit 
of speculation and stock-jobbing, as ren- 
dered necessary the interference of parlia- 
ment. In consequence of tlie act then 
passed, 6 Geo, I. c. 18, upwards of two- 
hundred projected companies ended in the 
loss and disappointment of their respective 
subscribers. The recollection of this cir- 
cumstance prevented for many years any 
similar attempts, till the frequency of sub- 
scriptions for making canals shewed the 
facility of raising large sums in this manner 
for any public undertakings, and led to the 
formation of joint-stock companies to other 
purposes. In the course of the year 1807, 
proposals were circulated for establishing 
six new insurance companies ; seven sub- 
scription breweries ; four public distilleries ; 
five genuine wine companies ; two vinegar 
manufactories ; a corn, flour, and provision 
company ; a united public dairy ; a new' 
medical laboratory for the sale of genuine 
medicines ; three coal companies ; a cloath- 
ing company ; a linen company ; a united 
woollen company ; a paper company; two 
or three copper companies ; a national 
light and heat company ; two new' banks • 
two commission sale companies ; and a 
company for purchasing canal shares, and 
lending money for completing canals. On 
the .4ttorney General proceeding against 
one or two of these intended companies, 
most of the others were abandoned. 
CoMPAMf, East India, was established 
by a charter from Queen Elizabeth, dated 
31st December, 1600, which, though not 
confirmed by act of parliament, was then 
considered as conferring an absolute ex- 
clusive privilege. Under this authority, 
the members of tlie Company traded for 
about twelve years, on tlieir separate ca- 
pitals, which, in 1613, Urey united into a 
joint-stock. In the reign of James I. the 
Con)pany obtained a new charter, and en- 
larged their capital to 1,600,000 ; their pro- 
fits at tins time were not very great ; and 
in the year 1655, Cromwell dissolved the 
Company and laid open the ti-ade, but tlie 
mischief which followed obliged him to 
re-establish it about three years after. 
New charters were granted to the Company 
in '1661, 1669, and 1676, confirming all 
their former privileges, but as these pri- 
vileges were derived merely from royal 
charters, without the sanction of parlia- 
ment, their exclusive light began to be 
questioned, and individuals frequently en- 
deavoured to participate in a commerce 
which had become very advantageous. 
These private adventurers increasing in 
number, the Company in 1683, found means 
to obtain another charter, by which all 
former charters were confirmed, and they 
were impowered to seize the ships and 
merchandize of individual traders, to main- 
tain railitaiy forces, aud to establish a 
court of judicature. They were soon after 
involved in war with the Mogul, and other 
embai-rassments, w’hich were attempted to 
be rectified by tlie oft tried expedient of 
a new charter, and being tims armed with 
new pow'ere, they endeavoured to exclude 
effectually all individuals from interfering 
in the trade. In 1693, the chat ter of tlie 
Company became void, from default in pay- 
ment of the tax imposed on their stock, 
but it was renewed upon condition of being 
determinable upon three years notice. 
The company having sustained great 
losses diiring the war with France, and 
fallen into disrepute, a proposal was made 
in 1698, by Mr. Samuel Shepherd, and a 
number of other merchants, to advance for 
the public service 2,000,000t. at 8 per cent, 
interest, provided the sole exclusive trade to 
India was settled on them; the proposal 
was accepted, and a new company esta- 
blished by authority of parliament, and in- 
corporated by charter under the title of the 
English Company trading to the East Indies. 
The contentions and emulation between 
the old and new Companies was so great, 
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