COMP 
-reived tickets inftead of money, and were frequently 
obliged, by their neceffities, to fell thefe tickets to ava¬ 
ricious men at a difcount of forty and fometimes fifty 
per cent. By this and other means, the debts of the 
nation unprovided for by parliament, and which amount¬ 
ed to nine millions four hundred and leventy-orie thou- 
iand three hundred and twenty-one pounds, fell into the 
hands of thefe ufurers. On which Mr. Harley, at that 
time chancellor of the exchequer, and afterwards earl of 
Oxford, propofed a fcheme Co allow the proprietors of 
thefe debts and deficiencies fix per cent, per annum, and 
to incorporate them for the purpofe of carrying on a trade 
to the South Sea; and they were accordingly incorporated 
•under the title of the Governor and Company of Merchants of 
Great Britain, trading to the South Seas, and other parts of 
America, and for encouraging the Fifhery, Sic. Though this 
company appeared to be formed for the fake of commerce, 
the miniftry never thought ferioufly, during the courfe 
of the war, about making any fettlement on the coalt of 
South America, which was what flattered the expecta¬ 
tions of the people; nor was it ever carried into execu¬ 
tion by this company. Some other fums were lent to the 
government in the reign of queen Anne, at fix per cent. 
In the third of George I. the interelt of the whole was 
reduced to five per cent, and the company advanced two 
millions more to the government at the lame intereft. By 
the ftatute of the fixth of George I. it was declared, that 
they might redeem all or any of the redeemable national 
debts ; in confideration of which, the company were em¬ 
powered to augment their capital according to the fums 
they fhould difcharge; and for enabling them to raife 
fuch fums for purchafin'g annuities, exchanging for ready 
money new exchequer bills, carrying on their trade, See. 
they might, by fuch means as they fhould think proper, 
raife fuch fums of money as in a general court of the 
company fhould be judged necefiary. The company were 
alfo empowered to raife money on the contrails, bonds, 
or obligations, under their common feal, on the credit 
of their capital ltock. The fatal South Sea fcheme, tranf- 
alted in 1720, was executed upon the laft-mentioned fta¬ 
tute. The company had at firft let out with good fuc- 
cels, and the value of their flock, for the firft five years, 
had rifen fafter than that of any other company ; and the 
king, after puichafing ten thoufand pounds llock, had 
condefcended to be their governor. Things were in this 
situation, when, taking advantage of the above ftatute, 
the famous South Sea bubble was projetled. The pre¬ 
tence was, to raife a fund for carrying on a trade to the 
South Sea, and purchafing annuities, &c. paid to the 
other companies; and propolals were printed and diftri- 
buted fhewing the advantages of this defign. The fum 
necefiary for carrying it on, together with the profits 
that were to arife from it, were divided into a certain 
number of fhares or fubferiptions, to be purchafed by 
perfons difpofed to adventure therein. And the better to 
carry on the deception, the direllors engaged to make 
very large dividends; and actually declared, that every 
hundred pounds original ltock would yield fifty pounds 
per annum, which occafioned fo great a rife of their flock, 
that a (hare of one hundred pounds was fold for upwards 
of eight iiundred pounds. But the confequences of this 
infamous fcheme were deftrullive to a vafl number of 
perfons, who were completely fleeced and ruined: for 
particulars whereof, fee Bubble, vol. iii. p. 4.67. 
The ftock-jobbirig fpeculations of this company were 
fncceeded by mercantile pro jells, which, Dr. Smith, in 
his Wealth of Nations, obferves, were not much better 
condu&ed. The firft trade which they engaged in, was 
that of fupplying the Spanifti Weft Indies with negroes, 
of which (in confequence of what was called the Aliiento 
contrail granted them by the treaty of Utrecht) they had 
the exclufive privilege. But as it was not expelled that 
much profit? couid be made by this trade, both the Por- 
luguefe and French companies, who had enjoyed it upon 
the fame terms before them, having been mined by it. 
A N Y. 875 
they were allowed, as compenfation, to fend annually a 
fhip of a certain burden to trade direllly to the Spanifti 
Weft Indies. Of the ten voyages which this fhip was al¬ 
lowed to make, they are faid to have gained confiderably 
by one, that of the Royal Caroline in 1731, and to have 
been lofers byalmoft all the reft. In 1734, the company 
petitioned the king, that they might be allowed to dif- 
pofe of this trade, on account of the little profit which 
they made by it, and to accept of fuch equivalent as they 
could obtain from the king of Spain. In 1724, they un¬ 
dertook the whale-fifhery. Of this, indeed, tiiey had no 
monopoly; but, as long as they carried it on, no other 
Britifh fubjeHs appear to have engaged in it. Of the eight 
voyages which their fhips made to Greenland, they were 
gainers by one, and lofers by all the reft. After their 
eighth and laft voyage, when they had fold their fhips, 
ftores, and utenfils, they found that their whole lofs, upon 
this branch, capital and intereft included, amounted to up¬ 
wards of two hundred and thirty-fever) thoufand pounds. 
In 1722, the company petitioned parliament to be allowed 
to divide their immenfe capital of thirty-three millions 
eight hundred thoufand pounds, the whole of which had 
been lent to government, into two equal parts; the one 
half to be put upon the fame footing with other govern¬ 
ment annuities, and not to be fubject to the debts con- 
tralled, or Ioffes incurred, by the direllors of the com¬ 
pany, in the profecution of their mercantile projells ; the 
other half to remain, as before, a trading flock, and to be 
fubjelt to thofe debts and Ioffes. The petition was too 
reafonable not to be granted. In 1733, they again peti¬ 
tioned the parliament, and obtained leave, that three- 
fourths of their trading llock might be turned into annui¬ 
ty flock, and only one-fourth remain as trading ltock, or 
expofed to the hazards arifing from the bad management 
of their direllors. In 1748, all the demands of the com¬ 
pany upon the king of Spain, in confequence of the Af- 
liento contrail, were, by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 
given up for what was fuppofed an equivalent. An end 
was put to their trade with the Spanifti Well Indies, the 
remainder of their trading flock was turned into an an¬ 
nuity flock, and the company then ceafed in every re- 
fpelt to be a trading company. It is now under the di¬ 
rection of a governor, fub-governor, deputy-governor, 
and twenty-one direllors; but no perfon is qualified to 
be governor, his majeily excepted, unlei's fuch governor 
has, in his own name and right, five thoufand pounds in 
the ltock 3 the fub-governor is to have four thoufand 
pounds, the deputy-governor three thoufand pounds, and 
a direltor two thoufand pounds, in the fame flock. In 
every general court, each member, having in his own 
name and right five hundred pounds in ltock, has one 
vote; if two thoufand pounds, two votes; if three thou¬ 
fand pounds, three votes; and if five thoufand pounds, 
four votes. 
7. The East-India Company. This important com¬ 
pany, from a very untoward beginning, has become the 
firft and greatell commercial affociation in the world. 
They are named the United Company of Merchants of England 
trading to the Eaf Indies, in 6 An. c. 17. but more explicitly, 
according to their charter, and the adjuftmenfc of their 
rights, by 9 & 10 Will. III. c. 44. as trading << into and 
from the Ealt-Indies, in the countries and parts of Afia 
and Africa, and in, to, and from, the iflands, ports, ha¬ 
vens, cities, creeks, towns, and places, of Afia, Africa, 
and America, or any of them, beyond the Cape of Good. 
Hope, to the Straights of Magellan, where any trade or 
traffic of merchandize is or may be ufed or had, and to 
and from every of them.” The paflage by fea to the pen- 
infula of India, known by the name of Hindoofian, or Mo¬ 
gul Empire, and the ealtward part of the continent of 
Afia, the prelent feats of our Afiatic trade, was not dif- 
covered till about the latter end of the fifteenth century ; 
and, of the various attempts made from hence by indivi¬ 
duals, to open a trade thither, none proved fuccefsful 
until queen Elizabeth, in the jeav j6oo, eftablifhed the 
firft 
