8;6 g O M P 
firil incorporated company by the name of the London 
Eajl-lndia Company. After a long ieries of difafters and 
Ioffes, this company obtained from the powers of India, 
at a great expence, the privilege of a limited trade in cer¬ 
tain parts of India and Perfia, and of making fmall i'et- 
tlements or houfes of trade called factories for the refi- 
depce of their factors and fervants. In thole times the 
charters of the crown, and the powers which they con¬ 
veyed, were not thought to require parliamentary 1'anc- 
tien ; nor was it till after the relloration that the rights 
or authorities derived under them to the company were 
firft called in ouellion. By the interruptions, however, 
of private fpeculative adventurers, who had begun to re- 
fdt the excluiive claims of the old company, under their 
charters, on the ground of their wanting the fandlion 
of parliamentary authority, and by occafionai failures of 
invelhnents of goods from abroad, and the then not un¬ 
frequent Ioffes of lliips in their pnffage, the commerce of 
the company was often chequered with difafters and dis¬ 
appointments.. Notwithftanding thefe difcouragements, 
the company formed by degrees various factories and 
houfes of trade both in India and Perfia. When by this 
means they had at length become more fuccefsful, various 
attempts were made to induce the crown, and even par¬ 
liament itfeif, to interpofc and revoke the charters of the 
company; feme on piefumption that every man had an 
equal right to trade in the Eall as well as in the Well; In ■ 
dies; while others hoped to tffedl it on propoials of terms 
of advantage in point of public finance, that they might 
themielves be erefted into an excluiive company. 
Such was the date of things in 1693, when the com¬ 
pany, by an accidental failure in the payment of a lmall 
duty which had been impofed on their capital dock, gave 
an opening to government to determine their charters, 
rendered void by that default; and though in the fame- 
year the crown, to obviate all doubts, revived their powers 
and exclufive privileges by a new charter, the company 
were obliged to fubmit to a condition, that their capacity 
of trading Ihould in future be determinable on three years 
notice. The legal obdacle to the erefting a new com¬ 
pany being thus removed, the dat. 9 & 10 Will. ill. c. 44. 
was paffed for borrowing two millions on a loan at eight 
per cent, towards carrying on the War; and, as an en¬ 
couragement to fubfcribers, it was declared, that they 
fhould be incorporated by a charter from the king into a 
general fociety, with liberty for each individual member 
to trade to India, and the other limits of the old com¬ 
pany’s excluiive charter; fo that the value of his exports 
exceeded not his (hare of this loan or capital : and that 
fitch of the fubfcribers as fhould choofe to convert their 
fubfcriptions into a joint dock, fltould be at liberty fo to 
do, and be incorporated by a ieparate charter by the name 
of the Englijh Eaji-India Company, with the privilege of 
trading with and to the amount of fuch joint dock. AIJ 
perfons but thofe incorporated, and fuch as they ihould 
licence, were prohibited from this trade, except the old 
company, who had time given them to wind up their 
commercial affairs. The act referved a power to deter¬ 
mine the charters both of the general fociety and the new 
company after September 1711, on re-payment of the loan 
and three years notice. The bulk of the fubfcribers hav¬ 
ing agreed to trS.de as a ieparate company, with a joint 
dock, the old company, to whole prejudice the two new 
corporations were to be erefted, found means to become 
members for a very large proportion of the loan of two 
millions. With an intered thus acquired they joined wiih 
the Engliih company, and, by means of their fuperior 
knowledge and polfeliions, they obtained a decided influ¬ 
ence in the general courts of the new company, and thus 
paved the way to that union which aftei wards took place 
in 1702; and which, in 1708, was confirmed by 6 Ann. 
c. 17. By the. terms of .this union the vvarehoufes at home 
and fhipping, and alfo ail the fettlemenrs and factories of 
the old company in the Ead Indies, Perfia, and China, 
including the mauds of Bombay and St. Helena, with 
ANY. 
their dependencies, and all their rights and privileges, 
however derived, became veded in the united company, 
except their body politic, which was furrendered to the 
crown. The curious reader may wiih to learn what be¬ 
came of the general fociety, whole members were indivi¬ 
dually authorized to trade, as far as the value of their 
fubfcriptions in goods exported from, hence. All that 
can be difeovered of them is, that though they were ac¬ 
tually incorporated by the king’s charter, and were there¬ 
fore legally authorized to fend drips to India or China, it 
does not with certainty appear that any one drip was ever- 
fitted out bv them ; and that the iuperior advantages of 
beitrg concerned in the trade to be carried on with a joint 
dock were fo evident, that, at the time of the union of 
the two companies, out of the whole loan of two millions, 
oniy i'even thouiand two hundred pounds then remained 
the property of the ieparate traders of the general fociety ; 
and that this fum alfo was loon abforbed in the united 
company, whole capital or trading dock by which their 
dividend of profits was to be governed, thereupon became 
fixed at two millions. 
The fird enlargement of the company’s term took place 
in 1708, (6 Ann. c. 17.) when the united company 
bargained with the public to advance one million two 
hundred thoufanrl pounds as a loan, but without any in¬ 
tered, (or, which operated as the fame thing, at a reduced 
intered of five per cent, on the two loans conjointly,) for 
an extenfion of their term, in the exclufive trade, of fif¬ 
teen years ; and thus their nominal trading capital on 
which the dividend was made, became advanced to three 
millions two hundred thoufand pounds. In 1712 the com¬ 
pany petitioned parliament, (on the ground that the term 
which remained unexpired in their trade, was too ihort to 
admit their niking the expences of regaining and fecuring 
the pepper ti ade, which had been engrofi'ed by the Dutch,) 
that then corpoiate capacity might be continued, though 
the debt due to them from the public ihouid be redeemed. 
In conftquence of this petition, the fiat. 10 Ann. c. 28. 
palled for repealing all former provifoes and powers of de¬ 
termining their trade or incorporation, but with power 
for the public to redeem the debt at any time after Sep¬ 
tember 1733. And thus the united company were fup- 
pofed to have obtained a perpetuity, as well in the exclu¬ 
five trade, as in all their chartered rights and capacities. 
They, however, fubmitted ihemfelves, in that reipett, to 
the pleafure of parliament in 1730, when the fiat. 3 G. II. 
c. 14. was pailed for continuing to them their exclufive 
trade till 1766 ; for which they gave the public a premium 
of two hundred thoufand pounds, without any return of 
either principal or intereft; and alfo agreed to a reduc¬ 
tion of the rate of intereft to four per cent, on the debt of 
three millions two hundred thouiand poXmds, and to ac¬ 
cept of payment of the principal by inftalments of five 
hundred thouiand pounds. In 1744 they contrafted for 
and obtained, by 17. Geo. I. c. 17. a farther addition of 
fourteen years in the exclufive trade; for which they lent 
to the public one million at three per cent. And, in 1750, 
they agreed, by 23 Geo. II. c. 22. to a farther reduc¬ 
tion of the rate of intereft on the former debt, to three 
per cent. Thus grew the debt of four millions two hun¬ 
dred thouiand pounds from the public to the united com¬ 
pany, carrying with it an annuity of one hundred and 
twenty-fix thouiand pounds. This was called the three 
per cent. Eaft India annu ties; and are now coni' lidated 
with the three per cent, bank annuities. See the article 
National Debt. But the company’s capital or no¬ 
minal fum, by wh ch their dividends were governed, con¬ 
tinued as before at three millions two hundred thouiand 
pounds; the million laft lent having been railed by their 
bonds, and therefore not added to their former capital. 
The next renewal was made by contract with the pub¬ 
lic, by 21 Geo. III. c. 65. when a farther term, de¬ 
terminable in 1794, vvas granted in the exclufive trade, 
on payment of four hundred thoufand pounds, in dii- 
charge of all claims on the company by the public, pre¬ 
vious 
