Слике страница
PDF
ePub

any time find themselves deprived of their privileges without any notice at all. At length, by means of profuse bribes, Child obtained an order requiring the Attorney-General to draw up a charter regranting to the Old Company its former privileges, but only on the condition that the Company should submit to further regulations substantially in accordance with those sanctioned by the House of Commons in 1691. However, even these terms were considered insufficient by the opponents of the Company, who now raised the constitutional question whether the Crown could grant a monopoly of trade without the authority of Parliament 1. This question, having been argued before the Privy Council, was finally decided in favour of the Company, and an order was passed that the charter should be sealed.

Accordingly the charter of October 7, 1693, confirms the Charters former charter of the Company, but is expressed to be re- and 1694. of 1693 vocable in the event of the Company failing to submit to such further regulations as might be imposed on them within a year. These regulations were embodied in two supplemental charters dated November 11, 1693, and September 28, 1694. By the first of these charters the capital of the Company was increased by the addition of £744,000. No person was to subscribe more than £10,000. Each subscriber was to have one vote for each £1,000 stock held by him, up to £10,000 but no more. The governor and deputy governor were to be qualified by holding £4,000 stock, and each committee by holding £1,000 stock. The dividends were to be made in money alone. Books were to be kept for recording transfers of stock, and were to be open to public inspection. The joint stock was to continue for twenty-one years and no longer.

The charter of 1694 provided that the governor and deputy governor were not to continue in office for more than two

1 The question had been previously raised in the great case of The East India Company v. Sandys (1683-85), in which the Company brought an action against Mr. Sandys for trading to the East Indies without a licence, and the Lord Chief Justice (Jeffreys) gave judgement for the plaintiffs. See the report in 10 State Trials, 371.

The affair of the

and its

results.

years, that eight new committees were to be chosen each year, and that a general court must be called within eight days on request by six members holding £1,000 stock each. The three charters were to be revocable after three years' warning, if not found profitable to the realm.

By a charter of 1698 the provisions as to voting powers and qualification were modified. The qualification for a single vote was reduced to £500, and no single member could give more than five votes. The qualification for being a committee was raised to £2,000.

In the meantime, however, the validity of the monopoly Redbridge renewed by the charter of 1693 had been successfully assailed. Immediately after obtaining a renewal of their charter the directors used their powers to effect the detention of a ship called the Redbridge, which was lying in the Thames and was believed to be bound for countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope. The legality of the detention was questioned, and the matter was brought up in Parliament. And on January II, 169, the House of Commons passed a resolution that all subjects of England have equal rights to trade to the East Indies unless prohibited by Act of Parliament.'

'It has ever since been held,' says Macaulay, 'to be the sound doctrine that no power but that of the whole legislature can give to any person or to any society an exclusive privilege of trading to any part of the world.' It is true that the trade to the East Indies, though theoretically thrown open by this resolution, remained practically closed. The Company's agents in the East Indies were instructed to pay no regard to the resolutions of the House of Commons, and to show no mercy to interlopers. But the constitutional point was finally settled. The question whether the trading privileges of the East India Company should be continued was removed from the council chamber to Parliament, and the period of control by Act of Parliament over the affairs of the Company began.

The first Act of Parliament for regulating the trade to

[ocr errors]

tion of

the East Indies was passed in 1698. The New Company Incorporahad continued their attacks on the monopoly of the Old English Company, a monopoly which had now been declared illegal, Company. and they found a powerful champion in Montagu, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Old Company offered, in return for a monopoly secured by law, a loan of £700,000 to the State. But Montagu wanted more money than the Old Company could advance. He also wanted to set up a new company constituted in accordance with the views of his adherents. Unfortunately these adherents were divided in their views. Most of them were in favour of a joint-stock company. But some preferred a regulated company after the model of the Levant Company. The plan which Montagu ultimately devised was extremely intricate, but its general features cannot be more clearly described than in the language of Macaulay: He wanted two millions to extricate the State from its financial embarrassments. That sum he proposed to raise by a loan at 8 per cent. The lenders might be either individuals or corporations, but they were all, individuals and corporations, to be united in a new corporation, which was to be called the General Society. Every member of the General Society, whether individual or corporation, might trade separately with India to an extent not exceeding the amount which that member had advanced to the Government. But all the members or any of them might, if they so thought fit, give up the privilege of trading separately, and unite themselves under a royal Charter for the purpose of trading in common. Thus the General Society was, by its original constitution, a regulated company; but it was provided that either the whole Society or any part of it might become a joint-stock company.'

This arrangement was embodied in an Act and two charters. The Act (9 & 10 Will. III, c. 44) authorized the Crown to borrow two millions on the security of taxes on salt, and stamped vellum, parchment, and paper, and to incorporate the subscribers to the loan by the cumbrous name of the

'General Society entitled to the advantages given by an Act of Parliament for advancing a sum not exceeding two millions for the service of the Crown of England.' The Act follows closely the lines of that by which; four years before, Montagu had established the Bank of England in consideration of a loan of £1,200,000. In each case the loan bears interest at the rate of 8 per cent., and is secured on the proceeds of a special tax or set of taxes. In each case the subscribers to the loan are incorporated and obtain special privileges. The system was an advance on that under which bodies of merchants had obtained their privileges by means of presents to the king or bribes to his ministers, and was destined to receive much development in the next generation. The plan of raising special loans on the security of special taxes has since been superseded by the National Debt and the Consolidated Fund. But the debt to the Bank of England still remains separate, and retains some of the features originally imprinted on it by the legislation of Montagu.

1

Of the charters granted under the Act of 1698, the first incorporated the General Society as a regulated company, whilst the second 2 incorporated most of the subscribers to the General Society as a joint-stock company, under the name of The English Company trading to the East Indies.' The constitution of the English Company was formed on the same general lines as that of the Old or London Company, but the members of their governing body were called directors instead of committees.'

The New Company were given the exclusive privilege of trading to the East Indies, subject to a reservation of the concurrent rights of the Old Company until September 29, 1701. The New Company, like the Old Company, were authorized to make by-laws and ordinances, to appoint governors, with power to raise and train military forces, and to establish courts of judicature. maintain ministers of religion at 1 Charter of September 3, 1698.

They were also directed to their factories in India, and 2 Charter of September 5, 1698.

[ocr errors]

to take a chaplain in every ship of 500 tons. The ministers were to learn the Portuguese language and to apply themselves to learn the native language of the country where they shall reside, the better to enable them to instruct the Gentoos that shall be the servants or slaves of the same Company or of their agents, in the Protestant religion.' Schoolmasters were also to be provided.

Old and

It soon appeared that the Old Company had, to use a Union of modern phrase, captured' the New Company. They had New Comsubscribed £315,000 towards the capital of two millions panies. authorized by the Act of 1698. They had thus acquired a material interest in their rivals' concern, and, at the same time, they were in possession of the field. They had the capital and plant indispensable for the East India trade, and they retained concurrent privileges of trading. They soon showed their strength by obtaining a private Act of Parliament (11 & 12 Will. III, c. 4) which continued them as a trading corporation until repayment of the whole loan of two millions.

The situation was impossible; the privileges nominally obtained by the New Company were of no real value to them; and a coalition between the two Companies was the only practicable solution of the difficulties which had been created by the Act and charters of 1698.

The coalition was effected in 1702, through the intervention of Lord Godolphin, and by means of an Indenture Tripartite to which Queen Anne and the two Companies were parties, and which embodied a scheme for equalizing the capital of the two Companies and for combining their stocks. The Old Company were to maintain their separate existence for seven years, but the trade of the two Companies was to be carried on jointly, in the name of the English Company, but for the common benefit of both, under the direction of twenty-four managers, twelve to be selected by each Company. At the end of the seven years the Old Company were to surrender their charters. The New or English

« ПретходнаНастави »