excepted is worthy consideration It is well known that upon the first Establishment of the East-India Trade in this Nation the Adventurers were established in a Company with a Joynt Stock by Queen Elizabeth as by her Letters Patents in the Forty Third Year of her Reign appeareth That during the remainder of that Reign they traded as a Company exclusive to all others without interruption under the Powers granted to them by the said Charter That by King James the first their Charter was again renewed and they continued in the Enjoyment of their Trade exclusive to Interlopers by vertue of the same Powers during His Reign and that of King Charles the first True it is That in the time of the late Usurpation more particularly from the year One Thousand Six Hundred Fifty Three to the year One Thousand Six Hundred Fifty Seven they were invaded in their Trade by Interlopers so that in a manner the whole Trade was carryed on by private hands and by that means the Trade of India was brought to that miserable pass as it became so far from being an advantageous Trade that to the knowledge and experience of many yet living it proved the contrary And while our Neighbours the Dutch managed the same Trade in a Company and Joynt Stock to their great advantage The English by a general permission to all Persons to trade thither drove on their Trade to a considerable loss besides many indignities affronts and injuries which were by several Princes in India where they traded put upon them even to the forcing them to sell their Goods and to take others at such Rates and Price as they pleased which could not have been put upon a Company in a Joynt Stock This made the then Traders thither though originally Interlopers themselves to apply to the Usurper Oliver for the Erecting a New East-India Company as He did in the Year 1657 and during his time they enjoyed their Trade exclusive to all Interlopers Upon the happy Restauration of His late Majesty King Charles the Second The Company applyed themselves to Him for the renewal of their Charter and had it granted to them accordingly And under the Powers thereof enjoyed the Trade to themselves in all peaceable manner both here and in India exclusive to all Interlopers until about the Year 1680 About which time and in the following Years the Nation being then in a ferment they were broke in upon by Interlopers their now inveterate Enemies The fatal consequence of which in relation to the Interest of the Nation will be more particularly considered when I come to discourse of the Origine of the War in India Their Trade being as above broke in upon by Interlopers They did as in reason they ought address themselves to their then Soveraign the late King Charles the Second for further Powers to obviate those inconveniences who being fully convinced of the necessity of them in order to the preserving that Trade to the Nation granted them accordingly which were afterwards again renewed and confirmed by the late King James the Second This being then the true state of matter of Fact as to the carrying on of the Trade in India ever since it was established in England it is fairly left to the Impartial Judgment of all Indifferent and unprejudiced Persons to judge what the present Company could or should have done when their Trade was so broke in upon by Interlopers Should they have broke up themselves and traded as private Persons That had been infallibly to have lost the Trade to the Nation Should they have continued their Trade in a Joynt Stock and permitted all Freedom to the Interlopers That had been as certain to have ruined themselves first and let the Trade be utterly lost in time Or Should they as some do alledge have got their Charter to have been confirmed by Act of Parliament That it must be confessed had been as happy for them as it was earnestly desired by them But those who shall seriously consider the temper of the Princes of the two last Reigns how tender they were upon all the points of their Prerogative must withal acknowledge that such an attempt in them would have been to have attempted that which was next door to an impossibility Should they have first addressed themselves to the King for such an Act of Confirmation they would have been rejected with indignation scorn and contempt as calling in question the validity of that Power derived from their Prerogative by which they had enjoyed the Trade all along since its first establishment Should they have petitioned the Parliament that then was for an Act to establish it For that being to pass the Royal Assent would in all Mens Judgment should such an Act have passed both Houses have been there rejected and either of the late Kings so far exasperated against the Company by an attempt of that Nature in diminution of their Prerogative that the least which could have been expected had been a Quo Warranto upon their backs to an utter dissolution of them So that upon the whole matter the present Company were put upon this Dilemma either to relinguish the Trade to the Interlopers and trade as private Persons which had been as before hinted to ruine themselves first and lose the Trade to the Nation in time Or to continue the Trade in a Joynt Stock exclusive to Interlopers upon and under the same Powers they then had as that Trade had been carryed on ever since its first establishment Which they doing How can it reasonably be fixed upon them that they were therefore Criminal or any wayes deserve those black aspersions which are now cast upon them for so doing Which is all shall be said to this last part of the first Objection That they had acted upon the Powers in their Charter which as some are pleased to say are not legal as not confirmed by Act of Parliament The next Objection against the present Company by which they are endeavoured to be rendred vile and odious is that they are in a Bankrupt Condition An Imaginary Fund a Nominal Stock not having any Estate or real Stock And to fortifie this Calumny they have been pleased to take the pains to draw up the form of an account wherein besides vast Sums left in Blank They have therein made the present Company to be 900000 l. worse than nothing A most excellent attempt and sutable it is confessed to the confidence of the Undertaker To enter upon the examination of any of the particulars therein contained would seem as ridiculous as their attempt of exposing them Since no Man that understands any Dealing in the World but understandeth withal that at that rate it is an easie matter to make any either Community or Private Persons Bankrupt at their pleasure Sufficient it is that the present Company are not only willing but able to pay their own just Debts without being liable to satisfie the capricious Demands of every idle Brain Nor can any
A MODEST and JUST APOLOGY FOR OR DEFENCE OF THE PRESENT East-India-Company AGAINST THE ACCUSATIONS OF THEIR ADVERSARIES Wherein the CRIMES alledged against them are fairly Examined The CALUMNY's Confuted and all submitted to the Judgment of Impartial and Unprejudiced PERSONS LONDON Printed Anno Domini MDCXC To the READER THIS Apology was drawn up some little time before the last Prorogation of the late Parliament though upon some Reasons forborn to be publisht which I thought it necessary to give you notice of lest finding some Passages therein adapted to that time you may think them something improper as to the present You will not find in this any particular notice taken of any of those many Papers by their Enemies published abroad to defame them except the Preamble of their own Subscriptions which indeed was industriously avoided They being so filled with scurrilous Language and opprobrious Expressions that they deserve no Answer What hath been here endeavoured is to relate matter of Fact truly leaving you to make the Inference which I have not willingly falsified in any one particular If any such should be I do declare it hath bin through inadvertency and not designedly The whole is submitted to the censure of the unprejudiced Person which being fairly and impartially considered together with the Circumstances attending those several Actions here discoursed of I doubt not but the supposed Monster will not now appear so black and ugly as he hath bin of late depainted It is possible That these Papers may meet with a Reply For I cannot expect they will satisfie every one But if such be their fate If the said Reply be managed with Candour and Ingenuity they shall have from me a fair acknowledgment of my Error where it is so or a fair Rejoynder where it is otherwayes But if it be filled with such scurrilous Language as those Papers have bin which of late have bin exposed to the Publick against them Let the matter be what it will It shall receive no other Answer from me than the rest have done viz. Contempt and Silence Farewel N. T. A Modest and Just Apology for or Defence of the present East-India-Company c. WHAT great and indefatigable industry hath bin imployed What Arts and Devices made use of to blast the Reputation of the present East-India-Company is notoriously evident to all who either give themselves the trouble of listning to those Calumnies dayly inculcated in all noted Coffee-Houses against them or to the reading of those Prints exposed publickly and delivered gratis in the said Coffee-Houses to all such as will but accept them Wherein the said Company are not only set forth to be Bankrupts as to their present Condition but represented as vile and odious as Malice it self can invent or a Pen dipt in the very gall of Asps can depaint so that it may justly seem necessary that at this time a just and modest Vindication of them and their present Condition from the said Aspertions should be published and the rather since their Enemies have endeavoured of late to impose not only upon the unthinking Vulgar but upon the Members of the Honourable House of Commons by putting Papers into their hands wherein besides the scurrility of the Language sutable to the Authors there are many things notoriously untrue nay they have presumed so far upon the whole Body of the Legislative Power of the Nation King Lords and Commons as to declare to them in the preamble to their new Subscriptions by them now Printed and Published the very terms of an Act of Parliament to be by them passed without which their Subscriptions are ipso facto void and no wayes obliging and withal are become so confident as to publish to the World their Assurance that an Act shall pass in such terms as they have there prescribed which withal submission is left to a just censure It is now confessed almost by all even the very Enemies of the present Company That the East-India Trade is of a great National advantage That for the making of it more advantagious it must be carried on in a Joynt Stock That that Stock must be in a Company exclusive to all Interlopers That a Joynt Stock and Interlopers are things inconsistent That such a Company must necessarily be invested with Powers sufficient to govern their respective Residences abroad and carry on their Trade So that these things being sufficiently evident to common sense and now by almost all in general acknowledged it will be needless to bring any Arguments for the proof of them by which means the business of this present Paper will be much contracted and applyed only to undeceive the World in some of those Calumnies by which the Enemies of the present Company have endeavoured to blacken them and render them most obnoxious to the Publick Wherein I shall be as concise as possible I can without so much as in the least taking notice in particular of that scurrilous Language and opprobious Expressions they are pleased to cast upon them The first Objection then that presents it self to Consideration and which hath created them so many Enemies is That the said Company have at several times given disturbance to those Persons who traded into the places of their Priviledge and were not free of the said Company and are therefore stiled Interlopers and that by stopping their Ships and Goods and by other ways and means to the hindrance of their Trade To this it is answered That the Premises before laid down fairly considered and which are now in a manner universally acknowledged viz. That the Trade of India to render it Nationally advantagious must be carryed on in a Joynt Stock That the said Trade in this Nation hath been so carried on all along in a Joynt Stock exclusive to all others not free of the said Company by vertue of and under the Power of the Charters of the several Princes of this Realm ever since the Trade was first established That a Joynt Stock and Interloping are wholly inconsistent And that the present Company had the same Trade wholly and entirely granted to them equally with their Predecessors from the lawful and undoubted Soveraigns of this Realm I say these things fairly and impartially considered It will appear no more injustice in this present Company to put all stops and Inconveniences they could upon all Persons not free of the said Company attempting to break in upon them by trading into the parts of their Priviledge so granted to them as aforesaid than it would be in a private Person to defend himself from the attempts of those who would wrong him in his Person or Estate and by force endeavour to wrest him out of the Possession of his Freehold Nay it may truly and rationally be affirmed That had not the Managers of the said Stock exerted all the Powers granted them in their Charters to the keeping out of all unfree Persons from breaking into their Trade they had been unfaithful to the Trust
for the obtaining of a Peace and yet at the same time by publishing to the World in the Preamble to their new Subscriptions that the Company should be obliged by Act of Parliament to purchase a Peace have done as much as in them lyeth to render it next door to an impossibility ever to obtain it which will come to be consider'd amongst those Observations which shall be made upon some of the particulars of the said Preamble And this is what at present I think sufficient to answer to that Calumny so industriously spread abroad by the Enemies of the present Company that They did begin the War in India not out of necessity but capriciously and have and do continue it wilfully Having thus as briefly as I well could answered the main and most plausible Objections against the present East-India Company by which their Adversaries endeavoured to render them so odious to the World It may not be amiss in the close of this Discourse to consider a little the Preamble to their new Subscription by them lately Printed and Published Not to enlarge upon the boldness of the Attempt in General which hath been hinted at already As for them to Erect as it were a new Company before ever the matter was come into either of the Two Houses of Parliament Or That any of them had voted There should be one And Not only so but to take upon them to dictate to the whole Legislative Power of England King Lord and Commons the very terms of an Act to be by them passed or else their Subscriptions signifie nothing Which is as much as to say If we may have a new Company upon our own Terms we will but if not we will have none And that which is yet a further degree of presumption they do publish to the World That they have received assurance That such an Act shall be passed even before the things are come into the House of Commons by a report from their own Committee To come to the Preamble it self Wherein may be taken notice of the disingenuity of the Preface and the unreasonableness of the Terms by them prescribed to the Parliament For should the Parliament comply with the Terms by them proposed or prescribed rather It would be so far from promoting the Peace they seem so much to desire as that it would infallibly obstruct it In the Preface they are pleased to say That the Committee of the Honourable House of Commons did declare their Opinion That the best way of managing the East-India Trade is by a new Company with a new Joynt Stock to be Established by Act of Parliament And it is so for Truth but it is not the whole Truth For they most disingeniously leave out the latter part of the said Vote which is That the present Company be continued exclusive to Interlopers and all Permissive Ships until the said Act of Parliament be passed as not for their Turn and wholly inconsistent with their present Undertaking for it being in Terminis that the present Company should be continued until the said Act of Parliament was passed it doth wholly exclude the Erecting of a New Company until that be done And what is the publishing their Preamble consisting amongst other things of the Term of their present Constitution and future Government of their new Company and appointing when and how their Governour and Committees should be Elected their subscribing several Sums of Moneys and appointing when and how their Subscriptions should be paid in and propounding Interest to such as shall timely pay in their Money I say What is all this but as much as in them lieth the Erecting a new Company during the continuance of the Old and consequently contrary to the Vote of the said Committees so that in stead of waiting the Issue of the Parliaments Determination They by way of prevention Erect their New Company to the destruction of the Old which is quite contrary to the sense of the Vote of the Honourable House of Commons The Vnreasonableness if not Injustice of their Terms hereby appear in that they do require the Parliament to oblige by an Act the present Company to make good the demands of the Subjects of the great Mogul and King of Syam before it be so much as enquir'd into much less known of what Nature the said demands are whether for Debts contracted for Goods bought or Goods taken by the Company Flagrante Bello by way of Reprisal for the Goods of the Company by them seized in the Companies Factories But taking it for granted without any Examination of matter of Fact that this present Company have bin the Agressors they would have by Act of Parliament the Company be obliged to make good whatever the Subjects of either of these two Princes should demand If they do reply they do limit it to Debts and Demands that are just In that case I would desire to be informed Who should adjust the Account Should the Subjects of the Great Mogul and King of Syam it may be presumed That they would demand enough especially knowing before hand as without doubt they would be well inform'd that the Company are under an Obligation by Act of Parliament to comply with their Demands Or should the present Company adjust the Account that on the other hand would be thought to be done partially for themselves Or Should the Account be stated and adjusted by Commissioners chosen respectively by the said Princes and the Company How can that well be when there is no room left for such an indifferent adjustment that Act being once passed For how can it be supposed there can be an equitable Arbitrament where the one Party is at liberty to demand what they please and the other Party previously bound up to comply with their Demands Or Should the New Company depute Persons to adjust the said Demands it may reasonably be supposed in that case That those who without cause have so industriously endeavoured the ruin of the present Company in a matter of that Nature will not be very favourable to their just Interest Nor is it less unjust That they fix the Dammage if any such should be due from the Company as they do to be made good by the Persons and out of the Estate of the Managers thereof Whereas It is well known to every one that knoweth any thing of the Company that the Company being a Joynt Stock and the Court of Committees who are the Managers thereof being generally many of them as much if not more concerned in the Joynt Stock than others are annually chosen by the Generalty and by them intrusted with the management thereof are not lyable either in Law or Equity in their own Persons and Estates to any Action for any thing done by them in the management of that their Trust For if they were it is not reasonable to be supposed that any one would take upon him such an Employment where the Hazzard of any Miscarriage should be his and
reposed in them by the Generality and Betrayers of the Interest both of themselves and of the Nation For whatever Company for the future may or shall be established if the Wisdom of the Nation shall think sit to make any Alteration unless they have Powers granted and Liberty as occasion shall offer to exert them to keep out Interlopers and secure the Trade intirely to the Joynt Stock they can never preserve that Trade to themselves or the Nation And since it is now almost generally confessed and is most certainly true That if the Wisdom of the Nation shall think fit to establish this or any other Company by Act of Parliament If they will inable them to carry on the said Trade to a National advantage they musT grant them the same if not an increase of that Power which the present East-India-Company have granted to them by their Charter Wherein then is the great Crime which the present Company is guilty off And hath created them so many bitter and implacable Enemies In stopping Interlopers Ships and giving them what disturbance they could in their Trade since either there must be no Company and Joynt Stock or all Interloping must be excluded All Mankind being agreed that both can't consist at the same time To this I presume it will be answer'd That the thing in it self for a Company establisht in a Joynt Stock to obstruct all others may not be criminal because necessary and rational But that this present Company have either exceeded the Powers granted to them in their Charters Or if they have not exceeded them Their Charters themselves are not agreeable to Law and so they are criminal in acting by an unlawful Power I shall therefore now fairly consider how far the present Company is criminal in either of these two respects For the first of these That the present Company have exceeded the Powers granted to them by their Charters It is wholly denyed by them That they have at any time exceeded the Powers given them therein by any of their Actions here at home Or by any Orders given by them to their Servants abroad And this being matter of fact must rest upon the proof of the Complainants and that being to be in particulars as is alwayes in cases of matter of fact The charge will then appear either to be true or false when the matter of the Complaint being first fully proved and the Powers granted to the said Company being likewise fully examined and both compared together Then I say it will be clearly seen and not before Whether the present Company have exceeded the Powers therein granted which is the first Objection But it being the business of this Apology to be as concise as may be there is no room left to enter upon Particulars Only by the way it may seem to incline any rational Man to believe that they themselves are very doubtful of the Truth of it when upon their Complaints which they make so much noise about they fly to other places for Remedies and not to the Courts of Judicature which are alwayes open to receive all just Complaints and the Company as lyable to be fued in those Courts as any private Person But if it should be granted that the Companies Agents abroad may have in some particular Cases varied from or exceeded their Instructions from hence and thereby some particular Persons have been agrieved Are the Company here therefore guilty of those Exceedings Especially since it hath been their constant practice that if any Persons come from thence who find themselves agrieved by such irregular Proceedings made in India upon their Complaint made to the Company here They do order the said matter to be re-examined and heard by some of their Members here and if their Complaints be just never fail to give the injured Person satisfaction as may be instanced in many particulars And it is irrational to affirm that any Person can be rendred Criminal by the Transactions of his Agents abroad unless done upon his Order for though in some particular Cases as they may be circumstantiated he may be lyable to make satisfaction for Injuries done by his Agent abroad yet Criminal no Man can ever be said to be but from Actions done by himself or by his Order To this it may be believed Divers Persons will reply What! Is it denyed that the Company have exceeded the Powers granted them in their Charters How cometh it then to pass That the Right Honourable the House of Commons have declared that their Proceedings at St. Helena were illegal c. For answer to which It must first be declared That it is not the business of this Paper nor the intention of the Author of it to dispute much less to determine the legality or illegality of their Charter in general or any separate Clauses of it in particular That being premised this is certain that they had Martial Law granted them in their Charter and as certain that their Predecessors had from time to time several Commissions of that Nature particularly in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James the First the Originals of which lye yet by them That they had in that very affair the particular Commission and Orders from His then Majesty so that in that affair how culpable soever to some they may seem to be It was their Charter which had once been judicially affirmed in Westminster-Hall warranted by a particular Commission from their then Soveraign as to that affair that led them into the Error Nor did nor well could they know until the House of Commons had declared it that such proceedings were illegal since their present Charter and the then Kings particular Commission and the Customs and Usages of their Predecessors sufficiently attested by several Original Commissions of Martial Law lying by them seemed to warrant them So that though their proceedings therein should not be strictly justifiable yet are they fairly excusable because led into the Error ignorantly And that upon such grounds as are before mentioned and they being Merchants and not Lawyers the Illegality of it was by them not easily to be discerned And this fairly bringeth me to the Consideration of the next particular in this Objection which is To consider how far this Company can be accounted Criminals by Acting under the Powers of their present Charters which some are pleased to affirm are not legal because not made or confirmed by Act of Parliament And here as before Be it far from me to dispute much less determine the Legality or Illegality of their Charters in general or any branches of it in particular that being a point beyond the intentions of this Discourse and no ways as is conceived fit to be handled by a private Person But how this present East-India-Company over and above all Companies whatsoever should be esteemed Criminal by acting by the same Powers and under the same Authority that all other Companies do One only which is the Russia Company being
one be said to be in a Bankrupt Condition who neither hideth his Head nor refuseth Payments of his Just Debts when due neither of which is done by the present Company How far their Enemies have prevailed to render them if possible what they would fain have them and give them out to be may appear by the Companies having been required to give a true state of their Stock by delivering in a perfect Account of their Moneys Goods and Debts both here and in India as they now stand in their Books A thing justly questionable Whether ever before demanded of either private Person or Commonalty Since exposing themselves and their whole concern to so publick a view must certainly have broke them had they not had a valuable and real Stock to have subsisted upon Notwithstanding which the Company did humbly submit to that Command and in Obedience to it did present to the Honourable Committee of Parliament a Faithful Just and True account of the same and perfect so far as their Books did enable them And to make their candidness therein appear For the Justification of the said Accompt did humbly submit the inspection of their Books in order to the Valuation of their Stock to such Committee as the Honourable the House of Commons should appoint and their last Advices from India to the Honourable the Chairman of the said Committee or to such two or three of them as the Committee should appoint not thinking it reasonable that their whole concerns should be exposed to the publick view whereby their inveterate Enemies would likewise have come to the knowledge of them And that not without reason since a Copy of that very individual Account which was by the Company presented to the Honourable House of Commons was immediately by some of their Adversaries sent into Holland for them to make such advantages of it to the prejudice of the Company as they should think fit as may appear by a Transcript of it return'd to some Jews here with a desire to be inform'd by them Whether that Transcript agreed with the Account devered in by the Company So that what uses they would have made of such an advantage is easily judged by those who shall consider what they have done without it But to close this Subject which is so apparent a Calumny that it may rationally be supposed they themselves do not believe what they do so industriously insinuate into the belief of others For whenever was any Man envied that was worse than nothing Or to what purpose is the dissolution of the present Company so earnestly desired by them if they are worse than nothing and are not able to carry on their Trade For if that be true they will quickly dissolve in course nor will their Credit be able long to support them without there be a real and substantial Stock left to found it upon That having been as much blasted as the Wit or Malice of Men could invent Divers other publick Funds have failed The Exchequer that hath been stopped The Chamber of London that hath not been able to comply The most noted Bankers have turned Bankrupt and some other Companies there are which shall be here nameless whose Debts are now of a long standing and are not yet satisfied But where is the Person that ever lent Monies to this East-India-Company which have not been satisfied both their Principal and Interest their greatest Enemies cannot instance in any one single Person And shall those who have so faithfully and readily complyed with all their Engagements be now upon the bare affirmation of their Enemies esteemed Bankrupt until they are guilty of some Action that may truly render them such No no! It is not their Poverty but their supposed Wealth that hath created them so many Enemies amongst which more ungrateful they are some who have been Servants under them and have taken the Oath of a Freeman of the said Company or purely raised by them True it is upon what Stock hath been continued there for divers years or those Persons who have had the good Fortune to sell themselves out when the Actions were very high amongst which are some of their now greatest Enemies Those it is confessed have made considerable advantage by it But as for many if not most of the present Adventurers who came in when the Stock was sold very high they will be so far from deserving Envy that they will rather deserve Pity amongst which are many Widows and Orphans in as much as they will be most certainly great sufferers by a Dissolution Notwithstanding which the present Company have not presumed like their Adversaries to dictate to the Legislative Power of the Nation the very terms of the Act to be by them passed But as in Duty bound in their Petition lodg'd with the Chairman of the Committee in order to be presented to the Honourable House of Commons did submit themselves and their Concerns to the Justice and Wisdom of the Parliament Another Aspersion which is cast upon the present Company and urged by their Adversaries as an Argument for their dissolution is That its present Constitution is not sufficiently National To which is answered That what is free for every Man to come into cannot be said to be limited It is well known that by the present Constitution no Man is debarred coming into it either Englishman or Stranger It is likewise well known That there is every day Stock to be bought on the Exchange and that much cheaper if Truth may be the Judge then it is really worth so that no Man but may when he pleaseth come into the Company and have what share in the Trade he pleaseth so far as he is able to purchase And what greater extent can any new Company to be Erected have than this where no Man is debarred But whereas they further Object That the present Stock is not sufficient to carry on so great a Trade as those Places comprized within their Priviledge will bear It is answered Suppose that to be true which is not granted yet that defect may be supplyed otherwise than by a dissolution even by an enlargement of Stock in a new additional Subscription to such an increase as the Wisdom of the Nation shall think fit Nor need they fear to graft their new Subscription upon the present Stock notwithstanding those Twelve Reasons instanced in their late scurrilous Paper which had they been penned without such opprobrious Expressions should have received an Answer but being such as they are put out not to convince others but to blast the Company they deserve none For in truth Whatever the Adversaries of the present Company do or may exclaim to the contrary their present Stock is really worth more than it was then valued at and will and must appear so when Persons indifferently chosen on both sides shall examine it in order to the adjusting of its Valuation But if it be further alledged that there are many of the Constitutions