Extent of their maritime commerce.
They take the lead in the trade with India.
Expedition of Sir Henry Middleton.
The separation of the Dutch provinces from the
crown of Spain had induced their merchants to
seek more distant and more lucrative channels of
employment for their ships, while their superior
information respecting Spanish and Portuguese
affairs gave them a marked advantage over their
English competitors in the valuable trade of the
East. They had now supplanted the Portuguese[1] in
the Moluccas, driven them out of their most valuable
trade with Japan, and become the predominant naval
power in the Indian seas, a power they long
maintained. Finding England, however, a more
stubborn rival, they employed all their influence and
artifices to molest the ships of the Company and
other English traders. Just, in fact, as the Moors
had endeavoured to ruin the Portuguese in the
opinion of the native princes of India, so the Dutch,
having expelled the Portuguese from the chief trade
of the East, now resorted to any expedient, either by
secret intrigue or open force, to drive the English
merchant vessels from the same localities. But the
profits realised in their first expedition had inspired
the London merchants with fresh energy. Having
obtained a new charter (31st of May, 1609) for
fifteen years, the Company set about constructing the
Trades' Increase, of one thousand two hundred tons,
the largest ship hitherto built for the English
merchant service. At her launch, and at that of her
pinnace, of two hundred and fifty tons, bearing the
equally appropriate name of the Peppercorn, the
- ↑ It is likely that the great value of their new trade with the Brazils led the Portuguese to care less for the rich but more distant and dangerous trade with the far East.
