and mismanagement which were brought against the directors and employés induced the House of Commons, re-echoing the feeling out of doors, to send up, in 1692, an address to the Crown requesting the immediate dissolution of the Company, and praying for the incorporation of a new association.
However, it was not until 1698 that the government, being in want of money, resolved to throw the trade of India open to the highest bidder. The existing Company was outbid by another association, whose tender to supply two millions sterling was accepted, and an Act passed embodying it under the name of "The English Company trading to the East Indies," with exclusive possession of the commerce of the East for ever; subject only to the right of the Old Company to continue to trade for three years longer. But the Old Company, having through its treasurer subscribed for and obtained 315,000l. of the loan, became the largest shareholders in the new and rival body. The greatest confusion of conflicting interests consequently ensued. There was the Old Company, trading with its vessels for three years, and at the expiration of that period to be left in legal possession of all its forts and factories in India, besides whatever privileges it had acquired in the East from the native authorities, while, secondly, there was the New Company in the field, but without any Indian possessions whatever, and opposed by a rival body seeking its destruction, and wielding a controling power over its operations. Thirdly, there were a few subscribers to the late loan, who had declined to join the New Company, but who, by the terms of the
