Private traders. original contract with the government, were, nevertheless, entitled to trade each for himself, so long as the two millions remained unpaid; and, lastly, there were such private traders as had cleared out from England previously to the 1st of July, 1698, who had a right, in virtue of a clause in the Act, to carry on their trade till they should think fit to return to England. No fewer than sixty ships were employed by these rival traders; a number far in excess of the requirements of the trade, so that the first effects of the competition were ruinous to all parties concerned.
The 100l. shares of the Old Company fell to 37l.; and their rivals being in no better position tended further to exasperate the two companies, whose animosities divided the whole kingdom into two parties, the Old Company being supported by the Tories, and the New by the Whigs. At the dissolution of Parliament in 1700, each party spent enormous sums to procure the election of their friends, and the nation was in a ferment about the contention between them. At length, in July 1702, a tripartite indenture was executed, wherein Queen Anne, with the Old Company and the New Company jointly concerned, became the contracting parties.[1]
[Footnote:
1 By this important instrument the Old Company, in £
addition to their subscription of 315,000
Agreed to purchase stock at par from the New Company to
the amount of 673,500
-
Making their joint-stock 998,500
Being equivalent to the remaining New Company's stock 998,500
Which, with the stock of the separate traders 23,000
-
Constituted the total united capital of 2,000,000
=========
See further details in 'Charters of East India Company from 1601,' etc. Lon., 4to., 1774.]
