Chap. VIII.] A NEW COMPANY PROPOSED. 853
powers luserved in their charter, and to constitute another East India Company a.d. 1002. for the better preserving of the East India trade to this kingdom, in sucli manner as his majesty in his royal wisdom should think fit." To this address, which was ordered to be presented by the whole house, his majesty replied, " Tiiat it was a matter of very great importance to the trade of this kingdom, and that it could not be expected he should give a present answer to it, but that he would take time to consider of it, and in a short time give them his positive answer." The Company having reason to believe that they had more to expect from the king than from the legislature, bound themselves by writing to submit to such regulations as should be made. Accordingly, the committee ^'ew of the privy council, to whom the whole matter had been refen-ed, drew up an proposed elaborate paper, entitled, "Propositions for regulating the Ea.st India Comj)any. ' The propositions, thirty-two in number, while retaining the spirit of the resolu- tions sanctioned by the House of Commons, entered much more into detail, and also made some very important alterations and additions. Instead of accepting them as they had formerly promised, the Company returned what they called the " Humble Answer of the Governor, Deputy-governor, and Court of Com- mittees of the East India Company, to a Paper of Propositions for Regulation of the East India Company."' In this answer the propositions were minutely criticized, and for the most part strenuously objected to. Some of the answers objections are very quaint and ciu-ious. To the second proposition, which wa« — " The comirany. stock of the present Company to be part of the fund" (the proposed fund amounting to at least i.^1, 500,000, and not exceeding <X^2,000,000), "and to be rated at o£'744,000, if they can give security that it shall effectually produce that sum ; or else at so much less, as tiiey will engage to make good after all debts paid, and satisfaction made to the Mogul and his subjects, against whose pre- tensions the new stock to be indemnified by the like security:" — it was answered — " The Company, recommending their righteous Ciiuse to God and his majesty's known and fjimous justice in the whole course of his happy life, say that the value of everything is what it will sell for ; and their stock, under all the cal- umnies and pei"secutions of their adversaries, now currently sells for i?l 50 per Inni- dred ; and they know and can prove it to be intrinsically more worth than that current price ; but they know no law or reason why they should be dispossessed of their estates at any less value than they are really worth in ready money, by all the measures anything is valued in any part of the world. They humbly say as to security, they know no reason why they should give security for their own estates. They affirm that they owe not a penny to the Great Mogul or any of his subjects, other than their running accounts with their own banyans and brokers, which are changing daily, like merchants running csish in a goldsmiths hand. Altiiough the Company owe nothing to the Mogul, as aforesaid, yet the bare mentioning any such thing by a public act of his majesty, would be
enougji to persuade him to invent demands upon the Company for transactions Vol. I. 45
