Chap. VIII.] A NEW EAST INDIA COMPANY. dio
stipulated that the present East India Company should be bound to pay all their a.d. igps. just debts; and should they make dividends after the 2-lth of June, 1698, and before their debts were discharged, not only would the estate of the Company continue liable, but the individual members receiving such dividends would still be held bound in proportion of their shares, and, moreover, be subjected to the penalty of double costs. The stipulation thus inserted stiikingly indicates the general suspicion which now attached to the proceedings of the London Company. Indeed, the language of the legislature evidently implies a doubt, not merely of their ability, but of their willingness to pay. There could not be any good gi'oimd for such a doubt ; and yet it is impossible to deny that during the la.st years of their exclusive monopoly they had done too much to jujstify it.
The members of the General Society, though they had originally offered their xew joint subscrii)tions on condition of being established as a regulated, were soon found lisiiment. to be almost unanimous in favour of a joint-stock company ; and accordingly, on the 5th of September, 1698, the crown, in accordance with the authority given in the act of parliament, granted a charter, incorporating the vast majorit}' of their number as a company or joint stock, under the name of the English Com- pany trading to the East Indies. The leading })rovisions of the deed are almost identical with those embodied in the charters of the old Company, and it is therefore unnecessary here to do more than refer to a few of the special clavises. Though the amount of their subscriptions to the £2,000,000 loan formed their proper capital, they were to have an indefinite power of augmenting their stock — one-tenth of their exports was to consist of British produce and manufactures ; every shareholder to the amount of £500 was to have a vote, and none, however large his share, was to have more than one ; all sales were to be by public auc- tion by inch of candle ; and no lot, except consisting of jewels, was to be of the value of more than £1000; the management was to be intrusted, as fonnerly, to twenty-four individuals, who were to form what was called, not as before, the court of committees, but the " court of directors ;" four general courts were to be held annually. Abroad, the same powers of judicature as had been confeired by previous charters were to be exercised, and some provision was made both for general and religious instruction, by the maintenance of a clia])lain in every ship of 500 tons, and of schoolmasters and ministers in all the principal factories. With regard to ministers, in particular, it was provided that they should be obliged to learn the Portuguese, and "ap])ly themselves to leani the native lan- guage of the country where they shall reside, the better to enable them to instruct the Gentoos that shall be servants or .slaves of the same Company, or of their agents, in the Protestant religion."
The arrangements for the establi.shment of a new East India Company dis- imi-oiitio play little wisdom and foresight. The loan to government constituted the only menu. capital ; but this was alread}' absorbed, and the only fund on wliich the Company could rely for carrying on their trade, was the annual sum of £160,000, payable
