396 AKNALS OF THE HONORABL.E 1643-44. CHAP^ Ip it was necessary, in the preceding year, to refer to the 1643-44. civil war whicTi was threatening the existence of the monarchy. Effect of the . . . i ^ , civil war on and raising its opponents to undefined power, we must, (in the Compa- , ny's equip- order to comc at the circumstances which compelled the Lon- ments and trade. don East-India Company to seek immediate support from a limited subscription of the Adventurers,) refer, also, in 1643-44, to the civil war, which had become general over the three kingdoms, and to the varied success which attended the enter- prizes of the Royalists, and of the forces which assumed the name of those of the Parliament ; that we may bring into notice the embarrassments under which the useful arts and commerce were placed, and assign to the London Company the merit of having still kept up their shackled commerce and navigation, that they might preserve to their country its share, with the other maritime nations of Europe, of a foreign, and (had it been supported) valuable trade to the realm. In November 1643, the East-India Company prepared, vidth the same secrecy and caution, their shipping and stock of money, and merchandize for the outward voyage. Whether the resources for either, were drawn from a part of the stock of the
