A STREET IN AHMADABAD. CHAPTER VI THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FIKST ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY 1600 English East India Company was essentially J- the child of the Elizabethan age. When the Lon- don merchants met together in Founders' Hall on Sep- tember 22, 1599, with the lord mayor presiding, they had before them three models of Indian trade: the Portuguese royal system, the semi-State pattern of the Dutch, and the English mixed method of armed private commerce, represented in its war aspects by Drake's buccaneering adventures and in its more peaceful devel- opments by the Levant Company. The Portuguese system had been created by a dynasty; it was worked by, and for the benefit of, the crown. Its ships were the king's ships, its cargoes were bought and stowed by the king's people, the purser or financial superintendent of the voyage was nominated by the king's secretary, and the officers were appointed by the Admiralty. Even when the king granted a license to private merchants, as in the case 216
