230 THE FIKST ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY berland, who had built her to prey upon the Spanish trade. This strongly armed cruiser, under her changed name of the Eed Dragon, finally The Dragon, became the flagship of the company. Her refitment was pushed on with vigour, the committee providing a barrel of beer daily for the shipwrights, so that " they leave not their work to run to the alehouse." It soon appeared indeed, that, during its year of silent incubation, the enterprise had altogether out- grown its original scale. A much larger capital would be required for the voyage, and the 30,133 subscribed in September, 1599, had to be more than doubled to 68,373 before the expedition set forth. So great a sum could be raised only by the help of a royal charter wide in scope and continuous in character. The peti- tion of 1599 to the queen for a warrant to fit but ships and to export bullion would not now suffice. It had developed into a scheme for incorporation somewhat on the model of the Levant Company, but with larger powers, a wider area of business, and a longer term of monopoly. On December 31, 1600, Queen Elizabeth granted a charter in this sense, " for the Honour of our Nation, the Wealth of our People," " the Increase of our Nav- igation, and the advancement of lawful Traffick to the benefit of our Common- wealth. " It constituted the petitioners into " one body corporate and politick, in deed and in name, by the name of the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies/' with legal succession, the power to pur-
