30 THE "SEPARATE VOYAGES » OF THE COMPANY to our next fleet. This agreement with the Governor of Surat, in December, 1612, was duly ratified by an imperial Farmdn, or decree, delivered with Oriental pomp to Captain Best at Suwali in January, 1613. From this imperial decree our legal settlement on the Indian continent dates. It marks a new departure ^UtmmBS^M VIEW OF CAMBAT FROM THE SOUTH IN 1772. in the history of the English Company— a new depar- ture which was to end in our withdrawal from the Archipelago and our establishment in India. In the same year (1612 - 1613) the Company at home developed its system of separate voyages into what was known as the system of Joint Stock. By this change it sought to increase its strength so as to join on more equal terms in the contest of the European nations for the Spice Islands. But in its settlement at Surat it had unconsciously provided a retreat for itself to a wider sphere of action, when worsted in that struggle.
