A few years later John Nicks was sent there as chief. The appointment suited Mrs. Nicks exactly. She found herself freer from observation and with more opportunities of trading than she had at the Presidency town. Moreover, her husband, being chief, could wink at her irregularities, such as trading and warehousing her goods in the Company's go-downs.
As long as Yale continued in power (1687-1692) very little was openly said, except that she ought to take out a licence. Doubtless there were jealousies, and the remark was not without its sting. Everybody knew that if she had asked for a licence it would have been refused. The directors were already regarding the free traders with suspicion ; and it was becoming more difficult each year that passed for a man to obtain permission to go to India or to purchase a licence to trade. A woman who begged for such a boon could not hope for anything but a curt refusal. Women's rights had not been heard of at that period.
The Dutch, who had settled at Cuddalore before the arrival of the English, showed themselves unfriendly from the very beginning. Their enmity increased to such an extent that the President decided to close the factory. The goods and servants were sent to Connimeer, near Pondicherry. It was in the transference of the Company's stock from one factory to the other that Mrs. Nicks got into trouble.
Her goods were apparently moved with those of the Company, and she thought to claim them on arrival, but herein she was mistaken. There had been for some time past a growing feeling of jealousy on the part of the other merchants in Madras, among whom there was some competition for the inland trade. The freemen considered that she was infringing their rights ; and the Company's servants, whose wives were not imbued with the same
