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<DATE>2012-07-26</DATE>
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<NAME>Colm MacCrossan</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch Z120610.apex.</ITEM>
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<STC T="C">R233609</STC>
<BIBNO T="oclc">51617702</BIBNO>
<VID>175191</VID>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<HEAD>COMPANIES IN JOYNT-STOCK Unnece&s;&s;ary and Inconvenient: Free Trade to INDIA IN <HI>A Regulated Company,</HI> The INTEREST of <HI>ENGLAND.</HI></HEAD>
<HEAD TYPE="sub"><HI>Di&s;cours'd in a</HI> LETTER <HI>to a</HI> FRIEND.</HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>IN Obedience to your Commands I &s;hall here give you my Opinion as to Trade managed in Joynt-Stocks, and particularly that to <HI>India.</HI></P>
<P>All Joynt-Stocks in Trade are in them&s;elves a Monopoly, though &s;ome are more exten&s;ive than others, as taking in more Per&s;ons at the fir&s;t Con&s;tituti|on, but they come in Time, by Purcha&s;e or otherwi&s;e into few Hands, as is that of the pre&s;ent <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> Company, the <HI>Affrican</HI> Company; and the &s;ame may be &s;aid of the <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> Company of <HI>Holland.</HI> The <HI>Jews</HI> and a few of the <HI>States,</HI> and other rich Men having the large&s;t Share of that Stock, which to my Knowledge for that and other Rea&s;ons, is there accounted a Grievance. All Trade ought to be Free and under no Con&s;traint, this being every Subjects Natural Right; Joynt-Stocks and other Limitations of Trade, tend chiefly to the enriching of a few, in prejudice to the general Good of a Nation, Subjecting it to a double Tax. For &s;uch Monopoli&s;ts buy the native Growths and Manufactures cheap at Home, and &s;ell the Foreign, which they Import Dear to the Subject; which Practice in both kinds can be prov'd upon the Pre&s;ent <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> and <HI>Affrican</HI> Companies, and I am inclin'd to believe, that the late rai&s;ing Pepper in <HI>England</HI> &s;old formerly at Six Pence and Seven Pence <HI>per</HI> Pound, to Sixteen Pence <HI>per</HI> Pound, may have been a Contrivance between &s;ome great Men concern'd in the <HI>Dutch Ea&s;t-India</HI> Company, and others of ours here, which &s;ame Practice I doubt not was us'd to rai&s;e Callicoes and other <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> Goods &s;old in <HI>Holland,</HI> and here at this time for double and mo&s;t of them treble the u&s;ual and former Prizes, and &s;o in many other particulars may Joynt-Stocks be prov'd to be a Tax upon the People, whereas a Free Market for Buying and Selling would exempt them from it.</P>
<P>This, <HI>Sir,</HI> is &s;ufficient to let you know that Joynt-Stocks in Trade, are a National Evil, and that however they may have been u&s;eful in the Infancy of Forreign Trade, and permitted in pro&s;pect of a future National Benefit: Yet at this time when we
<PB N="2" REF="2"> of this Kingdome are arrived at the utmo&s;t Degree of Experience in Commerce with all Countreys, even the mo&s;t di&s;tant, and that our Mariners are the mo&s;t expert in the Univer&s;e, and we having Stock enough to carry on, as well as to increa&s;e our Trade and Navigation; I cannot &s;ee any Rea&s;on why the Subject &s;hould be clog'd by Joynt-Stocks, to the general Damage of the Nation, as I have before made evident.</P>
<P>Having given my Thoughts of Joynt-Stocks as Combinations and Monopolies in general, I &s;hall now con&s;ider them in relation to the future Management of the Trade to <HI>India,</HI> which I &s;hould be glad could be left free to all, as mo&s;t Trades in <HI>Europe</HI> are, but few, allowing that to be fea&s;ible, I &s;hall endeavour to demon&s;trate (&s;ince a Joynt-Stock hath and will always have &s;uch ill Con&s;equences) that this Trade as that to <HI>Turkey</HI> and others, may be manag'd by a regulated Company, whereby all the Mi&s;chiefs of a Joynt-Stock will be remov'd, and very great Advantages accrue to the Publick; And the better to explain my &s;elf, I will lay before you what I have met with in favour of a Joynt-Stock again&s;t a Company regulating a free Trade to <HI>In|dia,</HI> with my An&s;wers to them.</P>
<DIV2 N="1" TYPE="question">
<HEAD>Que&s;tion I. <HI>Under a Regulation how can the Forts and I&s;lands of St.</HI> Helena <HI>and</HI> Bom|bay, <HI>Fort St.</HI> George <HI>and</HI> Bencoelen <HI>now in the Companies Po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion be paid for and after|terwards maintained?</HI></HEAD>
<P><HI>An&s;wer</HI> I. A regulated Company mu&s;t have Power to make Levies on Ships that go to <HI>India</HI> either here or there, to rai&s;e Money for Freedoms, and if Occa&s;ion be, by Loans at Intere&s;t or <HI>Gratis,</HI> of all that will be of the Company, &s;ufficient for the purcha&s;ing the pre&s;ent Companies dead Stock, as Amunition, &amp;c. according to an equitable Valuation by indifferent Men cho&s;en on both &s;ides; and for the future &s;up|port of their ordinary and extraordinary Charge, even as the <HI>Turkey</HI> Company do for the Maintaining an Emba&s;&s;adour at the <HI>Ottoman</HI> Court, Con&s;uls, Mini&s;ters and other Officers at their &s;everal Ports of Trade there, as well as at home; which together with Pre&s;ents made frequently to the <HI>Grand Signi<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="1 letter">r</HI> and his Mini&s;ters, amounts yearly to a great many Thou&s;and Pounds, and as much as perhaps would bear the needful Charge in <HI>India;</HI> for in reality Fort St. <HI>George</HI> and <HI>Bombay</HI> are of little or no u&s;e to the Compa|ny or Trade of <HI>India,</HI> and a great many think they had better quitt them, as the <HI>Dutch</HI> have lately <HI>Policat,</HI> a &s;trong Place near Fort St. <HI>George,</HI> and the only Fort they had any where in all the <HI>Mogul</HI>'s Dominions, not thinking it worth their Charge to keep it. For while they are in Peace they will be protected by the <HI>Mogul</HI> in his Coun|try, and if they &s;hould again return to the Folly of Warring with that Prince, they cannot defend or keep them again&s;t one of the greate&s;t Monarchs in the World.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="2" TYPE="question">
<HEAD>Que&s;t. II. <HI>What Security can be had of tho&s;e People in India when you tru&s;t them with your Money for making Inve&s;tments.</HI></HEAD>
<P><HI>An&s;w.</HI> II. The &s;ame &s;ecurity as the pre&s;ent Company have, the Hone&s;ty of the Peo|ple and the Protection of the Government; for the Company tru&s;ted mo&s;t, and their greate&s;t Inve&s;tments were made where they had no Forts, as at all the &s;ubordinate Fa|ctories on the Coa&s;t of <HI>Cormandell,</HI> in <HI>Bengall,</HI> and at <HI>Surat,</HI> and the Factories under that Pre&s;idency, and though great Sums have been tru&s;ted to tho&s;e People, yet there is no Example of their having Committed any Violence upon our Per&s;ons or E&s;tates, but we have had always Ju&s;tice done us, and better Treatment then from <HI>European</HI> Govern|ments, and in <HI>Turkey</HI> great Sums upon meer Pretences have been extorted from that Company by Tyrannical <HI>Ba&s;haws, Cadies,</HI> and other Officers Civil and Military.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="3" TYPE="question">
<HEAD>Que&s;t. III. <HI>Will it not be a means to ruine the Trade and le&s;&s;en the Exportation of our Ma|nufactures and Growths?</HI></HEAD>
<P><HI>An&s;w.</HI> III. It's evident the Merchants of <HI>England</HI> are greatly inclin'd in all their Commerce to export our own Manufactures, and vend them at rea&s;onable Advance, as to <HI>Turkey</HI> under that regulated Company, &s;o much Cloth is annually carried as can po&s;&s;ibly be there di&s;po&s;ed of, and in time of Peace e&s;pecially, it hath been &s;old &s;o cheap, that we have almo&s;t excluded from that Trade, the <HI>French</HI> and <HI>Dutch,</HI> and the &s;ame upon a Regulation will be done in <HI>India,</HI> much better than by a Joynt-Stock: For particulars can and will be obliged to fell for little Profit, and the pre&s;ent <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> Company as an Excu&s;e for their having lately permitted <HI>Armenians</HI> and other particu|lar Merchants to Export to <HI>India</HI> our Manufactures paying them 12 <HI>per Cent.</HI> for the Licen&s;e. alledg'd it was for the improving that Trade.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="4" TYPE="question">
<HEAD>Que&s;t. IV. <HI>Will not the Natives rai&s;e the Price of their Goods, and lower the Price of ours?</HI></HEAD>
<P><HI>An&s;w.</HI> IV. This Argument may as well be urged to have the Trade to every parti|cular Country in the World in Joynt-Stocks; but Traffick mu&s;t have its natural cour&s;e, &s;ometime the People of tho&s;e Places where we have a Trade &s;ell us their Commodi|ties
<PB N="3" REF="2" MS="y"> Dear, and buy ours of us Cheap, according to the Quantities of Goods to be Purchas'd of, and Sold to them; at another time, when a good Market hath made them provide largely of tho&s;e &s;orts of Goods, and le&s;s Demand is for them, then we Buy Cheap, and carrying fewer of our Commodities, we Sell the Dearer: So Dear Goods beget Cheap, and Cheap beget Dear, every Man in this as all other Trades, will take care of his own Intere&s;t and u&s;e his utmo&s;t Skill, and make Provi&s;ion of Stock in the Country to Buy his Goods, and give out his Money in the interval of Ship|ping, to be returned him by the next, as is practi&s;ed in <HI>Turkey,</HI> and mo&s;t other Foreign Trades, and particularly to the <HI>Spani&s;h</HI> and <HI>Portugal American</HI> Plantations, whereby the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Trading in their Ships are two and often three Years out of their Money; however the cheaper we Sell our Manufactures and Growths, the more we &s;hall intro|duce the Expence of them and prevent our Neighbours in their Competition with us.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="5" TYPE="question">
<HEAD>Que&s;t. V. <HI>How will you maintain the Pepper Trade on</HI> Sumatra <HI>and North Coa&s;t of</HI> India <HI>and</HI> Malabar.</HEAD>
<P><HI>An&s;w.</HI> V. It's true the Company have a &s;mall Fort at <HI>Bencoelen</HI> which may as well be maintain'd by a regulated Company (as hath been already prov'd) as by a Joynt-Stock; but the Place is &s;o very unhealthful, and kills &s;o many of our Sea-men and of the &s;mall Garri&s;on and Factory that re&s;ide there, that I believe it hath not, nor ever will countervail this Lo&s;s, nor the Expence of keeping it; e&s;pecially &s;ince va&s;t Quan|tities of Pepper may be procured on the North Coa&s;t of <HI>India</HI> and <HI>Malabar,</HI> where the pre&s;ent <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> Company have no Forts; but Factories may be &s;ettled there, and there is no rea&s;on to believe that the <HI>Raja's</HI> or Princes of tho&s;e Countreys will give better Treatment to a Joynt-Stock Company than to a regulated one, which will much more encrea&s;e Trade in their Countries.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="6" TYPE="question">
<HEAD>Que&s;t. VI. <HI>How will you &s;upport the Trade to</HI> India, <HI>if the</HI> Dutch <HI>or any others &s;hould at|tempt by force or fraud to out you of it, or defend it in Ca&s;e of a War with them, or any other</HI> European?</HEAD>
<P><HI>An&s;w.</HI> VI. The pre&s;ent Company have &s;adly experienced, that making War is a very chargeable and pernicious way of Righting them&s;elves in <HI>India,</HI> becau&s;e of the great di&s;tance of place; and for any Injury that may be done us there, by the <HI>Dutch,</HI> or other <HI>Europeans,</HI> &s;atisfaction mu&s;t be obtained at home; and 'tis to be pre&s;umed, that our Government will be always as ready to &s;upport the Subject, and obtain Repa|ration in the Ca&s;e of a Regulated Company, (which is more National, and will very much add to its Revenues) as of a Joynt-Stock, which will always have the &s;ame need of it, or any other of our Trades; and in War there may be Convoys, as to <HI>America,</HI> and other remote Countries, or we may &s;end out Ships of Force only, which may go out, and return home in Fleets, as the Regulated Company &s;hall direct, and as the <HI>Turkey</HI> Company practi&s;e, when in the General Meetings of all the Traders, they appoint what Number of Ships, and of what Force &s;hall unite and proceed to the &s;everal Ports of <HI>Turkey.</HI></P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="7" TYPE="question">
<HEAD>Que&s;t. VII. <HI>Will it not be very difficult to keep in good order, and govern the &s;everal Facto|ries, and Merchants that &s;hall re&s;ide in</HI> India?</HEAD>
<P><HI>An&s;w.</HI> VII. Every Factory may have Con&s;uls, with Powers given them, by Virtue of a Legal Authority to govern their re&s;pective Factories, and be always an&s;werable to the Regulated Company, for their well or ill Admini&s;tration; be&s;ides, it will be very u&s;eful to maintain an Emba&s;&s;ador at the <HI>Mogul</HI>'s Court, by which Methods the <HI>Turkey</HI> Company have govern'd their &s;everal Factories with great Oeconomy.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="8" TYPE="question">
<HEAD>Que&s;t. VIII. <HI>Will not Interlopers go out from, and return to other Countries in</HI> Europe, <HI>and &s;o avoid tho&s;e Impo&s;itions that a Regulated Company must nece&s;&s;arily lay on all Ships and Goods for their &s;upport?</HI></HEAD>
<P><HI>An&s;w.</HI> VIII. When all that will may be free of the Company, and upon very ea&s;ie Terms may Trade with what Stock they plea&s;e to all parts of <HI>India,</HI> it will not be worth any body's while to attempt Interloping; and as great Powers may be given to a Re|gulated Company, as any other, to prevent it; and indeed &s;uch an Authority may be much &s;afer given into their hands than to a Joynt-Stock.</P>
</DIV2>
<DIV2 N="9" TYPE="question">
<HEAD>Que&s;t. IX. <HI>The</HI> Dutch <HI>are e&s;teemed the best Judges of Trade, and its Advantages, of any other People, and do not they carry on their Trade to</HI> India <HI>and</HI> Guinea <HI>in Joynt-Stocks.</HI></HEAD>
<P><HI>An&s;w.</HI> IX. The Trade to <HI>India</HI> and <HI>Guinea</HI> in <HI>Holland</HI> had both of them their Origi|nal in the Minority of that State, when they &s;trugled with the mighty Power of <HI>Spain,</HI> in a long and bloody War; and the <HI>Spaniards</HI> and <HI>Portugue&s;e,</HI> who were then under the &s;ame Monarch, being Ma&s;ters of the whole Trade of both the <HI>Indies</HI> and <HI>Guinea,</HI> the States, to weaken their Enemies, encourag'd Merchants to &s;end Ships into tho&s;e Seas, by giving them Commi&s;&s;ions of War; and they effectually did it, by taking con&s;ide|rable
<PB N="4" REF="3"> Booties from them, and augmenting their Force, had great &s;ucce&s;s at Sea, and &s;eiz'd on &s;ome of their Fortifications. This brought the Merchants of <HI>Am&s;terdam</HI> to joyn with tho&s;e of other Towns; whereby pro&s;ecuting their Trade, and Privateering &s;everal Years, they became very con&s;iderable; when the States politickly united them farther, that they might yet be more &s;erviceable to annoy their Enemies, and brought the whole Trade and War (for &s;o it was) to both <HI>Indies</HI> and <HI>Guinea,</HI> into Joynt-Stocks, and gave them mighty Priviledges, e&s;pecially to the <HI>East-India</HI> Company, that of pay|ing no Cu&s;toms in or out, which they enjoy to this day, and this was the rea&s;on &s;o long ago, that induced the States to &s;ettle the&s;e two Companies; and not, that they thought it was be&s;t &s;o to do, for the general good of the Trade, or that it could not be as well managed by a Regulation, if their Circum&s;tances had been otherwi&s;e, but as an Engine of War, and Depredation on their Enemies; and the <HI>East-India</HI> Company being thus E&s;tabli&s;ht, as it were by Conque&s;t, and thereby incumbring them&s;elves with a great many Fortre&s;&s;es in the <HI>South Sea</HI> and <HI>Ceylon,</HI> to maintain to them&s;elves the <HI>Spice I&s;lands,</HI> there &s;eems a kind of nece&s;&s;ity upon them, to drive that Trade in a Joynt-Stock; for indeed their E&s;tabli&s;hment in <HI>India</HI> is another Commonwealth, which how&s;oever u&s;eful the States may think it to them, and that becau&s;e many of them are con|cerned in the Stock, they &s;till keep it upon the old Foundation, yet there is nothing more evident, than that this Company make no profits by the Trade, for their Actions ri&s;e and fall every Week, and are now &s;old at about 500 <HI>per Cent,</HI> but whoever buys, or hath for &s;everal Years pa&s;t bought at the&s;e Rates, hardly make 4 <HI>per Cent per Annum</HI> of their Money, for they &s;eldom receive Dividends, and when they do, they are ve|ry &s;mall, and the&s;e &s;u&s;pected and judg'd by mo&s;t to be rather out of their Quick-Stock, than real profit; for they owe, and continually take up va&s;t Sums at Intere&s;t at home as well as all over <HI>India:</HI> So, as I have &s;aid, the Company get nothing by the Trade, whatever advantages the States may imagine they draw from it, and therefore I think we have no cau&s;e to envy them their manner of carrying it on; nor indeed could we imitate them, were it ever &s;o de&s;irable. And this is a certain truth, that from the Year 1653, to 1656, while our Trade to <HI>India</HI> lay open to all, the <HI>Holland East-India</HI> Com|pany &s;unk greatly in their Stock and Credit; for we under-&s;old them in all <HI>East-India</HI> Commodities, and brought home Spice in &s;pight of them, procured at <HI>Maca&s;&s;ar,</HI> and el&s;e-where; which gave them &s;uch apprehen&s;ions of lo&s;ing their Trade, that to pre|vent it (as I have been inform'd by good hands) they employ'd &s;ome Per&s;ons to in|fluence <HI>Oliver Cromwel</HI> to e&s;tabli&s;h this pre&s;ent Joynt-Stock; which he did in 1656, and they gave a Pention to two of the then Committee of 500 <HI>l.</HI> a Year each, to pre|vent our po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ing <HI>Polleron,</HI> or any other of the Spice I&s;lands we had a ju&s;t Claim to.&mdash;wherefore it is not to be wondred, that the <HI>Dutch East-India</HI> Company are at this time &s;o very apprehen&s;ive that we &s;hall lay open the Trade to <HI>India,</HI> &s;ince they will &s;o &s;en&s;ibly feel the effects of it, by our va&s;t Importation and Exportations of all Commodities, and the affording them at &s;o much a cheaper Rate than they can po&s;&s;ibly, be&s;ides all Combinations with Colleagues here to inhance the Prices will be remov'd, as well as the opportunity of Bribing in order to do good Offices.</P>
<P>The &s;ame Con&s;equences happen'd to the <HI>Holland Guinea</HI> or <HI>West-India</HI> Company, in the Year 1660, when we had that Trade al&s;o open, their Stock was then worth but 8 <HI>per Cent.</HI> but no &s;ooner was the Trade to <HI>Guinea</HI> limited here by a Joynt-Stock, but that Company began to flouri&s;h again, and their Actions are now worth 80 <HI>per Cent.</HI> So that what&s;oever rea&s;on the <HI>Dutch</HI> have for the keeping the Trade to the <HI>Indies</HI> and <HI>Guinea</HI> in Joynt-Stocks; the only Monopolies they have it is evident, that it will be infinitely more to the advantage of this Nation to carry them on by Regulated Com|panies; Which will certainly have all the&s;e good effects.</P>
<P>It will increa&s;e the Exportation of our own Manufactures and Growths.</P>
<P>We &s;hall be able to furni&s;h <HI>Europe</HI> with all the Commodities of tho&s;e Countries, much cheaper than any other People, e&s;pecially the <HI>Dutch.</HI></P>
<P>It will add greatly to our Navigation.</P>
<P>The Crown will gain much by the Cu&s;toms.</P>
<P>And it will in every point be of infinite advantage to the Publick, as well as to all Adventurers and Traders, who&s;e Right and Property it is, that the Commerce and Traffick by Sea, be as unlimited and free as the Inland Trade.</P>
<P><HI>All which, I doubt not, Sir, will convince You, and all rea&s;onable, di&s;intere&s;ted Men, That Joynt-Stocks in Trade, and particularly that of</HI> Ea&s;t-India, <HI>are of evil Con|&s;equence to the Kingdom.</HI></P>
<CLOSER><DATE>10 <HI>Octob.</HI> 1691.</DATE></CLOSER>
<PB REF="4" MS="y">
</DIV2>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
</DIV1>
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