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History of India HISTORY OF INDIA VOLUME - 7 Malabar Hall, Bombay History of India Edited by A. V. Williams Jackson, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Indo-Iranian Languages in Columbia University V olum e 7 – The European S trug g le forIndian S uprem acyin the S ev en teen thC en tury By Sir William Wilson Hunter, K.C.S.I., M.A., LL.D. 1907 Reproduced by Sani H. Panhwar (2018) Introduction by the Editor The story of Indian events in the seventeenth century, so far as they relate to the internal history of the country during the time of the zenith and decline of the Moghul Empire, has already been told in the fourth and fifth volumes; what may be called the external history of India during this period is contained in the present volume and consists in a narrative of the struggle between the three rival European powers, Portuguese, Dutch, and English, for supremacy in Hindustan. The story is an involved one, but is remarkably clear and logical in its sequence. The foothold established by the East India Company in 1600 was strengthened more and more by the separate voyages of the Company; and so vigorous was the advance made that it resulted in bringing England into conflict first with the Portuguese and afterwards with the Dutch as to which should have the upper hand in India. Bloodshed and international difficulties were the issue, but the ultimate outcome was the paramount establishment of English supremacy on the Bombay coast, the Madras coast, and the Bengal coast, forming the basis eventually of the three great organized presidencies of Hindustan and the absolute dominion of England which made India a part of the British Empire. The narrative of the successive events by which all this was gradually accomplished forms one of the most instructive chapters in the world’s history and is to be commended to the thoughtful reader. A. V. Williams Jackson C O N TEN TS CHAPTER 1. THE "SEPARATE VOYAGES" OF THE COMPANY .. .. 1 2. THE STRUGGLE WITH THE PORTUGUESE .. .. .. .. 19 3. THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND THE DUTCH FOR THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO .. .. .. .. .. 34 4. THE END OF THE STRUGGLE: THE TRAGEDY OF AMBOYNA .. 62 5. THE COMPANY AND THE KING .. .. .. .. .. 92 6. FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE BOMBAY COAST .. 108 7. FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE MADRAS COAST .. 120 8. FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE BENGAL COAST .. 128 APPENDIX I. THE COMPANY AND THE COMMONWEALTH .. 136 APPENDIX II. STATISTICAL TABLES .. .. .. .. .. 158 Chapter 1 – The “Separate Voyages” of the Company 1601–1612 Wood and ivory mosaic in the Golden Temple at Amritsar. The weakness in the constitution of the English East India Company made itself felt from the outset. Its capital proved insufficient for a single voyage; additional calls amounting to four shillings in the pound had to be levied from the subscribers and in some cases to be enforced by warrants of committal from the Privy Council. In the midst of these troubles the governor, Thomas Smythe, fell under suspicion of complicity in the Earl of Essex’s rebellion, and was thrown into prison. The deputy-governor’s health broke down under the strain of fitting out vessels and coercing defaulters, and an ad interim governor had to be suddenly chosen on April 11, 1601. Finally, however, the four ships1, which had dropped down from Woolwich in February, got fairly started from Torbay on April 22, 1601. Woolwich in 1682. James Lancaster, the hero of the Cape voyage to India in 1591–1594, commanded the squadron, with a cargo of British staples, cloth, lead, tin, cutlery, glass, etc., worth 1 For details concerning the ships see Appendix II, B. History of India, Volume 7; Copyright © www.sanipanhwar.com 1 £6860, and silver to the amount of £28,742. Arriving at Achin, in Sumatra, on June 5, 1602, he delivered Queen Elizabeth’s letter to the king, together with presents, received in return a treaty of amity, and was made welcome to the trade of the place. But unfortunately the pepper crop had failed in the preceding season, and Lancaster found that if his voyage was to be made a success, it must be by other methods than those of peaceful trade. The Company had, under the politic name of “reprisals,” given him a strong hint “to take such course therein as he shall think meet” with regard to enemies of the realm. He interpreted this as a sanction to join the Dutch in an attack upon the “Portugals,” still in a state of war with England, and captured a richly laden carrack of 900 tons. Having transferred her cargo to his own ships, he let the plundered Portuguese vessel go her way. A good freight thus secured, Lancaster filled up his ships with spices at several of the islands, made a friend of the boy-king of Bantam, left a factory of English merchants and seamen, and returned to England on September 11, 1603. Two of his ships preceded him On June 16th the Company had received the glad news that the Ascension was in the Thames, and forthwith ordered “six suits of canvas doublet and hose without pockets,” for six porters to land her precious spices. The profits, apart from the plunder, were very large. The pepper had cost at Bantam, including dues, under 6d. per lb., while the selling price in England in 1599 had been raised from 3s. to 6s. and 8s. Its ordinary price was formerly 2s. 8d., and although it sank after the establishment of the Company to 2s. or even less, the returns were great. The gain on the finer spices was still larger. I find that £2948 paid in 1606 for cloves in Amboyna fetched £36,287 in London in 1608. These enormous profits on Indian commodities, ranging from 500 to 1500 percent, should at once have established the credit of the Company. But when the ships returned in 1603, the plague had brought business to a stand. Between December 7, 1602, and December 1, 1603, the Company declared that no fewer than 38,138 persons died of the pestilence in London; that all the merchants and people of condition had fled; and that “trade hath utterly ceased within the City for almost this half year.” When the plague abated, difficulties arose in disposing of the cargoes for cash. The subscribers had to take part payment in pepper and sell it as best they might; nor was it until 1609 that the affairs of the first voyage of 1601 could be wound up and the profits finally distributed. They amounted to 95 percent on the subscription; a large return if it had been quickly realized. The ordinary rate of interest was then 8 percent per annum, and the 95 percent profits only yielded 9½ percent, if calculated over the ten years from the subscription in 1600 – not a tempting reward for a risky voyage and the long vexations of winding up. But part of the 95 percent had been distributed in previous years. As a matter of fact, the Company seemed on the return of its first expedition in 1603 to be at its last gasp. It required at once to find £35,000 for seamen’s wages and the king’s History of India, Volume 7; Copyright © www.sanipanhwar.com 2 dues; the plague had closed the market for its spices, and no money could be raised on loans. The Charter of 1600 authorized the sending forth of “six good ships and six good pinnaces at all times” during fifteen years, yet three years had passed and only four ships had sailed. Elizabeth seems to have expected a yearly expedition. In November, 1601, she notified her “mislike of the slackness of the Company,” “propounding unto them the example of the Dutch, who do prosecute their voyages with a more honorable resolution.” By 1603 the Privy Council lost patience at the prolonged delay, and the Company found itself compelled to project a second voyage. Queen Elizabeth The governor had in 1601 been directed to examine the charter to see if power were given to compel members to contribute to a further venture. A second voyage was resolved on, and the book sent round by the beadle, but only the paltry sum of £11,000 was subscribed. The freemen declined even to attend the General Court to discuss the question, and had to be summoned afresh under “a pain of twenty shillings upon every one that maketh default.” Finally, in 1603, when the pepper ships came home, “the Company resolved as a matter of necessity” that every subscriber of £250 to the first voyage should advance another £200 for a second voyage. “In consideration of which he should receive pepper at a settled price to the amount of £500, which he should dispose of at his own discretion.” The four ships of the first voyage were taken over for the second, and sailed again from Gravesend in March, 1604, but with a cargo of only £1142 in goods. Its total freight, including specie, barely amounted to £12,302, as against the £28,602 sent out by the first voyage. Even this slender equipment was achieved only by making the profits of the first voyage responsible also for the second, so that practically the two ventures traded as a joint concern. Captain (afterwards Sir Henry) Middleton, in chief command of the squadron, loaded two ships with pepper at Bantam, where Lancaster had left a factory, and sent on the two others to Amboyna for the finer spices, particularly cloves. He History of India, Volume 7; Copyright © www.sanipanhwar.com 3 returned to England in 1606, having lost the Susan on the voyage.
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