A supplement, 1689 to a former treatise concerning the East-India trade, printed 1681.

A supplement, 1689 to a former treatise concerning the East-India trade, printed 1681.

Table of contents

A Supplement, 1689. to a former Treatise, concerning the East-India Trade, Printed 1681.

Permission Ships.

Permission Ships.

Permission Ships.

POST-SCRIPT.

[Page]

[Page]

A Supplement, 1689. to a former Treatise, concerning the East-India Trade, Printed 1681.

THAT the foregoing Treatise was not Calculated for the present Conjuncture, the time when it was Printed, and Published, will sufficiently demonstrate; but that which is at one time truly writ on any Subject, is of use in all times.

At that time, viz. about 1681. This Company had raised the English Navigation and Power in India, much beyond what it was in any former Age, as appears towards the end of the said Treatise: But soon after that destructive Trade of the English interlopers in India beginning, the Dutch took the advantage of that Confusion, and those Civil Broyles between the English, to surprize Bantam. Which troubles falling together upon the Company, and soon after a general failure of Credit in all publick Funds, caused very many Adventurers to sell their Stocks, and was sufficient to have discouraged any Men, not supported with the inward satisfaction, That it was their Duty towards God and their Country, couragiously to assert and defend (according to their Trust) the English Dominion and Interest in India, as it was Establish'd in a Joint-stock, exclusive to all others, which it must ever be, and strengthened with the same Powers and Authorities, as the Dutch East-India Company have from their Soveraigns, or else it will fall an unretrievable [Page] Victim between the Dutch and French, to the irreparable Loss of England, and consequently the very great abatement of the value of our English Lands.

These considerations inculcated to the then Committees, (not any private Interest of their own) engaged their publick and well prepared Minds, not to despair of the good of their Countrey, but to expose their whole Stock to hazard, for recovery of the Pepper Trade to England, which was thought to be lost upon the surprize of Bantam, and to recover by Armes from the Great Mogul, and other Indian Princes satisfaction for Dammages received, and also those inestimable Priviledges they had deprived the English of, in those Interloping times, when they saw the Nation in India divided, and contending among themselves, like Guelphs and Gibelines, under the distinction of the Old and the New Company; which latter Appellation the Interlopers assumed to themselves, and under that Name made Contracts of Commerce and Alliances with Princes and Governours in India, without any Authority from their Soveraign, which our Law accounts a Crime of a high Nature, and which is in it self by the Experience and Confession of all Men, of most destructive consequence, to any Kingdom or Commonwealth Trading to the East-Indies.

Whether those generous Resolutions were well or wisely pursued by the Committee, and whether under all the aforesaid pressures, they have behaved themselves like true Englishmen and Lovers of their Countrey, will best appear by a brief, plain, and true Narrative of what they have done, since the publishing of the aforesaid Treatise; and what now is the present State of the English Interest in India.

[Page] The Company have built within these Seven Years past, the following New Great Ships; not to mention many more smaller ones, now in their Service, (Viz.)

The Old Defence.

Resolution.

Rochester.

Beaufort.

Royal Charles.

Royal Iames.

Princess of Denmark.

Modena.

New Berkeley Castle.

Royal Iames and Mary.

New Defence.

Benjamin.

One New Building on the Stocks.

Chandois.

Herbert.

Kempthorne.

Note 1. That all these sixteen Ships (except the Old Defence that was stranded in the River of Thames) are still in being, and may carry each from sixty to eighty Guns except the Benjamin, that has now but thirty Guns, and six Pedereroes.

2. All of them except the Benjamin are three-deck't Ships, and are of Burthen according to the Kings Tonnage, from Nine-Hundred to One Thousand three Hundred Tons each.

3. The three last, viz. Chandois, Herbert and Kempthorne, were built for the Turkey Trade, but those Freights not bearing the Charge of such great Ships, they were at [Page] their Owners Requests taken in, and are now all in the East-India Companies Service.

Within the aforesaid Term of seven years, (the Company having lost Bantam where they had no Fort, but onely a large Factory, to secure their Pepper Trade; by means of which defect it was the easilier lost) The Company have Built, Fortified and Garrisoned three Forts in several parts of India, for security of the Pepper Trade, so necessary to this Kingdom; which three Forts, to fix and render Tenable and Serviceable, have and will cost the Company viis & modis Four Hundred Thousand pound Sterling.

The Company have now at Sea, in India, and coming from thence, this last day of Ianuary, 168 8/9. the following Ships and Cargoes, Viz.

| Tons | Guns | Seamen | Soldiers
The Prudent Mary, Let for | 300 | carryng 30 | 60 and | 15
New London | 515 | 34 | 102 | 80
Modena | 775 | 60 | 154 | 109
Tonqueen Merchant | 160 | 14 | 32 | 30
Charles the Second | 775 | 60 | 155 | 74
Caesar | 515 | 40 | 103 | 116
Royal Iames & Mary | 670 | 40 | 134 | 124
Iosia, alias Society | 620 | 40 | 124 | 83
Shrewsbury | 350 | 30 | 69 | 50
Diana | 170 | 20 | 34 | 30
Kempthorne | 640 | 50 | 127 | 95

[Page]

Permission Ships.

| Tuns, | Guns. | Seamen. | Soldiers.
Worcester Frigat | 220 | 18 | 34 | 35
Bawdon | 150 | 16 | 39 | 30
Ionas Frigat | 80 | 16 | 6
Iohn and Mary | 100 | 14 | 20 | 10

These fifteen Ships beforementioned, Consign'd to Bombay and the Coast of India, their Cargoes amounting to above Three Hundred and sixty Thousand pounds Sterling.

| Tuns. | Guns. | Seamen. | Soldiers.
The Rochester | Let for 775 | carrying 60 | 154 and | 121
Nathaniel | 550 | 36 | 109 | 107
Bengal Merchant | 570 | 40 | 114 | 66
Williamson | 580 | 40 | 116 | 57
Resolution | 650 | 40 | 130 | 92
Princess of Denmark | 670 | 40 | 113 | 39
New Defence | 730 | 60 | 146 | 122

Permission Ships.

Rebecca | 170 | 20 | 33 | 10
Curiana | 140 | 20 | 27 | 30
Loyal Captain | 150 | 24 | 27 | 10
Iames | 300 | 30 | 60 | 40
Anne | 120 | 18 | 25 | 10
Dorothy | 225 | 26 | 46 | 20

[Page] These Thirteen Ships afore-mentioned, were Consigned to Fort St. George, &c. on the Coast of Choromandel, and to the Bay of Bengal, their Cargoes amounting to near five hundred and seventy thousand pounds sterling.

| Tuns. | Guns. | Seamen. | Soldiers.
The Dragon Let for | 180 Carrying | 18 | 36
Royal Iames | 650 | 50 | 129 | 97
New Berkeley Castle | 650 | 40 | 129 | 87
Rainbow | 250 | 24 | 50
Persia Merchant | 370 | 32 | 74 | 40

Permission Ships.

Loyal Merchant | 450 | 32 | 90 | 30
Mary | 150 | 20 | 30 | 11

These seven ships before-mentioned were Consigned to China and the South Seas, their Cargoes amounting to near one hundred thousand pounds.

Besides about thirty other armed small ships and Vessels, constantly remaining in the Countrey.

The Company have now upon their hands in England unsold, above the value of seven hundred thousand pounds in East-India Goods, for the supply of this and Foreign Nations, whereas they do not know of fifty thousand pound value of East-India Goods in Europe unsold, in any other European Companies hands, except the Dutch Spice, of which they always keep great Stores, having in the last age secured that Trade intirely to themselves.

[Page] The Company have within the said seven years last past, so enlarged, and Fortified the English Fort of St. George and their City of Madrass, upon the Coast of Choromandel; that it is now one of the finest, and largest Cities in those parts of the world, and secured by a good Garrison, and containing at least one hundred thousand Families of all Nations, which inhabit within that City, and the Territory about it, all subject to such Laws for Life and Goods, as the Company by vertue of their Charter think fit to impose upon them.

The Customes and New Impost paid His Majesty by the Company for two years, from August, 1685. to August, 1687. amounted to two hundred fifty five thousand three hundred twenty six pounds, ten shillings and one penny, as by particulars presented His late Majesty. Since the Wars in India, it hath been less, by reason of those Wars, but now the Wars are over the Companies Customs are like to be more yearly, then they were in either of the two years before-mentioned.

The Company have built new Forts in, and otherwise strengthened their Island of Bombay, and have ordered a dry Dock to be built there, which they hope may be finisht by this time, and all other conveniences for repairing and fitting the biggest English ships, and sent thither all Stores needful for such purposes: which dry Dock was the principal want, the English Nation underwent for some ages before.

And which is the most considerable National advantage, that ever was attempted by Englishmen in those parts of the World, the Company have reduced the principal part of their Trade of Surrat, to their own Island of Bombay; The Inhabitants whereof from four thousand Families, which they were computed at, when the Company [Page] first possessed that Island, are since increased to fifty thousand Families, all subject to the Companies Laws. And that Island lying upon the North Coast of India, near Surrat, the Emporium of the Indian Trade, to Arabia, Persia, Bussorah, and the Red-Sea, is of inestimable value to this Kingdom. The said Island hath cost the Company in Fortifying, Garrisoning, &c. at times above five hundred thousand pounds sterling; and never produced any return to the Company, nor ever would have been of use to England, nor in a posture to defend it self; though it be one of the best Ports in the Eastern World, if the English Trade had not been brought thither, and consequently the English shipping to ride there, and load home (and not at, and from Swally, or the River of Surrat as formerly.) This was known to the former Committees, and lamented long since, that such a Jewel as the Island of Bombay should be in English hands, and we should not have the heart to make use of it. But the truth was, those former Committees durst not attempt such a change of their Affairs, for fear of the charge of such a remove; but especially for fear of angrying the Mogul, whose people gained exceedingly by our ships riding in their Ports, as well as by our Trade, and were out of fear of Bombay, while it was in such a forlorn neglected condition; and therefore durst boldly injure and affront the English, while they had the President, and all the Chief of the Nation, and all their Estates as a Pawn continually in their hands, to secure their patient suffering of all contempts whatsoever. But the Case is now altered by the Conduct, Cost, and Courage of the late Committees, and the Moors must and will be civil hereafter. For as there is no people kinder than those India Governours, when they have to do with men, that Can and Will rerevenge [Page] themselves, so there are no Men more Unjust, False, Treacherous and Tyrannical than they are, when they have to do with such, as are intirely within their power.

The Mogul being as is generally known, so great and powerful a Prince, it was vulgarly thought a Vain or rather a Distracted attempt in the Company, to make any War upon him, as well in respect of his boundless Riches, and Power, as of the vast charges the Company should be at, in sending and maintaining Warlike Ships, into so remote parts of the World. Yet such hath been God's blessing upon the Companies Armes, their unavoidable necessity, and their righteous Cause, that That War beyond all mens Opinion has ended to the Eternal Honour of the English Nation, in those parts of the World, and a Peace concluded upon such honourable Articles. (The Ratifications whereof from the Mogul himself in the Persian Language, are brought home now by the Ship Modena) that if a Blank had been delivered to the Company in England, to write down their own Terms, They would not have desired more than is granted by the said Articles; The substance of which are as follows, viz.

First, The Customes at Surrat to be two per Cent. and no more, for Goods and Money; and for what hath been taken more than that, to be paid back and made good out of the Customs.

Secondly, That at but one place in the Kings Dominions any Custom be paid, and having paid Custom at one place, not to be disturbed [Page] by any other, nor no manner of duty demanded.

Thirdly, That no Custom be taken for any manner of Provisions, and what Custom hath been paid on that account, to be paid back.

Fourthly, Whatever hath been Robbed from the English, to be made good to them, by that Place or Government, where the loss was sustained.

Fifthly, That no Custom be demanded for what Goods may come from Mocha, and what hath been taken for Custom of those Goods to be paid back.

Sixthly, That we have a room in the Minthouse to our selves, and appoint whom we please to do our business there, and Coin our own Money, and the Governour to have no Command over those Sheroffs or Moneyers, that are appointed by us for that work.

Seventhly, What Goods may have passed the Custom-house, and brought up again, not to be lyable to pay Custom the second time.

Eighthly, No Englishman shall serve in the Mogul's Dominions, and if any runs away from Ships or Factories, to be seized and delivered up to us.

[Page] Ninthly, Indico Custom to be at Rupees 2 and three fourths per bale, and no more, and what taken more then that, to be paid back.

Tenthly, No demands nor no trouble to the English at Surrat, must be given for what mischief hath, or may be done by the English at Bengala.

Eleventhly, That whatever is bought by one Governour for the King, although he should be turned out before the Money should be paid for such Goods, yet the Money to be made good, and no abatement made, nor any Goods so Sold returned.

Twelfthly, That whatever any Officers may buy or take, the Governour on the place to see that we be paid for it.

Thirteenthly, None shall offer any abuse to our English, or other Servants of the Countrey.

Fourteenthly, That whoever be our Debtors, the Governour of the place see us paid, on complaining to him out of hand.

Fifteenthly, That no one give us any the least disturbance at Swally, but we Land and Ship Goods as we please there, without any disturbance, or paying any Custom or other duties.

Sixteenthly, That no Goods be over rated [Page] at the Custom-house, and that Custom be taken for goods bought in the Moguls Dominions, as first cost at the place where bought, and not to be rated at the place Exported, as worth there.

To open the foregoing Articles, and to demonstrate to persons unacquainted with the East-Indies, the Honour of this Peace, and the inestimable value of those Articles to the English Trade and Nation, would interrupt the designed Brevity of this Addition. It is sufficient, that the worst Enemies the Company have, must confess if they will say what they think, they are much more worth than all the Charge of the War, which they cannot compute at less than Ten Hundred Thousand pound Sterling, and were by themselves thought impossible to be ever attained; and that no Englishman could live without unsufferable Assronts and Exactions in the Interloping times, before the Company began their late War upon the Mogul, whereas now no Nation in India hath such Honourable Terms with that great Monarch, nor none so much respect from his Governours in all places; which Honourable and Advantageous Terms the English Company are like to enjoy forAges, because the former Priviledges the English had (which were never in any degree comparable to these) were onely purchased by money from his grear Governours, and broke at their pleasure, when more Money could be got from other Nations vying with us in Trade, or English Interlopers; Whereas these are not onely acquired by Armes, and confirmed by the Mogul's own Phirmaund and Husball Hoocombe, but secured by maintaining a strong English Garrison at Bombay, and making that Island (which lies upon the principal parts of [Page] the Mogul's Country, as the Islands of Scilly do upon England) the seat of the English Dominion, and the Centre of their Trade on the North Coast of India, as Batavia is to the Dutch East-India Company on the South. Which Transition alone, from Surrat to Bombay, could never have been done without a War as was beforesaid.

POST-SCRIPT.

THE Treaty managed between the great Lord, sent down by the Mogul for that purpose, (which we hear was his Cousin Germain) and the English General after five weeks Negotiation, was left unfinished for want of the great Mogul's Ratification by a `Phirmaund and Husball Hoocombe; and the General departed with his Fleet from Surrat River. But the General not being able to return to Surrat at that season of the year, receiv'd it at Bombay, after Receipt of the following Letter.

Translate of a Letter from Muckteer Caune, the Governour of Surrat, to the General Sir Iohn Child Baronet, &c.

MAny times I sent your Excellency word, that the King's Phirmaund would come from Court in a litle time, [Page] therefore I desired your stay at the Rivers mouth one week more, and Orders would come from Court according to yours, and my desire; but you would not continue at the Rivers mouth, but weighed your Anchors and went away, because of the lateness of the year and bad weather; since, the King's `Phirmaund is come for you, and arrived here the 8th. of May, which the King hath sent with a great deal of Affection and Love towards you, which was brought by Persons that attend his own Person, and it is according to your own desires, the King hath consented to every thing, and you are Happy and Great, known to the World as the Sun is, and whatever is in your mind, the King hath impowered me to comply with; therefore it is fit for you to come away to Surrat presently over Land, as you promised you would, when you left Surrat Rivers mouth, on knowledge of the King's Phirmaund being arrived here; therefore pray make all the haste you can, and come and receive your Phirmaund from the great King to your Honour, and let your business go on with a good heart, and do you not fail to come away with all the speed you can; I desire it a thousand times over, the Phirmaund is much for your Profit; what I have received from Court concerning it, I now send you the Copy of.

FINIS.

Information about this book

Title statement

A supplement, 1689 to a former treatise concerning the East-India trade, printed 1681.

Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699.

Edition statement

1689

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2004-05 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A32838

ID [STC]

Wing C3865

ID [STC]

ESTC R18362

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

12039829

ID [OCLC]

ocm 12039829

ID [VID]

52964

Availability

This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early English books online.

Notes

(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A32838)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 52964)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 864:8)

Source

— A supplement, 1689 to a former treatise concerning the East-India trade, printed 1681., Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699., Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699. Treatise wherein is demonstrated I. That the East India trade is the most national of all foreign trades..

Extent

14 p.

s.n.,. [S.l. :: 1689]. (Reproduction of original in Huntington Library.) (Attributed to Sir Josiah Child. cf. NUC pre-1956.) (Caption title.) (This is a supplement to the East-India trade treaty of 1681.)

Creation

Created by converting TCP files to TEI P5 using tcp2tei.xsl, TEI @ Oxford.

Editorial practices

EEBO-TCP is a partnership between the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and the publisher ProQuest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by ProQuest via their Early English Books Online (EEBO) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). The general aim of EEBO-TCP is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic English-language title published between 1473 and 1700 available in EEBO.

EEBO-TCP aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the Text Encoding Initiative (http://www.tei-c.org).

The EEBO-TCP project was divided into two phases. The 25,363 texts created during Phase 1 of the project have been released into the public domain as of 1 January 2015. Anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source.

Users should be aware of the process of creating the TCP texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data.

Text selection was based on the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature (NCBEL). If an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in NCBEL, then their works are eligible for inclusion. Selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. In general, first editions of a works in English were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably Latin and Welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so.

Image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. Quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in Oxford and Michigan. 5% (or 5 pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet QA standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. After proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of 100 instances per text. Any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. Understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of TCP data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. Users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a TCP editor.

The texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level 4 of the TEI in Libraries guidelines.

Copies of the texts have been issued variously as SGML (TCP schema; ASCII text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable XML (TCP schema; characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless XML (TEI P5, characters represented either as UTF-8 Unicode or TEI g elements).

Keying and markup guidelines are available at the Text Creation Partnership web site.