THE EAST INDIA COMPANY.

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LECTURE VI.

RISE OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY (1600-1743).

Formation of the first East India Company, 1600-Early English relations with India-First Voyages of the Company-It obtains the Imperial Firman to trade-State of India-The Mogul Empire never homogeneous - The English encouraged, to thwart the Portuguese-Sir T. Roe's Embassy, and his Advice to the Company-Indifference of the Native Princes to the Proceedings of the ChristiansTribulations of the Company at home and abroad-Progress of Trade and Settlement during the Seventeenth Century-Struggle for Existence at home at the close of the Century-Settlements of the Company in 1702-Further Progress to the middle of the Century-The Charter of 1732-The Development of the Company's Power the result of Native Weakness-Review of the History of India since the opening of relations with England-Aurungzebe -Insurrection of the holy old woman-Rise of the Mahrattas-Romance of Seevajee's life-The Mahrattas the champions of Hindooism-Aurungzebe's anti-Hindoo policy -His war of the Deckan-He destroys the native Mussulman monarchies-The plunder system of the MahrattasAurungzebe's retreat and death-Disorganization of the Mogul empire-Nadir Shah's invasion-The SoobahdarsThe Rohillas, Rajpoots, Sikhs, Jats-The Pirates-The Christians-The English not to be feared.

THE East India Company, of which we may very PART II. probably see, ere long, the extinction as a govern- History. ing body, dates from the last day of the year 1600, LECT.VI. when its first charter-or rather the first charter granted to any of the bodies which it now represents-was signed by Queen Elizabeth. Take notice at once that the term " charter," as applied

LECT. VI.

PART II. to the instrument by virtue of which the Company History. exists and holds sway, has long been quite inappropriate. A charter is a royal grant signed and sealed by the Sovereign, but for a length of time the sccalled "Charter" of the East India Company has simply been an Act of Parliament from time to time renewed, like the statutes regulating Loan Societies, Tithe Commissions, and other bodies to which it is not deemed prudent to give a permanent sanction.

Ever since the reign of Henry VIII., the opening of a trade with India had been an object of English, as it had been of Spanish and Portuguese ambition. It gives one a vivid idea of the slenderness of English trade, and the narrowness of English wants, in those days, to read that a single Venetian ship, coming yearly, supplied England with Indian produce by the way of Venice; and that the wreck of one such vessel on the Isle of Wight (1518), was perhaps the first event that excited a popular desire for a direct trade with India. But the Spaniards held the Western Coast of the Atlantic, the Portuguese the Eastern. England tried in vain to open for herself new routes, by the North-west, by the North-east; Drake and Cavendish passed through the Straits of Magellan, traversed the Pacific, visited the Eastern Islands. Great Portuguese carracks, loaded with Indian produce, were taken by Drake, by Burroughes, and served to whet English longings to reach the mysterious land. Thomas Stevens, an English sailor, had indeed already done so. Sailing from Lisbon on board a Portuguese ship, he arrived at Goa in 1579, and sent home an account of his voyage, which

LECT. VI.

was published by Hakluyt. He had been fol- PART II. lowed overland by some English merchants, History. bearers of letters from Queen Elizabeth to the Kings of Cambay and China (1583). Imprisoned at Ormuz, they, however, not only pushed on to Goa, but to the very Court of the then Mogul emperor at Delhi, where one of them, Leades, a jeweller, remained. Another, Neuberg, died at Lahore on his return. About the same period, Fitch, a London merchant engaged in the Levant trade, visited Ormuz, Goa, Cochin, Calicut, Ceylon, Bengal, pushed on to Pegu, Siam, and Malacca, and returned to England in 1591. In 1589, the Queen received the first application for permission to trade with the East. In 1591, the first expedition was fitted out, but never reached. In 1599, the first subscription for a company was entered into, the charter for which, as I have said, was granted in 1600. At its outset, its operations were similar to those of the underwriters at Lloyds'. Every voyage was a separate venture, in which each of the associated merchants invested what sum he pleased. It was only after awhile that a "joint stock" was formed.

The first voyages of the Company were, however, directed not to India proper, but to the islands of Eastern India.1 It was only in 1609 that the actual Indian coast was touched by Sir. Hugh Middleton, whose voyage has lately been reprinted by the Hakluyt Society. But he was baffled by the Portuguese in his attempts to open a trade. A fleet which sailed the next year was

1 On its proceedings and acquisitions in this quarter I shall not dwell.

I

PART II. attacked by them at Swally, near Surat, but came History. off victorious. It was favourably received in con- ' LECT. VI. sequence at Surat; and on the 11th January,

1612, the English received the imperial firman, empowering them to establish factories at Surat, Ahmedabad, Cambaya, and Gogo. From this day, properly speaking, begins the history of British India. Our subject, however, divides itself into two parts, a positive and a negative ; how the power of the Company rose-how the native powers fell. And the latter part is, perhaps, far more important than the former. Had the Indian Governments possessed only the vigour of the Chinese, we might yet have been penned up in our factories of the coast. With the germs of decay which they contained, we must have overpowered them as soon as a conqueror arose amongst us, though we had only had foothold in a single Indian town.

The ruling power in India was now, as it had been for the last century, that of "the Great Mogul." The Sovereign now upon the throne was Jehangeer, great grandson of Baber, the founder of the Mogul dynasty (1605-1628). His father, Akbar, had been the greatest of the Mogul sovereigns, the organizer of the Mogul system of administration. But you must not suppose that the Mogul empire was at any time a homogeneous whole. Under Jehangeer, for instance, the Mussulman vizier of Malwa, the Hindoo rajah of Bengal, were feudatories whose power bordered upon independence. The whole of the Deckan, divided between Hindoo and Mussulman princes, paid little more than a nominal allegiance, if so much. In Guzerat, the abo