a EARNEST.-EARTHENWARE. 535 susceptible of damage by water, from being injured in the event of her becoming leaky. A ship is not reckoned seaworthy unless she be provided with proper and sufficient dunnage. —(Falconer's Marine Dictionary; Abbott (Lord Tenterden) on the Law of Shipping, part iii. c. 3.) E. EARNEST, in commercial law, is the sum advanced by the buyer of goods in order to bind the seller to the terms of the agreement. It is enacted by the 17th section of the famous Statute of Frauds, 29 Cha. II. c. 3., that "no contract for the sale of any goods, wares, and merchandises, for the prices of 101. sterling or upwards, shall be allowed to be good, except the buyer shall accept part of the goods so sold, and actually receive the same, or give something in earnest to bind the bargain, or in part payment, or that some note or memorandum in writing of the said bargain be made and signed by the parties to be charged by such contract, or their agents thereunto lawfully authorised." As to what amounts to sufficient earnest, Blackstone lays it down, that "if any part of the price is paid down, if it is but a penny, or any portion of the goods is delivered by way of earnest, it is binding." To constitute earnest, the thing must be given as a token of ratification of the contract, and it should be expressly stated so by the giver. (Chitty's Commercial Law, vol. iii. p. 289.) EARTHENWARE (Ger. Irdene Waaren; Du. Aardegoed; Fr. Vaisselle de terre Poterie; It. Stoviglie, Terraglie; Sp. Loza de barro; Rus. Gorschetschnue possodů; Pol. Gliniana naczynia), or crockery, as it is sometimes termed, comprises every sort of household utensil made of clay hardened in the fire. Its manufacture is, in England, of very considerable importance; and the improvements that have been made in it since the middle of last century have contributed powerfully to its extension, and have added greatly to the comfort and convenience of all classes. Art "There is scarcely," it has been well observed, "any manufacture which is so interesting to contemplate in its gradual improvement and extension as that of earthenware, presenting, as it does, so beautiful a union of science and art, in furnishing us with the comforts and ornaments of civilised life. Chemistry administers her part, by investigating the several species of earths, and ascertaining as well their most appropriate combinations as the respective degrees of heat which the several compositions require. has studied the designs of antiquity, and produced from them vessels even more exquisite in form than the models by which they have been suggested. The ware has been provided in such gradations of quality as to suit every station from the highest to the lowest. It is to be seen in every country, and almost in every house, through the whole extent of America, in many parts of Asia, and in most of the countries of Europe. At home it has superseded the less cleanly vessels of pewter and of wood, and, by its cheapness, has been brought within the means of our poorest housekeepers. Formed from substances originally of no value, the fabrication has induced labour of such various classes, and created skill of such various degrees, that nearly the whole value of the annual produce may be considered as an addition made to the mass of national wealth. The abundance of the ware exhibited in every dwelling-house is sufficient evidence of the vast augmentation of the manufacture, which is also demonstrated by the rapid increase of the population in the districts where the potteries have been established." — ( Quarterly Review.) For the great and rapid extension of the manufacture we are chiefly indebted to the late Mr. Josiah Wedgwood, whose original and inventive genius enabled him to make many most important discoveries in the art; and who was equally successful in bringing his inventions into use. The principal seat of the manufacture is in Staffordshire, where there is a district denominated the Potteries, comprising a number of villages, and a population which is supposed to amount, at this moment, to above 80,000, by far the greater proportion of which is engaged in the manufacture. There are no authentic accounts of the population of this district in 1760, when Mr. Wedgwood began his discoveries; but the general opinion is, that it did not at that time exceed 20,000. The village of Etruria, in the Potteries, was built by Mr. Wedgwood. The manufacture has been carried on at Burslem, in the same district, for several centuries. The canals by which Staffordshire is intersected have done much to accelerate the progress of the manufacture. Pipe-clay from Dorsetshire and Devonshire, and flints from Kent, are conveyed by water carriage to the places where the clay and coal abound; and the finished goods are conveyed by the same means to the great shipping ports, whence they are distributed over most parts of the globe. It is estimated that the value of the various sorts of earthenware produced at the Potteries may amount to about 1,700,000l. a year; and that the earthenware produced at Worcester, Derby, and other parts of the country, may amount to about 750,0001, more; making the whole value of the manufacture 2,450,000l. a year. The consumption of gold at the Potteries is about 700l. a week, and of coal about 9,000 tons a week. The earthenware manufacture has increased considerably since 1814, but it is not possible to state the exact ratio. The prices of the different sorts of earthenware are said to have fallen 25 per cent. during the last 20 years. Wages have not fallen in the same proportion; but we are assured that a workman can, at the present day, produce about four times the quantity he did in 1790. We subjoin an Account of the Quantities and Declared Values of the Earthenware exported from the United Kingdom during each of the Five Years ending with 1841, specifying the Countries to which it was shipped, and the Quantity and Value of that shipped for each. Pieces. £ £ Cuba and other Foreign Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, Total. £ 4,260 Pieces. 297,472 4,011 388,873 6,092 340,191 4,766 1,385,703 19,509 1,559,980 25,281 1,758,456 27,312 1,629,355 24,851 1,641,759 29,932 454,290 3,412 733,533 9,402 483,337 4,958 1,113,757 8,235 898,620 8,359 614,950 6,689 1,256,162 13,621 1,885,623 24,490 2,112,380 27,383 1,148,531 16,175 3,463,988 37,063 2,446,631 25,773 2,637,506 34,825 3,978,462 44,875 4,076,014 41,682 3,246,858 40,195 2,217,948 27,727 3,631,732 41,799 2,829,641 33,134 2,056,369 26,523 2,505,790 26,183 2,431,556 24,243 1,992,526 20,172 2,592,722 27,068 2,288,693 20,955 16,725,595 212,632 21,718,950 313,749 35,099,126 400,164 15,341,502 179,933 18,892,080 225,479 4,965,046 43,217 4,573,137 35,275 4,028,388 35,010 5,199,780, 40,025 5,368,592 38,183 344,082 4,002 439,987 4,926 382,973 4,095 302,809 3,662 348,090 4,142 6,366,663 69,813 5,926,846 68,840 6,688,803 76,345 6,511,024 73,447 8,053,374 87,317 48,366,457 563,238 51,405,068 651,344 67,126,814 771,173 50,533,949 573,184 53,150,903 600,759 The above account sets the preponderance of the U. States as a market for earthenware in a very striking point of view. We have been assured that it is necessary to add to the declared value of the exports, to get their true value. EAST INDIA COMPANY, a famous association, originally established for prosecuting the trade between England and India, which they acquired a right to carry on exclusively. Since the middle of last century, however, the Company's political have become of more importance than their commercial concerns. EAST INDIES, a popular geographical term not very well defined, but generally understood to signify the continents and islands to the east and south of the river Indus, as far as the borders of China, including Timor and the Moluccas, but excluding the Philippine Islands, New Guinea, and New Holland. China and the Philippine Islands were, however, included within the limits of the East India Company's peculiar privileges. I. EAST INDIA COMPANY (HISTORICAL SKETCH OF). II. EAST INDIA COMPANY (CONSTITUTION OF). III. EAST INDIES (STATE OF SOCIETY IN, GROWING DEMAND FOR ENGLISH Goods, TRADE, COLONISATION, ETC.). IV. EAST INDIES (EXTENT, POPULATION, MILITARY FORCE, REVENUE, ETC. OF BRITISH). I. EAST INDIA COMPANY (HISTORICAL SKETCH OF). The persevering efforts of the Portuguese to discover a route to India, by sailing round Africa, were crowned with success in 1497. And it may appear singular, that, notwithstanding the exaggerated accounts that had been prevalent in Europe, from the remotest antiquity, with respect to the wealth of India, and the importance to which the commerce with it had raised the Phoenicians and Egyptians in antiquity, the Venetians in the middle ages, and which it was then seen to confer on the Portuguese, the latter should have been allowed to monopolise it for nearly a century after it had been turned into a channel accessible to every nation. But the prejudices by which the people of most European states were actuated in the sixteenth century, and the peculiar circumstances under which they were placed, hindered them from embarking with that alacrity and ardour that might have been expected in this new commercial career. Soon after the Portuguese began to prosecute their discoveries along the coast of Africa, they applied to the pope for a bull, securing to them the exclusive right to and possession of all countries occupied by infidels, they either had discovered, or might discover, to the south of Cape Non, on the west coast of Africa, in 27° 54′ north latitude and the pontiff, desirous to display, and at the same time to extend, his power, immediately issued a bull to this effect. Nor, preposterous as a proceeding of this sort would now appear, did any one then doubt that the pope had a right to issue such a bull, and that all states and empires were bound to obey it. In consequence, the Portuguese were, for a lengthened period, allowed to prosecute their conquests in India without the interference of any other European power. And it was not till a considerable period after the beginning of the war, which the blind and brutal bigotry of Philip II. kindled in the Low Countries, that the Dutch navigators began to display their flag on the Eastern Ocean, and laid the foundations of their Indian empire. The desire to comply with the injunctions in the pope's bull, and to avoid coming into collision, first with the Portuguese, and subsequently with the Spaniards, who had conquered Portugal in 1580, seems to have been the principal cause that led the English to make repeated attempts, in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, to discover a route to India by a northwest or north-east passage; channels from which the Portuguese would have had no pretence for excluding them. But these attempts having proved unsuccessful, and the pope's bull having ceased to be of any effect in this country, the English merchants and navigators resolved to be no longer deterred by the imaginary rights of the Portuguese from directly entering upon what was then reckoned by far the most lucrative and advantageous branch of commerce. Captain Stephens, who performed the voyage in 1582, was the first Englishman who sailed to India by the Cape of Good Hope. The voyage of the famous Sir Francis Drake contributed greatly to diffuse a spirit of naval enterprise, and to render the English better acquainted with the newly opened route to India. But the voyage of the celebrated Mr. Thomas Cavendish was, in the latter respect, the most important. Cavendish sailed from England in a little squadron, fitted out at his own expense, in July, 1586; and having explored the greater part of the Indian Ocean, as far as the Philippine Islands, and carefully observed the most important and characteristic features of the people and countries which he visited, returned to England, after a prosperous navigation, in September, 1588. Perhaps, however, nothing contributed so much to inspire the English with a desire to embark in the Indian trade, as the captures that were made, about this period, from the Spaniards. A Portuguese East India ship, or carrack, captured by Sir Francis Drake, during his expedition to the coast of Spain, inflamed the cupidity of the merchants by the richness of her cargo, at the same time that the papers found on board gave specific information respecting the traffic in which she had been engaged. A still more important capture, of the same sort, was made in 1593. An armament, fitted out for the East Indies by Sir Walter Raleigh, and commanded by Sir John Borroughs, fell in, near the Azores, with the largest of all the Portuguese carracks, a ship of 1,600 tons burden, carrying 700 men and 36 brass cannon; and, after an obstinate conflict, carried her into Dartmouth. She was the largest vessel that had been seen in England; and her cargo, consisting of gold, spices, calicoes, silks, pearls, drugs, porcelain, ivory, &c., excited the ardour of the English to engage in so opulent a commerce. In consequence of these and other concurring causes, an association was formed in London, in 1599, for prosecuting the trade to India. The adventurers applied to the queen for a charter of incorporation, and also for power to exclude all other English subjects, who had not obtained a licence from them, from carrying on any species of traffic beyond the Cape of Good Hope or the Straits of Magellan. As exclusive companies were then very generally looked upon as the best instruments for prosecuting most branches of commerce and industry, the adventurers seem to have had little difficulty in obtaining their charter, which was dated the 31st of December, 1660. The corporation was entitled The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies:" the first governor (Thomas Smythe, Esq.) and 24 directors were nominated in the charter; but power was given to the Company to elect a deputy governor, and, in future, to elect their governor and directors, and such other office-bearers as they might think fit to appoint. They were empowered to make bylaws; to inflict punishments, either corporal or pecuniary, provided such punishments were in accordance with the laws of England; to export all sorts of goods free of duty for 4 years; and to export foreign coin, or bullion, to the amount of 30,000l. a year, 6,000l. of the same being previously coined at the mint; but they were obliged to import, within 6 months after the completion of every voyage, except the first, the same quantity of silver, gold, and foreign coin that they had exported. The duration of the charter was limited to a period of 15 years; but with and under the condition that, if it were not found for the public advantage, it might be cancelled at any time upon 2 |