Chapter XII: Introduction

In the immediately preceding chapter, we have given a series of the first twelve voyages fitted out by the English East India Company, in the prosecution of their exclusive trade to India, as preserved by Samuel Purchas; and we now mean, chiefly from the same source, to continue the series for a few years longer. At the close of the last voyage of the foregoing chapter, Purchas informs us, that "The order of reckoning must be now altered, because the voyages of the company were for the future set forth by means of a _joint stock_, instead of by particular ships, each upon a separate subscription, having separate stocks and factories; the whole proceedings being, in the sequel, at the general risk of, and accountable to the entire society or company of adventurers." He farther adds, "That the whole of these joint-stock voyages had not come into his hands; but that such as he had been able to procure, and were meet for publication, he had inserted in his Collection."

The learned historiographer of the East India Company[120] gives rather a different account of the former series of separate or unconnected voyages, than that which we have taken from Purchas, terming the last voyage in our former chapter only the _ninth_, while Purchas denominates it the _twelfth_.

[Footnote 120: Ann. of the Hon. E.I. Co, I. 162.]

This difference, which is not at all material, may have arisen from Purchas having considered some of the ships belonging to _single_ adventurers or subscriptions, which made separate voyages or parts of voyages, as _separate_ adventures. We come now to a new era in the mode of conducting the English exclusive trade to India, of the motives for which the Annals give the following account.[121]

[Footnote 121: Id. I. 165.]

"The inconveniences which had been experienced from separate classes of adventurers, partners in the East India Company, fitting out equipments on their own particular portions of stock, induced the directors, or committees, to resolve, in 1612, that, in future, the trade should be carried on by a joint stock only; and, on the basis of this resolution, the sum of £429,000 was subscribed: and, though portions of this joint stock were applied to the equipment of four voyages, the general instructions to the commanders were given in the name, and by the authority, of the governor, deputy-governor, and committees of the company of merchants in London trading to the East Indies, who explained that the whole was a joint concern, and that the commanders were to be responsible to the company for their conduct, both in the sale and purchase of commodities in the East Indies, and for their general conduct, in extending the commerce, within the limits of the company. The transition, therefore, from trading on _separate adventures_, which has been described as an imitation of the Dutch, to trading on a _joint stock_, arose out of the good sense of the English nation, which, from experience, had discovered the evil consequences of internal opposition, and had determined to proceed on a system better calculated to promote the general interest of the East India Company.

"Notwithstanding this resolution, the proportions of this aggregate sum were applied to what has been termed the _tenth, eleventh, twelfth_, and _thirteenth_ voyages, in the following manner: In 1613, the _tenth_ voyage was undertaken, the stock of which was estimated at £18,810 in money, and £12,446 in goods, the fleet consisting of _eight_ vessels. In 1614, the stock for the _eleventh_ voyage was £13,942 in money, and £23,000 in goods, the fleet being _eight ships_. In 1615, the stock for the _twelfth_ voyage was £26,660 in money, and £26,065 in goods, with _six ships_. In 1616, the stock for the _thirteenth_ voyage was £52,087 in money, and £16,506 in goods, the fleet containing _seven ships_. The purchase, repair, and equipment of vessels during these four voyages amounted to £272,544, which, with the specified stock and cargoes, accounts for the disbursement of the £429,000, the sum subscribed on the joint stock in 1613.[122]

[Footnote 122: The enumerated particulars amount to £462,060, and exceed the subscribed joint stock by £33,060.--E.]

"The profits on this joint stock are stated to have amounted, on the first two voyages, to £120 per cent. on the original subscription; but they were subsequently much diminished, by the difficulties which the English trade to the East Indies began to experience, from the opposition of the Dutch in the Spice Islands; so that, at the conclusion of this first joint stock, in 1617, the average profits of the four voyages did not exceed £87:10s. per. cent on the original subscription, notwithstanding the cargo of one of the vessels (the New-year's Gift) cost only 40,000 rials of eight, and the sale produce, in England, amounted to £80,000 sterling."

It is not the purpose of this Collection to enlarge on the history of the East India Company, any farther than by giving relations of its early voyages, so far as these have come down to us in the Pilgrims of Purchas, their only published record; and we now therefore proceed with such of these voyages as are contained in that curious collection, and seem to be worth including in this work.--E.