Chapter XXIV: Appendix: III

PRIVATE TRADING BY THE COMPANY’S SERVANTS.

In the early days of the East India Company, its relations with its _employés_ were of a kind which seems very strange to modern ideas. Those in its service were expected to work at starvation wages, a usage which dated probably from the time when the Company (like others of its kind) was a mere association of adventurers for purposes of trade, each man investing what he could spare in the general fund, and receiving in return board and lodging and a small sum as pocket-money, until, on the termination of the adventure, the profits could be equally divided. Applied to a permanent undertaking, and to men who had no property to invest, but depended for their livelihood on what they could earn, this system was certain to break down, and the natural result was that the Company’s servants made use of the information they gained in their official capacity to engage in trade on their own account. The Company looked askance at this, but it was impossible to prevent private trading so long as a writer was forced to serve for five years for £10 a-year (about £30 of our money), and even a full merchant earned only £40 a-year. This penny-wise-and-pound-foolish policy was, nevertheless, persisted in, with the natural consequence that while the Company’s servants grew rich by means of private ventures, the Company’s own trade barely paid its expenses.