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Foundation for Empire (2)

The economics of the East India trade

An obvious aspect of mercantile activity, but one which will bear reiteration, is that the faster a merchant's capital is turned over, the smaller the amounts of money capital the merchant must employ. Conversely, the more slowly it is turned over, the larger this portion. The problems of the long-distance overseas trade were different from those in the domestic and European trades. The merchant's capital invested in his activities was employed for a much greater length of time, which increased the farther afield his ventures went. Furthermore, the greater distances put the investments at greater risk. The distances over which mercantile capital was employed thus became the material basis in the period of circulation. Watson 1980, p. 13

Watson defines primary costs as the direct payments made to purchase goods in Asia and bring them to market in London, and secondary costs as …

Foundation for Empire

Ian Bruce Watson's 1980 study Foundation for Empire: English private trade in India 1659 - 1760 is invaluable for researching the milieu of early India merchants like Thomas Pitt. Watson fits his detailed analysis into the broader context of the phenomenon of imperialism.

Empire

Where empire was seen to be the manifestation of a mixture of military might, cultural superiority, humanitarian zeal, and industrial supremacy, which was itself a central component of cultural superiority, theorists of empire began using the term imperialism, under which they subsumed the various component parts in hierarchies which suited their purposes. In effect, the '-ism' was used to explain the 'empire' in one way or another. It was not used to explain why it should have been that an empire could have been gained in the first place. The existence of empire was argued ex post facto, in terms which reflected the dominant political beliefs of …

Hume on the events of 1688

Stirrings of unease

The English, prepossessed against their sovereign, firmly believed, that he had concerted a project with Lewis [Louis XIV] for their entire subjection. Portsmouth, it was said, was to be put into the hands of that ambitious monarch: England was to be filled with French and Irish troops: and every man who refused to embrace the Romish superstition, was by these bigoted princes devoted to certain destruction.

[Footnote:] That there really was no new alliance formed betwixt France and England, appears both, from Sunderland’s Apology, and from D’Avaux’s Negotiations, lately published: see vol. iv. p. 18. Eng translation, 27th of September, 1687; 16th of March, 6th of May, 10th of August, 2d, 23d, and 24th of September, 5th and 7th of October, 11th of November, 1688.

These suggestions were every where spread abroad, and tended to augment the discontents of which both the fleet and …

The case of Sir Basil Firebrace

Source

Pamphlet, A collection of the debates and proceedings in Parliament, in 1694 and 1695. Upon the inquiry into the late briberies and corrupt practices, published anonymously in 1695.

Corrupt MPs

This pamphlet tells the tale of the large-scale corruption practised by the East India Company in the 1680s and 90s. But it opens with a caustic preface reminiscing about the heady days of corrupt Parliamant in the 1670s under Charles II, when MPs were more or less openly treated and paid for their votes:

Then was the time when an hungry Member was sure of a dinner at one or other of the public tables kept about Westminster to feed the betrayers of their country. The Practice was, that besides a dinner, when they had done any eminent piece of service, every one found under his plate such a parcel of guineas as it was thought his day's work …

Extracts from 1689 HOC Journal

Extracts from the 1689 House of Commons Journal concerning complaints against the East India Company.

25 May

And the Counsel for the East India Company delivered in a Narrative of the Rebellion, or Tumult, which happened 21 October 1684, dated at St. Helena, 27 December 1684

8 June

Resolved that those who ordered martial law at St Helena (the Company refusing to reveal who had signed the order) not be covered by the general act of indemnity for these crimes.

13 July

Petition of Martha Bolton, Widow, was read; setting forth, That George Sheldon, her Brother, and one Gabriel Powell, Two of the Nine Persons condemned by Martial Law at Sancta Hellena, having, in December last, delivered to one Captain Dore, (then coming for England), a Petition to the late King James; setting forth, The ill Usage they had from the East India Company, and their Agents; whereof as soon …