such time-serving contracts, or bargains; and the like sum upon all brokers, agents, and scriveners, employed in transacting or writing the said contracts. By the same Statute also, (7th Geo. II. chap. 8.) a similar penalty is laid upon all persons contracting for the sale of stock of which they are not possessed at the time of such bargain; and 1001. upon every broker, or agent, employed in procuring the said bargain. HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE EAST-INDIA COMPANY, INCLUDING GENERAL PARTICULARS OF ITS TRADE, Government, POSSESSIONS, ESTABLISHMENTS, &c. TOGETHER WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE EASTINDIA HOUSE, AND ACCOUNTS OF THE COMPANY'S WAREHOUSES, AND OF THE EAST-INDIA DOCKS. That a commercial intercourse between the western parts of the world and the opulent regions of the East, was established in the very dawn of authentic history, may be inferred from the following notices in the Scriptural account of Joseph and his Brethren:-" And behold! a Company of Ishmaelites; which came from Gilead; (having their camels loaden with spicery, and balm, and myrrh;) were passing by, in order to go down into Egypt-there also passed by Medjanites, who were merchantmen. *" Independently of these passages, there are in the Mosaic writings various words of Sanscrit origin: they mention also, spices of different kinds, that grew exclusively on the Indian Continent, or Islands; and relate incidents that demonstrate a more familiar intercourse, and a greater extent of commercial dealings with India, than can now be proved by direct testimony. The presents made to King Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, or Sabæa, included precious stones and spices of superio quality ;† the latter could hardly have been obtained except by importation from the Spice Islands. In 2 P4 Genesis, Chap, xxxvii. v. 25 and 28. Chron. Chap. ix. ver. 9. In the more early ages the Sabaans were the principal medium of intercourse between the Eastern and the Western world.— The happy situation of Arabia Felix,* (now Aden,) their principal city and port, at the southern extremity of the Arabian peninsula, gave to them an exclusive command of this advanta geous commerce. They had even possessions in Africa; and it is not improbable but that Tyre itself, or the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean, had its rise and became a depôt of Oriental merchandize under the fostering protection of the Sabæan merchants. The southern Arabians long continued to be the principal commercial agents between the nations of the East and those of the West. The Egyptians received the rich merchandize of the Oriental nations immediately from Arabia; and all the more western nations were supplied by the Sidonians, Tyrians, and other Phoenicians, including the merchants of Carthage, and those of the little Island of Gadir, now Cadiz, who all obtained their Indian goods immediately from the merchants of South Arabia, who also supplied Syria and Mesopotamia by the navigation of the Euphratus, and by land caravans.† The subjection of the Phoenicians of Asia to the Macedonians' the foundation of the city of Alexandria, and the establishment of Ptolemy as King of Egypt, occasioned the opening of a new channel for commercial intercourse; till at length the emporium for the productions and manufactures of the East was removed from Arabia to Egypt; and after the subjection of that country by the Romans, Alexandria became the great commercial entrepot of the Roman dominions, and was scarcely inferior to the capitol itself in population and opulence, Оп • Arabia Felix, that is, the Happy or Fortunate, was so called, says the accurate author of the Peryplus of the Erythræan Sea, because "when as yet no person sailed from India to Egypt, neither had any one ventured to sail from Egypt as far as India, they procceded only to that City, which was a mart for the merchandize both of India and Egypt."-Peripl. Mar. Erythr. p, 156, ed. Blancardi. Macpherson's European Com. Intro, p. 2, On the downfall of the Roman Empire, the Arabians resumed their rank as the first commercial people in the western world, and being stimulated by the enthusiasm of a new religion, which held out Paradise as the sure reward of military prowess, they also became the greatest conquerors, and with most astonishing rapidity obtained lasting possession of many of the finest countries upon the surface of the globe. Their military ardour did not detach them from their commercial pursuits, but rather added new vigour to them. Their conquests enabled them to command the whole extent of the Mediterranean Sea, and also to assume the empire of the Indian ocean, and thereby to extend their commercial voyages far beyond the utmost limits of the navigation of their ancestors. On almost every shore of that ocean they either became the ruling people, or established Factories, and were in consequence enabled to command the commerce of silk, precious stones, pearls, spices, and other articles of luxurious expenditure.* Some historians have alleged that the East-Indies were known to Britain in very ancient times; and it is not improbable that such knowledge was first communicated by the Phoenicians during their trading for tin to the Cassiterides. At any rate it could not have been long deferred after the time that Britain became a Roman province. William of Malmsbury relates, that in the year 883, Sighelmus, Bishop of Sherborne in Dorsetshire, having been sent by King Alfred to Rome, with presents to the Pope, proceeded from thence to the East-Indies to visit the tomb of St. Thomas, at Meliapour, by which means the English nation had an early view of the riches of those countries in the spices and jewels that the Bishop brought back with him. During the continuance of the Crusades, or Holy Wars, as they have been impiously denominated, which, with some intermissions, lasted from the year 1095 to 1291, the communication with India was greatly interrupted, and Alexandria divested of nearly all its commercial consequence. The Crusaders, after • Macph. Euro. Com. In. p. 5. their their expulsion from Jerusalem in 1187, fixed their chief residence at St. Jean de Acre, a sea-port of Palestine, which thence became a distinguished emporium for Eastern goods; and, together with Constantinople, whither the productions of India were conveyed by the northern caravans, was much resorted to by the Merchants of Venice, Genoa, and other cities of Italy, who, at that time, were the principal conductors of the European branches of Oriental traffic. About the year 1300, according to Galvano,* the Soldan of Cairo gave orders that the merchandize of India should be carried through the Red Sea, as it formerly had been: it was chiefly from this circumstance that Alexandria regained its commercial pre-eminence, which it continued to preserve till after the discovery of the passage to the Fast-Indies by the Cape of Good Hope. This important discovery was made by Vasco da Gama, in the year 1497; and its immediate consequence was to give to Portugal, of which country Gama was a native, an almost exclusive command over the commerce with the East. Partly by treaty, but chiefly by force, the Portuguese soon acquired sovereignty over extensive districts, and formed numerous settlements on the coasts of the Peninsula of india, and the Eastern Islands. By these means, for nearly a century, they engrossed the greater part of the Asiatic trade, and deranged the ancient commerce of the Italian Republics. That of Venice was irreparably depressed as soon as it became generally known in the Western world, that the rich productions and manufactures of India could be had at much lower rates in Lisbon than in the former city; and Lisbon immediately became the resort of traders from every part of Europe. Still farther to augment their commerce, the Lisbon merchants exported their Indian goods to Antwerp, then the great entrepot between the north and south parts of Europe, where they met with traders from all the northern kingdoms, who, glad to see those costly articles brought so much nearer to them, • Chron. of Discoveries. |