Crispe found it impossible to prevent the ships of the Royal Company from transgressing the regions mentioned in his charter. About the time at which his charter expired (June 25, 1662), he agreed to transfer all his interests in the fortifications at Kormentine and elsewhere to the Royal Adventurers. Although this agreement has not been found, there was apparently nothing in it which bound the company to remunerate Crispe and his associates, because later, August, 1662, he petitioned the king for compensation for the forts and lodges which had been transferred to the Royal Adventurers. At first the king was favorable to Crispe's request in view of the service which he had rendered in building up the Guinea trade.[20] Later, neither the king nor the Royal Adventurers seem to have paid any attention to Crispe's plea for compensation.[21]
In later years the report was persistently spread that at the time when the agreement was made with Crispe the Privy Council had ordered the Royal Adventurers to pay him £20,000 in lieu of all his interests on the coast, and that the company had "seemed to acquiesce" in the order.[22] It does not seem possible that this assertion can be true in view of the foregoing facts, and of the absolute lack of mention of any such thing in the books of the company. Over a year later, August 15, 1664, Crispe presented a paper of an unknown character to which the court of assistants refused to give any notice.[23] It seems likely that this paper had nothing to do with the African forts, but that it was submitted in connection with a controversy over some African goods, which were said to belong to the members of Crispe's company[24]. The entire lack of any other evidence of trouble between Crispe and the company leads one to think that no contract for such compensation was ever made[25]. Moreover, that he was not averse to the success of the Royal Adventurers is shown by the fact that he himself subscribed £2,000 in 1663 to the stock of the company[26].
It is unnecessary to follow in detail the number of ships which were fitted out for the company's trade after it received its second charter in January, 1663. Suffice it to say that very active measures were undertaken, especially by the duke of York, who faithfully attended the weekly meetings of the court of assistants which were held in his apartments at Whitehall. The earl of Clarendon voiced the sentiments of these enthusiastic courtier-merchants when he said that, providing all went well, the Company of Royal Adventurers would "be found a Model equally to advance the Trade of England with that of any other company, even that of the East-Indies[27]."
If this prediction was to be realized it was necessary to have a greater stock than the first and second subscriptions had provided. Therefore a public declaration was issued inviting any of the king's subjects in England to subscribe for shares of not less than four hundred pounds each, one-half of each share to be paid by December 1, 1663, and the other one-half by March 1, following. The conditions of subscription provided that seven years after the first date, a committee from the adventurers should be chosen to make a fair valuation of the stock of the company. Each shareholder was then to be allowed to receive the value of his stock in money if he so desired. Thereafter this action was to be repeated every three years with the same privileges of withdrawal from the company.[28] Later, as a means of inducing those with smaller means to subscribe for stock, the company permitted subscriptions as small as fifty pounds, providing they were paid within eight days. Whenever any person subscribed more than four hundred pounds, he was allowed to pay the excess in eight quarterly payments beginning with the 24th of June, 1663.[29] By offering these inducements the third subscription amounted to £34,000 divided among about forty-five shareholders.[30]
On the 25th of August of the same year, however, it was necessary to seek for a fourth subscription which amounted to £29,000,[31] payment of which could be made in eight quarterly sums if desired. For all those who would pay the third and fourth subscriptions promptly, a discount of ten per cent, was offered. By these four subscriptions the stock of the company appeared on September 4, 1663, to be £102,000.[32] Of this amount it is probable that about £57,425 had been paid, which left unpaid subscriptions amounting to £44,775.[33] In addition to the money obtained by the sale of shares the company had borrowed about £21,000. With the money obtained from these two sources approximately twenty-five ships were sent to the coast of Africa from December, 1662, to September, 1663.[34] From these voyages there were very unsatisfactory returns, and the company again found itself in a critical financial condition.
This unfortunate situation was largely the result of opposition, which its ships and factors had encountered from the Dutch West India Company on the coast of Guinea. For a long time this opposition bade fair to prevent the company from obtaining a share in the African trade. In view of this situation the king dispatched Sir Robert Holmes upon a second expedition to Africa in 1663 with orders to protect the company's rights. As a further means of encouragement Charles II ordered all gold imported from Africa by the Royal Company to be coined with an elephant on one side, as a mark of distinction from the coins then prevalent in England.[35] These coins were called "Guineas"; they served to increase the reputation and prestige of the company. Moreover, the king with many of his courtiers made important additions to their stock in the third and fourth subscriptions.[36]
From September 4, 1663, to the following March there are no records of the company, but a petition of the adventurers to the king in March, 1664,[37] shows that notwithstanding its financial difficulties the company had during the previous year sent to Africa forty ships and goods to the value of £160,000.[38] To follow the company's financial history from this time on is a difficult task in view of inadequate sources. In the balance sheet of September 4, 1663, the company's stock was entered as £102,000 and its debts as about £21,000. When the news of Holmes' great success on the Gold Coast began to arrive in England, the company increased its preparations to open an extensive African trade. Therefore on May 10, 1664, an attempt was made to collect the unpaid stock subscriptions, and an invitation was extended to all members to lend one hundred pounds to the company for each share of four hundred pounds which they held. Notwithstanding the bright prospects which the company had at this time, its strenuous attempt to raise the loan produced only £15,650.[39]
In September, 1664, an attempt was made to increase the stock of the company by £30,000. Although the duke of York and many others added to their shares on this occasion,[40] only £18,200 was subscribed.[41] By this addition the stock of the Royal Adventurers amounted to £120,200 at about which sum it remained during the remainder of the company's history.[42]
Although the company had not obtained as much money as had been hoped for in the last subscription, it anticipated great success in its trade, until vague rumors began to circulate that Admiral DeRuyter had been sent to Africa to undo the conquest made by Captain Holmes. In the last part of December, 1664, these rumors were confirmed. In a petition to the king of January 2, 1665[43], the company declared that its trade had already increased to such an extent that over one hundred ships were employed, and that a yearly return of from two to three hundred thousand pounds might reasonably be expected[44].
On account of the injuries inflicted by DeRuyter on the African coast much of the anticipated loss of goods and vessels was realized. In all, the company lost the cargoes of eight ships; of the forts only Cape Corse remained. Under these ruinous circumstances it was not thought advisable to dispatch at once the goods which had been accumulated at Portsmouth[45]. Accordingly the company's vessels were unloaded and several of them were taken into the King's service.[46] The duke of York used what little money was on hand to apply on the company's debt in order that the company's expenses from interest might be reduced.[47] Because of the Anglo-Dutch war and the fact that the company had no money, it could do nothing but send an occasional ship to Africa loaded with some of the goods left at Portsmouth. From this time on the company's trading activity was confined to such scattered voyages.[48]