Fresh freebooting expeditions.
The destruction of the Spanish Armada, somewhere about the close of Davis’s last attempt to discover a north-west passage to India, had rendered the voyage to that favoured land by way of the Cape of Good Hope a much less perilous undertaking than it had previously been. England had now become “Mistress of the seas,” and her people embraced the maritime position they had achieved in their characteristic manner. Many more freebooting expeditions were now launched than had previously been attempted. The fleets of Spain and Portugal having for the time been swept from the seas, the shipowners of London, who had lent their aid to destroy the Armada, quickly followed up the blow by an expedition on their own account against the country whose vessels of war they had destroyed. Other cities and towns, too, eagerly joined them in their daring adventures. Ipswich, Harwich, and Newcastle sent their quota of vessels, and Elizabeth herself, subscribing sixty thousand pounds, furnished six ships towards this very questionable expedition, the whole fleet numbering one hundred and forty-six vessels.[147] Not satisfied with ravaging the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and capturing a great number of the ships of the enemy, these too enterprising shipowners captured sixty sail of vessels belonging to the Hanse Towns destined for the Peninsula.
A private expedition of this character so deeply mortified the Spaniards that Elizabeth, though a very prominent participator in it, at first thought of releasing the vessels belonging to the Hanse Towns; but on ascertaining that the Hanseatic League meditated serious designs of revenge for the loss of their shipping privileges in England (having held a meeting at Lubeck to take hostile measures against England), she ordered the whole of the ships and property which had been captured to be condemned, with the exception of two of the smallest vessels, which were despatched to carry the unwelcome news to the Hanse Towns of the misfortunes of their comrades.
Voyage of Thomas Cavendish to India, 1591, which leads to the formation of the first English East India Company, in 1600.
Amid the many cruises now made in search of gain not the least important, however unfortunate, was the voyage undertaken to the East Indies by Thomas Cavendish[148] in 1591; its object, like most of the expeditions of the period, being to cruise against the Portuguese, who by this time had formed there important and valuable settlements, especially at Ormuz and along the coast of Malabar. Although his expedition proved a failure, the merchants of London ascertained from those who had been engaged in it, more fully than they had done from any previous navigators, the immense value of the Eastern trade and the vast profits realisable by its systematic development. Their representations urged the establishment of factories and the carrying on by such agencies a very extensive and lucrative trade. Each successive voyage added to the experience of the shipowning classes, and hence various private individuals undertook similar enterprises, incited, perhaps, as much by the love of adventure as by the hope of profit.
Such were the preludes to the East India Company, by far the largest and most important commercial undertaking recorded in history. Through Mr. Thorne, an English merchant, whom we have already noticed as resident at Seville while Cabot was chief pilot of Spain, a complete knowledge was obtained of the course of the Spanish and Portuguese trade with the East, as he furnished a report on this subject to certain merchants resident in London, many of whom had for some time considered the project of establishing direct relations of their own with India. Consequently in the year 1600, on the petition of Sir John Hart of London, Sir John Spencer, Sir Edward Micheburn, William Candish or Caundish, and more than two hundred other merchants, shipowners, and citizens of London, this great company was formed, having a common seal as a body corporate, under the title of the Governor and Company of merchants trading to the East Indies. The Company was allowed many powers and privileges by the Crown, including that of punishing offenders either in body or purse, provided the mode of punishment was not repugnant to the laws of England. Its exports were not subjected to any duties for the four first voyages, important indulgences were granted in paying the duties on imports, and liberty was given to export 30,000l. each voyage in foreign coin or bullion, provided 6,000l. of this sum passed through the Mint. But not exceeding six ships, and an equal number of pinnaces, with five hundred seamen, were allowed to be despatched annually to whatever station might be formed in India, with the additional provisoes that the seamen were not at the time required for the service of the royal navy, and that all gold or silver exported by the Company should be shipped at either London, Dartmouth, or Plymouth.[149]
First ships despatched by the Company.
The stipulated capital of 72,000l. having been raised, almost as soon as the association had been mooted, the Company equipped five vessels to open the trade, consisting of the Dragon, of six hundred tons, her commander, according to the practice of the day, receiving the title of “Admiral of the Squadron;” the Hector, of three hundred tons, with the vice-admiral in command; two vessels of two hundred tons each; and the Guest, a store ship of one hundred and thirty tons.[150] The men employed in this expedition were four hundred and eighty, all told; the cost of the vessels and their equipment, 45,000l., while their cargoes absorbed 27,000l., the whole of the remaining capital of the Company. They had on board twenty merchants as supercargoes, and were fully provided with arms and ammunition—an exceedingly necessary precaution in those days. The voyage proved successful; relations were formed with the king of Achin, in Sumatra, and a pinnace having been despatched to the Moluccas and a factory established at Bantam, the ships returned to England richly laden.
The Dutch also form an East India Company.
But the English East India Company soon found in their trade with India a much more formidable rival than either the Spaniards or Portuguese. The people of the Netherlands had long been successful navigators. They had for more than a century carried on a large and profitable commercial intercourse with England, and, at the commencement of the reign of Elizabeth, the value of the trade between the two countries was estimated at 2,400,000l. per annum, then considered so large that the merchants engaged in it were said to “have fallen into the way of insuring their merchandise against losses by sea by a joint contribution.”[151] This is the first notice of any mutual assurance association in England, though the principles and practice of insurance were probably known to the ancients, and would seem to be referred to in the compilation popularly known by the name of ‘The Rhodian Law.’