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A CART AT MADRAS. CHAPTER III CONSOLIDATION OF THE ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY 1690 - 1702 IN" India the last years of the seventeenth century had been for the English East India Company a period of not untroubled transition from a purely com- mercial system into a kind of elementary local self- government. The increasing weakness of the Moghul Empire doubled the risks and uncertainty of their trade ; producing constant alarms from the fighting that went on near their settlements, liability to plunder and inces- sant exactions, exposure to interference from inter- lopers, and danger of encroachment or attack from European rivals. They had now deliberately adopted the plan of endeavouring to rid themselves of depend- ence on the native authorities; and their agents were enjoined to spare no pains for improving their revenue. " The increase of our revenue," they wrote in 1690, " is the subject of our care as much as our trade; 'tis that must maintain our force when twenty acci- dents may interrupt our trade; 'tis that must make 56