Page:History of the French in India.djvu/90

68 THE RISE OF THE FRENCH POWER IN INDIA. J i 1 ^ p " ehery should be the exporter merely of her own -^—^ manufactures and the manufactures of the country in 1725. the immediate vicinity ; he would make her the emporium of the commerce of Southern India. The Government of Pondichery was not pecuniarily in a position, at the outset, to embark in the undertaking, although the Governor, Lenoir, regarded its execution as desirable, and eventually practicable. But this formed no bar to the prosecution of the plan by Dupleix. On the contrary, private trading being per- mitted by the Company, he was glad of an opportunity of showing the European residents of Pondichery, who were mostly clerks of the Company, how they might, by legitimate means, enrich themselves. Anything which could open out to them an independent position would tend to give them a higher interest in the country and in the prosperity of the settlement. He himself did not scruple to set a bold example, and to embark his fortune in the trade. The results were such as he had antici- pated. He speedily realised a very handsome return, and the knowledge of this had more effect than all his theories in inducing his fellow-countrymen to follow in his footsteps. Since the formation of the Perpetual Company of the Indies, the control of the Directors in Paris over their agents in Pondichery had become far more stringent and direct than it had been prior to 1720. Details were interfered with, regarding the proper management of which the Home Government could have no know- ledge, and the most arbitrary, and often ill-judged, orders were issued. These orders led to misunderstand- ings and dissensions, and it resulted from one of these, M. Lenoir being at the time Governor-General, that in the month of December, 1726, Dupleix was suspended from his office by order of the Directors. But, though offered a free passage to France, Dupleix determined to await in India the result of an appeal he at once