had acquired under charters first granted under Queen Elizabeth, it could surrender its powers with a good conscience, and with the proud knowledge that it had played a chief part in the raising of Great Britain from a small insular to a world-wide Power, and had won a great Empire for the Crown.
In the inception of the undertaking there had been no idea of acquiring sovereignty or territorial possessions. Trade and trade alone was the object. To export bullion or such goods as the East would take, and to bring back cargoes of spices and other produce which would fetch large prices in the London market, was the purpose for which the Company existed. It was not until 1615 that the Company, in which the Sovereign had hitherto manifested little interest beyond exacting as great a share as possible in the profits, received the first substantial assistance from the Government. James I. acceded to its petition that an ambassador should be sent from the Crown to the Great Mogul. Sir Thomas Roe was selected for the duty, and proved himself to be a worthy predecessor of the great diplomatists who have aided in building up the British power. He obtained substantial concessions—in the way of trade facilities—for the Company. His advice to those in whose interests he had been deputed is remarkable, as showing that leaning against territorial acquisition which has marked the policy of so many of the men who have governed India and who have added provinces to it under the Company and the Crown: 'To seek their profit at sea and in quiet trade, and not to affect garrisons and land wars in India.'
Such was Sir Thomas Roe's advice, which for the first half-century and more of its existence the Company, with short spasms of ambition, obviously inspired by Dutch example, studiously followed, striving after dividends, and setting its face against military enterprises.
How the rivalry of the several national companies and the utter absence of any respect for international
