once more strongly against the traders. Apart from this unfortunate episode the times were not at this period propitious for the China trade. "Interlopers" had become a source of serious anxiety to the Company. On the one hand they made things difficult in China by submitting to exactions; on the other they injured sales at home by flooding the market with goods at low rates. The Court, writing to Madras in October, 1690, thus explained the situation: "China goods of all sorts are in very low esteem here; we sell them cheaper than ever we did in times of peace. That trade hath been much overlaid of late and must be declined for a while to recover its reputation. Lacqd ware of Tonquin is a great drugg and so is Thea except it be superfine, and comes in pots, tubs or chests that give it no ill scent of the oyl, or any other matter. The custom upon Thea here is about five shillings p. pound, whereas a mean sort of Thea will not sell for above two shillings or two shillings and sixpence (p. pound)." In another communication of a somewhat earlier period the Court, depressed by the failure of their projects in the Far East, made a novel suggestion to their agents at Madras: "We have," they wrote, "no kind of thoughts of spending any part of the Company's stock in any new port or factory at present, except upon the generalls arrivall he and you should resolve to settle some place in or near the South Seas, where the Chineeses may resort to and cohabit with us (without passing by Mallacca or Batavia) under the protection of our fortification and plant sugars and Betlenut, keep shops, and do all other business as they do under the Dutch at Batavia, for which we should be content to allow them our encouragement and protection, paying us one fourth part in all respects of what they pay the Dutch, and we should order all our China ships to stop there going and returning for encouragement of the place." This proposal was not acted upon, but the entry is interesting as an indication that the Company so far back as the end of the seventeenth century grasped the importance of the possession of great entrepôts such as Singapore and Hongkong afterwards became.
The Company's fight against trade rivals at this period was of such a character as to leave it little energy for any fresh adventures. A new charter was under consideration by Parliament, and pending its issue "interlopers" were everywhere active, doing their best to capture trade which the Company regarded as its own. How bitterly the Court resented these rival efforts is to be seen in the following order which was issued in reference to trade in the early part of 1693: "We have and do continue and confirm our indulgence for all Bengall and China goods to be sent home by the Armenians and all English merchants, our owne servants and all other persons whatsoever upon the same terms of consignment and indulgence as last yeare; it being of absolute necessity for us so to do untill our Charter be thoroughly settled by Act of Parliament, without which permission and indulgence during the Company's unsettlement it will be impossible soe to curb the avaritious corrupt nature of mankind but that some officers of our owne ships or others of our servants will be tempted secretly at least to assist and countenance interlopers for the very end of sending home by the interloping ships goods prohibited by our Charter Partys—notwithstanding any oaths or other obligations they have entered into to us."
The Company secured its new charter in October, 1693. Under it its exclusive privileges were extended for a period of twenty-one years, and it was empowered to add £744,000 to its stock. The powers conferred brought a welcome addition of strength to the Company, but they did not set the trade of the Far East free from the baneful influence of the wicked interloper. When the Court was despatching the ship Trumball to Amoy, in 1697, it gave the supercargo specific instructions to hasten the voyage so as to anticipate a Mr. Gough who was sending out an interloping ship or two. "And if between you," they said, "you could secure to yourselves Amo, or whoever else you find the most considerable merchants on the place by such apt ways, and means, as to hinder his, or their, assisting the interlopers, it will be a very commendable and dexterous piece of service, which we think should not be a very difficult thing to effect, if you can make him or them rightly sensible that the Company are a permanent lasting body, likely to continue, having settlements in diverse parts of India and their friendship worth courting and preserving; whereas the interlopers are a sort of licentious people whose interests often thwart one another, at least run in different channells, and are likely never to come thither again, after having once made a voyage." The interlopers continued to give trouble for long afterwards, and complications were added by "country" ships from India attempting to cut into the trade. The latter class of rivals, however, burnt their fingers so severely over their enterprises, owing to the exactions to which they were subjected, that they speedily dropped out of the running. Meanwhile, the Court, with intent to secure a new trading centre in the China seas, opened up negotiations with the King of Cochin China, for the establishment of a factory in his dominions. This was not the first attempt of the Company to obtain a lodgment in Cochin China. Early in the century a factory had been established in the King's territory, but its life was brief and its end tragic. After numerous disputes with the native officialdom the chief agent one day openly resented the extortions practised upon him. A fight ensued, which resulted in the massacre of the entire establishment. Those were days when British prestige was at a very low ebb, and the outrage went unavenged. More than this, with the story staining its records, the Company, eighty years later, on a hint from the then King, was ready to cringe for favours which His High Mightiness might be pleased in his great condescension to extend to it. In acknowledging a letter from the monarch inviting the Company to trade, Mr. Nathaniel Higginson, the president at Madras, in a strain of exaggerated hyperbole, commended His Majesty for his liberality. The King's ancestors, the letter said, had forbidden trade, but their "luster was confined within their own bounds," but now His Majesty's fame "like the sun would shine throughout the world." Not to be outdone in flattery, the King thus responded; "Supreme Governours and Princely Councillour, who represents ye chief person of ye Western axis, which receives its name from ye Northern Pole hanging over it—the English who perfectly understand whatsoever is contained in ye Book of ye 6 Sheaths and ye Three Orations, so called among us, and containing wholesome doctrine—who have ye strength and courage of ye Bear, ye Tigre and ye Panther—who industriously nourish ye military art, and perfectly understand not only ye Heavens, but ye earth, ye wind, ye clouds and ye airy regions—whose understanding reaches ye sun, and whose hands are able to sustain ye firmament—who are so very carefull in choosing governors and ruling their subjects; in ye protecting of their people, in giving honour to great and worthy men, in kindness to foreigners—and although ye distance from us hinders our personall conversation, yet our minds are never separated from you in esteem and affection." He proceeded to say that the season was now past for trade, but that if the ship returned next year all requests would be freely granted, and thus would be introduced "a new method of trade, that making use of ye riches that are under Heaven, we may gain ye love of all ye nations of ye Northern and Southern climates."
The reception accorded to the Company's agents was hardly in accord with the unctuously friendly tone of the letter. On arrival off the coast they landed and were entertained at the hut of a fisherman "with boiled snake and black rice." After a considerable delay they were carried across the river to "ye Barre Towne" where they were received by a great company of armed men. After some general questions they were told to stand up, in order, says the factor's narrative, "that their men might feel us (it being their custom) which they did examining our pockets … as if they searched for diamonds, &c. A Common Prayer Book and other of like bulk, they must know what was writt in them, and what language with many other impertinences." Eventually the visitors were allowed to depart, but an order was given, and had to be obeyed, for the unloading of the ship in order that the cargo might be inspected. The King took what goods he wanted, but the Company was not much better off for the transactions because of the action of "certain Japaners," who priced the goods sold low in their own interests. Here for the moment we must leave the Cochin China enterprise. There was an interesting sequel, but before we come to that we must deal with a rather important development in the China trade. This was the despatch in 1698–99 by the English East India Company, as distinguished from the London Company, of the first ship sent direct to China by them. This vessel, the Macclesfield galley, arrived off Macao on August 26, 1699. Soon after the anchor had been dropped a Canton merchant, Sheamea by name, came on board and offered to take the entire cargo. It subsequently proved that his overtures were part of a conspiracy amongst the Cantonese traders to keep down prices. How the affair was worked is described in this interesting passage from the ship's journal; "Sheamea on his departure desired us to try the market and we would then finde that his offers were the best; this was part of the plot, they having agreed to bandy us about from one party to the other, and that each should offer less than the other for our goods, and advance the price of their own, till at last we should be glad to agree with Sheamea who was to make the best offers and finish the contract, in which each party was to have their determined shares. The existence of this combination was further demonstrated by the following circumstances, viz.—Having some suspicion we privately marked the silks and found that all the parties produced the same musters—one party mentioning what another party had enjoined as a secret, and on our going to visit one of them we found them all in consultation, which with other concurring circumstances left no doubt of the combination."
