Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 2
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Chapter XXIII: Leadenhall Street and the Old East India House.Nathaniel Bentley of Leadenhall Street Leadenhall Street (Tallis) Michi and Bazin's Leadenhall Street
Chapter XXIII: Leadenhall Street and the Old East India House.Nathaniel Bentley of Leadenhall Street Leadenhall Street (Tallis) Michi and Bazin's Leadenhall Street
says an historian of the great Company, but the tradition of the house is, that it was in the great room of the opposite Bishop'sgate Church, where there is now a Quakers' Meeting House. The maps of London constructed soon after the Great Fire place the in , on a part of its present site. It is probably [extra_illustrations.2.183.6] in the , surmounted by a huge, square-built mariner, and thick dolphins. In the indenture of conveyance of the dead stock of the Company, dated , we find that Sir William Craven, of Kensington, in the year , leased to the Company his large house in , and a tenement in , for years, at a year. Upon the site of this house what is called the old was built in ; and several portions of [extra_illustrations.2.183.7] long remained, although the subsequent front, and great part of the house, were added in , by Mr. Jupp. | |
[extra_illustrations.2.183.8] was feet in length, and was of stone. The portico was composed of large Ionic fluted columns on a raised basement, and it gave an air of much magnificence to the whole, although the closeness of the street made it somewhat gloomy. The pediment was an emblematic sculpture by Bacon, representing the commerce of the East protected by the King of Great , who stood in the centre of a number of figures, holding a shield stretched over them. On the apex of the pediment rose a statue of Britannia. Asia, seated on a dromedary, was at the left corner, and Europe, on horseback, at the right. | |
says a writer in Knight's describing the old in , | |
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Our trade with India may date its real commencement from the last day of the century, when London merchant adventurers, elated by the capture of a Portuguese ship laden with Indian gold, pearls, spices, silks, and ivory, obtained a charter to trade with Hindostan for years. King James, with some reluctance (being, no doubt, tampered with by courtiers), renewed the charter, in , providing that it might be recalled on years' notice from the Crown. In , after voyages had been made to the East Indies, the whole capital subscribed, amounting to , was united, and the management taken out of the hands of the original managers. The Company suffered at from the ordinary rapacity and injustice of the Stuarts. In (James I.), just as a fleet was starting for India, the Duke of Buckingham (then High Admiral) refused to allow it to sail till the Company had paid up a disputed Admiralty claim of , and claimed by the king. In , Charles I., breaking the charter, allowed a Captain Weddell, for some heavy bribe, to trade to India for years. In , the same unjust king compelled the Company (on bonds never entirely paid) to sell him their whole stock of Indian pepper in their warehouses, which he instantly re-sold at a lower price, at an eventual loss of . In the Republican Government, nobly antagonistic to royal monopolies, from which the people had so long groaned, under both the Tudors and the Stuarts, threw the trade to India entirely open, but the Company was reinstated in its power years afterwards. In , Charles II. (no doubt for a pretty handsome consideration) granted the Company a fresh charter, with the new and great privilege of making peace or war. Now the Company's wings began to grow in earnest. In , Madras was made a presidency; in , Bombay was ceded to England by the Portuguese, who gave it to Charles as part of the dower of poor ill-starred Catherine of Braganza; and in Calcutta was purchased by the ambitious traders, who now began to feel their power, and the possibilities of their new colony. From to there were great disputes as to whether the king or Parliament had the right of granting trade charters; and on William III. granting the Company (rich enough now to excite jealousy) a new charter for years, an angry inquiry was instituted by the Tories, who discovered that the Company had distributed among the chief officers of state. A prorogation of Parliament dropped the curtain on these shameful disclosures. | |
In the old Company was dissolved, and a new Company (which had outbid the old in bribes) was founded, rivalled, in , by the old Company, which had obtained a partial resumption of its powers. In , however, the Companies, which had only injured each other, were united, and called a title which it retained till its trading privileges were abolished, in . On the renewal of the charter in (George III.), the Government made important | |
p.185 | changes in the charter, and required all despatches to be submitted to them before they were forwarded to India. The Government was already jealous of the imperial power of a Company which had the possibility of conquering millions of people. In the blow indeed came, with the establishment of the , says a well-informed writer on the subject, of the time being. In private merchants were allowed to export goods in the Company's ships, another big slice out of the cake. By the year the private trading had begun to exceed, in value of goods, those carried by the Company. In an Act was passed to enable the Company to retain power until , but abolishing the China monopoly, and all trading. This was cutting off the legs of the Company, and, in fact, preparing it for death. Their warehouses and most of their property were then sold, and the dividend was to be per cent., chargeable on the revenues of India, and redeemable by Parliament after the year . The amount of dividend guaranteed by the Act was , being per cent. on a nominal capital of . The real capital of the Company was estimated, in , at upwards of , including cash, goods, and buildings, and as the estimated value of the and the Company's warehouses, the prime cost of the latter having been . The Company was henceforth to be entitled the East India Company, and its accounts were to be annually laid before Parliament. The old privileges of the Company were now limited. |
The General Court of Proprietors was formerly composed of the owners of India stock. After no who had less than stock could vote. Later still, the qualification was lowered to , and the greatest holders had ho more. By the last law (that of ) the possession of only gave vote; , ; , ; and the greatest number allowed--namely, . The Court of Proprietors elected the Court of Directors, framed bye-laws, declared the dividends, and controlled grants of money above , and additions to salary above . Latterly the functions of this general court were entirely deliberative, and the vote was by ballot. In there were members of the Court of Proprietors. The meetings in old times were very stormy, and even riotous; the debates virulent. In , Clive, as unscrupulous as he was brave, laid out in India stock, to introduce nominees of his own, who would vote at his pleasure. The directors were then appointed annually; latterly they were elected for years, retiring yearly, and the chairman and deputy-chairman, who communicated with the Government, did the greater part of the work. | |
The , established by the Act of , was nominated by the Crown, and (after ) consisted of an unlimited number of members, all of whom, except , were to be of the Privy Council, including the principal Secretaries of State and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. only of the commissioners were paid, and all changed with the Ministry. They had supreme power to keep or send despatches; had access to all books, accounts, papers, and documents in the , orders, or secret despatches; and communicated with the Secret Committee. | |
In old times employed nearly men in its warehouses, and, before the trade with India closed, kept more than clerks to transact the business of this greatest company that the world had ever seen. The military department superintended the recruiting and storing of the Indian army. There was a shipping department, a master-attendant's office, an auditor's office, an examiner's office, an accountant's office, a transfer office, and a treasury. The buying office governed the warehouses, and so worked the home market, having often in store some million pounds weight of tea, lbs. being sometimes sold in day, at the annual tea sales. The tea and indigo sales were bear-garden scenes. | |
The despatches and letters from India poured ceaselessly into the . From to they. made large folio volumes; while from to , the number increased to folios. In a debate on East India matters, in , Canning mentioned, in eulogy of the Company's clever and careful clerks, that he had known military despatch accompanied by papers, and containing altogether pages. These were the men who had heard of Clive and Warren Hastings, and remembered that Macaulay had spoken of Indian writers as fallen from their high estate, because then () they could only expect, at , to return to England with a year pension and of savings. They never forgot, we may be sure, that India yielded in taxes. | |
It must never be forgotten, in describing the old , that that most delightful of all our humourists, Charles Lamb, was a patient, humble, and plodding clerk at its desks for years. he used to say, with his quaint stutter, His half painful feelings of pleasure on at last regaining his freedom, he has himself beautifully described; and in of the best of his essays he has sketched the most fantastic of his fellow-clerks. James Mill, the learned author of the and worthy Hoole, the heavy translator of were also clerks in the . | |
In , in consequence of the break--up occasioned by the mutiny, and the disappearance of the Company's black army, the government of the vast Indian empire was transferred to the Crown; the was abolished, and a Council of State for India was instituted. The Queen was proclaimed in all the great Indian cities, as | |
the successor to poor old dead-and-gone . The , in , was sold with the furniture in , and pulled down in . The handsome pile of the East India Chambers now occupies its site, and the museum was transferred to . | |
The Council of India now consists of members, at a year each, payable, together with the salary of the Secretary of State, out of the revenue of India. The old directors received a year each, and for their At of the council were appointed by the Queen, and by the Court of East India Directors, from their own body. In | |
p.187 p.188 | future, vacancies in the Council will be filled up by the Secretary of State for India. |
At the in , Peter Anthony Motteux, a clever but rather unprincipled dramatic writer of the beginning of the eighteenth century, kept an , for the sale of Japan wares, fans, tea, pictures, arrack, rich brocades, Dutch silks, Flanders lace and linens. Such houses were then often used by fashionables as places of assignation. Motteux was a Protestant refugee from Rouen. He wrote or translated plays, including some of Moliere's; produced a tragedy called translated and and was eventually found murdered on his birthday, -, in a notorious house in Star Court, , . Steele inserts a letter in the , No. , professedly written by Motteux, and calling attention to his shop. | |
The following fragment of a song of Motteux's, taken from , a translation of , has always seemed to us full of spirit and French gaiety:--
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, , is supposed to have got its name from lime having been once upon a time sold there. It was a street rendered famous, in the time of Pepys, by the great robbery committed by an old rascally Cavalier colonel on his friend Tryan, a rich merchant. Under date of the -, that omnivorous news-collector, Pepys, records:-- On the , which was Sunday, Pepys goes on: On the next day it is added, And so he was. When the old Cavalier was on the ladder he related all his exploits in the wars, and, before he was turned off he kissed his hand to some ladies at a window near. | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.2.183.6] the house, of which a unique plate is preserved [extra_illustrations.2.183.7] this old house [extra_illustrations.2.183.8] The facade of the old building |
