are the ancient merchant-adventurers
company, now commonly called the Hamburgh
company, the Russia company, the
Eastland company, the Turkey company, and
the African company.
The terms of admission into the Hamburgh
company are now said to be quite easy; and
the directors either have it not in their power
to subject the trade to any troublesome restraint
or regulations, or, at least, have not of
late exercised that power. It has not always
been so. About the middle of the last century,
the fine for admission was fifty, and at
one time one hundred pounds, and the conduct
of the company was said to be extremely
oppressive. In 1643, in 1645, and in 1661,
the clothiers and free traders of the west of
England complained of them to parliament,
as of monopolists, who confined the trade,
and oppressed the manufactures of the country.
Though those complaints produced no
act of parliament, they had probably intimidated
the company so far, as to oblige them to
reform their conduct. Since that time, at
least, there have been no complaints against
them. By the 10th and 11th of William III.
c. 6, the fine for admission into the Russia
company was reduced to five pounds; and by
the 25th of Charles II. c. 7, that for admission
into the Eastland company to forty shillings;
while, at the same time, Sweden, Denmark,
and Norway, all the countries on the
north side of the Baltic, were exempted from
their exclusive charter. The conduct of those
companies had probably given occasion to those
two acts of parliament. Before that time,
Sir Josiah Child had represented both these
and the Hamburgh company as extremely oppressive,
and imputed to their bad management
the low state of the trade, which we at
that time carried on to the countries comprehended
within their respective charters. But
though such companies may not, in the present
times, be very oppressive, they are certainly
altogether useless. To be merely useless,
indeed, is perhaps, the highest eulogy
which can ever justly be bestowed upon a regulated
company; and all the three companies
above mentioned seem, in their present
state, to deserve this eulogy.
The fine for admission into the Turkey
company was formerly twenty-five pounds
for all persons under twenty-six years of
age, and fifty pounds for all persons above
that age. Nobody but mere merchants could
be admitted; a restriction which excluded
all shop-keepers and retailers. By a bye-law,
no British manufactures could be exported
to Turkey but in the general ships
of the company; and as those ships sailed
always from the port of London, this
restriction confined the trade to that expensive
port, and the traders in those who lived in
London and in its neighbourhood. By another
bye-law, no person living within twenty
miles of London, and not free of the city
could be admitted a member; another restriction
which, joined to the foregoing, necessarily
excluded all but the freemen of London.
As the time for the loading and sailing of
those general ships depended altogether upon
the directors, they could easily fill them with
their own goods, and those of their particular
friends, to the exclusion of others, who, they
might pretend, had made their proposals too
late. In this state of things, therefore, this
company was, in every respect, a strict and
oppressive monopoly. Those abuses gave occasion
to the act of the 26th of George II. c.
18, reducing the fine for admission to twenty
pounds for all persons, without any distinction
of ages, or any restriction, either to mere merchants,
or to the freemen of London; and
granting to all such persons the liberty of exporting,
from all the ports of Great Britain,
to any port in Turkey, all British goods, of
which the exportation was not prohibited, upon
paying both the general duties of customs,
and the particular duties assessed for defraying
the necessary expenses of the company;
and submitting, at the same time, to the lawful
authority of the British ambassador and
consuls resident in Turkey, and to the bye-laws
of the company duly enacted. To prevent
any oppression by those bye-laws, it was
by the same act ordained, that if any seven
members of the company conceived themselves
aggrieved by any bye-law which should be
enacted after the passing of this act, they might
appeal to the board of trade and plantations
(to the authority of which a committee of the
privy council has now succeeded), provided
such appeal was brought within twelve months
after the bye-law was enacted; and that, if
any seven members conceived themselves aggrieved
by any bye-law which had been enacted
before the passing of this act, they might
bring a like appeal, provided it was within
twelve months after the day on which this act
was to take place. The experience of one
year, however, may not always be sufficient to
discover to all the members of a great company
the pernicious tendency of a particular
bye-law; and if several of them should afterwards
discover it, neither the board of trade,
nor the committee of council, can afford them
any redress. The object, besides, of the greater
part of the bye-laws of all regulated companies,
as well as of all other corporations, is
not so much to oppress those who are already
members, as to discourage others from becoming
so; which may be done, not only by a
high fine, but by many other contrivances.
The constant view of such companies is always
to raise the rate of their own profit as
high as they can; to keep the market, both
for the goods which they export, and for those
which they import, as much understocked as
they can; which can be done only by restraining
the competition, or by discouraging new