mpany
commenced to abuse shamefully the monopoly which it had been granted, by
inaugurating a system of plunder and oppression which is perhaps without
its equal in the annals of history. These growing abuses led to frequent
revolts and seriously imperiled England's dominion in these territories.

To remedy these evils, Parliament at the close of the seventeenth
century annulled the charter of the company and declared the commerce
with the East Indies open to all of the King's subjects. A number of
small companies were formed, but in 1702 they all combined and organized
the East India Company. Monopoly was again established, but the patience
of the natives was exhausted, and England's interests in Hindostan were
in a critical condition. At this juncture the East India Company adopted
a policy of moderation, and this, together with the aid which the
government gave to the company, enabled it to strengthen again its
weakened commercial relations and to further enlarge its territory. But
the temptation to abuse its power was too great for this strong
corporation to be long resisted. Abuses again crept into its management
and continued to grow until its charter was finally repealed.

The policy adopted by Great Britain for the government of her American
colonies during the eighteenth century was less rapacious, but scarcely
more just than that pursued in her eastern possessions. To retain those
colonies as commercial no less than as political dependencies,
Parliament enacted laws compelling their people to trade with the mother
country exclusively and laying restraint on their manufactures. But the
American pioneers felt that they had brought with them across the ocean
the rights of Englishmen; they objected to taxation without
representation, and the men who for opinion's sake had left comfortable
homes to brave upon a distant shore the dangers of frontier life were
prepared, if necessary, to emphasize their objection by armed
resistance. England, intent upon maintaining her barbaric system of
discriminative duties and commercial monopolies, blindly attempted
coercion, but the war which resulted wrested from the English crown its
brightest jewel, and the War of 1812 established upon American soil the
principle of industrial and commercial liberty.

It must not be supposed, however, that America and the United States in
particular have been free from monopolies growing out of the
transportation business. Nothing would be