were given in the name and by the authority of the governor,
deputy governor, and committees of the Company of Merchants of London
trading to the East Indies.

The whole commerce of the company was now a joint concern, and the
embarrassing principle of trading on separate ventures came to an end.
Experience had amply demonstrated that detached equipments exposed the
whole trade to danger in the East, in their efforts to establish trade.
The first twelve voyages were, therefore, regarded in the light of an
experiment to establish a solid commerce between England and India.

Upon such terms the period known as the first joint stock was entered
upon, which comprised four voyages between the years 1613 and 1616. The
purchase, repair, and equipment of vessels during these four years
amounted to two hundred seventy-two thousand five hundred forty-four
pounds, which, with the stock and cargoes, made up the total sum raised
among the members at the beginning of the period, viz., four hundred
twenty-nine thousand pounds.

Under this new system Captain Downton was given command of the fleet, in
the company's merchantmen, the New Year's Gift, thus named because it
had been launched on January 1st--an armed ship of five hundred fifty
tons--and three other vessels. Downton went equipped with legal as well
as military implements. King James made him master of the lives of the
crews, and empowered him to use martial law in cases of
insubordination.

"We are not ignorant," said the monarch, in the royal commission which
he vouchsafed to the company's commander, "of the emulation and envy
which doth accompany the discovery of countries and trade, and of the
quarrels and contentions which do many times fall out between the
subjects of divers princes when they meet the one with the other in
foreign and far remote countries in prosecuting the course of their
discoveries." Consequently Captain Downton was warned not to stir up bad
blood among the nations, but if he should be by the company's rivals
unjustly provoked he was at liberty to retaliate, but not to keep to
himself any spoils he might take, which were to be rendered account of,
as by ancient usage, to the King.

Before Downton could reach his destination, the chief energies of the
company's agents in India appear to have been bent upon forming a series
of exchanges between the west coast and the factory at Bantam. The
little band of servants at the new factory at Surat, headed