Excerpt from England in 1835, Vol. 3 of 3: Being a Series of Letters Written to Friends in Germany, During a Residence in London and Excursions Into the Provinces In the year 1680 the first ships sailed for China; and in 1698 the Company obtained, for an annual tribute, the first piece of ground, on which Calcutta was afterwards built. But about the same time, a great dispute arose between the Company and the government, respecting loans and payments to the latter, and it was also injured by the competition of rivals, who formed a second trading company. Its shares fell to thirty-seven per cent. In 1708 the two companies were induced, chiefly through the influence of Lord Godolphin, to consolidate themselves into one. The history of its disputes, wars, conquests, commercial enter prises, revenue, expenditure, and debts, fills a mul titude of volumes, and even an abridgment of it cannot be given in a letter. It is, however, worth mentioning, for the explanation of the most recent events, that so long ago as in 1783, an opinion was entertained that the Company, which exercised a sovereign power over vast territories and various nations, required a different constitution. A bill, brought in by Mr. Fox, which paid little regard to the rights hitherto enjoyed by the Company, and would have transferred almost the whole power to the king's ministers, was rejected by the House of Lords but a different bill, introduced by Mr. Pitt, passed both houses in August, 1784. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.