700 THE NATURE AND CAUSES OE

I

principally owing to the profusion and depredations of thosevery factors and agents; some of whom are said to have ac-quired great fortunes even in one year. In 1734, the com-pany petitioned the king, that they might be allowed to dis-pose of the trade and tonnage of their annual ship, on accountof the little profit which they made by it, and to accept ofsuch equivalent as they could obtain from the king of Spain .

In 1724, this company had undertaken the whale fishery.Of this, indeed, they had no monopoly; but as long as theycarried it on, no other British subjects appear to have engagedin it. Of the eight voyages which their ships made to Green-land , they were gainers by one, and losers by all the rest.After their eighth and last voyage, when they had sold theirships, stores, and utensils, they found that their whole loss,upon this branch, capital and interest included, amounted toupwards of two hundred and thirty-seven thousand pounds.

In 1722, this company petitioned the parliament to be al-lowed to divide their immense capital of more than thirty-three millions eight hundred thousand pounds, the whole ofwhich had been lent to government, into two equal parts:the one half, or upwards of sixteen millions nine hundredthousand pounds, to be put upon the same footing with othergovernment annuities', and not to be subject to the debts con-tracted, or losses incurred, by the directors of the company,in the prosecution of their mercantile projects; the otherhalf to remain as before, a trading stock, and to be subject tothose debts and losses. The petition was too reasonable notto be granted. In 1733, they again petitioned the parliament,that three-fourths of their trading stock might be turned intoannuity stock, and only one-fourth remain as trading stock, orexposed to the hazards arising from the bad management oftheir directors. Both their annuity and trading stocks had,by this time, been reduced more than two millions each, byseveral different payments from government; so that thisfourth amounted only to 3,GG2,784l. 8s. Gd. In 1748, allthe demands of the company upon the king of Spain , in con-sequence of the Assiento contract, were, by the treaty ofAix-la-Chapelle, given up for what was supposed an equi-valent. An end was put to their trade with the Spanish WestIndies , the remainder of their trading stock was turned intoan annuity stock, and the company ceased in every respect tobe a trading company.

It ought to be observed, that in the trade which the South