440 EARL Y EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
pany had effected an entrance into Bengal, and found theFrench , English , and Dutch merchants quite willing to tradewith it on their private account. But the German investmentswere made without experience, and the Embden Companywas before long sacrificed by the Prussian king to the exi-gencies of his European diplomacy.
The last nation of Europe to engage in maritime trade withIndia was Sweden . When the Ostend Company was sus-pended, a number of its servants were thrown out of em-ployment. Mr. Henry Koning, of Stockholm , took advantageof their knowledge of the East, and obtained a Charter for the‘Swedish Company,’ dated 13th June i73r. This Companywas reorganized in 1806, but did little; and, after manytroubles, disappeared from India .
Such is a summary of the efforts by European nations toobtain a share in the India trade. The Portuguese failed,because they attempted a task altogether beyond their strength;the conquest and the conversion of India . Their memorialsare the epic of the Lusiads, the death-roll of the Inquisition ,an indigent half-caste population, and three decayed patchesof territory on the Bombay coast. The Dutch failed on theIndian continent, because their trade was based on a mono-poly which it was impossible to maintain, except by great andcostly armaments. Their monopoly, however, still flourishesin their isolated island dominion of Java . The French failed,in spite of the brilliancy of their arms and the genius of theirgenerals, from want of steady support at home. Their ablestIndian servants fell victims to a corrupt court and a carelesspeople. Their surviving Settlements disclose that talent forcareful administration, which, but for French monarchs andtheir ministers and their mistresses, might have been displayedthroughout a wide Indian Empire.
The German Companies, whether Austrian or Prussian,were sacrificed to the diplomatic necessities of their royalpatrons in Europe ; and to the dependence of the German States in the wars of the last century upon the MaritimePowers. But the Germans have never abandoned thestruggle. The share in the Indian trade which Prussian Kingand Austrian Kaiser failed to grasp in the 18th century, hasbeen gradually acquired by German merchants in our ownday. An important part of the commerce of Calcutta andBombay is now conducted by German firms; German mer-