In the year 1698, in consequence of complaints against the East India Company, and their inability to make any dividend, they thought it necessary to give in a statement of their property in India.  In this they asserted that they had acquired, solely at their own expence, revenues at Fort St. George, Fort St. David, and Bombay, as well as in Persia, and elsewhere, to the amount of 44,000_l_. per annum, arising from customs and licenses, besides a large extent of land in these places; they had also erected forts and settlements in Sumatra, and on the coast of Malabar, which were absolutely necessary to carry on the pepper trade; they had a strongfort in Bengal, and many factories, settlements, &c. in other places.  The result of the complaints against the Company was, that a new company was established this year; the two companies, however, united in the beginning of the eighteenth century.

We shall conclude our account of the state of English commerce during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with some more general and miscellaneous topics.

I. Exports.  In the year 1534, the total value of our exports did not exceed 900,000_l_. of the present value of our money:  the balance of trade was estimated at 700,000_l_.:  this arose principally from the very great exportation of woollen goods, tin, leather, &c., on which an export duty was laid, bringing in 246,000_l_.; whereas, the duty on imports did not produce more than 1700_l_.  In the year 1612, according to Missenden, in his Circle of Commerce, the exports to all the world amounted to 2,090,640_l_., and the imports to 2,141,151_l_.; on the latter, however, the custom duties are charged; the custom duties on the exports were 86,794_l_.; the impost paid outwards on woollen goods, tin, lead, pewter, &c. 10,000_l_.; and the merchants’ gains, freight, and other charges, to 300,000_l_.:—­if these be added to the value of the exports, the total amount will be 2,487,435_l_,—­ from which the imports, including custom duty on them, being deducted, leaves 346,283_l_.,—­which Missenden regards as the balance gained that year by the nation.  The principal articles of export have been enumerated:  the principal articles of import were silks, Venice gold and silver stuffs, Spanish wines, linen, &c.  At this time, London paid nearly three times as much for custom duties as all the rest of England together.  In the year 1662, according to D’Avenant, the inspector general of the customs, our imports amounted to 4,016,019_l_., and our exports only to 2,022,812_l_.; the balance against the nation being nearly two millions.  In the last year of the seventeenth century, according to the same official authority, there was exported to England from all parts, 6,788,166_l_.:  of this sum, our woollen manufactures were to the value of 2,932,292_l_.; so that there was an increase of our exports since 1662, of 4,765,534_l_.  The yearly average of all the merchandize imported from, and exported to the north of Europe, from Michaelmas, 1697, to Christmas, 1701, is exhibited in the following table: