The gains of the body which had the exclusive possession of this fast growing trade were almost incredible.  The capital which had been actually paid up did not exceed three hundred and seventy thousand pounds; but the Company could, without difficulty, borrow money at six per cent., and the borrowed money, thrown into the trade, produced, it was rumoured, thirty per cent.  The profits were such that, in 1676, every proprietor received as a bonus a quantity of stock equal to that which he held.  On the capital, thus doubled, were paid, during five years, dividends amounting on an average to twenty per cent. annually.  There had been a time when a hundred pounds of the stock could be purchased for sixty.  Even in 1664 the price in the market was only seventy.  But in 1677 the price had risen to two hundred and forty-five; in 1681 it was three hundred; it subsequently rose to three hundred and sixty; and it is said that some sales were effected at five hundred.159

The enormous gains of the Indian trade might perhaps have excited little murmuring if they had been distributed among numerous proprietors.  But while the value of the stock went on increasing, the number of stockholders went on diminishing.  At the time when the prosperity of the Company reached the highest point, the management was entirely in the hands of a few merchants of enormous wealth.  A proprietor then had a vote for every five hundred pounds of stock that stood in his name.  It is asserted in the pamphlets of that age that five persons had a sixth part, and fourteen persons a third part of the votes.160 More than one fortunate speculator was said to derive an annual income of ten thousand pounds from the monopoly; and one great man was pointed out on the Royal Exchange as having, by judicious or lucky purchases of stock, created in no long time an estate of twenty thousand a year.  This commercial grandee, who in wealth and in the influence which attends wealth vied with the greatest nobles of his time, was Sir Josiah Child.  There were those who still remembered him an apprentice, sweeping one of the counting houses of the City.  But from a humble position his abilities had raised him rapidly to opulence, power and fame.  At the time of the Restoration he was highly considered in the mercantile world.  Soon after that event he published his thoughts on the philosophy of trade.  His speculations were not always sound; but they were the speculations of an ingenious and reflecting man.  Into whatever errors he may occasionally have fallen as a theorist, it is certain that, as a practical man of business, he had few equals.  Almost as soon as he became a member of the committee which directed the affairs of the Company, his ascendency was felt.  Soon many of the most important posts, both in Leadenhall Street and in the factories of Bombay and Bengal, were filled by his kinsmen and creatures.  His riches, though expended with ostentatious profusion, continued to increase and multiply.  He obtained a baronetcy; he purchased a stately seat at Wanstead; and there he laid out immense sums in excavating fishponds, and in planting whole square miles of barren land with walnut trees.  He married his daughter to the eldest son of the Duke of Beaufort, and paid down with her a portion of fifty thousand pounds.161