East India Company Act 1697

LII. If the said £2,000,000, or a Moiety thereof, be subscribed on or before 29th Sept. 1698, all or any Persons entitled to particular Shares in the Principal Stock, may be incorporated into a Company, to trade with a Joint Stock,; by such proper Name as His Majesty shall think fit.

And be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid That if the said whole Sum of Two Millions or One Moiety or any greater Part thereof shall be subscribed on or before the said Nine and twentieth Day of September One thousand six hundred ninety eight and all or any Corporations or other Person or Persons having particular Shares or Interests in the principal Stock of the said General Society or in proportionable Annuities or Yearly Payments issuing out of the said Yearly Fund shall be willing and desireous to unite or joyn together such their several Shares and Interests and to to be incorporated so as they may be able to manage their Trade (in Proportion to their Interests) as a Company and by a joynt Stock that then it shall and may be lawful to and for His Majesty by Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England to incorporate all such Persons and and Corporations by such proper Name as His Majesty His Heires or Successors shall think fit to be One Company with Power to manage and carry on their Trade to the East Indies and other the Limits aforesaid by a joint Stock and to have a perpetual Succession and a common Seal and with Power to grant and take sue and be sued and to choose their own Managers or Directors and Officers from time to time and such other Powers and Clauses as shall be necessary or requisite for the carrying on of such Trade and shall be reasonable for His Majesty to grant Nevertheless such Company so to be created with Power to trade with a joynt Stock as aforesaid shall be restrained to such Proportion of the Trade in the whole as all the particular Members thereof would have been intituled to at the Rate before mentioned in case such new Company were not made And the Directors or Managers and other Members of the same shall be subject to such further Rules Qualifications and Appointments as His Majesty in their Charter shall think necessary or reasonable to be inserted.