East India Company Act 1697

LI. If £2,000,000, or a Moiety thereof, be subscribed on or before 29th Sept. 1698.; Subscribers, their Executors, Successors, or Assigns, and all Persons licensed by them, may trade to the East Indies, &c.

None to trade by himself or others, in any one Year (to be computed from 29th Sept. 1698) for more than the Amount of his Stock.

And be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid That in case the said whole Sum of Two Millions or one Moiety or any greater Part of the said Sum of Two Millions shall be subscribed as aforesaid on or before the said Nine and twentieth Day of September. One thousand six hundred ninety eight that then and from thenceforth all and every the Person and Persons Natives and Foreigners Bodies Politick and Corporate by or for whome such Subscriptions shall be made and all and every Person and Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate who as Executors Administrators Successors or Assigns or by any other lawful Title derived or to be derived from or under the said original Subscribers at any time or times hereafter shall have or be intituled to any Part Share or Interest of and in the Yearly Fund by this Act settled as aforesaid and of and in a proportionable Part of the principal Stock of the said General Society so long as they respectively shall continue to have any Part Share or Interest therein and all and every Person and Persons who for any time shall be licensed by such Person or Persons Bodies Politick or Corporate to trade in the stead of them or any of them shall and lawfully may for ever hereafter by themselves severally or by such Factors Agents or Servants as they severally shall think fit to intrust freely traffick and use the Trade of Merchandize in such Places and by such Ways and Passages as are already frequented found out or discovered or which hereafter shall be found out or discovered and as they severally shall esteem and take to be fittest or best for them into and from the East Indies in the Countries and Parts of Asia and Africa and into and from Islands Ports Havens Cities Creeks Towns and Places of Asia Africa and America or any of them beyond the Cape of Bona Espiranza to the Streights of Magellan where any Trade or Traffick of Merchandize is or may be used or had and to and from every of them which Trade Traffick or Merchandizeing shall be and is by virtue of this Act for ever limitted and restrained so and in such manner as that no Person or Corporation hereby authorized to trade or traffick as aforesaid shall in any one Year (every Year to be reckoned from the said Nine and twentieth Day of September One thousand six hundred ninety eight) successively by him or themselves or by Persons licensed to trade instead of them or any of them as aforesaid or by their respective Factors Agents or Servants ship lade put on board send or cause to be sent or design to sent to or for the East Indies or other Parts within the Limitts aforesaid from England or any other Countrie or Place whatsoever any Quantity of Goods Wares Merchandizes Coins Bullion or Commodities whatsoever of greater Value than in this Act are expressed that is to say the Person or Persons or Body Politick who shall be intituled to any Annuity or Yearly Payment of [X1 Eighty] Pounds per Annum and consequently to a Share of One hundred Pounds in the Principal Stock of the said General Society for every such Stock or Share of One hundred Pounds shall or may by himself or themselves or others as aforesaid ship lade put on board or cause to be sent Yearly for the said East Indies or Parts within the Limits aforesaid Goods Wares Merchandizes Coine Bullion or other Commodities (being such as may lawfully be exported or sent thither) as shall amount in Value to the Sum of One hundred Pounds and every Person and Corporation intituled to a larger Annuity out of the said Yearly Fund and (in that respect) to a greater Share than One hundred Pounds in the said Principal Stock shall and may X2 ship and send to the East Indies and other Parts within the Limits aforesaid a proportionable [X3 Value ] in Goods or other things as aforesaid after the said Rate of One hundred Pounds for every One hundred Pounds Stock.

Editorial Information

X1 Eight O. & King's Printer's Copy.

X2 yearly O. & King's Printer's Copy.

X3 interlined on the Roll.