xiii] EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS 465
'The Kaiser's Imperial Ostend East India Company, which
convulsed the diplomatic mind for seven years to come, and
made Europe lurch from side to side in a terrific manner,
proved a mere paper company; never sent ships, only produced
diplomacies and "had the honour to be."'
Carlyle's picturesque paragraphs do not disclose the facts.
The Ostend Company formed the one great attempt of the
German Empire, then with Austria at its head, to secure a
share of the Indian trade. The capital of the company was
6,ooo,ooo florins; and so great were the profits during its early
years that in I726 a dividend of 331 per cent. was paid. The
company not only sent ships but founded two settlements in
India which threatened the commerce of the older European
Companies. One of its settlements was at Coblom or Covelong, Its Indian
between the English Madras and the Dutch Sadras, on the settle-
Coromandel coast. The other was at Bankibazir, on the
Hooghly river, between the English Calcutta and the Dutch
Chinsura.
The object which the Emperor Charles VI had in view was Political
political not less than commercial. Prince Eugene had urged objects of
Ostend
that an India Company might be made to form the nucleus of Company.
a German fleet, with a first-class naval station at Ostend on the
North Sea, and another at Fiume or Trieste on the Adriatic.
Such a fleet would complete the greatness of Germany by sea
as by land, and would render her independent of the maritime
powers, especially of England and Holland. The Empire
would at length put its seaports to a proper use, and
would thenceforth exert a commanding maritime influence in
Europe.
The existing maritime powers objected to this; and the Ostend Ostend
Company became the shuttlecock of European diplomacy for Company
the next five years. The Dutch and English felt themselves by the
particularly aggrieved. They pleaded the Treaties of Westphalia maritime
and Utrecht. After long and loud altercations, the Emperor powers.
sacrificed the Ostend Company to gain the acceptance of a pro-
ject nearer his heart-the Pragmatic Sanction for the devolution
of his hereditary dominions. To save his honour, the sacrifice
at first took the form of a suspension in 1727 of the company's
charter for seven years. But the company was doomed by the
maritime powers, and the Emperor bound himself to suppress
it in the treaty with England (173I). On the suspension of the
company in Europe, its enemies made short work of the settle-
ments in India. They stirred up the Muhammadan governor
to attack Banklibzar. The small garrison there, after a
VOL. II. H h
|
![[Digital South Asia Library]](/graphics/thirdlevel.gif)
