; and in 1682 was appointed chief of the East
India Company's affairs at Surat and Bombay, while at the same time his
brother, Sir Josiah Child (q.v.), was governor of the company at home.
The two brothers showed themselves strong men and guided the affairs of
the company through the period of struggle between the Moguls and
Mahrattas. They have been credited by history with the change from
unarmed to armed trade on the part of the company; but as a matter of
fact both of them were loth to quarrel with the Mogul. War broke out
with Aurangzeb in 1689, but in the following year Child had to sue for
peace, one of the conditions being that he should be expelled from
India. He escaped this expulsion by his death in 1690.

CHILD, SIR JOSIAH (1630-1699), English merchant, economist and governor
of the East India Company, was born in London in 1630, the second son of
Richard Child, a London merchant of old family. After serving his
apprenticeship in the business, to which he succeeded, he started on his
own account at Portsmouth, as victualler to the navy under the
Commonwealth, when about twenty-five. He amassed a comfortable fortune,
and became a considerable stock-holder in the East India Company, his
interest in India being accentuated by the fact that his brother John
(q.v.) was making his career there. He was returned to parliament in
1659 for Petersfield; and in later years sat for Dartmouth (1673-1678)
and for Ludlow (1685-1687). He was made a baronet in 1678. His advocacy,
both by speech and by pen, under the pseudonym of Philopatris, of the
East India Company's claims to political power, as well as to the right
of restricting competition with its trade, brought him to the notice of
the shareholders, and he became a director in 1677, and, subsequently,
deputy-governor and governor. In this latter capacity he was for a
considerable time virtually the sole ruler of the company, and directed
its policy as if it were his own private business. He and his brother
have been credited with the change from unarmed to armed traffic; but
the actual renunciation of the Roe doctrine of unarmed traffic by the
company was resolved upon in January 1686, under Governor Sir Joseph
Ash, when Child was temporarily out of office. He died on the 22nd of
June 1699. Child made several important contributions to the literature
of economics; especially _Brief Observations concerning Trade and the
Interest of Money_ (1668), and _A New Discou