alue 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]

But this wonderful prosperity was not uninterrupted. Towards the close
of the reign of Charles the Second the Company began to be fiercely
attacked from without, and to be at the same time distracted by internal
dissensions. The profits of the Indian trade were so tempting,