(^158) THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS
as close and private as they can, lest the Moghul's Exchequer shou'd be
made their Treasury. This curbs them in their Expences, and awes them to
great secresie in their Commerce... ,^16
Tension thus abided throughout—for rulers between seizing and
nursing, for subjects between hiding and enjoying. But in the last
analysis, the despot and his agents controlled. Here the European vis
itors held an enormous advantage. They could not be maltreated in this
manner, and they could even take native businessmen and workers
under their protection. In the long run, this constituted an appropri
ation of sovereignty. Some might say a usurpation, but in despotisms
all transfers of power are usurpations.
And what of the ryots and untouchables, the lowest of the low? They
fell back on patience, stubbornness, resilience—the resources of an op
pressed population. They also fled their abusers more often than one
would expect in a society of communitarian villages and uncertain im
provement. In medieval Europe, exit or the threat of exit deterred
abuse, especially in urbanized and frontier areas. Exit paid. In India,
flight probably exchanged one unhappiness for another; even so, it
could encourage moderation, for no predator likes to lose his prey.
That still left a fortune for the taking—one scholar estimates India's
surplus at half the agricultural product. This "bundle" was bound to
turn the East India Company toward political as against commercial ac
tivity, for more money could be had by taking than by earning. En
demic conflict and violence, moreover, incited (compelled) the
company to look to its defenses by mobilizing military power, and
power encouraged intervention in local disputes.
Sage advice from London could not deter the EIC's men in the field
from taking this slippery slope. The proconsuls had the Dutch exam
ple in Indonesia to instruct and justify them, and they won the argu
ment. London came around. In 1689, when the company's activities
in India had been reorganized under three "presidencies," the London
directors passed a resolution that redefined the company's mission in
the Dutch image:
The increase of our revenue is the subject of our care, as much as our
trade; 'tis that must maintain our force when twenty accidents may inter
rupt our trade; 'tis that must make us a nation in India; without that we are
but a great number of interlopers, united by His Majesty's royal charter, fit
only to trade where nobody of power thinks it their interest to prevent
us....
nora
(Nora)
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