128 REVIEWS OF BOOKS January these respects. Catherine, like so many of us, was, perhaps, not really great, because she never had the chance of being so. E. ARMSTRONG. The English Factories in India, 1655-60. By WILLIAM FOSTER, C.I.E. (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1921.) WE have here a further instalment of the East India Company's early records in the fine series published by the Clarendon Press. The increasing multiplicity of documents for this period and the enhanced cost of pub- lishing have made it undesirable to continue the reproduction of actual manuscripts on the same generous scale as before. But the Company's papers after the first half of the seventeenth century become so voluminous, that, if any progress with their publication were to be made within the present generation, some modification of the old method would in any case have been necessary. In his new plan Mr. Foster deals year by year with all the chief presidencies and factories, giving a summary of the main events, social, commercial, and political, that concern them. There are numerous quotations from the records, and those who have had experience of the editor's scholarly, erudite, and conscientious methods, will feel perfectly satisfied that it would be useless to glean where he has reaped. Some of us might even have welcomed further condensation, but Mr. Foster no doubt felt that it was best to err on the side of fullness, and certainly no aspect of the life of Englishmen in the East during this period remains unillustrated. The editor has further a great gift of lucid exposition, and amid all the wealth of minor detail he traces clearly and broadly the main lines of historical development. These, even in this early period, are not unimportant. In the reign of Charles II the East India Company was destined to enjoy a period of remarkable prosperity. These years, 1655-60, formed that darkest period which proverbially precedes the dawn. Their privileges having been based originally upon a royal charter, the Company's fortunes sank with the misfortunes of the house of Stuart. It was for a long time doubtful whether the protector would grant them a new charter, or terminate their monopoly and declare the trade to the East open. In any case, until October 1657, Cromwell lacked both the leisure and the inclination to look into their affairs ; and for two years a practical though unauthorized trial was made of the effects of that free and open trade which the enemies of the great Company had so long desired. We may perhaps conjecture that the Commonwealth statesmen were not sorry to see the experiment tried, and were quite content that it came about through no definite action on their part. If it had succeeded, they would no doubt have swept the Company away ; but it did not succeed ; the factors in India wrote that their greatest discouragement was the losse of this trade and making it (as they miscall it) a free trade ; which there is none that understand it well but will conclude a few yeares will render it none at all. . . . For the Trade being now not carried on by any Joint Society or Stock, affronts are often pdt upon us ; who being not under one head, wee know not how to remidy our selves ; by which means we are trampled on by the greatest enimies, as well as envyers, to our trade and nation, the Dutch.
