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166 THE COMPANY AND THE KING sublata causa tollitur effectus, became a stock theme for patriotic eloquence. According to another writer (the author of the " Trade's Increase,' ' in 1615), the delu- sive reports of the India trade were but " the pleasing INDIAN CARPENTERS AT WORK. notes of the swans in Meander flood,' ' which would in reality prove, like theirs, the dismal croaking of " greedy ravens and devouring crows." The Company, it was said, had cut down the oaks that should have built the royal ships; it had raised the price of timber for merchant vessels by five shillings a load; it was in truth " a parricide of woods." Its gains, " the price of blood," " bought with so many men's lives," had,
