274 APPENDIX I ers, it was held responsible by them for depredations or misconduct of all Englishmen in the East. It accord- ingly prayed the Protector to grant it a new and wider charter, to the exclusion of private trade. In 1654, therefore, Cromwell found himself called on to decide between the three sets of applicants: the outside capitalists who desired that the commerce with India should be thrown open to the nation; the govern- ing body of the Company who asked for wider priv- ileges upon the basis of a series of exclusive Joint Stocks; and the section of its members who desired that the Company should be transferred from the Joint Stock to the Eegulated system. His clear eye saw that if the India trade were to be thrown open to the na- tion, it must be protected by the national arms. He realized that neither the navy nor the land forces of the Commonwealth was adapted for such a task. He accordingly eased the situation by granting trade li- censes to individual outsiders, and referred the main question as to the future constitution of the Company to the Council of State. The Council soon found itself plunged in a quag- mire of irreconcilable claims. A question even arose as to which of the several sets of adventurers really represented the Company. When the Dutch compen- sation of £85,000 came to be distributed, the survivors or heirs of the Third Joint Stock, of the Fourth Joint Stock, and of the United Joint Stock asserted their sev- eral rights to it. The Council could find a way out of its bewilderment only by referring their titles to arbi-
