SUMMARY OF THE "SEPARATE VOYAGES" 15 limn of profits. 1 But as the concluding ones were more or less joint undertakings with distinct branches, the number of separate expeditions is variously reckoned from nine to twelve. Thus the so-called " tenth " which fought Best's famous fight off Suwali is included by the Company's historiographer and in the Marine Records' list under the eighth: as also the " eleventh," which consisted of one ship detached from it. The " twelfth " was likewise a single-ship expedition, commissioned chiefly to carry back the Persian ambassador. The difference in enumeration does not affect the main results. Macpherson, who takes the number of Separate Voyages at twelve, from 1601 to 1612-1613, gives the total capital employed at £464,284. My table, which takes the number at nine, shows an aggregate capital of £466,179. The column of profits may awaken the envy of mod- ern merchants. But they represent the gains both on the exports and the imports of the voyage, together with the results of " cabotage," or port-to-port barter, during the long stay of the ships in the East. On the return of each expedition, money had to be found at once to pay off the crews, and within a certain period for the king's customs. But the cargo could sometimes not be sold until the royal share of the pepper had been disposed of, and then only at long credits of eighteen months to two years. In many cases the subscribers had to take payment for their contributions in spices or calicoes and to find a purchaser for them as best 1 These statistics are given in Appendix II, C.
