ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how rivalry intensified the commercial pressures on the companies. It starts by reviewing rivalries amongst English merchants and then discusses the type of commercial threat posed by foreign rivals, primarily the Dutch, prior to 1688. In the key markets of the East Indies and Russia, the Dutch were more innovative and more successful than the English companies. The Dutch demonstrated that maritime skill combined with financial ingenuity could overcome the drawbacks of a small population and limited natural resources in creating a commercial juggernaut. The Navigation Acts and three Anglo-Dutch Wars in the seventeenth century slowed the Dutch down but did not neutralize them as trade rivals. The focus will then turn to the Glorious Revolution and the emergence of France as England’s great rival. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the accession of William III to the English throne triggered a series of major wars with France. The French represented the most serious military threat the companies had faced, and French merchants were a growing commercial force that compounded existing commercial threats, which the English companies faced from the Dutch in Russia, India, China, Africa and the Levant. This combination of French and Dutch rivalry was the essential spur that forced the companies to innovate. The threat to English shipping, and company forts from the French, will be discussed as well as the actions of the companies and the government to counter those threats. In addition, the impact of wars with France on the supply and price of commodities employed in the trade of the companies will be noted. Finally, the new commercial threat posed by the French will be examined.
