ABSTRACT
Sir Josiah Child did not shrink from public combat in defence of the East India Company, and the situation that faced this company in the 1690s was perilous. First, it was almost fatally tied to the old Tory regime and was suspect at court among the ascendant Whigs. Child and his fellow directors were forced to defend their monopoly trading position and to stave off demands from a new group of merchants closely allied to King William and eager to profit from access to Asian markets. In 1698 William III advised the ‘old’ East India Company to wind up its affairs; the prospect of a ‘new’ East India Company was imminent, composed of a coterie of merchants frustrated by their previous exclusion from this trade. At the same time, antagonists to all Asian textile trade were becoming more vocal. The extraordinary profits of trade inspired Child’s rebuttal.
