The result was that the men who went to India were of a totally different class from those who went to America and the West Indies; they were young men from small trading families in London, Greenwich, and Deptford, or from seaport towns like Bristol and Plymouth.
Among them were some restless and adventurous spirits who found life in England too tame or too burdensome.

For such men India was long regarded as a useful outlet.

"If you cannot devise expedients to send contributions, or procure credit, all is lost, and I must go to the Indies," wrote William the Third, in bitter humour, at a desperate crisis in his affairs.
Fryer tells us (1698) how the Company had entertained Bluecoat boys as apprentices for seven years, after which time they were to be made writers, if able to furnish the required security.

The salaries they received from the Company were only nominal.

A Bombay pay-list of January, 1716, shows us the official salaries at that time.