Some exceptions, however, were made, and, unfortunately, were not very clearly defined.

It was especially provided that every Society of Merchants which had been instituted for the purpose of carrying on any trade should retain all its legal privileges.

[153] The question whether a monopoly granted by the Crown to such a company were or were not a legal privilege was left unsettled, and continued to exercise, during many years, the ingenuity of lawyers.

[154] The nation, however, relieved at once from a multitude of impositions and vexations which were painfully felt every day at every fireside, was in no humour to dispute the validity of the charters under which a few companies to London traded with distant parts of the world.
Of these companies by far the most important was that which had been, on the last day of the sixteenth century, incorporated by Queen Elizabeth under the name of the Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies.

When this celebrated body began to exist, the Mogul monarchy was at the zenith of power and glory.