It was evidently impossible that every merchant should have this power independently of the rest.

The merchants trading to India must therefore be joined together in a corporation which could act as one man.

In support of these arguments the example of the Dutch was cited, and was generally considered as decisive.

For in that age the immense prosperity of Holland was every where regarded with admiration, not the less earnest because it was largely mingled with envy and hatred.

In all that related to trade, her statesmen were considered as oracles, and her institutions as models.
The great majority, therefore, of those who assailed the Company assailed it, not because it traded on joint funds and possessed exclusive privileges, but because it was ruled by one man, and because his rule had been mischievous to the public, and beneficial only to himself and his creatures.