Amid the many cruises now made in search of gain not the least important, however unfortunate, was the voyage undertaken to the East Indies by Thomas Cavendish[148] in 1591; its object, like most of the expeditions of the period, being to cruise against the Portuguese, who by this time had formed there important and valuable settlements, especially at Ormuz and along the coast of Malabar. Although his expedition proved a failure, the merchants of London ascertained from those who had been engaged in it, more fully than they had done from any previous navigators, the immense value of the Eastern trade and the vast profits realisable by its systematic development. Their representations urged the establishment of factories and the carrying on by such agencies a very extensive and lucrative trade. Each successive voyage added to the experience of the shipowning classes, and hence various private individuals undertook similar enterprises, incited, perhaps, as much by the love of adventure as by the hope of profit. Such were the preludes to the East India Company, by far the largest and most important commercial undertaking recorded in history. Through Mr. Thorne, an English merchant, whom we have already noticed as resident at Seville while Cabot was chief pilot of Spain, a complete knowledge was obtained of the course of the Spanish and Portuguese trade with the East, as he furnished a report on this subject to certain merchants resident in London, many of whom had for some time considered the project of establishing direct relations of their own with India. Consequently in the year 1600, on the petition of Sir John Hart of London, Sir John Spencer, Sir Edward Micheburn, William Candish or Caundish, and more than two hundred other merchants, shipowners, and citizens of London, this great company was formed, having a common seal as a body corporate, under the title of the Governor and Company of merchants trading to the East Indies. The Company was allowed many powers and privileges by the Crown, including that of punishing offenders either in body or purse, provided the mode of punishment was not repugnant to the laws of England. Its exports were not subjected to any duties for the four first voyages, important indulgences were granted in paying the duties on imports, and liberty was given to export 30,000_l._ each voyage in foreign coin or bullion, provided 6,000_l._ of this sum passed through the Mint. But not exceeding six ships, and an equal number of pinnaces, with five hundred seamen, were allowed to be despatched annually to whatever station might be formed in India, with the additional provisoes that the seamen were not at the time required for the service of the royal navy, and that all gold or silver exported by the Company should be shipped at either London, Dartmouth, or Plymouth.[149] [Sidenote: First ships despatched by the Company.]