A table of imports from India in 1620 gives the most astonishing difference between the cost in India and the selling price in London (see Capper, _Port and Trade of London_, p. 82):— +---------------------+--------------------------+---------------------------+ | Imports, 1620. | Cost on Board Ship | Selling Prices in London. | | | in India. | | +---------------------+---------+----------------+---------+-----------------+ | |_s._ _d._| £ _s._ _d._|_s._ _d._| £ _s._ _d._| |250,000 lbs. Pepper | 0 2-1/2| 2,604 3 4 | 1 8 | 20,833 6 8 | |150,000 lbs. Cloves | 0 9 | 5,625 0 0 | 6 0 | 45,000 0 0 | |150,000 lbs. Nutmegs | 0 4 | 2,500 0 0 | 2 6 | 18,750 0 0 | | 50,000 lbs. Mace | 0 8 | 1,666 13 4 | 6 0 | 15,000 0 0 | |200,000 lbs. Indigo | 1 2 |11,666 13 4 | 5 0 | 50,000 0 0 | |107,140 lbs. China | | | | | | Raw Silk| 7 0 |37,499 0 0 | 20 0 |107,140 0 0 | | 50,000 pieces Calico| 7 0 |17,500 0 0 | 20 0 | 50,000 0 0 | | | +----------------+ +-----------------+ | | |79,061 10 0 | |306,723 6 8 | +---------------------+---------+----------------+---------+-----------------+ In 1620 the East India Company established themselves at Madras, where they had a trade in diamonds, muslin, and chintzes in return for English or European goods. They had in their service 2500 mariners, 500 ship carpenters, and 120 factors. The story of Cockaine’s patent should be (but it was not) a lesson in Free Trade. It was this man’s custom to send white cloth from England to Holland to be dyed and dressed, and then sent back for sale. Alderman Cockaine proposed to the King to do the dyeing and dressing himself if he had a patent. He represented that the whole profit made by the Dutch would be saved by this arrangement. The King consented; he prohibited the exportation of white cloth to Holland, and seized the charter of the Merchant Adventurers which allowed them to export it. The Dutch naturally retaliated by prohibiting the importation of English dye cloths. It was then discovered that Cockaine could not do what he proposed to do; his cloths were worse dyed and were dearer than those dyed by the Dutch. After seven years of complaints over this business, the patent was removed and the charter restored. The following is a statement of the trade of England at this time:— “We trade to Naples, Genoa, Leghorn, Marseilles, Malaga, etc., with only twenty ships, chiefly herrings, and thirty sail more laden with pipes-staves from Ireland. To Portugal and Andalusia we sent twenty ships for wines, sugar, fruit, and West Indian drugs. To Bordeaux we send sixty ships and barks for wines.