96 THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH COMPANIES

soon began to sink under the embarrassments, vices, and misfortunes of incapable rulership, official patron- age gradually proved fatal to the Company that de- pended on it. The English Company, on the other hand, was so far from being in debt to the government that it had aided the public treasury with large loans and con- tributions that amounted to 4,200,000 in 1750. It was an independent and powerful corporation, trust- ing not to official favour but to parliamentary influence in transacting business with the Crown; and as it was left to manage its own affairs, the greater responsi- bility thrown upon its chiefs produced in the long run a body of sound and experienced administrators, guided by long tradition, well versed' in foreign trade, and backed by the overflowing capital of a great mercantile community. In India, the means and resources of the two Com- panies were fairly equal at the outset. The settlements on the Coromandel coast were not only important as points of attraction for the inland commerce; they were also valuable as entrepots for the general traffic on both sides of the Bay of Bengal and as naval stations for the protection of the thriving trade with the Malacca Straits and Eastern Asia, Ceylon being then held by the Dutch. Moreover, since the decay at the heart of the Moghul empire was soonest felt at its extremities, the distant provinces had already begun to fall away into confusion. The settlements in the far south of India were thus becoming more independent of the