A
SHORT VIEW
OF THE
LAWS
Now subsisting with Respect to the Powers of the
EAST INDIA COMPANY
To borrow Money under their Seal, and to incur Debts in the
Course of their Trade, by the Purchase of Goods on Credit, and by freighting Ships or other Mercantile Transactions.
LONDON:
Printed for W. NICOLL, in St. Paul's Church-Yard.
MDCCLXVII.
A short View, _&c._
As many erroneous opinions have been industriously propagated with respect to the powers of the East India Company to contract debts, I
think it a duty to the Company and to the public, to give a fair state of the laws now subsisting with respect to these matters, by which the prejudiced may be set to rights, the ignorant informed, and the malevolent deceivers of the public exposed and detected.
By act 9 and 10 William III. c. 44. Sec. 75. the Company is allowed to borrow on the credit of the two millions lent to Government, but is restrained from borrowing any greater sums than shall be employed in their trade, without, however, any restriction as to the amount of such borrowing, only such borrowing must be under common seal.
By Sec. 86 of the same statute, the Company is directed to take care that the sum total of its debts do not exceed the amount of its funds and effects, and if they shall reduce their funds and effects by dividends, so as not to leave sufficient to answer their debts, the persons who receive …