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Introduction
The East India Company was founded late in the reign of Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603) to explore the possibilities of overseas trade. By the 1670s, the Company had secured a legal monopoly on English trade in India, but some free spirits chose to go into business for themselves. In 1926, a historian modestly calling himself ‘an Indian Mahomedan’ told us about one of them: Thomas Pitt.
IN these early days there were bold individuals who ignored the Company’s monopoly and operated on their own account. They were denounced as pirates, but as they did not plunder any one, but only traded on their own account the title was unjust, and a new one was invented of “interlopers.” They could not be hanged at the yard arm, but they could be sued in the Courts for damages and penalties because they had violated the Company’s Charter.
They would not claim notice but for the daring deeds of one of them who was the progenitor of one of the most famous English families. This was Thomas Pitt,* grandfather of the great Earl of Chatham.* For twenty years of his career [1674-1694] Thomas Pitt was the terror of the London Company, for he sailed his ship without their leave, making many profitable voyages,* and eventually purchasing a seat in Parliament.* Then the Court awoke to his merit, and sent him out as President to Fort St George at Madras.*
* Thomas Pitt (1653-1726). Despite his illustrious career in India and, more quietly, at home as an MP for Old Sarum and for Thirsk, he never received a peerage or even a knighthood, though other East India Company office-holders routinely received honours. “In the early years of his Presidency,” his biographer Sir Cornelius Dalton tells us, “it had been intimated to Pitt by Sir Stephen Evans, that the Old Company were thinking of getting him a baronetcy; but, so far from encouraging the project, he had written back at once to say that their bare thanks were of far greater value to him than any such honour. When he did return, his wealth and Parliamentary influence might have readily obtained for him a peerage if he had cared to have one. But he preferred to remain to the end of his days plain Thomas Pitt.”
* William Pitt (1708-1778) ‘the Elder’, 1st Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister in 1757-61 and again in 1766-67. He remained a force in Parliament long after leaving office. William’s son William Pitt (1759-1806) also served with distinction as Prime Minister, in 1783 to 1801 and in 1804 to 1806.
* Pitt went out to India as an employee of the East India Company in 1674, but soon began trading for himself, around the River Hooghly where Job Charnock was founding Calcutta: see Job’s City of Joy. Pitt returned to England early in 1695 a very wealthy man.
* One could not exactly buy a seat in the House of Commons; that would be corruption. But in 1688 Pitt did buy the manor of Stratford-under-the-Castle, and was elected to the ‘Convention Parliament’ of 1689 as MP for nearby Old Sarum, which was an archaeological ruin and had no resident voters: election was therefore something of a formality. He represented the more challenging New Sarum (Salisbury) following the 1690 general election, and the following year bought the Old Sarum site outright. Thereafter, he and his heirs could expect to be elected if ever they chose to stand, which Thomas did in 1695, 1710, 1713 and 1722. He represented Thirsk from 1717 to 1722.
* On the 24th of November 1697, the Council unanimously elected Pitt as Governor of Fort St George in Madras, an office he held from July 7th 1698 to September 18th, 1709. Pitt thus became one of the highest office-holders in the East India Company, against which he had been competing for so much of his career.
Précis
Thomas Pitt went out to India as an employee of the East India Company, but soon went into business for himself. This was illegal, but not piracy so he and others like him were dubbed ‘interlopers’. For twenty years, he was so successful in this role that in 1697 Pitt was appointed President of the Company’s headquarters in Madras. (59 / 60 words)
Thomas Pitt went out to India as an employee of the East India Company, but soon went into business for himself. This was illegal, but not piracy so he and others like him were dubbed ‘interlopers’. For twenty years, he was so successful in this role that in 1697 Pitt was appointed President of the Company’s headquarters in Madras.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, despite, or, otherwise, ought, unless, until, who.
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