inaugurated the export of Malabar pepper to London. Access to this new source of pepper and to the area’s production of cinnamon and cardamom would soon occasion a further downgrading of the Company’s investment at Bantam. Similarly, future trends were anticipated by the establishment of an English factory at Hughli just a few miles from the marshes that would one day become Calcutta. This was settled in 1650 under the auspices of the ‘United Joint Stock’ so called because it was supposed to finance both the original Company and the remnants of the Association. In fact
