East India Company of Amsterdam— became its own republic

Companies’*‘^ have been established principally for | navigation and trade with the Indies, and in distant | seas, which once were as lucrative as they were filled | with perils, losses, and vast expenses.

Since the genovese have made peace with the Venetians, he”^ says, after that
most important war which had taken place between them many years earlier, and since their republic was unable to satisfy those citizens who had lent it great sums of money, it granted them the income from customs. The republic wished each one to participate in the income from the princi­ pal Slim, according to the amounts owed to him, in order that he might be entirely satisfied with his share of the whole.
In order for them to be able to meet to­ gether, the palace above the customs house
was consigned to them. These creditors then arranged among themselves a type of
government, forming themselves into a coun­ cil of one hundred”“ to deliberate upon
Tontine, a. variety of life income.
public matters, and a magistrature of
The origin of companies.
eight citizens,
all the others.
into parts which they called loughi, and they named the whole organization San Giorgio. Once their government was consti­ tuted in this fashion, new needs occurred to the communes in the city, for which they turned for new help to San Giorgio which, because it was wealthy and well managed,
was able to accommodate them. The commune, on the contrary, which had begun by conced­ ing the customs, proceeded to concede some of its lands to them as a backing for the money they had. And so the matter proceeded, born of the needs of the commune and the services of San Giorgio, under whose manage­ ment the commune placed the major part of the lands and the city under the genovese empire, which it governed and defended, and to which it sends its rectors each year for
public support, no part of which the commune toils over. As a result of this, the citi­ zens have withdrawn their loyalty from the commune, as a thing oppressed, and placed it in San Giorgio, as a thing which is well and fairly managed. This is how the easy and frequent changes of the state have come about, and why their loyalty shifts from some citi-