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The Company
offered Charles I, as with other monarchs, a useful
bit of income. Charles I needed this money to help
him fight the Civil War, the clash between him and
Parliament which he lost (and he was eventually
beheaded and replaced by Oliver
Cromwell). In a good year he could get as much
as £20,000 in customs duties through the Company's
trade as well as 'loans', one of which in 1641 was
for £60,000, for doing them favours.
This
didn't mean he was always a friend of the company.
He granted a charter to one ship, the Roebuck,
that was allowed by him to carry on piracy near
India. The Indians, seeing an English ship attacking
their cargo ships imprisoned company servants
in Surat. To get them released, Charles had to
write an apology to the Mughal emperor, Shah
Jahan.
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