Adam Smith’s very long paragraph: part 2 of 3

Picking up where we last left off (see my previous post), Adam Smith next describes two great external events — the War of Austrian Succession (1740-48) and the Seven Years’ War (1756-63) — that improved the fortunes of the East India Company. Smith writes (sentences ##32-36): “During the French war, which began in 1741, the ambition of Mr. Dupleix, the French governor of Pondicherry, involved them in the wars of the Carnatic, and in the politics of the Indian princes. After many signal successes, and equally signal losses, they at last lost Madras, at that time their principal settlement in India. It was restored to them by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; and about this time the spirit of war and conquest seems to have taken possession of their servants in India, and never since to have left them. During the French war, which began in 1755, their arms partook of the general good fortune of those of Great Britain. They defended Madras, took Pondicherry, recovered Calcutta, and acquired…