In this company petitioned the parliament to be allowed to divide their immense capital of more than thirty three millions eight hundred thousand pounds, the whole of which had been lent to government, into two equal parts; the one half, or upwards of to be put upon the same footing with other government annuities, and not to be subject to the debts contracted, or losses incurred, by the directors of the company, in the prosecution of their mercantile projects; the other half to remain as before, a trading stock, and to be subject to those debts and losses.