An English surgeon, named Broughton, had the good fortune to open the
commerce of the East Indies to his countrymen through a medical fee.
Having been sent from Surat to Agra, in the year 1636, to treat a daughter
of the emperor Shah Jehan, he had the great fortune to restore the
princess.
Beyond the present reward to the physician for his great services, the
emperor gave him the privilege of a free commerce throughout the whole
extent of his domains. Scarcely had Broughton returned than the favorite
nabob of the province--Bengal--sent for the doctor to treat him for a very
dangerous disease. Having fortunately restored this patient also, the
nabob settled a pension upon the physician, and confirmed the privilege of
the emperor, extending it to all Englishmen who should come to Bengal.
Broughton at once communicated this important treaty, as it was, to the
English governor at Surat, and, by the advice of the latter, the company
sent from England, in 1640, the first ship to trade at Bengal. Such was
the origin of the great Indian commerce, which has been continued to the
present day,--the longest continued doctor's fee ever given.
Another long fee was that given to Dr. Th. Dinsdale, who travelled from
England to St. Petersburg by order of Catharine of Russia, to inoculate
her son, the baron of the empire. The empress presented him with a fee of
twelve thousand pounds, and a life pension of five hundred pounds. This is
the largest sum ever paid to any physician since the world began, for a
single operation, and I know of no physician who ever made a longer
journey to attend a patient.