Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands

Last updated

The Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands was an early joint stock association, which began with private exploration and enterprise, and was to have been incorporated by King Edward VI in 1553, but received its full royal charter in 1555. It led to the commencement of English trade with Russia, Persia and elsewhere, and became known informally, and later formally, as the Muscovy Company.

Contents

First phase

The Company was formed in London in about 1551 by Richard Chancellor, Sebastian Cabot and Sir Hugh Willoughby. [1] Some 240 adventurers (investors [2] ) purchased shares at £25 each and a royal charter was prepared for their company under King Edward in 1553, making Sebastian Cabot its Governor. [3] However the King died before the charter could receive the Seal. The circumstances are described at the opening of the Charter of 1566:

"divers very good Subiects of this Realme of England in the latter end of the reigne of the late right high and mightie prince our Soueraigne Lord king Edward the sixt, at the gracious incouragement and right good liking of the said king, and by his Maiesties liberall example, did at their aduenture, and to their exceeding great charges, and for the glory of God, the honor and increase of the reuenues of the Crowne, and the common vtilitie of the whole Realme of England, set forth three ships for the discoverie by sea, of Iles, lands, territories, dominions and Seigniories vnknowen, and by the Subiects of the sayd late king not commonly by seas frequented: and after that Almightie God [...] called to his mercie the said king, who died before the finishing and sealing of his most ample and gracious letters of priuiledges promised to the sayd Subiects..." [4]

The purpose of the Company was to seek a new, northern trade route to Cathay (China) and the Spice Islands (the Moluccas, now part of Indonesia).

The first expedition of the Company was led by Willoughby seeking the Northeast Passage to China. Three ships were outfitted and crewed for the expedition, which departed from London's Deptford Docks on 11 May 1553. Willoughby was aboard the Bona Esperanza (120 tons), with Richard Chancellor in command of the Edward Bonaventure (60 tons) and Bona Confidentia (90 tons). The ships became separated in a storm in the North Sea: the Bona Confidentia and Bona Esperanza rejoined, rounded North Cape and sailed east to Novaya Zemlya. The Edward Bonaventure likewise sailed around North Cape and along the Kola Peninsula, entering the White Sea in August. On 24 August 1553, Chancellor cast anchor near the mouth of the Dvina River and was met by local Russians. [5] While his crew wintered over near present-day Arkhangelsk, Chancellor travelled overland to Moscow, where he was received by Tsar Ivan the Terrible. Willoughby's two ships turned back from Novaya Zemlya in September and attempted to winter over on the coast of Lapland. Every crew member soon died from cold and hunger.

Chancellor returned to the White Sea in March 1554 and arrived back in London in the autumn, bearing a letter from Tsar Ivan to the English king, welcoming trade between the two Christian nations. By this time King Edward had died and Queen Mary was ruling in England.

The Charter of Incorporation, 1555

In 1555 the Company received its formal royal approbation in a Charter of Incorporation issued under the date 6 February 1554/5 (but long afterwards amended to 26 February) by King Philip and Queen Mary, of which the full name was

"The Marchants Adventurers of England for the Discovery of Lands, Territories, Iles, Dominions and Seigniories Unknowen, and Not before that Late Adventure or Enterprise by Sea or Navigation Commonly Frequented" [6]

as one body and perpetual Fellowship and Commonalty. The promoters of this Charter are headed by William Marquess of Winchester (Lord high Treasurer), Henry Earl of Arundel (Lord Steward of the Household), John Earl of Bedford (Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal), William Earl of Pembroke, and William Lord Howard of Effingham (Lord High Admiral of England), who with others

"Haue at their own aduenture, costs and charges, prouided, rigged and tackled certaine ships, pinnesses and other meete vessels, and the same furnished with all things necessary haue advanced and set forward, for to discouer, descrie, and find, Isles..." (etc.)

The Charter constituted the Company under its Governor, Sebastian Cabot ("the chiefest setter forth of this iourney or voyage"), with four Consuls, Sir George Barne, William Garrard, Anthony Hussey and John Southcote, with 24 Assistants named from among the principal Adventurers, its many named investors becoming the Fellowship. [7] The Fellowship was to meet annually to elect one or two Governors and 28 of 'the most sad, discreete and honest persons' of their fellowship as Assistants to the Governor or Governors, of whom four were to be chosen Consuls. This became known (for short) as the "Muscovy Company" or Russia Company, and its members the Merchants of Muscovy or Merchants of Russia. [8]

The Company sent Richard Chancellor again to the White Sea in 1555, in the Edward Bonaventura and the Philip and Mary, where he learnt of the fate of Willoughby and spent 1556 in further exploration and negotiations with the Tsar. Having recovered and refitted the Bona Esperanza and Bona Confidentia, he set out to return, taking with him the first Russian Ambassador to England, Osip Gregorjevitsch Nepeya. Three of the ships attempted to overwinter at Trondheim, where both of Willoughby's ships were lost, the Philip and Mary arriving in London in April 1557. Chancellor's ship went ahead but in November 1556 foundered off the east coast of Scotland near Pitsligo, and Chancellor was drowned. Nepeya however was rescued, and was conducted by Viscount Montagu to London, where in March 1557 he was met by a grand procession led by Sir Thomas Offley, Lord Mayor, and conducted through the City to his appointed lodging. Here during the months of March and April he was fêted by the City Companies, and with the exchange of royal gifts he returned safely to Moscow. [9]

Elizabeth's Charter of 1566

In 1566 Queen Elizabeth I issued a new Charter of Incorporation to confirm the Company's privileges. This Charter, which was confirmed by Act of Parliament, reincorporated the Company as

"The Fellowship of English Merchants for the Discovery of New Trades". [10]

Having referred to Mary's Charter of 1555, this continues:

"Since the making of which letters patents, the said fellowship haue, to their exceeding great costes, losses and expences, not onely by their trading into the said dominions of the said mightie prince of Russia, &c., found out conuenient way to saile into the saide dominions: but also passing thorow the same, and ouer the Caspian sea, haue discouered very commodious trades into Armenia, Media, Hyrcania, Persia, and other dominions in Asia minor, hoping by Gods grace to discouer also the country of Cathaia, and other regions uery conuenient to be traded into by merchants of this realme, for the great benefite and commodities of the same."

It continues to explain that there has since arisen unlicensed trade: "divers subiects of this realme... minding for their peculiar gaine, vtterly to decay the trade of the said fellowship, haue contrary to the tenor of the same letters patents, in great disorder traded into the dominions of the said mightie prince of Russia, &c., to the great detriment of this common wealth:" and therefore, that in future no part of these places "shall be sailed or traffiqued vnto, visited, frequented or haunted by any person being or that shalbe a citizen or denizen of this realme, by themselues, their factor or factors" other than by the order, agreement, consent and ratification of the Fellowship, on penalty of the forfeit ipso facto of their ships and goods so trafficking, half to the Crown and half to the Fellowship. Established merchants of York, Boston, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Hull who were already continually involved in such trade and were invested before 25 December 1567 were to be accounted free of the Fellowship and bound by its statutes.

At this time Sir William Garrard and Sir William Chester were its Governors. It continued to be referred to as the Muscovy Company. Further English ventures led to the creation of the Levant Company in 1581, the Venice Company in 1583, East India Company in 1600, Virginia Company in 1609, and the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1617</span> Calendar year

1617 (MDCXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1617th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 617th year of the 2nd millennium, the 17th year of the 17th century, and the 8th year of the 1610s decade. As of the start of 1617, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1555</span> Calendar year

Year 1555 (MDLV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Sea</span> Southern inlet of the Barents Sea in northwest Russia

The White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of the internal waters of Russia. Administratively, it is divided between the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk oblasts and the Republic of Karelia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muscovy Company</span> 16th-century English business enterprise

The Muscovy Company was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint-stock company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England and finance its exploration of the world. The Muscovy Company had a monopoly on trade between England and Russia until 1698 and it survived as a trading company until the Russian Revolution. Since 1917, the company has operated as a charity, now working within Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nyonoksa</span> Selo in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia

Nyonoksa, also Nenoksa, is a rural locality under the administrative jurisdiction of Severodvinsk Town of Oblast Significance, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It is located at the coast of the Dvina Bay of the White Sea 19 miles (31 km) northwest of the city of Severodvinsk. The Nyonoksa railway station is 1.2 miles (1.9 km) from Nyonoksa at the mostly military village of Sopka along the Northern Railway line from Severodvinsk. Nyonoksa is accessible by land vehicles only during the winter months when the nearby swampland freezes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Swally</span> Part of Portuguese battles in the Indian Ocean (1612)

The naval Battle of Swally, also known as Battle of Suvali, took place on 29–30 November 1612 off the coast of Suvali a village near the Surat city and was a victory for four English East India Company galleons over four Portuguese galleons and 26 barks.

Steven Borough was an English navigator and an early Arctic explorer. He was master of the first English ship to reach the White Sea in 1553 and open trade with Russia on behalf of the Muscovy Company. He became an expert on piloting in Arctic waters and was one of the earliest English practitioners of the new scientific methods of navigation. He was widely sought out for his knowledge by English and Spanish mariners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Chancellor</span> English explorer and navigator (c. 1521 – 1556)

Richard Chancellor was an English explorer and navigator; the first to penetrate to the White Sea and establish relations with the Tsardom of Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Willoughby</span> English polar explorer

Sir Hugh Willoughby was an English soldier and an early Arctic voyager. He served in the court of Henry VIII and fought in the Scottish campaign where he was knighted for his valour. In 1553, he was selected by a company of London merchants to lead a fleet of three vessels in search of a Northeast Passage.

A chartered company is an association with investors or shareholders that is incorporated and granted rights by royal charter for the purpose of trade, exploration, or colonization, or a combination of these.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Jenkinson</span> English diplomat, traveller and explorer (1529-c.1611)

Anthony Jenkinson was born at Market Harborough, Leicestershire. He was one of the first Englishmen to explore Muscovy and present-day Russia. Jenkinson was a traveller and explorer on behalf of the Muscovy Company and the English crown. He also met Ivan the Terrible several times during his trips to Moscow and Russia. He detailed the accounts of his travel through several written works over his life.

Events from the 1550s in England. This decade marks the beginning of the Elizabethan era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Garrard</span> Tudor magnate of London (1518–1571)

Sir William Garrard (1518–1571), also Garrett, Gerrarde, etc., was a Tudor magnate of London, a merchant citizen in the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, who became alderman, Sheriff (1552–1553) and Lord Mayor of London (1555–1556) and was returned as an MP for the City of London. He was a senior founding officer of the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands in 1554/55, having been involved in its enterprises since the beginnings in King Edward VI's time, and for the last decade of his life was one of its permanent governors. He worked hard and invested largely to expand English overseas trade not only to Russia and the Levant but also to the Barbary Coast and to West Africa and Guinea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vardøya</span> Island in Finnmark, Norway

Vardøya (Norwegian), Várggáidsuolu (Northern Sami), or Vuoreansaari (Kven) is an island in Vardø Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The 3.7-square-kilometre (1.4 sq mi) island is the location of the town of Vardø. The island sits about 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) east of the mainland Varanger Peninsula. The island is connected to the mainland by the Vardø Tunnel, the first subsea tunnel that was built in Norway. The tunnel is part of the European route E75 highway, which has its terminus at the town of Vardø. The small island of Hornøya is 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) to the northeast of Vardøya.

Sir Thomas Lodge, was Lord Mayor of London.

Anthony Hussey, Esquire, was an English merchant and lawyer who was President Judge of the High Court of Admiralty under Henry VIII, before becoming Principal Registrar to the Archbishops of Canterbury from early in the term of Archbishop Cranmer, through the restored Catholic primacy of Cardinal Pole, and into the first months of Archbishop Parker's incumbency, taking a formal part in the latter's consecration. The official registers of these leading figures of the English Reformation period were compiled by him. While sustaining this role, with that of Proctor of the Court of the Arches and other related ecclesiastical offices as a Notary public, he acted abroad as agent and factor for Nicholas Wotton.

Sir William Chester was one of the leading English Merchants of the Staple and Merchant Adventurers of the mid-16th century, five times Master of the Worshipful Company of Drapers, Lord Mayor of London in the year 1560–61 and Member of Parliament for the City of London. He should not be confused with his contemporary, William Chester, merchant of Bristol, M.P.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish Company</span>

The Spanish Company was an English chartered company or corporate body established in 1530, and 1577, confirmed in 1604, and re-established in 1605 as President, Assistants and Fellowship of Merchants of England trading into Spain and Portugal, whose purpose was the facilitation and control of English trade between England and Spain through the establishment of a corporate monopoly of approved merchants.

Edward Bonaventure was an English ship under the command of Richard Chancellor that was forced to seek shelter in 1553 on the north coast of Russia near Nyonoksa due to weather conditions, leading to its crew coming into contact with the court of Ivan the Terrible, the forming of the Muscovy Company, and diplomatic contacts between Elizabeth I of England and Ivan of Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Barne (died 1558)</span>

Sir George Barne was an English businessman in the City of London who was active in developing new trading links with Russia, West Africa and North America, far outside what had been traditional English trading patterns. Created a knight in 1553, he served as Sheriff of London and Lord Mayor of London. He was the father of Sir George Barne and grandfather of Sir William Barne. Nicholas Culverwell was probably a nephew.

References

  1. ↑ J. Hamel, transl. J.S. Leigh, Early English Voyages to Northern Russia: comprising the Voyages of John Tradescant the Elder, Sir Hugh Willoughby, Richard Chancellor, Nelson, and others (Richard Bentley, London 1857), Chapter 1 (Internet Archive).
  2. ↑ Morison, Samuel Eliot. The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages, p.483
  3. ↑ 'The new Navigation and discoverie of the kingdom of Moscovia... in 1553', in E. Goldsmid (ed.), The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, collected by Richard Hakluyt, Preacher, Vol. III: North-Eastern Europe and Adjacent Countries, Part II: The Muscovy Company and the North-Eastern Passage (E. and G. Goldsmid, Edminburgh 1886), pp. 52-76, at pp. 52-55 (Internet Archive).
  4. ↑ The Principal Navigations, Vol. III, Part II: The Muscovy Company and the North-Eastern Passage, p. 319 (Internet Archive).
  5. ↑ The Trade Route around the North Cape to the White Sea
  6. ↑ Goldsmid (ed.), Principal Navigations, III Part ii (1886), pp. 101-112.
  7. ↑ The fellowship names are omitted from the older printings of the Charter in Hakluyt, but are found in the Calendar of Patent Rolls: Philip & Mary II: 1554-1555 (HMSO 1936/Kraus, Lendeln 1970), pp. 55-59 (Hathi Trust).
  8. ↑ T.S. Willan, The Muscovy Merchants of 1555 (Manchester University Press 1953). See also J. Olson, Historical Dictionary of the British Empire: K-Z (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996), p. 769.
  9. ↑ 'A Discourse of the Honourable Receiving into England of the First Ambassador of the Emperor of Russia... Registered by Master Iohn Incent, Protonotary', in Goldsmid (ed.), Principal Navigations, III Part ii (1886), pp. 141-51.
  10. ↑ Goldsmid (ed.), Principal Navigations, III Part ii (1886), pp. 319-25.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.