Studies in the history of English commerce in the Tudor period. I. The organization and early history of the Muscovy company, by Amand J. Gerson, Ph. D. II. English trading expeditions into Asia under the authority of the Muscovy company (1557-1581) III. English trade in the Baltic during the reign of Elizabeth

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Introduction

Nowhere did the vigor of the English people during the Tudor period show itself more clearly than in the field of commerce. This was especially true in the second half of the sixteenth century. Enterprising merchants, bold navigators and speculating nobles and courtiers united to carry expeditions far into previously unexplored parts of the earth, and to open up lines of trade with regions, well known it is true, but in which Englishmen had seldom been seen as visitors and never before as traders. In accordance with the almost universal practice of the time each of these projects led to the organization of a commercial company and the grant to it by the government of extensive chartered rights.

The group of studies contained in this volume describe this newly organized trade, so far as it was directed toward the north and northeast. The disappearance of most of the records of the early commercial companies, due in all probability largely to the great fire of London in 1666, leaves the story to be pieced together from scattered materials. Such sources as have been printed have been carefully and critically used in the preparation of these papers. This printed material has been supplemented by reference to such manuscript records as still exist in England. Manuscript records existing in the continental countries and still imprinted remain as a possible source of information not yet utilized.

The earliest of the new trading bodies was the Muscovy or Russia Company. Its only predecessors were the Staplers, the Merchants Adventurers, and the Spanish Company. It presented many of the typical characteristics of the period. It was established as the result of x INTRODUCTION

a bold effort to reach the much sought trading lands of the far East, and it constantly recurred to this search throughout its early history. It brought England into contact with a new body of people, customs, interests and problems which appealed strongly to the imagination of the curiosity-loving Elizabethan Englishman. The company was given by its charter a complete commercial monopoly, and political rights which were copied but hardly extended in the case of any later chartered body. Its existence gave occasion for most of the diplomatic relations between England and Russia for more than half a century, and the costs of this intercourse were paid for out of its treasury. The difficulties of the Muscovy Company, which constitute the main part of its annals that have come down to us, were the natural difficulties of a company striving to retain a privileged position both in the country of which its members were citizens, and in the country in which its trading interests lay. Its officers were men whose names are well known not only in London civic history but in many other activities of a commercial nature. The efforts of the Muscovy Company to open up a trade with the far East by this distant route were so early in time, so persistent, so bold in conception, and came so near to attaining success that they seem to justify a special description. This is the subject of the second of the essays in this volume. The successive voyages down the Volga, across the Caspian, and into Persia and the lands where Tartars and Turks were still in conflict, brought Englishmen into contact with still another group of races, whose boundaries they were to approach later from another direction. Notwithstanding its length, this route avoided for Englishmen certain difficulties presented by every other mode of approach to the far East, and for a while it seemed that it might be successfully established. Indeed it has been tried at more than one later period.

INTRODUCTION xi

But at this time as well as later it proved a failure. The efforts during the sixteenth century have left only too little detailed record, but the main outline of events and the causes of their failure come out with sufficient clearness in the narrative.

English trade to the Baltic during this period, culminating in the organization of the Eastland or Baltic Company and its establishment of a principal settlement in one of the Baltic cities, the subject of the third essay, involves a different set of surrounding circumstances, but one no less typical of the period. The sphere of activity was closer to England, but the struggle with competitors already on the ground and the complications of European politics were all the more intense. The documents connected with this subject are also somewhat more unfamiliar, and a larger part of this study has been made from manuscript materials previously unused. The earliest years only of the company are described in detail and its later history remains to be written. The whole group of questions connected with English trade with the shores of the Baltic, and English relations with the states bordering upon them is a complicated one and involves many political as well as economic factors.

The lines of trade described in this volume represent only one part of the field of Elizabethan commercial enterprise. But if the history of these companies and their congeners in other regions were adequately described and fully understood, we would have gone far toward a comprehension of most of the foreign relations and much of the internal life of England at that period.

Edward P. Cheyney.

University of Pennsylvania, February, 1912.

The Organization and Early History of the Muscovy Company

Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1910.

By ARMAND J. GERSON, Ph.D.

Contents

CHAPTEB PAGE

I. The Establishment of Russian Relations 1

II. The Organization of the Muscovy Company 22

Chapter I The Establishment Op Russian Relations

The idea of a northern route to the Indies made a peculiar appeal to the adventurous and commercial instincts of the Englishmen of the sixteenth century. The reason is easily discernible in the international commercial rivalries of the period. The vessels of Spain and Portugal had rounded the southern extremities of both continents in the race for the jewels and spices of the Orient, and those countries were sharing the profits of that rich trade. It was natural that England should desire her share in the new commercial development. Her geographical position and the preemption of the southwest and southeast routes by her rivals of southern Europe led her merchant leaders to look toward the north for a new road to the wealth of Asia. That England should have failed to open up a new trade route to India and Cathay is, of course, in the light of modern geographical knowledge, no cause for wonder. That in the attempt she accidentally established a communication and a thriving trade with Russia renders the northern voyages of her traders and explorers of large significance for the historian of European trade and civilization.

Between the northwestern voyages of the Cabots at the close of the fifteenth century and the explorations that led to the discovery of the northern coast of Russia in the middle of the sixteenth there is no record of any serious attempt to try the northern route. That the idea was not entirely lost to view in the interval, however, is clearly indicated by a letter written by one Robert Thorne, a London merchant, in which he urges Henry VIII to organize a voyage of exploration by way of the Arctic regions. 1 The letter contains a very clear statement of the benefits to be derived. Reference is made to the advantages to mariners and explorers of the perpetual daylight of the Polar regions: "Yea what a vantage shal your Graces subjects have also by this light to discover the strange lands, countries, and coasts 1 ' ' 2 The writer proceeds to point out with rather amusing naivete that having "past the Pole, it is plaine, they may decline to what part they list," 2 China and the East Indies if they sail to the east, America and the West Indies if they direct their course to the west. 3

It remained for the navigators of the next reign, however, actually to put to the test of experience the attractive idea of a northern route. Toward the close of the reign of Edward VI, probably in the year 1552, a number of London merchants took up the project. A contemporary writer explains the motives that led to their action. The falling off of English trade led "certaine grave Citizens of London, and men of great wisedome, and carefull for the good of their Countrey" to take steps looking toward the improvement of this condition.* "Seeing that the wealth of the Spaniards and Portingales, by the discoverie and search of newe trades and Countrey s was marvellously increased, supposing the same to be a course and meane for them also to obteine the like, they therefore resolved upon a newe and strange Navigation. " 5 In search of expert advice, the merchants sought out Sebastian Cabot i Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques, etc. of the English Nation, vol. II, p. 159.

who was then residing in London. 5 Cabot was at that time a man seventy-five years of age and enjoyed a singular prestige as the result of the remarkable explorations in which his life had been spent, and still more, perhaps, as a result of his remarkable reports of them. His unquestioned services had received substantial recognition from the government in the form of an annual pension of 250 marks. 6 He seems to have been regarded with respect not unmingled with awe by the younger generation of merchants and navigators. Old as he was, he threw himself into the new plan and became the most active spirit in its organization. The result of the conference was a decision to fit out three vessels "for the search and disco verie of the Northerne part of the world, to open a way and passage to our men to travaile to newe and unknowen kingdomes. ' ' 7

Almost immediately the projectors of the venture seem to have recognized the necessity for a definite organization. They accordingly formed a sort of combination and chose Sebastian Cabot to be the governor of the "company." "While we have no explicit statement of these early proceedings, indirect evidence is furnished by the document containing the instructions to the officers of the fleet at the time of their departure. That document is headed "Ordinances, instructions, . . . compiled, made, and delivered by the worshipfull M. Sebastian ' Cabota Esquier, governour of the mysterie and companie of the Marchants adventurers for the discoverie of Regions, Dominions, Islands and places unknowen . . . ' ' 8 At the close of the instructions we find, " In witnes whereof I Sebastian Cabota, Governour aforesaid . . ., " 9 clearly indicating his official position.

e Rymer, Foedera, Westin, O. XV, 181. H VI. p. III. 170.

In regard to the rest of this early plan of organization we have the further contemporary statement that the merchants made choice "of certain grave and wise persons in maner of a Senate or companie, which should lay their heads together, and give their judgments and provide things requisite and profitable for all occasions." 10 This is the body to which Cabot makes reference in his instructions where he speaks of them as the "Consuls and Assistants in London. ' ' u The detailed form of organization indicated by this nomenclature is of interest as anticipating the plan prescribed by the Company's charter a few years later. 12 It would seem that the Company from the very first looked forward to a permanent corporate existence.

The funds for the venture were raised by a contribution of 25 pounds from each member of the Company. 13 The fact that 6000 pounds was thus collected is very definite evidence as to the number belonging to the fellowship at the time of its first organization. There were evidently 240 members. This mode of raising the necessary money by equal subscriptions from the whole membership is of significance as indicating a sort of joint stock idea in the Company's very inception.

Three ships were secured and put in condition. They were furnished with arms and ammunition and thoroughly prepared to resist any enemy they might meet at sea. 1 * Provisions were purchased and the ships victualed for eighteen months in view of the possibility that the outward trip and the homeward trip might each take six months and that another six months should be allowed for wintering in the unknown lands they hoped to reach.

io Hakluyt, II, 240. ii Ibid., II, 201. 12 Infra? P- 25 ff. is Hakluyt, II, 240. ulbid., II, 241.

Sir Hugh Willoughby under the title of Captain General was given charge of the little fleet and appointed "Admirall with authoritie and commaund over all the rest. ' ' 15 He is described by our contemporary narrator as of " goodly personage" and as having ''singular skill in the services of warre." Richard Chancellor was appointed to be second in command with the title of Pilot Major. 16 Willoughby 's vessel, the Bona Speranza, a ship of 120 tons, is spoken of as the "Admiral of the fleete" in consequence of carrying the Captain General. 17 The largest of the three ships, however, was the Edward Bonaventure of 160 tons, in which Richard Chancellor sailed. 18 The third and smallest of the fleet was the Confidentia of 90 tons. 19 Each ship was accompanied by a pinnace and a small boat, and each carried, besides its quota of mariners, pursers, carpenters, cooks, etc., a number of merchants, 20 Every officer, merchant, and servant was put under oath to serve the Company faithfully. 21

Contemporary writers are silent on the question of the raising of men to man the vessels for the hazardous voyage to unknown lands. There is clear evidence, however, to show that the practice of impressing sailors was resorted to. A warrant among the Admiralty Papers signed by Lord Admiral Clinton and bearing the date of 1553 authorizes Sir Hugh Willoughby to press mariners for his ship about to sail for the north. 22

Cabot, as we have already mentioned, drew up a list of instructions for the direction of the intended voyage.

22 Cited by Marsden in Trans. R. H. 8., new series, Vol. XVI, p. 80, Cf. Gilbert's request for a similar privilege, infra, p. 112.

This interesting document contains thirty-three articles and provides among other things that the rules shall be read aloud on the voyage "once every week ... to the intent that every man may the better remember his othe, conscience, duetie and charge. ' ' 23 The instructions are very comprehensive and at the same time practical. The importance of amity and obedience is strongly emphasized and the men reminded of their oath to obey the Captain General and the captains and masters of their ships. A council of twelve, consisting of Willoughby, Chancellor, the masters of the three vessels, their mates, two merchants, "James Dalabere Gentleman" and "Master Richard Stafford Minister, " 24 is given authority to make rules for "the better conduction, and preservation of the fleete, and achieving of the voyage. " 25 A careful record of all incidents and observations is to be kept "to remain of record for the Company. ' ' 26 No sale of goods is to be made by individual merchants without the consent of those in charge of the voyage, 27 and all wares purchased are to be "wel ordred, packed, and conserved in one masse entirely" and an inventory presented to the Company so that the entire membership may receive the profits of the venture. 28 Besides these important provisions there are a number of detailed rulings such as the requirement of morning and evening religious services, 29 the prohibition of blasphemy, 30 etc. A quaint combination of piety and business sense is evident in the instruction "not to disclose to any nation the state of our reli-

gion, but to passe it over in silence, without any declaration of it, seeming to beare with such laws, and rites, as the place hath, where you shall arrive. ,,31 The wisdom of the experienced explorer is revealed in the advice, "If you shall be invited into any Lords or Rulers house, to dinner, or other parlance, goe in such order of strength, that you may be stronger than they, and be warie of woods and ambushes, and that your weapons be not out of your possessions, ' ' 32 as well as in the suggestion, l ' If you shall see them weare Lyons or Beares skinnes, having long bowes, and arrowes, be not afraid of that sight: for such be worne oftentimes more to feare strangers, then for any other cause. ' ' 32

It is evident that the voyage was in many respects a national venture. We have already seen that the Lord Admiral had authorized the impressing of men. Cabot, in the document just cited, says, "you be not ignorant, how many persons, as well the kings majestie, the Lords of his honorable Counsel, this whole companie, . . . be replenished in their hearts with ardent desire to learne and know your estates, conditions, and welfares, and in what likelihood you be in, to obtain this notable enterprise. ' ' 33 The most conclusive evidence of the interest of the Government in the new exploration is to be found, however, in a letter written by Edward VI and sent with the fleet. It is directed "To all Kings, Princes, Rulers, Judges, and Governours of the earth and all other having any excellent dignitie on the same, in all places under the universall heaven. ' ' 34 The letter makes a general offer of friendship to all princes and suggests the establishing of trade relations. It dwells upon the benefits of universal peace and the efficacy of commercial relations as a means to that end. The letter solicits permission for Willoughby and his companions to pass freely through the countries they may reach in their voyage, and promises reciprocal favors to the inhabitants of those lands "if at any time they shall come to our kingdomes.' , This was the document which was to inaugurate new and important international relations. We are told that copies were also written in Greek ' ' and divers other languages. ' ' 35

The three vessels, provisioned, as we have said, for eighteen months, well manned and armed, loaded with merchandise, carrying the instructions of the Governor of the Company, and the letter of the king, left London May 10, 1553, 36 and proceeded down the Thames. For our knowledge of the events of this voyage we are chiefly indebted to the account of Clement Adams, " schoolemaster to the Queene's henshmen," who received his information at first hand from Chancellor after the return of the latter in 1554. 37 The less literary but more detailed record kept by Sir Hugh Willoughby up to the time of his death has also come down to us 38 and furnishes us with definite statements of detail extremely useful as a verification of Adams' narrative; it is particularly valuable for its record of the fate of the Speranza after its separation from the Edward Bonaventure. From this contemporary evidence it is not difficult to work out a consecutive account of the outward voyage.

On May 11, the little fleet passed Greenwich, where the

36 This is the date recorded in Willoughby's Journal, Ibid., II, 217. The account written by Clement Adams, however, gives the date as May 20, Ibid., II, 244. Willoughby's evidence from its very nature is more to be relied upon for a matter of this sort than that of Adams.

st Ibid., II, 239. The date of composition is fixed by the writer's evident ignorance of the fate of Willoughby, word of which reached London in the fall of 1555 {infra, p. 12), Ibid., II, 247.

court then resided and where King Edward lay in his last illness. 39 In his honor the ships discharged their guns "insomuch that the tops of the hilles sounded therewith" while the mariners shouted "till the skie rang again with the noyse thereof." Crowds collected on the river bank and courtiers waved farewell from the windows and towers of the palace. 40 England was wishing God-speed to her voyagers to "lands unknowen." The fleet continued down the Thames slowly, being obliged to wait on favorable winds and tide.

On May 20 the ships were still in the Thames, having proceeded as far as Gravesend. 41 At last they sailed out to the open sea and turned their course to the north, still, however, keeping close to the English coast. On the 30th of May they "came against Yermouth about three leagues into the sea." 42

During the first three weeks of June little or no headway was made owing to contrary winds. On the 23rd they put out from the coast and sailed into the North Sea. 42 On the 27th an attempt was made to sail to the northwest "to the ende to fall with Shotland." 43 West winds prevented, however, and the three vessels continued their course to the northeast. Bad weather again delayed their progress. Until July 14 the ships struggled on "traversing and tracing the seas, by reason of sundry and manif olde contrary windes. ' ' 43 Then land was sighted to the east, Rost Island, off the coast of Norway. Here the voyagers landed on July 19 and remained for three days. 43

On July 22 they departed from Rost sailing northeast

along the Norwegian coast and continuing in this direc-

tion until the 27th when landing was made on another island which Willoughby calls "Lewfoot." " On the 30th they set sail once more still keeping land in sight to the east. 45 A boat from one of the islands furnished opportunity to inquire if a pilot might be secured to guide them along the coast to "Fimnarke. " They were told that if they would land a pilot would next day bring them to "the wardhouse, 46 which is the strongest holde in Finmarke, and most resorted to by report. ' ' 45 When they attempted to enter the harbor, however, "there came such flawes of winde and terrible whirlewinds , ' that the ships were compelled to put out to sea again. 45

At a council called by Sir Hugh Willoughby an agreement was made that if the ships should at any time be separated by storm "every shippe should indevour his best to goe to Wardhouse, a haven or castell of some name in the kingdome of Norway, and that they that arrived there first in safetie should stay and expect the coming of the rest. " 47 On the same day on which this council was held, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, a storm of terrific violence separated the fleet. Willoughby 's account says, "And that night by violence of winde and thickenesse of mists, we were not able to keepe together within sight, and then about midnight we lost our pinnesse, which was a discomfort unto us. " 48 With dawn the fog cleared, and in the distance the crew of the Bona Speranza sighted a ship which on closer view proved to be the Confidentia; the Edward Bonaventure had disappeared. 48 The two vessels continued in company to the northeast hoping to rejoin Chancellor's ship at Wardhouse as had been agreed upon a few days before. It seems from Wil-

4*Hakluyt, II, 219. *5lMd., II, 220. 46 I.e. Vardohuus. ulbid., II, 246. *s Hid., II, 220.

loughby's journal that they now completely lost their way. Soundings were taken and the conclusion reached "that the land lay not as the Globe made mention." 49 They sailed to the northeast, then to the southeast. On August 14 land was sighted in latitude 72° but the water was so shallow that the boat sent out to investigate could not effect a landing ; 49 there ' ' was very much ice also, but there was no similitude of habitation." The fact of the case seems to be that they had somehow passed "Wardhouse far to their right and they were aimlessly wandering along the desolate coasts of Russian Lapland.

The rest of Willoughby's journal is a concise record of one of those tragic events with which the history of navigation abounds. It continues with almost daily entries up to the end of September. By that time the White Sea had been reached, though the voyagers seem to have had no knowledge whatever of where they were. On the 18th of September they entered into a haven which "runneth into the maine, about two leagues, and is in bredth halfe a league. ' ' 50 Here Willoughby and his companions determined to spend the winter. And here they perished to a man. A will later found in the Speranza proves that Sir Hugh and most of the company were still alive in January, 1554. 51

The last entry in Willoughby's journal, written toward the close of September, 1553, is a testimony to the courage of the man and in its very simplicity pictures most vividly the environment in which he met his death. "Thus . . . seeing the yeare farre spent, & also very evill wether, as frost, snow, and haile, as though it had beene the deep of winter, we thought best to winter there. Wherefore we sent out three men Southsouthwest, to search if they could find people, who went three dayes journey, but could finde none: after that, we sent other three Westward four daies journey, which also returned without finding any people, Then sent we three men Southeast three dayes journey, who in like sort returned without finding of people, or any similitude of habitation." 52

During 1554, after Chancellor had made his memorable visit to the Czar, Ivan the Terrible, the Speranza and the Confidentia were found by some Russian fishermen with all on board frozen to death. 53 The ships were turned over to Chancellor on his second trip to Russia and word of the tragic fate of the adventurers thus reached England. It seems to have occasioned a great deal of interest there and to have appealed strongly to the imagination of the time. Various embellishments, of more or less artistic merit, seem to have been added to the narrative. Giovanni Michiel, the Venetian Ambassador at the court of England, writing home to the Doge and Senate under date of November 4, 1555, speaks of the return of the second voyage in that year and describes the finding of the Speranza and the Confidentia "on the Muscovite coast, with the men on board all frozen; and the mariners now returned from the second voyage relate strange things about the mode in which they were frozen, having found some of them seated in the act of writing, pens still in hand and the paper before them; others at tables, platter in hand and spoon in mouth; others opening a locker, and others in various postures, like statues, as if they had been adjusted and placed in those attitudes. They say that some dogs on board the ships displayed the same phenomena. They found the effects and merchandise all intact in the hands of the natives, and brought them back hither with the vessels. ' ' 54

We must now return to consider the progress of the voyage of Richard Chancellor in the Edward Bonaventure. In the storm that dispersed the fleet his vessel completely lost sight of the other ships. Left alone he shaped his course toward Wardhouse in accordance with the agreement that had been made. 55 Here he waited a whole week, when, giving up hope of his companions having survived the tempest, he pursued the interrupted voyage, sailing far to the east till " at the length it pleased God to bring them into a certain great Bay, which was of one hundreth miles or thereabout over, ' ' 56 — the White Sea. Here they entered and made a landing. From the natives it was soon learned that ' ' this Countrey was called Russia, or Muscovie, and that Ivan Vasiliwich ruled and governed farre and wide in those places." Chancellor explained that he and his men had been sent by King Edward in search of amity and commerce, "whereby they doubted not, but that great commoditie and profit would grow to the subjects of both kingdoms." 57 The "governour of that place" replied that he did not know what would be the wish of their ruler, but immediately despatched a messenger to the Emperor announcing the arrival of the strangers. 58 A long delay following, Chancellor announced his intention of re-embarking and proceeding further on his journey. 58 At this the Muscovites "fearing the departure in deede of our men who had such wares and commodities as they greatly desired" offered to conduct Chancellor to the Emperor at once.

Ivan "the Terrible" was at this time in his city of

Moscow, fifteen hundred miles from the spot where the English had landed. The trip had to be made in sledges. 59 On the way they met the royal messengers with commands from Ivan that all haste should be made in bringing the strangers to his court. 60 Of the hardships of this long overland trip we know little save that " after much adoe and great paines taken in this long and wearie journey . . . Master Chanceler came at last to Mosco the chiefe citie of the kingdome, and the seate of the king." 60

1553, the date of Chancellor's voyage, may be said to mark the most brilliant period of the reign of Ivan IV. He had just completed the conquest of Kazan in the southeast and in the following year was to gain possession of Astrakhan, thus extending the limits of his domain from the White Sea to the Caspian. Only on his western borders might his ultimate success be considered doubtful. The Teutonic knights in Livonia, the Swedes, Lithuanians, and Poles formed a solid wall between Russia and the civilization of western Europe. So long as the arts of that civilization were denied to the Czar the subjugation of the powerful neighbors that shut him off from the Baltic would be an impossibility. Communication by means of his distant Arctic coast suggested brilliant possibilities both of trade and contact with the West. We need go no further than this to explain the cordial reception accorded to Chancellor and his companions at the Russian capital.