The First, In Point Of Time, I Find To
Be The Hamburg Company, Originally Styled "Merchants Of The Staple"
(That Is, Of The Staple Of Wool), And Afterwards Merchant
Adventurers.
They were first incorporated in the reign of King
Edward I., anno 1296, and obtained leave of John, Duke of Brabant,
to make Antwerp their staple or mart for the Low Countries, where
the woollen manufactures then flourished more than in any country in
Europe.
The business of this company at first seems to be chiefly,
if not altogether, the vending of English wool unwrought.
Queen Elizabeth enlarged the trade of the Company of Adventurers,
and empowered them to treat with the princes and states of Germany
for a place which might be the staple or mart for the woollen
manufactures they exported, which was at length fixed at Hamburg,
from whence they obtained the name of the Hamburg Company. They had
another mart or staple also assigned them for the sale of their
woollen cloths in the Low Countries, viz., Dort, in Holland.
This company consists of a governor, deputy-governor, and
fellowship, or court of assistants, elected annually in June, who
have a power of making bye-laws for the regulation of their trade;
but this trade in a manner lies open, every merchant trading thither
on his own bottom, on paying an inconsiderable sum to the company;
so that though the trade to Germany may be of consequence, yet the
Hamburg Company, as a company, have very little advantage by their
being incorporated.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 132 of 145
Words from 37175 to 37430
of 40922
