England Takes From Them Prodigious Quantities Of Linen, Linen-Yarn,
Kid-Skins, Tin-Plates, And A Great Many Other Commodities.
The next company established was that of the Russia Merchants,
incorporated 1st and 2nd of Philip and Mary, who
Were empowered to
trade to all lands, ports, and places in the dominions of the
Emperor of Russia, and to all other lands not then discovered or
frequented, lying on the north, north-east, or north-west.
The Russia Company, as a company, are not a very considerable body
at present; the trade thither being carried on by private merchants,
who are admitted into this trade on payment of five pounds for that
privilege.
It consists of a governor, four consuls, and twenty-four assistants,
annually chosen on the 1st of March.
The Russia Merchants export from England some coarse cloth, long-
ells, worsted stuffs, tin, lead, tobacco, and a few other
commodities.
England takes from Russia hemp, flax, linen cloth, linen yarn,
Russia leather, tallow, furs, iron, potashes, &c., to an immense
value.
The next company is the Eastland Company, formerly called Merchants
of Elbing, a town in Polish Prussia, to the eastward of Dantzic,
being the port they principally resorted to in the infancy of their
trade. They were incorporated 21 Elizabeth, and empowered to trade
to all countries within the Sound, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Liefland,
Prussia, and Pomerania, from the river Oder eastward, viz., with
Riga, Revel, Konigsberg, Elbing, Dantzic, Copenhagen, Elsinore,
Finland, Gothland, Eastland, and Bornholm (except Narva, which was
then the only Russian port in the Baltic). And by the said patent
the Eastland Company and Hamburg Company were each of them
authorised to trade separately to Mecklenburg, Gothland, Silesia,
Moravia, Lubeck, Wismar, Restock, and the whole river Oder.
This company consists of a governor, deputy-governor, and twenty-
four assistants, elected annually in October; but either they have
no power to exclude others from trading within their limits, or the
fine for permission is so inconsiderable, that it can never hinder
any merchants trading thither who is inclined to it; and, in fact,
this trade, like the former, is carried on by private merchants, and
the trade to Norway and Sweden is laid open by Act of Parliament.
To Norway and Denmark merchants send guineas, crown-pieces, bullion,
a little tobacco, and a few coarse woollens.
They import from Norway, &c., vast quantities of deal boards,
timber, spars, and iron.
Sweden takes from England gold and silver, and but a small quantity
of the manufactures and production of England.
England imports from Sweden near two-thirds of the iron wrought up
or consumed in the kingdom, copper, boards, plank, &c.
The Turkey or Levant Company was first incorporated in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, and their privileges were confirmed and enlarged in
the reign of King James I., being empowered to trade to the Levant,
or eastern part of the Mediterranean, particularly to Smyrna,
Aleppo, Constantinople, Cyprus, Grand Cairo, Alexandria, &c. It
consists of a governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants or
directors, chosen annually, &c. This trade is open also to every
merchant paying a small consideration, and carried on accordingly by
private men.
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