The Small And Temporary Trade With The Genoese And Venetian Possessions In
The Levant, Seems To Have Been Attended With Such Profit, And To Have
Opened Up Such Further Prospects Of Advantage, As To Have Given Rise To A
Direct Trade With Turkey, And The Formation Of The Turkey Company.
The
enlightened ministers of Elizabeth effected these objects:
They first sent
out an English merchant to the Sultan, who obtained for his countrymen all
the commercial advantages enjoyed by the Venetians, French, Germans, and
Poles. Two years afterwards, in 1581, the Turkey Company was established.
Sir William Monson, in his Naval Tracts, assigns the following as the
causes and reasons why England did not sooner embark in the Turkey trade
for Persian and Indian merchandize: 1. That there was not sufficient
shipping; 2. the hostility of the Turks; and, lastly, England was supplied
with Levant goods by the Venetian ships, which came annually to
Southampton. He adds, "the last argosser that came thus from Venice was
unfortunately lost near the isle of Wight, with a rich cargo, and many
passengers, in the year 1587." The Turkey Company carried on their concern
with so much spirit, that the queen publicly thanked them, with many
encouragements to go forward for the kingdom's sake: she particularly
commended them for the ships they then built of so great burden. The
commodities of Greece, Syria, Egypt, Persia, and India, were now brought
into England in greater abundance, and sold much cheaper than formerly, and
yet the returns of this trade are said to have been, at its commencement,
three to one.
It is not our object, nor would it be compatible with our limits, to trace
the progress of commerce minutely, in any of its branches, but rather to
point out, as it were, its shootings in various directions; and any special
causes which may have given vigour to its growth, or have retarded it. In
conformity with this plan, we shall only notice some of the more marked and
important eras of our Levant trade, prior to the commencement of the
eighteenth century. The trade to the Levant, in its infancy, like all other
trades, at a time when there was little capital and commercial knowledge,
required the formation of a company which should possess exclusive
privileges. Charters were granted to such a company for a term of years,
and renewed by Elizabeth. In 1605 king James gave a perpetual charter to
the Levant Company: the trade was carried on with encreasing vigour and
success: our woollen manufactures found a more extensive market: the
Venetians, who had for many years supplied Constantinople and other ports
of the Levant, were driven from their markets by the English, who could
afford to sell them cloths cheaper; and English ships began to be preferred
to those of Venice and other nations, for the carrying trade in the
Mediterranean. According to Sir W. Monson, England exported broad cloth,
tin, &c. enough to purchase all the wares we wanted in Turkey; and, in
particular, 300 great bales of Persian raw silk yearly: "whereas a balance
of money is paid by the other nations trading thither. Marseilles sends
yearly to Aleppo and Alexandria at least 500,000_l_. sterling, and little
or no wares. Venice sends about 400,000_l_. in money, and a great value in
wares besides: the Low Countries send about 50,000_l_., and but little
wares; and Messina 25,000_l_. in ready money: besides great quantities of
gold and dollars from Germany, Poland, Hungary, &c.; and all these nations
take of the Turks in return great quantities of camblets, grograms, raw
silk, cotton wool and yarn, galls, flax, hemp, rice, hides, sheep's wool,
wax, corn, &c."
The first check which the Levant trade received was given by the East India
Company: about the year 1670 the Levant Company complained that their trade
in raw silk was much diminished; they had formerly imported it solely from
Turkey, whereas then it was imported in great quantities direct from India.
In 1681, the complaints of the one company, and the defence of the other,
were heard before the Privy Council. The Levant Company alleged, that for
upwards of one hundred years they had exported to Turkey and other parts of
the Levant, great qualities of woollen manufactures, and other English
wares, and did then, more especially, carry out thither to the value of
500,000_l_; in return for which they imported raw silks, galls, grograms,
drugs, cotton, &c.; whereas the East India Company exported principally
gold and silver bullion, with an inconsiderable quantity of cloth; and
imported calicoes, pepper, wrought silks, and a deceitful sort of raw silk;
if the latter supplants Turkey raw silk, the Turkey demand for English
cloth must fail, as Turkey does not yield a sufficient quantity of other
merchandize to return for one fourth part of our manufactures carried
thither.
The East India Company, on the other hand, alleged that the cloth they
exported was finer and more valuable than that exported by the Turkey
Company, and that, if they were rightly informed, the medium of cloths
exported by that company, for the last three years, was only 19,000 cloths
yearly: it is admitted, however, that before there was any trade to China
and Japan, the Turkey Company's exportation of cloth did much exceed that
of the East India Company. With respect to the charge of exporting bullion,
it was alleged that the Turkey Company also export it to purchase the raw
silk in Turkey. The East India Company further contended, that since their
importation of raw silk, the English silk manufacturers had much encreased,
and that the plain wrought silks from India were the strongest, most
durable, and cheapest of any, and were generally re-exported from England
to foreign parts.
We have been thus particular in detailing this dispute between these
companies, partly because it points out the state of the Levant Company and
their commerce, at the close of the seventeenth century, but principally
because it unfolds one of the principal causes of their decline; for,
though some little notice of it will afterwards occur, yet its efforts were
feeble, and its success diminished, chiefly by the rivalry of the East
India Company.
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