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.
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