46 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



the huge East Indiamen went too far away to be of much use 

 in case of European war. 1 The need for creating a strong 

 Royal Navy to defend the shores and ships of England was 

 imperative. Charles I and Cromwell addressed themselves 

 to this task with equal vigour, and convoys, which had been 

 demanded for (not by) the fishermen of Newfoundland ever 

 since 1620, and had been partially conceded in 1623 and 

 1629, began to act regularly as their guardian angels during 

 the Commonwealth and the Restoration. 



the Corn- And jt was an a g e w hen the cast and Avest of England 

 being East- began to oppose one another, and a little rift appeared 



English or w hich widened into the Great Rebellion. Symptoms of this 



West- 



English ; opposition were seen in the constitution of commercial 



Companies, which were composed either of Londoners or of 

 merchants in the south-west of England, or of both ; but, if 

 they tried to include both, they usually failed or changed into 

 the one or the other. Conversely there was a tendency for the 

 east of England to trade in one direction, and for the west of 

 England to trade in a different direction. As early as 1521 2 

 Cardinal Wolsey tried to unite London with Bristol in an 

 expedition to Newfoundland, but without success. Those 

 London adventurers and East-English sea-captains, who 

 initiated the attempt to sail to India both by the north-west and 

 by the north-east, soon limited themselves to the north-east, 

 out of which there arose trade, but it was only trade between 

 London and Russia. The Guinea Company (1588), in 

 which Exeter and London took part, was succeeded in 1618 

 by an African Company composed of Londoners only. The 

 title of the first East Indian Company was ' The Governor 

 and Company of merchants of London trading to the East 

 Indies ', and its nature answered to its name. Of the north- 

 westers s Captain Davys relied solely on Exeter, Bristol, and 

 the south-west, and Davys's successors on London, until 



1 J. K... Trade's Increase, 1615. 

 2 Ante, p. 19. y Ante, \>. 21. 



