152 TRADE AND MARKETS. 



succeeded to the throne, and was carrying on a war in Livonia. 

 Chancellor went to Moscow, and obtained certain concessions 

 to English merchants in letters addressed to the young King 

 of England. This voyage was the experiment from which the 

 Russian company was developed. 



This company was created by charter dated 6 Feb., j and 

 2 Phil, and Mary (i.e. 1554) 1 . It allowed discovery, trade, or 

 conquest, after reciting the facts of Chancellor's voyage, in 

 countries to the North, North-east, and North-west, not as 

 yet frequented by other Christian monarchs in friendship with 

 the English crown. The agent of this new company, Jenkinson, 

 is said to have sailed down the Volga to Novgorod and 

 Astrachan, and across the Caspian into Persia, with a view 

 to opening a trade for raw silk. He returned to England in 

 1560, and published the first map of Russia. The trade of 

 the Baltic, once in the hands of the Hanseatic League, had 

 fallen off considerably, partly owing to the exactions practised 

 by the Kings of Denmark, partly to the removal of those causes 

 which gave occasion to the League in the first instance. The 

 League still had extensive privileges and immunities in Eng- 

 land, till in 1579 their ancient relations with English com- 

 merce were practically extinguished. 



In the same year, Elizabeth entered into an offensive and 

 defensive alliance with the United Netherlands, which had 

 now under the name of the Seven United Provinces, and the 

 guidance of Barneveldt and the Prince of Orange, determined 

 to resist the King of Spain. Two years before, Drake had set 

 out on his famous voyage. That he started with the queen's 

 connivance is probable, that his exploits were commendable 

 in her eyes is certain, though she so far dissembled with her 

 great enemy, that on the return of Drake, after dining with 

 him and knighting him, she impounded part of the treasure 

 which he had collected, for the use of the King of Spain. 



1 The Russian company was the oldest of the regulated companies that is, a company 

 in which they who were admitted to the privilege of trade carried on business with 

 their own capital. It was in fact a guild of commerce. 



