A. D. 1553. 115 



by the Teut6nic knights of St. Mary of Jerufalem. Tims, though dif- 

 appointed in their hopes of arriving at China by this fuppofed north- 

 eafl paflage, thev made an ufeful and profitable difcovery of a trade by 

 fea to Ruflia ; and this difcovery, moreover, pointed out to the Englifh 

 the way to the whale-fifliery at Spitzbergen. 



Chancellor, from Archangel, by the governor's leave and afliftance, 

 travelled on fledges to the czar at Mofcow, of whom he obtained privi- 

 leges for the Englifh merchants, and letters to King F.dward. 



We muft here remark, that although Oclher had almoft 700 years 

 before juftly delineated the coaft of Norway to the great King Alfred, 

 yet through the negligence and ignorance of after times, the knowlege 

 of it was utterly loft, that the famous Sebaflian Munfter's Geogroph'm 

 vetus et 7iova, printed in foUo at Bafil 1540, in a map of the moft 

 northern parts of Europe, joins the country of Groneland, commonly 

 called Old Greenland, (now known to be a part of the great continent 

 of North America) to the north part of Norwegian Lapland, thereby 

 making the Northern Ocean merely a great bay, entirely fiiut in by 

 thofe two countries. 



We find three (hips from Portfmouth trading for gold along the coaft 

 of Guinea ; though but one of thofe fhips returned home fate from this 

 adventure. In fome fubfequent years, we find by Hakluyt, &c. that the 

 Erglifli made voyages to Guinea, and imported confiderable quantities 

 of gold and elephants teeth : Yet till the Negro trade was believed to 

 be neceflary for the Weft India colonies, (however unjuftifiable it may 

 be deemed by many in a moral fenfe) it is fcarcely probable that any 

 confiderable trade to Guinea could have been long carried on to advan- 

 tage, in a country producing fo few articles for commerce, as being able 

 to tak€ off fo little of the produce of other nations. 



By a ftatute [1,2 Phil, et Mar. c. 5] it was enaded, that when the 

 common price of wheat fliould not exceed 6/8 per quarter, and rye 

 /^per quarter, barley 3/", then they might be exported any where but 

 to the king and queen's enemies, Thisfliows that thefe prices v;ere then 

 efteemed low, or at kaft moderate. 



1 554. — The ambafiadors of the free cities of the Hanfeatic league hav- 

 ing applied to Qiieen R:ary, (who, as we have feen, had, on her marriage 

 wi^h the emperor's fon, fuipended the abrogation of their privileges for 

 three years) in behalf of the German irierchants refiding in the Steel- 

 yard at London, complaining, that by an ad of the firfl year of her 

 reign, touching ihe payment of certain cuftoms or fubfidies called ton- 

 nage and poundae, the merchants ot the Steelyard were otherwife bur- 

 dened than hererofore, contrary to the effect of fuch charters and privi- 

 leges as by fundry of her predeceflors kings of England had heretofore 

 been granted to them : A^-^d the queen being informed that the faid de- 

 claration or complaint contains truth ; ana fhe being alfo defirous to 



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