A. D. 1599. 215 



This year Queen Elizabeth fent John Mildenhall over land, by Con- 

 ftantinople, to the court of the great mogul, to apply for certain privi- 

 leges for the Englifh company, for whom (lie was then preparing a 

 charter for trading to Eaft-India, in which he was long oppofed by the 

 arts and prefents of the Spanifli and Portuguefe jefuits at that court, 

 whereby they prepoiTelTed the mogul againft the Englifh; fo that it was 

 feme years before he could entirely get the better of them *. 



1600.— r-Elizabeth wrote to King Chriftian IV of Denmark, complain- 

 ing of his people, who had feized on fome Englifh fifhing vefTels on the 

 high leas northward, remote from land ; and fhe tells that king, ' that 

 ' the high feas were free for fifhing by the confent of all nations ;' [Fa?- 

 dera, V. xvi, p. 395] which was her conftant flile on this fubjed. This 

 feizure was probably made fomewhere near Iceland or Norway, on pre- 

 tence of the Englifh not having firfl afked leave of the Danifli court 

 before they went to fifh in thofe feas, agreeable to a convention former- 

 ly made with Denmark. All difputes about the fifliing there are long 

 lince at an end. 



In a treatife, entitled England's grievance difcoi'ered in 7-eIatioti to the 

 coal-trade (1655) we fee, that Newcaflle upon Tine had obtained char- 

 ters from King Henry III, Edward I, and III, Richard II, Henry IV, 

 and Queen Elizabeth ; the latefl of hers being in this year 1600, where- 

 in fhe defcribes it as a town of merchants, a mart or market of great 

 fame, and fluffed with a multitude of merchants dwelling therein : 

 and whereas it is an antient town, and has time out of mind had a cer- 

 tain guild or fraternity, called hoaft-men, for the difcharging and bet- 

 ter difpofing of fea-coals, grind-flones, rub-ftones, and whet-ftones, in 

 and upon the river and port of Tine, though not as yet incorporated ; 

 fhe therefor now (in the 43d of her reign, though that book by mif- 

 rake fays the 13th) ' incorporates them by the name of the governor, 

 * ftewards, and brethren of the fraternity of hoaft-men of Newcaftle.' 

 By this and former charters it appear, that this famous town had great 

 jurifdidion on the river Tine, from the fea feven miles above the town, 

 in point of navigation, admiralty jurifdidion, fifhery, &c. And alfo 

 that Newcaftle had been ferviceable to former princes in their wars, by 

 fupplying them with mariners and fhips, as, down to our own time, it 

 has ever been in all our naval wars. 



Dr. Davenant, an able author, (in his New dialogues, V, \\,p. ^2,t ^d' 

 1 710) affirms, that the gold and filver coin at this time in England did 

 not exceed four millions, which were the tools we had to work with 



* He alfo met with much trouble by meais of tend their corrcfpondence and trnde to India over 



two Italian merchants at Agra. Tlie Italians, land. \_Purchas, B. iii, c. i, § 3 — Linfchotlou, pp. 



who feem to have had no idea that the navigation 145, 154) ^5S' '9^> — ^"^ ^'^'- wbov^in tht vear 



by the Cape of Good Hope was poflible to them, 1591O •'W. 

 had about this time made feveral attempts to ex- 



