A. D. 1605. 243 



fons, and all others thereafter to be admitted or made free of the com- 

 pany, annually to eled a governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen af- 

 liftants, to manage all matters relating to the trade, freedom, &c. All 

 the king's fubje<^s, being merchants, under the age of twenty-fix years, 

 on requiring the lame, and paying L25 to the company, and if above 

 twenty-fix years of age, paying L50, fliall be made free of this com- 

 pany, and all their apprentices fhall be admitted to its freedom on pay- 

 ment of 20/" only. 



Thus a mofl profitable commerce to England was efiablifiied in per- 

 petuity *, whereby great quantities of our woollen manufactures, and 

 of later times other merchandize, as watches, jewels, &c. have been 

 exported thither. The Venetians, for many ages, fupplied Conftantin- 

 ople and other parts of the Levant with woollen cloth and other mer- 

 chandize ; but the Englifli being able to afford their cloths cheaper than 

 the Venetians, drove them totally out of the cloth trade to Turkey. 

 The author of the Trade's increafe, publiflied in 1615, fays, that at 

 firll this company's ordinary returns were three to one ; and this has 

 generally been the cafe in newly dilcovered trades. 



It is true that Turkey is not a country to get a great and direft ba- 

 lance from, yet the raw filk brought from thence has been the means 

 of bringing our filk manufidture to its prefent magnitude ; and as we 

 have alfo from thence cotton, mohair yarn, and dying fi:uffs in great 

 quantities, we may jufl;ly efteem this trade profitable to the public for 

 the advancement of many forts of manufactures. From the Levant alfo 

 come drugs, coffee, carpets, &c. 



Captain Ley fettled with fome Englifhmen on the river Weapoco in 

 Guiana ; but fupplies mifcarrying, they w'ere forced to abandon that 

 fettlement. [Smit/j's Voyages, V. ii.] 



King James this year coined gold pieces called units, value zof, 

 double crowns lo/", Britain crowns '^J\ thiftle crowns d^f^ and half 

 crowns 2jh ; and next year he coined rofe-rials of 30/", fpur- rials of \^J\ 

 and angels of iq/! His filver coins were in all refpefts the fame as be- 

 fore. 



As every improvement and increafe of the metropolis of the Britifli 

 empire indicates the increafe of its general wealth and commerce, we 

 fhall not fcruple to take notice that an a6l of parliament was palTed 

 [3 ya. /, c. 22] for paving St. Giles's and Drury-lane, wherein St. Giles 

 in the fields is defcribedas a town feparate from the great contiguity, 

 -very foul and miry, and till now unpaved. What we now call Broad St. 



, * How far the exclufive privileges of the com- have been aflertedto be wow prejudicial \a the Bri- 

 pany may be profitable to the nation at large, is ti{h commerce and maniififtures, by Mr. Eton, 

 now called in queftion : and indeed their privileges in his Survey of the Turkiih tntiin; 8vo, 17Q8. M- 



Hh 2 



