46 HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF NEWFOUNDLAND 



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



in case of European war.^ 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 Com- ^j-^,^ it ^yy^s an age when the east and west of England 



being East- began to opposc one another, and a little nft appeared 



English or ^vhich 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 ^ 

 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 ^ Captain Davys relied solely on Exeter, Bristol, and 

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



^ J. R., Trade's Increase, 1615. 

 2 Ante, p. 19. • 3 Afjte, p. 21. 



