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The Internal Organisation of the Merchant Adventurers of England
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
The Merchant Adventurers occupied a unique place in the history of England. Their life and activities were closely associated with the most varied phases of the national progress; their influence is seen not only in the municipal and domestic affairs of the realm, but also in many of its most important international relations. Through their branch organisations in the different towns of England the Adventurers were brought into close contact with local and municipal life; through their position as the great buyers and exporters of woollen cloth they came into immediate contact with English industrial development. For several centuries the Society enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the foreign trade in the English cloth manufacture. Its wealth and power became very great, and, as is to be expected, the Adventurers, both as individuals and as a corporate organisation, became potent factors in the field of national politics also—a fact seen most clearly in their participation in the restoration of financial credit in the sixteenth century, and the overthrow of the Stuarts in the seventeenth. In international affairs the Adventurers were connected at a very early date with the active intercourse between England and the Low Countries. Concerned solely with foreign commerce, and strongly supported by the Crown, they gradually secured for themselves the English commerce on the North Sea, and therefore necessarily became the agents and exponents of the successful commercial policy inaugurated by the Tudors. The Fellowship and its activities became the channel through which the mutual influence of England and the Continent in the industrial and commercial world was chiefly transmitted, and the history of the Adventurers strikingly illustrates those larger interests which England in her economic development shared with Europe.
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References
Page 20 note 1 Schanz, , Englische Handelspolitik, 2 vols. Leipzig, 1881Google Scholar.
Page 20 note 2 Gross, , The Gild Merchant, 2 vols. Oxford, 1890Google Scholar.
Page 20 note 3 Ehrenberg, , England und Hamburg im Zeitalter der Königin Elizabeth. Jena, 1896Google Scholar.
Page 22 note 1 State Papers, Dam., Charles II., vol. xxvii. fol. 44.
Page 24 note 1 Stale Papers, Dom., Charles II., vol. xxvii. fol. 55.
Page 24 note 2 This would indicate that the rule was new, or that if it did exist it had not been enforced.
Page 24 note 3 State Papers', Dom., Charles II., vol. xxvii. fol. 49.
Page 25 note 1 The Lawes Customs and Ordinances of the ffellowshippe of Merchantes Adventurers of the Realm of England, Br. Mus. Addit. MS. 18913, fols. 1–23. I have almost ready for the press a reprint of the Laws and Ordinances with other documents relating to the history of the Adventurers.
Page 25 note 2 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 24.
Page 25 note 3 Ibid. fols. 19, 29, 30, and 60.
Page 25 note 4 I.e. on the Continent.
Page 26 note 1 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 33.
Page 26 note 2 Ibid. fol. 89.
Page 27 note 1 Brand, , Newcastle, ii. 226Google Scholar, quoted by Gross, , Gild Merchant, i. 153Google Scholar.
Page 27 note 2 Lambert, , Two Thousand Years of Gild Life, p. 168Google Scholar. The facts here quoted are taken from the summary of the documents of the Society.
Page 27 note 3 Ibid. p. 174. Taken from the new ‘Court Book’ of the Fellowship at Hull.
Page 27 note 4 Letters from Antwerp to the Duke of Northumberland, State Papers, For., Edward, VI., p. 265Google Scholar.
Page 27 note 5 Records of the Newcastle Merchant Adventurers, Saturday, the 16th of 04, a° 1664. Surtees Society Publications, vol. ci. p. 115Google Scholar.
Page 28 note 1 These appear partly in the history of the relations between the general Fellowship and the Adventurers at Newcastle. The Merchant Adventurers' Society at Newcastle was not at any time entirely subservient to the Merchant Adventurers of England, in spite of the frequent efforts of the latter to force them into the position of a ‘sub-post.’ Cp. Records of the Newcastle Merchant Adventurers, Surtees Society Publications, vols. xciii. and ci.
Page 28 note 2 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 28.
Page 28 note 3 Ibid.
Page 28 note 4 Ibid.
Page 29 note 1 Lams and Ordinances, fol. 25.
Page 29 note 2 See p. 23.
Page 29 note 3 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 26.
Page 29 note 4 Ibid. fol. 24.
Page 30 note 1 Acts of the Privy Council (N.S.), vol. iv. fol. 279.
Page 30 note 2 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 6.
Page 30 note 3 Reasons humbly offered to this Honorable House against the Bill for supporting the Merchants Adventurers of England in their trade to Germany, commonly called the Hamborough Company. Brit. Mus. Pamphlets.
Page 31 note 1 Brit. Mus. Miscellaneous Tracts, T. 100. Compare also Cotton MS., Nero, B. viii., entitled ‘The replicacion of the Governors of the Merchants Adventurers to the answers of Wm. and Geo. Bond, and John Foxall, and those partners trading to Narve; with the oath of the said freeman annexed.’
Page 31 note 2 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 23 et passim.
Page 31 note 3 State Papers, Dom., Charles II., vol. xxvii. fol. 49.
Page 32 note 1 Lams and Ordinances, fol. 23.
Page 32 note 3 Acts of the Privy Council (, N.S.), vol. iv. p. 279Google Scholar.
Page 33 note 1 Brit. Mas. Harl. MS. 597.
Page 33 note 2 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 24.
Page 34 note 1 Brit. Mus. Harl. MS. 597. It is altogether likely that this is the distinction referred to in the By-laws, which provides that an apprentice who for a legitimate reason cannot serve his master the full term ‘bee set over to some other brother of the ffellowshippe ffree of the same hanse, that his master was ffree of’ (Laws and Ordinances, fol. 30). The word hanse is, however, used in a variety of meanings in the documents. That occurring most frequently is its use in the sense of fine or fee, as for example, ‘it is found that the ffellowshippe is very much prejudiced through the negligent collection of Broakes, Hanses, and Fines.’ (Ibid. fol. 18.) Another is that of ‘sub-post’ or local Fellowship. Thus the Merchants Adventurers of Newcastle complain against the establishing of a New Hanse, meaning the ‘sub-post’ which the General Court of the Merchants Adventurers of England had caused to be established at Newcastle. Records of the Merchants Adventurers of Newcastle, 12 5, 1663, et passim (Surtees Society), ci. 101–103Google Scholar.
Page 35 note 1 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 81. See also Rymer, , Fædera, xix. 584Google Scholar.
Page 35 note 2 For the character of the regulations to restrict the membership to certain classes, a proclamation by Charles II., April 8, 1663, is of interest. Cf. State Papers, Dom., , Chas. II., Proc. Coll., pp. 141–3Google Scholar.
Page 35 note 3 In the Royal Ordinance regulating the Company in 1634 it is expressly provided that no shopkeeper, unless he gives up his shop, can be admitted. The provision reads: ‘Also the Merchant Adventurers are to admit into the freedom of the said trade all such of the king's subjects dwelling in London, and exercised in the profession of merchandise and not shopkeepers, as shall desire the same, for the fine of 50 pounds apiece,’ etc. Proclamation, December 7, 1634.
Page 36 note 1 Wheeler, , Treatise of Commerce, p. 19Google Scholar. Cf. Gross, , Gild Merchant, i. 151Google Scholar.
Page 36 note 2 MacPherson, , Annals of Commerce, ii. 220, 286Google Scholar. In No. 162 of the Lansd. MSS., the date of which I cannot place, are found some interesting comparative statements in this connection.
Page 36 note 3 Wheeler, , Treatise of Commerce, p. 57Google Scholar.
Page 36 note 4 Imperial Mandate, , Brit. Mus. Lansd. MS. 139Google Scholar.
MacPherson, , Annals of Commerce, ii. 286Google Scholar.
Page 37 note 1 Pauli, R., Aufsätze zur englischen Geschiehte, p. 274Google Scholar.
Page 37 note 2 Pamphlet, Brit. Mus., ‘Reasons humbly offered for supporting the Company of Merchants Adventurers of England in their Trade to Germany.’
Page 37 note 3 Stale Papers, Dom., Charles II, vol. xxvii. fol. 43.
Page 37 note 4 The members of the Society were independent in their trading, and therefore ‘radically different from the joint-stock companies of Elizabeth.’ ‘The Companie of MM. Adventurers,’ says Wheeler, ‘hath no banke nor common stocke, nor common Factour to buye or sell for the whole Companie, but everie man tradeth a-part and particularlie with his own stocke, and with his owne Factour, or servaunt.’ Wheeler, , Treatise of Commerce, p. 102Google Scholar. Also Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 28079, f.63, ‘This trade is not by joint-stock, but every merchant trades with his own proper estate upon his own accompt and risque.’ To prevent the wealthy from securing all the trade, the Company set a limit to the number of cloths to be exported by each member, which varied according to his standing in the Fellowship. This is spoken of as the ‘stint.’ Cp. Br. Mus. Addit. MS. 18913, fol. 51 ff.
Page 38 note 1 Brit. Mus. Cott. MSS. Galba. B. xii. fol. 264.
Page 38 note 2 It need scarcely be mentioned that the Adventurers held a virtual monopoly of this trade.
Page 38 note 3 MacPherson, , Annals of Commerce, ii. 127–128Google Scholar.
Page 38 note 4 Wheeler, , Treatise of Commerce, p. 21Google Scholar.
Page 38 note 5 Schanz, , Englische Handelspolitik, vol. i. 11Google Scholarand 12, notes I and 4. Compare also Pauli, , Drei Volkwirtschaftliche Denkschriften, p. 66Google Scholar.
Page 38 note 6 Campbell, , Materials for a History of Henry VII. (Rolls Series), i. 273Google Scholar.
Page 38 note 7 Henne, , Règne de Charles-Quint en Belgique, v. 319Google Scholar.
Page 38 note 8 Hakluyt, , The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, iii. 29Google Scholar.
Page 39 note 1 Burgon, , Life of Sir Thomas Gresham, i. 349Google Scholar, Letter from the Queen to Gresham. In 1553 the Adventurers and Staplers took charge of the king's debt. Acts of the Privy Council (N.S.), vi. 267. Cf. also Calendar of State Papers, Dom., Add. 1547–1563, p. 541 et passim, for facts connected with their extensive trade.
Page 39 note 2 MacPherson, , Annals of Commerce, ii. 286Google Scholar.
Page 39 note 3 Acts of the Privy Council (N.S.), xvi. 210.
Page 39 note 4 Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 5501, fol. 50.
Page 39 note 5 There is no official list known, but I have succeeded in getting together the names of over thirty of the Governors of the Fellowship and those of many of the Deputies, Secretaries, etc.
Page 40 note 1 Acts of the Privy Council (N.S.), vi. 248, vii. 291; and State Papers Interregn., 77, p. 192.
Page 41 note 1 Thurloe, , State Papers, vi. 74Google Scholar. In a letter to the Dutch Ambassador we learn more of this. Packe, he says, had been Lord Mayor in 1655. Ibid. vi. 84.
Page 41 note 2 Cal. of State Papers, Henry, VIII, vol. xiii., pt. 2, p. 115Google Scholar.
Page 41 note 3 Acts of the Privy Council (N.S.), x. 224.
Page 41 note 4 A list of the Fellowship containing the names of sixty or more such persons, with the dates of admission, came to my notice. Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 28079, fols. 59–61.
Page 41 note 5 In 1689 SirRycaut, Paul writes, ‘After twelve weeks' lodging in the English Hous to my great inconvenience, I am now come to be settled in that Hous which formerly belonged to Sir Peter Wych.’ State Papers, For. Hamburg No. 8Google Scholar.
Page 42 note 1 Compare the volume in the Antwerp Municipal Archives called Englische Natie.
Page 43 note 1 State Papers, Dem., Charles II, vol. xxvii. fol. 43.
Page 43 note 2 Pat. 5 Hen. IV., Pt. 2, M. 17.
Page 43 note 3 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 2.
Page 43 note 4 In the correspondence with the Newcastle Adventurers the letters regarding the relations of that Society to the general Fellowship always emanated from a ‘General Court.’ Cf. Records of the Merchants Adventurers of Newcastle, Surtees Society, ii. 6 et passim. One of the letters here referred to contains the significant passage, ‘Your letter of February 22, in answer of ours of August 17 last, we have received, and was published at a general court here lately holden.’ All of the orders of the Fellowship that I have come across were issued by the General Court.
Page 44 note 1 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 14.
Page 44 note 2 Ibid. fol. II.
Page 45 note 1 Cf. p. 7, n. 4.
Page 45 note 2 By ‘martly’ is meant the time of the marts or days of sale of merchandise. These occurred four times a year in the mart town, and were known as the Pasche, Sinxon, Balms, and Cold marts.
Page 45 note 3 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 2.
Page 46 note 1 Brit. Mas. Shane MSS. 2103, fol. 5, printed by Schanz, , Englische Handelspolitik, ii. 574Google Scholar.
Page 46 note 2 A large charter granted by King Edward IV. in the second year of his reign to the merchants of England resident especially in the Netherlands, etc. Hakluyt, , The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries, i. 208Google Scholar.
Page 46 note 3 State Papers, Dom., Charles II, vol. xxvii. fol. 45.
Page 46 note 4 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 4.
Page 46 note 5 State Papers, Dom., Charles II, vol. xxvii. fol. 76.
Page 47 note 1 There are numerous instances during the history of the Fellowship where the Crown interfered—sometimes successfully, more frequently not. In the Acts of the Privy Council occurs the following: ‘Letters to the Englishe Merchants at Barowe in Flanders; they beinge divers tymes commanded by the letters of my Lord Protector's Grace and Counsell to keep themselves together at Barowe and not resorte to Antwerpe it was credibly informed that contrary to their Lordshipe's commandement, they did resorte daylie to Antwerpe, and that lately through the malitiouse and rashe persasion of some fewe they intended to proceed to the election of the new Governoure and Secretary of their Fellowshippe; they were therefore in his Majestie's name willed to keep themselves together at Barowe and not to resort to Antwerpe nor yet proceed any further in that their malytious purpose of dyposing their Governor and Sec. as they will answer for the contrary.’ Acts of the Privy Council (N.S.), i. 556.
Page 47 note 2 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 2.
Page 47 note 3 Ibid.
Page 47 note 4 Ibid. fol. 4.
Page 47 note 5 State Papers, Dom., Charles II, vol. xvii. fol. 71. ‘Joseph Avery. By service to the late King as Resident in Denmark, Sweden, and Germany, for twenty years, during which time he chiefly defrayed his own expenses, he lost an estate of 8,000 pounds, and was removed for his loyalty from his post as Deputy-Governor of the Merchants Adventurers Company at Hamburg, with 400 pounds a year,’ etc.
Page 48 note 1 Thurloe, , State Papers, vol. ii. p. 119Google Scholar.
Page 48 note 2 State Papers, Dom., Charles II, vol. xxvii. fol. 51. The name ‘Court of Assistants’ is used in the Laws and Ordinances, fol. 30.
Page 49 note 1 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 3.
Page 50 note 1 State Papers, Dom., Charles II, vol. xxvii. fol. 57.
Page 50 note 2 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 3.
Page 50 note 3 State Papers, Dom., Charles II, vol. xxvii. fol. 62.
Page 50 note 4 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 6.
Page 51 note 1 State Papers, Dam., Charles II, vol. xxvii. fol. 82; also Laws and Ordinances, fol. 3. For a more complete discussion of this point see chapter on the ‘Relations of General and Local Courts.’
Page 52 note 1 Ehrenberg, England und Hamburg im Zeitalter der Königin Elizabeth, page 28.
Page 52 note 2 Cunningham, , Growth of English Industry and Commerce, ii. 121Google Scholar.
Page 52 note 3 Gross, , The Gild Merchant, i. 154Google Scholar.
Page 52 note 4 Schanz, , Englische Handelspolitik, i. 341Google Scholar.
Page 53 note 1 The italics are my own.
Page 53 note 2 Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 28079, fol.
Page 54 note 1 Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 18913, fol. 200.
Page 55 note 1 Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 18913, fol. 200. The paragraph comes to a sudden stop here, but on fol. 202 is the continuation in another hand.
Page 55 note 2 Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 28079, fol. 65 (?) Also State Papers, For., Ham. No. 8, Letter from SirRycaut, P., 08 8, 1690Google Scholar.
Page 56 note 1 Cf. the following extract from a MS. ca. time of Elizabeth:—‘…Whose Majestie … did grant unto them privileges to assemble and meete in a mete and honest place in the parts beyond the seas to choose a Governor, to make ordinances, to pacify controversies, to punish desobedient,’ etc., ‘and have for themselves all and singular liberties and privileges before that time granted by the Lords and Governors of those parts unto the said Ancient Merchants. Harl. MS. 597.
Page 56 note 2 Supra, p. 25.
Page 57 note 1 State Papers, Dom., vol. xxvii. fol. 49.
Page 57 note 2 See above, p. 36.
Page 57 note 3 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 53.
Page 57 note 4 The few exceptions I have met in the manuscripts belong almost exclusively to the middle of the seventeenth century, to the period of the Protectorate.
Page 58 note 1 Records of the Merchants Adventurers of Newcastle, Surtees Society, ci. 3.
Page 58 note 2 Laws and Ordinances, fols. 33, 34.
Page 58 note 3 Ibid. fol. 43.
Page 59 note 1 Brit. Mus. Pamphlet 
.
Page 59 note 2 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 48.
Page 59 note 3 Ibid. fol. 118.
Page 59 note 4 Acts of the Privy Council (N.S.), i. 53. ‘Whereas the rome of the Governour off the Fellowship off Merchantes Adventurers being voyde and one or twoe successivelye chosen and named thereunto refused neverthelesse the same, the company of the sayde Fellowship att Antwerp wrote theyre letters to the others here, desiring them, being wyse and grave men, and men off great experience, to name summe one whome they sholde and wolde elect to the rome abovesayde, who accordinglye calling here theyre court twoe severall tymes condescend at length upon named — Casteline, whome beinge in theyre opinions a right mete man for the sayde purpose they required the said companye at Antwerp to ratifie and elect for Governour according to their promise in whose commendation allso at that time the kinges Highness Privye Counsell wrote theyre favorable letters. Forasmuch as nether regarding the keping off theyre promes, nether yett having suche respect as the ought to have haade to the merchauntes here, being theyre heades and masters, they chose and elected this notwithstanding one — Knotting a man of such qualities as no man was to be thought more unmete therefore. Thys day in the name of all the rest entered theyre complaynt hereoff, Sir Richard Gresham, Powle Withipowle — P(ier)poynt and — Gresham, and declaring unto the Counsell as well the mocke receyved by them att the handes of the sayde yong men resident in Antwerppe as contempt allso evidentlye showed off the Counselles letters, they desired humbly some remedie to be devised on this behalff. Whereupon letters were devised and sent to the sayde Fellowshippe at Antwerppe requiring as well in respect of the sayde consideration as in consideration allso that the sayde — Knotting was noted to be an inhabitant of the said towne of Antwerp, and as it was thought a freeman of the same, to retourne to a new election and in the same to elect and name the sayde Castelyne, according to theyre former promes, or ellse the sayde — Knotting and Clarcke of the Fellowshippe to repayre immediately to the Courte and to present themselves wyth all convenient diligence before the Privy Counsell attending upon the kynges Highnes most royall person with all convenient diligence.
Page 61 note 1 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 2.
Page 62 note 1 State Papers, Dom., Charles II., vol. xxvii. fol. 82.
Page 63 note 1 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 3.
Page 64 note 1 Calendar of State Papers, For., May 1635.
Page 64 note 2 From a letter of the Earl of Nottingham to Mr. William Gore, July 23, 1690, we learn that Mr. Ince had been for several years secretary to that part of the Hamburg Company which resided in London. Stale Papers, H. O. Sec.'s Letter Book, 2, p. 145.
Page 64 note 3 State Papers, For. Ham. No. 8, August 5, 1690.
Page 64 note 4 Wheeler, , Treatise of Commerce, p. 25Google Scholar.
Page 65 note 1 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 3.
Page 65 note 2 See p. 36.
Page 65 note 3 Laws and Ordinances, fol. 34.
Page 65 note 4 The question is complicated still further by the fact that a number of the local or subsidiary fellowships, as for example the court at Newcastle, were more or less independent in their origin of the general Society and only brought under its jurisdiction at a comparatively late period. The relations of local organisations of this kind to the general Fellowship would therefore differ materially from those of the more dependent subsidiary courts.
Page 66 note 1 Resolutien van den Oudraad, Jan. 5, 1751, Staatarchief, Dordrecht. This interesting resolution, together with those relating to the same subject among the Resoltitien van Holland, Staatarchief Skragenhag, will appear in the volume with the Laws and Ordinances of the Fellowship. University of Pennsylvania, Translations and Reprints, New Series, vol. 2.