Merchant Adventurers

On the front of Bishop Lloyd's House in Chester can be seen a coat of arms relating to the Merchant Adventurers. This is their story and explores their connection with the "East India Company", an organisation which helped to paint large parts of the map of the world red.

The Treaty of Medina del Campo


The Treaty of Medina del Campo was an agreement developed on March 26, 1489 between England and the nascent Spain. Its provisions accomplished three goals: the establishment of a common policy for the two countries regarding France, the reduction of tariffs between the two countries, and, most centrally, the arrangement of a marriage contract between Arthur Tudor, eldest son of Henry VII of England (and Earl of Chester), and Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon.

Arthur Tudor was born 19/20 September 1486 eight months after his parents Henry VII and Elizabeth of York had married on the 18th January of the same year. Biographies of Elizabeth of York, Henry VII and Arthur himself do not report any contemporary rumor that Arthur was illegitimate (either because his parents may not have been married when he was conceived, or because Henry VII might not have been his father). Henry picked the name for the usual reasons given, to inaugurate a new age, emphasize his descent from the legendary kings of Britain, provide a unifying motif across York-Lancaster divisions and perhaps to avoid the acrimony that might have arisen from a straight Henry-or-Edward choice. Arthur Tudor was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in 1489. Having an Earl and the potential of a stable government was probably considered a good thing by the people of Chester as the previous Earls of Chester had at times been sporadic especially during the "Wars of the Roses": Edward of Middleham the son of Richard III had died in 1482; Edward of York, was one of the "princes in the tower"; and, Edward of Westminster was killed aged seventeen at the Battle of Tewkesbury (1471). Effectively, the last earls to have taken any interest in Chester had been Henry of Monmouth (later Henry V) and Richard of Bordeaux (later Richard II).

The connection with Spain was also useful for the merchants of Chester which Arthur Tudor visited in 1498. The Midsummer Watch Parade was first held during the mayoralty of Richard Goodman (in 1498) - organised by the City Guilds. There is an obvious difficulty in reconciling the dates of the visit of Prince Arthur to Chester (4 August 1498 - 19 Sept 1498) with the midsummer festivities during Goodman's mayorality, but it does indicate the nexus of significant events in which the origins of the watch parade is nested: the completion of a part of the Pentice, good progress on building the Abbey, an up-swing of trade with Spain, and of course the visit of the Prince. He was accompanied by his Page of Honour Thomas Cowper who married Isabel Goodman, daughter and heiress of mayor Richard Goodman. During the approximate time of the visit the Customs Records show that Mary of Chester, which was part owned by mayor Richard Goodman, arrived at Denhall (Neston) with 46 tons of iron. Goodman's profession is given as mercer, a merchant dealing in fabrics and textiles, especially silks and other fine cloths. Presumably he would send textiles or other goods out to Spain and bring back iron. It is not known for certain whether mayor Goodman was related to the Goodmans of Ruthin of whom Gabriel Goodman was awarded (by Elizabeth I) the arms displayed on Bishop Lloyd's House as a silver double headed eagle on a black field. The Goodmans of Chester used the "eagle" arms at times but also used a shield with a black chevron between three black crosses "botony" (with bud-like ends).

The treaty of Medina del Campo was signed on March 27 by Spanish sovereigns, but its ratification by Henry VII did not occur until September 1490. After the treaty opened up further trade with the Iberian peninsula, Spanish iron, and wine from Portugal, Spain, and Gascony became the basis for a dramatic expansion in Chester's overseas trade, which allowed other Mediterranean commodities to reach the city, and provided new markets for hides and cloth. Chester's trade with Spain focused on the Basque region. Iron imports from northern Spain rose from 939 tons in 1490-1500 to 4,273 tons in 1530-40, and although dropping below 1,000 tons thereafter, survived international tension as a regular item in Chester's trade. 363 tons of iron were imported in 1562-3. It was carried in both local and Iberian ships, but before 1540 alien merchants shipped the largest quantities: 77 per cent in 1490-1500, 36 per cent in 1510-20, 61 per cent in 1523-30, 52 per cent in 1530-40, and 28 per cent in 1540-50. Relatively low quality iron was typically used for the manufacture of horse-shoes and tools. Some Basque iron was of a particularly high quality and at the beginning of the 14th century, iron-ore mines led to a period of demographic and economic growth in the Basque region lasting until the end of the 16th century. The better quality iron would be used, for example, in the manufacture of armour, ship building, and in high status domestic and religious buildings. The Palatinate accounts for Chester show almost all the iron imports to be Spanish or unloaded from Spanish ships, many from the Basque port of Lequeitio.

Besides iron, small quantities of angora, silk and velvet, liquorice, train oil, woad, and Cordovan skins were sometimes carried. Trade with Portugal and Andalusia through the northern Spanish ports brought cork, dyestuffs, figs and raisins, litmus, pepper and herbs, oil, sugar, wax, and sweet wines to Chester from c. 1509. Never extensive, it dwindled to only two shipments between 1542 and 1560.

Although the early 16th century overseas trade at Chester with Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Brittany expanded, only merchants with a sizeable turnover could carry the heavy costs which arose from carriage from anchorages down the estuary and from high customs duties. The share of the port's trade controlled by Cestrians fluctuated. Dubliners dominated the Irish Sea trade, and there was strong competition for the rest of the overseas trade from English, Welsh, and Continental merchants. In 1538-42, during Chester's trading zenith, 40-45 per cent of traders were Chester freemen. Most were probably only occasionally involved, and between 1500 and 1550 there were forty or so significant Chester merchants who shipped through the port. Their trade was predominantly in importing iron and wine and exporting hides and cloth, but few were specialists. The involvement of the city's leading merchants appears to have ceased between the 1460s and the 1490s. Thereafter, however, their share increased until in the 1510s they were dominant. Such merchants, generally aldermen or councillors, were engaged mainly in the Spanish trade but also maintained an interest in the Irish and coastal trade.



The other set of heraldic motifs on the front of Bishop Lloyd's House relate in part to James I's son Henry Frederick (19 February 1594 – 6 November 1612). Prince Henry was invested as Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in 1610, and was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's thrones. However, at the age of 18, he predeceased his father, dying of typhoid fever. His younger brother Charles succeeded him as heir apparent to the English, Irish, and Scottish thrones. On Henry Frederick's creation as Prince of Wales the play "Chester's Triumph" was performed in Chester (St George's Day, 1610) and is described at some length on the page relating to Chamber's Book of days. The panel comprises the Tudor Rose of England surrounded by the motto of the Garter Knights. This stands between the letters "I" and "R" for "Iacobus" and "Rex", i.e. King James. The prince was made Knight of the Garter on 14 June 1603. After the death of Elizabeth I, her successor, James I, quickly sought to end the long and draining Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), and the Treaty of London was negotiated. The "Spanish Match" was a proposed marriage between Prince Charles (later king), the son of King James I of Great Britain, and Infanta Maria Anna of Spain (18 August 1606 – 13 May 1646), the daughter of Philip III of Spain. Had Henry Frederick not died a possible dynastic marriage would have been to Ana María Mauricia (22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) a Spanish infanta known as Anne of Austria. At age eleven in 1612, Anne was betrothed to King Louis XIII of France.

Much has been written about the decay of the Port of Tudor Chester due to the silting of the River Dee. While it is true that silting occurred other factors were also relevant, including the fact that the Dee could not be navigated by the larger ships that were being developed. Despite this Chester remained the largest port in the northwest of England, but overall it was a second-rank provincial town, half the size of York and a third the size of Norwich. Although it carried only a small proportion of England's trade, ranking 12th in a list of 18 provincial ports in 1594-5. It had few, if any, ships of over 100 tons, and was unfavourably located for trading with England's main markets overseas. While well situated for trade with Ireland, its hinterland was not heavily populated or industrially developed, and competition from Liverpool gradually became more serious. The Irish trade was already the backbone of the city's commerce in 1550, and grew from a third of Chester's imports and three quarters of its exports by value in 1582-3 to two thirds of imports and nine tenths of exports a decade later. Longer-range trade included that with Spain and some with the Baltic, but there was little direct interest in longer-range trade.

The Spanish Company


The Spanish Company was an English chartered company or corporate body established in 1530, and 1577, confirmed in 1604, and re-established in 1605 as President, Assistants and Fellowship of Merchants of England trading into Spain and Portugal, whose purpose was the facilitation and control of English trade between England and Spain through the establishment of a corporate monopoly of approved merchants.

The origins of the Spanish Company are to be found not in England but in the organisation built up by English merchants in the early sixteenth century for their own welfare and protection in the Iberian peninsula. In this there was nothing unusual for both the Merchant Staplers and the Merchant Adventurers had established their headquarters in their mart towns rather than in London. The English merchants trading to Spain and Portugal did not possess any staple towns comparable to Calais or Antwerp; but the chief focus of English commerce was the coastline of Andalusia, the area to which the majority of English cargoes were shipped, and it was in the Andalusian ports of Seville, Sanlucar de Barrameda, Puerto de Santa Maria and Cadiz that the majority of English merchants and factors congregated. As Chester’s continental trade was with Northern Spain, Chester chiefly used the port of Bilboa and its surrounding ports: San Sebastion, Bermec and Portugalete.

In 1517 Don Alonso Perez de Guzman, 5th Duke of Medina Sidonia, granted to the English merchants resident in Sanlucar their earliest corporate privileges, confirming the position of their leader as the "consul and judge", and bestowing on them "a piece of ground in the street down below the waterside" on which they might at their own expense erect a chapel dedicated to St. George and a burial place for Englishmen. In addition to the church, they also built a hospital for the poor and St George's School, which would be used to meet the needs of the significant English community. The church was owned by the English Catholic church until 1985. Initially the "Spanish Company" had no organisation in England and it only incorporated those who travelled to the south coast, so largely excluding Chester. By the end of the reign of Henry VIII the original Spanish Company no-longer had any real existence. For the next thirty years relations between the Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese were often difficult. With peace between Spain and King James the Spanish Company was renewed.

The 557 founding members of the 1605 incorporation named in the charter consisted of two distinct groups, firstly of 25 nobles, royal officials and knights and then of 532 merchants from 16 named English ports and towns, including Fulke Aldersey, his father William Aldersey, William Johnson and George Boys, all merchants of Chester. The key passage in the Charter granted by James I reads:


 * "And for that divers persons our subjects being not brought up in merchandise or use of traffic, but altogether ignorant and inexpert as well in the order and rules of merchandise as in the laws and customs of the realms of Spain and Portugal, and in the customs, usages, tolls and values of moneys, weights and measures, and in all other things belonging to merchandise very necessary, through their ignorance and lack of knowledge do commit many inconveniences and absurdities (as we are informed) to the offence of us and our dear brother the king of Spain, we willing to prevent and meet with such inconveniences and intending to further and help the expert and exercised merchants in their lawful and honest trade, and to establish good order and government in the said trade, of our ample and abundant grace do grant unto the president, assistants and fellowship of merchants that they, and such only as be or shall be of this incorporation or free of this fellowship, shall enjoy the whole entire and only trade and traffic and the whole entire and only liberty, use and privilege of trading and trafficking and using the feat and trade of merchandise, by and through all the parts of Spain and Portugal, from the town of Fuenterrabia in the kingdom or province of Biscay along the coast of Spain or Portugal or either of them unto Barcelona and in all the islands adjoining or appertaining to the said realms, towards the south or west part thereof. And therefore we command all the subjects of us, our heirs and successors, of what degree or quality soever they be, that none of them directly or indirectly do visit haunt frequent or trade, traffic or adventure by way of merchandise into or from any the parts of Spain or Portugal or either of them from the town of Fuenterrabia unto Barcelona, neither within any islands adjoining or appertaining to the said realms, towards the south or west part thereof, other than the president, assistants and fellowship and such particular persons as be of that fellowship, their factors, agents, servants and assigns, upon pain not only to incur our indignation, but also to pay such pains and amercements and also to suffer imprisonment and other pains due to the transgressors of the statutes of the fellowship"

Fuenterrabia, now known in Basque as Hondarribia, is a border town with France facing Hendaye (France) over the Txingudi bay. Given the position of Barcelona the charter of the Spanish Company covered effectively the entire coatline of Spain and Portugal.

Mercantilism
One central economic policy at the time was "Mercantilism" which is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. In other words, it seeks to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and use those resources for one-sided trade. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, protectionism, currency manipulation, and tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal. England began the first large-scale and integrative approach to mercantilism during the Elizabethan Era (1558–1603). An early statement on national balance of trade appeared in "Discourse of the Common Wealth of this Realm of England", 1549:


 * "We must always take heed that we buy no more from strangers than we sell them, for so should we impoverish ourselves and enrich them." (attributed to Sir Thomas Smith).

On this theory, trades and employments should be encouraged were those which tended to develop national strength; trade which enriched another nation was to be discouraged; the prosperity of a neighbour probably, of a rival certainly, was looked upon as injurious. The importance to the State of possessing a large amount of gold and silver gave rise to the doctrine that a trade which exchanged treasure for goods was bad for the country, but that one which exchanged goods for treasure was beneficial. It became, therefore, the duty of the State to control commerce, to encourage or discourage it actively, with a view to maintaining the "balance of trade" that is, of securing an inflow of treasure greater than the outflow and the artificial development of industries regarded as beneficial, as, for instance, the manufacture of gunpowder and ordnance. The principal means to the encouragement of shipping was found in the Navigation Acts, favouring goods exported or imported in English bottoms'.

The first great examples of monopolist Companies were the Merchants of the Staple and the Merchant Adventurers, who had exclusive rights of trading in certain classes of goods in Western Europe. Taking a positive view, such monopolies were a condition of the progress of trade. The trader was admitted only if he was an enrolled member of a Company which was responsible for his good behaviour and could be penalised if its members set rules and regulations. A Company to which authority had been granted could control its members but unless the grant also conveyed a monopoly, it would have no control over traders who were not members. On the negative side this would appear to block "free trade" and enrich a few at the expense of the many.

The maritime ex­pansion of the sixteenth century opened up new markets or new fields of enterprise, where the economic arguments which had warranted the old monopolies were more effective than ever. In Elizabeth's reign there began a multiplication of chartered Companies for trading in the more remote and less civilised portions of the globe. Thus the Eastern or Prussian Company was established for trading with the Baltic, the Muscovy Company for the Russian trade, the Levant Company for trade with Constaninople, and, finally, on the last day of the year 1600, the East India Company. Early Stuart governments also cashed-in on commerce by selling exclusive "monopolies" on trading in specific goods, thus fixing their retail price. Bitterly unpopular, monopolies were abolished in 1624 by James I’s last Parliament, but Charles I’s ministers, desperate for money, reintroduced them as "patents".

A somewhat conflicting policy was to ban the export of certain goods to as to prevent stortages at home. From 1558 until the 1660's the export of hides and leather was prohibited, except under licence, and an Act 5 and 6 Edward VI cap. 5 actually made transport of these commodities punishable by death (the penalty was abolished in 1572).

Trade Guilds and Charters
The incorporation of trade guilds and like bodies, as well as the establishment of other exclusive practices was nothing new in Chester (see: Charters). No craftsman or trader could work in Chester, and avoid a fine, unless he was a "freeman" and a member of the relevant Guild. The parents or guardians of a minor would agree with a Guild's Master craftsman the conditions for an apprenticeship which would bind the minor for 5–9 years (e.g. from age 14 to 21), and pay a premium to the craftsman and the contract would be recorded in an indenture. Apprentices served at least five years to learn their trade. They could then become freemen of the City and seek admission to the appropriate Craft Guild. To become a freeman, a man had to be the son of a freeman, to have served his apprenticeship to a freeman or be admitted by order of the City Assembly, which usually involved a hefty fee. All these barriers made it difficult for those lacking the capital to set up for themselves or without the approval of their peers to gain access to materials or knowledge, or to sell into certain markets, an area that equally dominated the guilds' concerns. There were a few positive aspects: guilds created "social capital" of shared norms, common information, mutual sanctions, and collective political action. This social capital benefited guild members, even as it arguably hurt outsiders. It could also be said that, guilds had some positive impact in maintaining quality and ensuring effective transfer of skills from generation to generation.

Two local families were pre-eminent. Six Alderseys traded with the Continent between 1558 and 1603, and family members owned property in and near the city and held civic office. Their wealth became largely concentrated in the hands of the third William Aldersey (d. 1625), who left a personal estate worth over £2,300 and credits of £1,700. The Gamulls (of Gamul House), not quite as wealthy, also held civic office and had interests in the Dee Mills and a salt-works. Another rich overseas merchant was Richard Bavand, mayor and M.P., who died in 1603 owning goods worth c. £400, more than 20 properties in the city, and land outside. Merchants supplemented their profits with advantageous marriages, investment in shipping, farming, property rents, retailing, loans to the Crown, and in some cases smuggling and evasion of tolls. Nevertheless, even the most prominent were less affluent than their counterparts in the main provincial ports.

In 1554 the Chester Merchant Venturers had been granted a charter by Queen Mary I which gave them a monopoly of all local trade to the continent, besides excluding retailers and all followers of manual craft occupations. The latter provision seems to have been disregarded almost from the beginning; the Chester Merchant Adventurers became a fairly comprehensive body despite some early disputes with the town corporation, and the charter was confirmed in 1559 by Elizabeth. One of the items traded with Spain was iron: The peak in this trade occurred during the 1530s when imports averaged more than 400 tons a year. In Elizabeth's reign imports fluctuated but never regained the level achieved during the 1530s. Exports to the continent were dominated by a single commodity, tanned calfskins. The origin of this trade lay in a licence granted by Elizabeth to the Chester merchants in 1584. This licence, which allowed the merchants to export 10,000 dickers of tanned calfskins within twelve years, was intended to relieve the Chester merchants who had suffered heavy losses through piracy and shipwreck during the 1570s. The licence was slightly altered in 1586 and then renewed in 1598, 1605 and 1629, thus continuing the privilege down to the Civil War.

The Aldersey family, in its various branches, was a leading one at and near Chester. There are two William Aldersey's in this story. The first William Aldersey, son by 1513, of Philip Aldersey of Chester who had married Margaret, daughter of John Barnes of Crawshaw, Lancs. The second, born around 1578 is a distant cousin.

William Aldersey the elder
His father Philip was a younger brother in the line established at Middle Aldersey, some seven miles south-east of Chester. This William was a merchant who traded in a variety of products: in 1534 and 1540 he is found importing general goods, in 1542-3 iron, and afterwards wine. As one of the two sheriffs of the city in 1536-7 he was involved in a dispute over the city’s recordership. In 1536 Ellen Wrine, mother of Ralph Wrine, to whom the office had been granted in the previous year, complained to Thomas Cromwell of her husband’s maltreatment by the mayor and sheriffs, who were seeking to deprive her son of the recordership, which he owed to Cromwell; in her view they were doing so because her husband had informed Cromwell about William Aldersey the sheriff, who had robbed a ship at sea the year before, but what the truth of the matter was, and how it ended is not at all clear. Three years later Aldersey and other Chester men were pardoned for having exported leather without paying the customs duties imposed in 1536; their plea of ignorance of the Act concerned (27 Hen. VIII, c.14) may have implied a protest at the non-representation of the city. In 1546 the Privy Council was ordered to pay £30 to William Aldersey, who was in turn to pay William Goodman, alderman of Chester, for the money he had had to lay out in expenses for the bishop of Caithness. In 1553 Aldersey appears as a tenant of the former Carmelite friary in Chester, in Whitefriars.

In 1283 Chester had received a special summons to send two Members to the Parliament at Shrewsbury which passed sentence on David of Wales, but as part of a county palatine with a parliamentum of its own until the early 16th century Chester received no further summons until enfranchised by the Act of 1543. Aldersey and his fellow-Member in the Parliament of 1547, Richard Sneyd, are the first two representatives of Chester whose names have been preserved. Following its enfranchisement in 1543 the city had doubtless returned Members to the Parliament of 1545 — or even perhaps to the third session (1544) of the previous one — and from the outset it probably adopted the practice, which was to become de rigueur, of electing its recorder and a leading citizen. Thus each time he was returned Aldersey had the recorder as his senior colleague: in 1547 and April 1554 it was Sneyd, in 1555 William Gerard II.

It was during Aldersey’s Membership of Queen Mary’s second Parliament that he procured the grant of the charter incorporating the merchant adventurers of Chester. This followed the presentation of a memorial by Aldersey, Richard Poole and Robert Massey complaining of the numbers of artificers and manual workers in the city who engaged in foreign trade, often in secret and without payment of customs. The charter of May 1554 therefore made a seven-year apprenticeship obligatory on all who intended to trade as overseas merchants. Aldersey’s leadership of the campaign was acknowledged by his being named the company’s first master. Similar movements were taking place at the time in London and other ports, and the Chester company encountered the same kind of opposition as did its counterparts from those whom they excluded. Its claim to promote the yield of customs must have rung hollow when in October 1554 Aldersey and other members were fined £100 for having paid no customs on consignments of leather, calfskins and wheat, and within a month its critics were writing to the city’s Members in the Parliament then in session about the pernicious consequences of the charter. Whatever their damage to his reputation, these developments did not prevent Aldersey’s election to the next Parliament.

William Aldersey the younger


Born in Chester (1578) to Ralphe Aldersey and Elizabeth Glegg (according to The 1613 Visitation). William Aldersey (younger) married Ann Whitley (daughter of Robert Whitley) and had 1 daughter (Alice).

According to some sources Alice would marry the tenth John Leche of Leche House, however the pedigrees of the period are sometimes inconsistent, and there were several William Aldersey's. The information for the portrait of William Aldersey (younger, 1543-1616) on the Art Fund page relating to his portrait in the Grosvenor Museum (which hangs next to that of Bishop Lloyd) states that:


 * "He was a merchant ironmonger and so successful in overseas trade that he became a founding member of the East India Company in 1600."

This information is apparently taken from documents which were passed down through the Leche family. His name does not appear in the founders charter, but there is a "William Adderley* listed among the shareholders, mentioned as "William Adderley and Thomas Henshawe" (This Thomas Henshawe (abt. 1555 - 1612) could be the father-in-law of Chester MP Sir John Bingley who was born in Chester and married Anne Henshaw). "Adderley" subscribed at the rate of £240 per share during 1601, but (according to one source, others differ) the distributed profit on the first voyage by 1603 was nearly 300 per cent, and over all the East India voyages up to 1616 was never less than 220 per cent. Although the details are sometimes inconsitent between sources it does seem that there is possibly an association between the younger William Aldersey and the East India Company. It is almost certain that Aldersey would have known the Middletons.

The genealogy of the Aldersey family is very complicated, so further research is needed to identify the precise relation of the family members and their associates to the Middletons. The documents which come down through the Leche family include the "Aldersey Memorandum Book" which dates from the 16th Century and includes an inventory of the goods of Raphe Aldersey (d 1554) as well as the noted Aldersey List of Mayors. A note on the outer envelope by W. F. Irvine reads:


 * "Raphe Aldersey was the father of Wm Aldersey twice mayor of Chester whose dau Alice married John Leche in 1616. Raphe Aldersey died 30th June 1554 and it is probable that he book was continued by Wm Aldersey his son who compiled the annals of Chester a copy of which is to be found in Charles Leches Book."

Merchant Adventurers
The Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands was an early joint stock association, which began with private exploration and enterprise, and was to have been incorporated by King Edward VI in 1553, but received its full royal charter in 1555. The full name of the Company was "Mystery and Company of Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and Places unknown". It led to the commencement of English trade with Russia, Persia and elsewhere, and became known informally, and later formally, as the Muscovy Company. The first expedition of the Company of Merchant Adventurers was led by Hugh Willoughby, who was chosen for his military leadership skills after esteemed service against the Scots defending English castles in the north of the country. They hoped to find a northeast sea route to the Far East. Willoughby had no prior nautical or navigational experience and it was hoped he would transition into naval life with the same aplomb he showed on land. After the ships became separated near the North Cape Willoughby and his crew were never seen alive again, but the events following their separation can be pieced together from Willoughby's journal which was later recovered.

Further attempts to establish the company and its privileges resulted in the a Charter from Queen Elizabeth. This stated its goal as:


 * "Since the making of which letters patents, the said fellowship haue, to their exceeding great costes, losses and expences, not onely by their trading into the said dominions of the said mightie prince of Russia, &c., found out conuenient way to saile into the saide dominions: but also passing thorow the same, and ouer the Caspian sea, haue discouered very commodious trades into Armenia, Media, Hyrcania, Persia, and other dominions in Asia minor, hoping by Gods grace to discouer also the country of Cathaia, and other regions uery conuenient to be traded into by merchants of this realme, for the great benefite and commodities of the same."

As will be obvious, the object of the company was to promte private exploration with the incentive of some form of monopoly on any trade so established. The similarly named Company of Merchant Adventurers of London was a trading company founded in the City of London in the early 15th century. It brought together leading merchants in a regulated company in the nature of a guild. Its members' main business was exporting cloth, especially white (undyed) broadcloth, in exchange for a large range of foreign goods. It's objective was not exploration. It traded known northern European ports rather than sailing into unknown waters, competing with the Hanseatic League. It came to focus on Hamburg. One benefit of organising as a Company was that resources could be shared between shareholders. Initially, shares were only available to those actually engaged in the relevant trade, but the idea of simply investing capital soon emerged.



The Chester company of Merchant Adventurers' Charter was granted in May 1554. As noted above this was in part the work of the elder William Aldersey. The Charter stated that:


 * "According to tho complaint of William Aldersey, Richard Poole, and Richard Massye, and others (Merchant Venturers). Artisans and Craftsmen without suitable knowledge have trafficked in foreign merchandise to the defrauding of tho Queen's customs and the injury of the shipping interest of Chester. The Queen therfore appoints William Aldersey, Master of the Merchant Venturers in Chester, with two wardens, Richard Poole and Richard Massye, and they, with other citizens who are not of any manual art, who have exercised the art or mystery of Merchant Venturers for seven years last past, should be one body corporate under the name of the Master, Wardens and Commonalty of Merchant Venturers of Chester. No craftsman or other person of the City is to resort to merchandise in foreign parts, unless admitted to the Society, and this grant is not to prejudice the rights of the Crown, the privileges of the Mayor or the Governor and Society of Merchant Adventurers frequenting Spain, Holland, Zeeland, Brabant and Flanders."

This was a remarkable coup and it is worth speculating on how Aldersey managed to pull it off. One relevant fact is that Mary was about to marry Philip II of Spain and Aldersey's argument possibly related to customs which should have been collected from the trade with Spain.

The arms of the Merchant Adventurers also appear on Henry Hardware’s memorial plaque in Tarvin at St Andrews Church. This also contains a bullet hole from the Civil War.

Dispute with Chester
The city which was to give the Spanish Company most trouble, however, was Chester. Shortly after the incorporation of the Spanish Company, president John Mershe asked the Merchant Venturers to confer with him over the question of membership. Like their fellows in Exeter they were then established as an outport branch, with a deputy and assistants chosen from among the leading merchants of the town.

The Iberian merchants of Chester made themselves unpopular at home by insisting that all those who traded to Spain and Portugal should join the Spanish Company, on the grounds that the charter of 1554 allowing them to trade without restrictions had been superseded by the new (1577) charter of the Spanish Company. At the same time they tried to prevent those Merchant Adventurers who both traded abroad and retailed goods from doing so, ordering them to choose one activity and abandon the other. Although technically the dispute lay between the Spanish Company and the Chester Merchant Venturers it soon degenerated into a faction fight among the latter who were divided into the 'mere merchants' and the merchant retailers. More accurately the first group comprised the large-scale merchants whose prosperity was based entirely on commerce, the second the smaller traders whose less ample resources forced them to supplement their income by practising an additional craft or occupation. To add to the confusion, Eric Massey, the Spanish Company deputy in Chester, had meanwhile been attempting without much success to enforce the company monopoly over the merchants of Liverpool, one of the subsidiary havens of Chester. The Liverpool merchants, angered by this interference, sided with the 'merchant retailers' in Chester, and invoked the assistance of a powerful local magnate, the earl of Derby, who took the matter up in London.

At last in November 1581 the privy council intervened, ordering the lord chief justice and the master of the rolls to hear the conflicting arguments put forward by Thomas Wilford, Mershe's successor, acting for the company, and some of the merchants of Chester and Liverpool. The law lords concluded that the Spanish Company had acted beyond its powers in attempting to prevent the retailers from trading, since in the small outports there were not enough mere merchants to maintain the trade. The privy council thereupon permitted the merchant retailers to continue their commerce and informed the earl of Derby of its decision.

This was not the end of the matter, for in September 1582 the privy council was forced to repeat the whole process as the quarrel had not abated. It summoned the Chester merchants to London and reiterated its orders that the branch of the Spanish Company within the town should not stop the retailers from trading. Again the settlement was short-lived for in 1584 the 'mere merchants being members of the Spanish Company' obtained from queen Elizabeth a licence to export 10,000 dickers of calfskins a year. A "dicker" is ten skins. The retailers complained that this was another ploy to monopolise the trade, while the mere merchants argued that as the grant had been awarded "in respect of their losses sustained by the French" as a result of privateering, the retailers who had suffered no such injuries were not entitled to participate. If they were to share in the transport of calfskins, the mere merchants asked that they in compensation should be allowed to retail. Finally in July 1589 the councillors adopted the mere merchants' suggestion and in an attempt to obtain a lasting solution they ordered that henceforth all retailers might trade freely and take advantage of the licence, provided that the merchants could retail goods if they wished. By now the cessation of commerce following the outbreak of war had rendered the conflict pointless, and at last it ended.

The altercation over the powers of the Spanish Company in Chester was not a headlong clash between the Londoners and the outport merchants of the type that was to occur in 1605. Moreover, its continuation into 1589, after the company had ceased to hold its courts, reinforces the impression that it was essentially a conflict between two groups within Chester. Then, too, Massey by his bullying arrogance had needlessly inflamed the situation. Nevertheless the privy council by its decision not to enforce the company monopoly had grievously weakened the chances of any effective control over the outports when the war came to an end. The significance of the affair must have made an impact in many places other than Chester itself.

However, conflicts between the company and the outports were not so widespread as to preclude all co-operation between them. Each provincial deputy and treasurer was expected to make an annual visit to the capital to render the accounts of membership fees and fines; they also attended the annual elections which took place in the general court on Ascension day or shortly after. Besides being responsible to the central administration for its own affairs, each major outport controlled the smaller havens of its division or stretch of coastline allotted to it, which roughly followed the divisions of the customs system. The details of Chester's intervention at Liverpool suggest that at least some of the head ports made a genuine effort to organise the smaller ones.

The East India Company


In 1599, a group of prominent merchants and explorers met to discuss a potential East Indies venture under a royal charter. Three months earlier, on July 19, Admiral Jacob Corneliszoon van Neck of the Dutch Compagnie Van Verre — the Company of Distant Lands — had successfully returned from Indonesia with a vast cargo of spices: eight hundred tons of pepper, two hundred tons of cloves, and great quantities of cinnamon and nutmeg. The voyage made an unprecedented 400 percent profit: “There never arrived in Holland ships so richly laden,” wrote one envious Levant Company observer. Besides Ralph Fitch and James Lancaster, the group included Stephen Soame, then Lord Mayor of London; Thomas Smythe, a powerful London politician and administrator, whose father had established the Levant Company; Sir John Wolstenholme; Richard Hakluyt, writer and apologist for British colonization of the Americas; and several other sea-farers who had served with Drake and Raleigh. They convened again on 31 December 1600, and Queen Elizabeth, responded favourably to a petition by "George, Earl of Cumberland and 218 others, including James Lancaster, Sir John Harte, Sir John Spencer (both of whom had been Lord Mayor of London), the adventurer Edward Michelborne, the nobleman William Cavendish and other Aldermen and citizens of London.

The queen initially agreed, possibly because she wanted to keep the City on her side in case of a threatened rebellion by the unruly Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex, and so she proved surprisingly receptive to the petition. Devereux has an unlikely connection with Chester in that he turns up in the Chester Pageant 1937 where episode 7:


 * ..closes with the arrival of the Earl of Essex (Earl Marshal of England) on his way to Ireland to subdue the rebellion of Tyrone. A page gives the earl some wine and a beautiful girl ties a favour to his arm. The earl raises a toast to Queen Elizabeth and the crowd cheers as he rides off. All then dance out of the arena.

After some delay, the Queen granted her charter to their corporation named "Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading into the East Indies". This is better known as the "East India Company".

Named in the Charter was the Chester-born captain John Middleton. For a period of fifteen years, the charter awarded the company a monopoly on English trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Any traders there without a licence from the company were liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo (half of which would go to the Crown and half to the company), as well as imprisonment at the "royal pleasure". John Middleton was one of the 24 members of the "First and present Committee" of the Company as named in its founding charter. Sir James Lancaster commanded the first East India Company voyage in 1601 aboard Malice Scourge, afterwards named Red Dragon. John's brother Henry Middleton was appointed purser of Red Dragon; but shortly before the fleet sailed Henry was advanced to be a "factor" for the voyage, and another purser was appointed in his stead. Later Henry was appointed to Susan (formerly a Levant trader with 24 guns) as "captain and chief-merchant". John Middleton was both the vice-admiral of the the EIA's first expedition and captain of Hector (300 tons, 108 men, 24 guns) and died at Bantam shortly after his brother Henry and Susan had set sail for home. In March 1604, Sir Henry Middleton commanded the Company's second voyage. General William Keeling, a captain during the second voyage, led the third voyage aboard Red Dragon from 1607 to 1610 along with Hector under Captain William Hawkins and Consent under Captain David Middleton a third Middleton brother from Chester. By now James I was king and he extended the period of monopoly to be indefinite.

Related Pages

 * Middleton;
 * Leche House;
 * Bishop Lloyd's House;
 * Charters;
 * Portpool;

Online

 * An excellent article on the Merchant Adventurers;
 * The Spanish Company;
 * "A PRETENDED VOYAGE TO AMERICA";
 * THE TRADE OF CHESTER AND THE STATE OF THE DEE NAVIGATION 1600 - 1800;
 * Papers of the Manchester Literary Club:
 * History of the Commerce and Town of Liverpool: Thomas Baines;
 * THE PORT OF CHESTER IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY;
 * Customs Records for Chester 1301-1566;
 * THE CHESTER COMPANIES AND THE OLD QUAY.
 * THE OVERSEAS TRADE OF CHESTER, 1600-1650;
 * Henry Hardware's Moment and the Puritan Attack on Drama;