Muscovy Company
Predecessor | Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands |
---|---|
Founded | 6 February 1555England | in
Founders | Richard Chancellor, Sebastian Cabot and Sir Hugh Willoughby |
Fate | Existed until 1917 as a trading company. Now operates mainly as a charity. |
The Muscovy Company (also called the Russia Company or the Muscovy Trading Company; Russian: Московская компания, romanized: Moskovskaya kompaniya) was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint-stock company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England and finance its exploration of the world. The Muscovy Company had a monopoly on trade between England and Russia until 1698 and it survived as a trading company until the Russian Revolution. Since 1917, the company has operated as a charity, now working within Russia.[2][3]
History
Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands
The Muscovy Company traces its roots to the
The first expedition of the Company of Merchant Adventurers was led by Willoughby, who was chosen for his military leadership skills after esteemed service against the Scots defending English castles in the north of the country. He 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.[4] Chancellor would function as the navigator of the small fleet, which consisted of three ships: the Bona Esperanza under Willoughby, the Edward Bonaventure under Chancellor and the Bona Confidentia. The fleet departed from London on 10 May 1553, but near the Lofoten islands a storm hit the ships and separated Chancellor's vessel from the other two.
Willoughby eventually crossed the
Chancellor was luckier. He penetrated the
Chancellor made the journey of over 600 miles (970 km) to Moscow through snow- and ice-covered country. He found Moscow large (much larger than London) and primitively built, most houses being constructed of wood. However, the palace of the Tsar was very luxurious, as were the dinners he offered Chancellor. The Russian Tsar was pleased to open the sea trade routes with England and other countries, as Russia did not yet have a safe connection with the Baltic Sea at the time and almost all of the area was contested by the neighbouring powers of Lithuania, Poland, and the Sweden. In addition, the Hanseatic League had a monopoly on the trade between Russia and Central and Western Europe. Chancellor was no less optimistic, finding a good market for his English wool, and receiving furs and other Russian continental goods in return. When he returned to England in 1554, he had letters from the Tsar with him, inviting English traders and promising trade privileges.
Chartering of the Muscovy Company
The Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands was rechartered as the Muscovy Company by Mary I of England in 1555,[5] and in the same year Chancellor left for Russia again. The Muscovy Company became an important diplomatic link between Muscovy and England, and was especially valued by the isolated Muscovy. Upon his arrival to the court of Ivan IV, Chancellor secured a number of privileges within Russia for the company, including free passage, control of English settlement, and freedom from arrest.[6]
When Chancellor set sail for England one year later in 1556, he was joined by the first Russian ambassador to England, Osip Nepeya. However at this juncture Chancellor's luck finally ran out. Off the Scottish coast, his ship was caught in a sudden storm and shipwrecked. Chancellor drowned, but Nepeya managed to reach the coast, where he was taken hostage by the Scots for a few months before they allowed him to travel on to London.
Trade through Russia
In 1571, the company's right to free trade and navigation down the
At the end of the 16th century, Richard Hakluyt wrote: "... the notable and strange journey of Master Jenkinson to Boghar in Bactria. Whereunto thou maist adde sixe of our voyages eleven hundred verstes up against the streame of Dwina to the towne of Vologhda thence one hundred and fourescore verstes by land to Yeraslaue standing upon the mighty river of Volga: there hence above two thousand and five hundred versts downe the streame to the ancient marte Towne of Astracan, and so to the manifolde mouthes of Volga, and from thence also by ship over the Caspian sea into Media, and further then that also with Camels unto Georgia, Armenia, Hyrcania, Gillan, and the cheefest Cities of the Empire of Persia: wherein the Companie of Moscovie Marchants to the perpetual honor of their Citie, and societie, have performed more than any one, yea than all the nations of Europe besides."[9]
Expansion
Queen Elizabeth I granted the Muscovy Company a monopoly charter on whaling in 1577. The primary and most profitable whaling grounds of this joint-stock company came to be centered around Spitsbergen in the early 17th century, and the company's royal charter of 1613 granted a monopoly on whaling in Spitsbergen, based on the (erroneous) claim that Hugh Willoughby had discovered the land in 1553.[10][11] Initially the English tried to drive away competitors, but after a few years, they claimed rights only to the waters south of these Arctic islands.[12]
Shortly after Chancellor's death in 1556, the Muscovy Company sent another voyage to discover the
Decline
In 1646, Tsar
18th century on
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The Company helped provide churches and Anglican ministers at various times in Arkhangelsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kronstadt, such as
St. Andrew's and the company headquarters (called the Old English Yard), were built during the reign of Ivan IV, and are not far from the
Portrayal in fiction
- Richard Chancellor's 1555 voyage to Moscow, and the return to Scotland and London are portrayed in Dorothy Dunnett's book The Ringed Castle.
See also
References
- ^ Fox-Davies, The Book of Public Arms)
- ^ a b Guildhall Library Manuscripts, accessed January 26, 2011
- ^ "CHARITABLE FUND ADMINISTERED BY THE RUSSIA COMPANY, registered charity no. 210842". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
- ^ a b James Evans (2014) [Merchant Adventurers] [Orion Publishing co]
- ^ E. Goldsmid (ed.), The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, collected by Richard Hakluyt, Preacher, Vol. III: North-Eastern Europe and Adjacent Countries, Part II: The Muscovy Company and the North-Eastern Passage (E. & G. Goldsmid, Edinburgh 1886), pp. 101-112.
- ^ a b Olson, p. 769
- ^ Gerson, p. 84
- ^ Dmitrieva, p. 21
- ^ Richard Hakluyt, The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation, v. 1, Northern Europe (1598)
- ^ Hudson, Henry; Georg Michael Asher (1860). Henry Hudson the Navigator: The Original Documents in which His Career is Recorded, Collected, Partly Translated, and Annotated. London: Hakluyt Society. pp. clix–clx.
- ^ Schokkenbroek, Joost C.A. (2008). Trying-out: An anatomy of Dutch Whaling and Sealing in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1885. Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine p. 27.
- ^ Schokkenbroek, p. 28.
- ^ Olson, p. 770
- ^ Coates, p. 123
- ^ a b Dmitrieva, p. 28
- ^ Eddy, p. 67
Sources
- Coates, Ben (2004). The Impact of the English Civil War on the Economy of London: 1642 - 50. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9780754601043.
- Dmitrieva, Ol'ga (2006). Britannia and Muscovy. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300116780.
- Eddy, Anna (2007). English in the Russian Context: A Macrosociolinguistic Study. ]
- Gerson, Armand (1912). Studies in the History of English Commerce in the Tudor Period. University of Pennsylvania.
- Olson, James (1996). Historical Dictionary of the British Empire: K-Z. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313279171.
- T. S. Willan, The Early History of the Russia Company, 1956, reprinted in 1968.
- Jürgen Klein, "'Eastward Ho! Hakluyt's Principal Navigations on English 16th Century Seafarers in the Baltic and Eastern Europe", in: Zeitsprünge. Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit 10 (2006), Heft 3 - 4, pp. 400 - 423.