Excerpt from Studies in the History of English Commerce in the Tudor Period Nowhere did the vigor of the English people during the Tudor period show itself more clearly than in the field of commerce. This was especially true in the second half of the sixteenth century. Enterprising merchants, bold navigators and speculating nobles and courtiers united to carry expeditions far into previously unexplored parts of the earth, and to open up lines of trade with regions, well known it is true, but in which Englishmen had seldom been seen as visitors and never before as traders. In accordance with the almost universal practice of the time each of these projects led to the organization of a commercial company and the grant to it by the government of extensive chartered rights. The group of studies contained in this volume describe this newly organized trade, so far as it was directed toward the north and northeast. The disappearance of most of the records of the early commercial companies, due in all probability largely to the great fire of London in 1666, leaves the story to be pieced together from scattered materials. Such sources as have been printed have been carefully and critically used in the preparation of these papers. This printed material has been supplemented by reference to such manuscript records as still exist in England. Manuscript records existing in the continental countries and still unprinted remain as a possible source of information not yet utilized. The earliest of the new trading bodies was the Muscovy or Russia Company. Its only predecessors were the Staplers, the Merchants Adventurers, and the Spanish Company. It presented many of the typical characteristics of the period. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.