WIDOW AND APPRENTICE (1569)

lxiii arrests and other ungratefull occasions this fellyshippe arre inforced to discontynue their trafique in the base countries of Hollande, Sealande, Brabante, and Flaunders, and to frequent and haunte the towne of Hamboroughe or of Embden," the act was passed at a court sitting in London. The letter written, from Hamburg the following February was of local, not national interest. But it shows clearly that the deputy was not so engrossed with the intricacies of continental politics that he could not take a paternal interest in the young men of the English colony. Unfortunately, it does not show the woman trader in an amiable light, but possibly it is an ex parte statement. Thomas Hewetson, apprentice to John Hewson, had, on the death of his master, continued to serve the widow. Either from carelessness or malice, she had failed to give him the necessary certificate; in spite of the fact that his accounts had been examined and approved by four merchants of York. Richard Clough, the deputy, desired the York governor to interview the four referees, and "further to learne of others as much as yor worshipp can (yf she allege unto you any thing in preiudyce or against the said yong man) whether all the same be trew, or by her onelye uttered of evell wyll." As Thomas Hewetson, merchant, became a freeman the same year, the widow must have given the certificate. It was quite a usual custom to send an apprentice over to the mart town for the last years of his apprenticeship, and if the letter of Antony Pullay can be taken as typical,2 he had almost complete control of the business there. His condescending tone to his master is amusing; he assures him that the bill for £50 would not have been taken, "onlye upon my worde." And adds, "boutte neverthelesse at my requisite he hath tacken so mouche pane as to tacke it upe at dobell usance, whearefore I trouste you will se it dyscharged."

ciently powerful to protect the merchants against "the malice of the Hanses"; Antwerp might corrupt the young members with the Popish religion; Hamburg, their preachers inveighe against us and our religion by the name of sacramentaries, sectaries, and the like; and herebye doe all that in them lyeth to stirre up, and increase the people against us and make us odious unto them.' f. 30.

1 Text, pp. 185, 186, 243, 244.

2 Ibid., p. 170. cf. Newcastle Merchant Adventurers, op. cit., vol. i, p. 11.

An extremely acrimonious letter from Christopher Herbert was sent to the deputy in London: "Yours of the iij of Febryuary, we have resyved by chans but not by the derecsyon "; it was directed to Mr. Ralph Hall not an inhabitant of York, and still worse, to a young man, beyng a servant, whose name is Thomas Mosley, remaynyng at Hambroughe." As Christopher Herbert had been governor for the last two years, and it was fourteen years since Ralph Hall had held the post, the sarcastic tone of the letter is excusable. The reply is not among the York manuscripts.

The ten years' contract which the company had made with Hamburg, came to an end in 1577; they then returned to Emden, which remained their headquarters until 1587. They were far from being popular in the little town on the Ems, as a scene on a wild December day, when the English ship, ready to sail, was driven on to an ice float and in danger, shows. The Germans on the harbour side refused to lend any help, and shouted to the unfortunate sailors, "Now we can see how Englishmen can dive." When, at length, they were persuaded to send a rope, four thalers were demanded for the boat that carried it, although, as the chronicler says with obvious glee, the ship lay so near the sea wall that the rope could almost have been thrown on to the deck of the unfortunate ship.1 It was during the residence of the company in Emden, and later in Stade, that William Hart, a York man, whose portrait still hangs in the Fossgate hall, was chaplain to the society. He seems to have amassed a large fortune there, and on his death in 1622, left a considerable sum of money to the adventurers for philanthropic purposes.2

A letter from Antwerp in 1579 enumerates the reasons why the company had decided to leave Hamburg. But the fellowship's affairs were in an unsettled state; the vacillating policy created loopholes of which the interlopers readily availed themselves. The deputy grows almost eloquent as he writes of the harm done to the company by "dyvers dysordered bretheren respecting more their private lucre and gayne then

1 Dr. B. Hagedorn, op. cit., Band ii, pp. 34-59.

2 Text, pp. 285, 288.

THE CHARTER OF ELIZABETH (1580)

lxv

the contynuance or mayntennance of the generall estate in prosperitie and welfare.”1

But home affairs were engaging the attention of the York members of the society during the years 1578, 1579, 1580. Unlike Newcastle, York had never tried to get any special licence from the general society legalising their position. Their difficulty in dealing with interlopers, however, made them ask for a new charter from the Queen. An undated document, with the head line, “ suggestions for a new charter," gives succinctly the general lines on which the very verbose Elizabethan charter was drawn up. Until this time the company, in spite of the large amount of foreign trade it had done, had kept the simple name given by the charter of 1430, "the Mistery of Mercers.' They now desired to be incorporated under the more grandiloquent title of "Governor, assistants, and socetye of merchants adventurers of the citie of York."3 They desire to take into the society all merchants of ten years' standing, who had served an apprenticeship of seven years, no manual worker was to be admitted, and only such retailers as the court thought good to receive. No inhabitant of York unless free of the company, should." sell, shewe, or put to sale, either in shopes or their houses, any wares, marchandizes growinge or broughte from beyonde the seas (salte and fyshe onelye excepted), in payne of forfeycture of the same to the societie, but onelye such as ar free of the said societye in the cytye of York." A charter incorporating all their wishes was granted in 1580, “in Consideration of the good faithful and acceptable Service to us by the same Merchants abundantly performed on our accession to the Crown."4 A complete account of all the payments made before the charter was obtained, the important personages whose help was invoked, the endless tips to their servants, the journeys to London made by the various members of the com

1 After 1566 the letters to York from the continent are generally signed by the deputy not the governor.

2 Br. Mus. MSS. Add. 18913.

ff. 88, 89.

3 Text, pp. 199, 200.

Text, p. 207.

Orders concerning the Brethren of Newcastle,

The reference is to the £30,000 lent by the Merchant Adventurers in 1560, to which the York merchants contributed £450. Text, pp. 162, 163.

pany, are given in many letters, account rolls, and memoranda.1 John Stanhope, especially, seems to have made considerable sums in return for his having "undertaken to be humble sutor to hir majestie for the enlarginge of the privileges of there corporation."2 Although until 1827 no one could sell in York any merchandise "brought across the seas" unless a member of the society, the importance of the company as a factor in national enterprise gradually diminished after the charter was obtained. The newly-founded Eastland company had an important bearing on the position of the merchant adventurers; from the date of its inauguration it became necessary for all York merchants, who wished to trade up the Baltic and in the North seas, to belong to both companies. The multiplication of trading companies in the seventeenth century tended to undermine the influence of the older organisation.

But the York merchants were not allowed to forget the dual nature of their association; the charter fortified their position in York, but the metropolitan adventurers in Emden were urging them to pass a self-denying ordinance by which none of them should trade to Spain, and the Eastlands. Eleven articles were sent from Antwerp, but evidently drawn up at a court held in Emden.3 York and Hull unite in pouring scorn on these suggestions; they declare that the articles must have been devised to benefit the new corporations, "for that they cannot be a more benyfyciall acte devysyd for them, nor one more hurtfull to us," "flat agaynst ourselves," "frivolous artycles," "we will not in any wyse agree to make ourselves bondmen," are a few of the sentences in which they vent their anger. An old grievance appears again, they bitterly

1 Text, pp. 195, 198, 199, 201, 205, 224.

2 Ibid., pp. 223, 224, 239.

3 While the mart was at Emden the adventurers seem still to have had some representatives at Antwerp. "We have mayd sewte unto the companye at London, at Antwarpe and at Embden," the Hull merchants write, as if they were not sure where the court was really held, but after an act passed at Emden the 19th of June, 1579, a clause is inserted that nothing in the act should frustrate the act made at Londone "the 7th of May last & confirmed at Antwerp." Br. Mus. MSS. Add. 18913, f. 88. Text, pp. 216–221.

4 Text, p. 229.

Ibid., p. 232. • Ibid., p. 231.

NEW COMPANIES (SIXTEENTH CENTURY)

lxvii

remark, "But if you will stynt yourselves in shyppyng to the mart townes, we shall not be against it."1 Hull replies to the observation that "no man can serve two masters, quite pertinently, "allthouge he cannot serve ij maysters, yet he may be free of ij companyes, and use a good conscyence to them bothe, as he dayle experience we have had of long tyme good proffe, for ther be dyvers of us that be bothe merchants adventurers and staplers." A comparison of the three documents certainly leaves the impression that the northern merchants had right and reason on their side; possibly the adventurers in Emden were also members themselves of the new Spanish, Eastland, and Russia companies, and were not anxious for too many competitors in the trade. However, a letter from Christopher Hoddesdone the governor announces that all merchant adventurers can, on the payment of a fee of ten pounds, belong to the Eastland company. Of this privilege the York merchants availed themselves freely, and in the seventeenth century the deputy of the Eastland company was, with few exceptions, also governor of the merchant adventurers.3 The grant of the charter of 1580 marks the culminating point of the history of the York merchant adventurers. The defeat of the Armada gave England mastery of the seas. In 1597, when the adventurers were at Stade, the Emperor Rudolph prohibited English merchants to trade in Germany. Of course, it was the Hanse merchants who procured the decree. The adventurers were ordered to leave the country within three months. The words of the mandate were offensive to the last degree, and for once Elizabeth did not dally long before she retaliated; in 1598 the Germans were told to quit England within fourteen days. The London steelyard, the centre of their trade for centuries, the home of many of them for years,

1 Text, p. 232.

'Ibid., p. 231.

For the relations between the Merchant Adventurers and Eastland Merchants, see The Eastland Company (R. Hist. Soc., 3rd series, vol. x, pp. xxxi-xxxvi).

H. Zimmern, The Hansa Towns, p. 351. Sir C. Lucas, op. cit., p. 91. The Steelyard was situated in Thames Street, near Dowgate, the only city gate that commanded the river. At one time the whole street was given over to their houses, warehouses, offices, and wharves.