es, it touched very closely the
interests of those companies which were incorporated for the purpose of
trading with foreign countries, such as that of the Merchant Adventurers,
the Levant Company, the Russia Company, and others. These companies had
been formed at a time when few individuals were sufficiently wealthy to
bear the risk of distant enterprises. Not every citizen was a Whitington
or a Gresham. The risk incurred by these associations in undertaking
voyages to distant countries was compensated by the advantage gained by
the enjoyment of a monopoly of the trade with those countries by charter
from the Crown. At the outset there had been no cry raised against
monopolies of this kind, but as time wore on and the merchant navy
increased, as it did in the last reign with extraordinary rapidity, a
feeling of jealousy grew up on the part of shipowners who were not members
of one or other of these chartered companies. By the beginning of the
seventeenth century dissatisfaction with the privileges of these trading
companies had become so general that appeals were made to the Privy
Council. These being without effect, the whole matter was referred to a
parliamentary committee. No pains were spared to get at the root of the
grievance. The committee were attended by "a great concourse of clothiers
and merchants of all parts of the realm and especially of London."(32)
Counsel was heard in favour of the bill which had been drafted for the
purpose of throwing open foreign trade to all merchants alike, and the
bill was supported by all the merchants attending the committee with the
exception of the merchants of London, who were represented on the occasion
by the principal aldermen of the city. The free traders urged the natural
right of every one to the free exercise of his own industry and the
example set by other nations. They declared that the passing of the bill
would lead to the more even distribution of wealth,(33) the greater
increase of shipping, and the augmentation of the revenues of the Crown.
The upholders of the companies, on the other hand, could find no better
arguments in their favour than that no company could be a monopoly
inasmuch as a monopoly was something granted exclusively to a single
individual, and that if the existence of the companies was determined,
apprenticeship would cease and difficulties arise in collecting the king's
customs! After three days' debate on the third reading the bill passed the
Co