ady
Anne Hastings; daughter of the earl of Huntingdon: but when the lady was
informed of the barbarous manners of the country, she wisely declined
purchasing an empire at the expense of her ease and safety.[**]

The English, encouraged by the privileges which they had obtained from
Basilides, ventured farther into those countries than any Europeans had
formerly done. They transported their goods along the River Dwina in
boats made of one entire tree, which they towed and rowed up the stream
as far as Walogda. Thence they carried their commodities seven days'
journey by land to Yeraslau, and then down the Volga to Astracan. At
Astracan they built ships, crossed the Caspian Sea, and distributed
their manufactures into Persia. But this bold attempt met with such
discouragements, that it was never renewed.[***]

* Camden, p. 408.

** Camden, p. 493.

*** Camden, p. 418.

After the death of John Basilides, his son Theodore revoked the patent
which the English enjoyed for a monopoly of the Russian trade: when the
queen remonstrated against this innovation, he told her ministers, that
princes must carry an indifferent hand, as well between their subjects
as between foreigners; and not convert trade, which, by the laws of
nations, ought to be common to all, into a monopoly for the private gain
of a few.[*] So much juster notions of commerce were entertained by this
barbarian than appear in the conduct of the renowned Queen Elizabeth!
Theodore, however, continued some privileges to the English, on account
of their being the discoverers of the communication between Europe and
his country.

The trade to Turkey commenced about the year 1583; and that commerce was
immediately confined to a company by Queen Elizabeth. Before that
time, the grand seignior had always conceived England to be a dependent
province of France;[**] but having heard of the queen's power and
reputation, he gave a good reception to the English, and even granted
them larger privileges than he had given to the French.

* Camden, p. 493.

** Birch's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 36

The merchants of the Hanse Towns complained loudly, in the beginning
of Elizabeth's reign, of the treatment which they had received in the
reigns of Edward and Mary. She prudently replied, that as she would not
innovate any thing, she would still protect them in the immunities and
privileges of which she found them possessed. This answer not contenting
them,