Epstein, Mordecai: The English Levant Company: its foundation and its history to 1640 (London: George Routledge & Sons Ltd, 1908)

IV

THE FOUNDING OF THE LEVANT COMPANY,
1592
In 1588 the Charter of the Turkey Company
was not renewed. Some of the merchants
were rather disheartened1 by the great
expense of having to maintain an Ambassador
at Constantinople. They were even pre-
pared to have him recalled and end the
traffic. But the counsel of Harborne and
the more enterprising spirits prevailed, and
during the next three years the members
of the old Company negotiated with the Privy
Council for a renewal of their patent. They
sought larger powers than their previous
1 Cf. a letter from Harborne (who had returned to
England in 1588) to Walsingham, dated London, Feb-
ruary 17, 1588-9, \x\ Tur key Papers, Bundle I, in which
he says : “ Some of those trading to Turkey, Right
Honorable, had conference with me this day for the
return of the agent from Constantinople, whereby they
might be unburthened of the great charge, and so end
the traffic.”
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