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

VI

OFFICERS AND OFFICIALS OF THE COMPANY
From 1605 the company had a permanent
charter under the clauses of which, with
slight alterations introduced later on, it was
governed for over two centuries. It was in
1821 that the English Government took over
the whole of the establishment of the com-
pany, the charter being finally surrendered
in 1825.
The vicissitudes of the company in the
early years under the permanent charter are
ressected in the Court Books,1 of which for-
1 The Court Books contain Minutes os the Meetings
of the court, and may be seen in the Public Record
Office. But unfortunately the first book at the Record
Office is not complete. The first portion is torn away,
page 141 being the first page in the volume. The last
page is numbered 186, so that a good deal of this first
volume is gone. The first minutes recorded in this
book are dated July 13, 1614. For the first nine years,
therefore, under the permanent charter we do not know
much. But aster 1614 the Court Book is pretty full,

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