DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57079#0092
76 THE EARLY HISTORY OF
that his is not a position of great importance.
Nor was the Venetian Ambassador far wrong.
From a letter 27 dated 7 January, 1595, from
Dr. Charles Parkins to Sir Robert Cecil, it
may be plainly seen that first and foremost,
the English agent was to represent the inter-
ests of the Company at Constantinople.
But the merchants were afraid that if the
Sultan discovered that the ambassador was
there for that purpose only, their men and
goods would at once be imperilled. There-
fore they arranged that Mr. Barton’s com-
mission should be made under the great seal,
but only as a pretence.28 Yet in the course
of time the feeling must have grown that the
English agent was a political agent. But the
crown was slow in drawing the practical con-
clusion from that and paying the agent’s salary
out of public money. In any case, there
27 S. P. D. Eliz. vol. 256, No. 18.
28 Cf. a document in Bundle I. of Turkey Papers,
where the queen’s agent is mentioned as being thought
by the Sultan “to be only maintained by her majesty
and that rather for causes of estate than of traffic.”
Cf. also S. P. D. James I. vol. 10, No. 34 : “ All
foreign merchants disgracing the ambassador in Turkey
as a stipendiary of the merchants and maintained by
them.”
that his is not a position of great importance.
Nor was the Venetian Ambassador far wrong.
From a letter 27 dated 7 January, 1595, from
Dr. Charles Parkins to Sir Robert Cecil, it
may be plainly seen that first and foremost,
the English agent was to represent the inter-
ests of the Company at Constantinople.
But the merchants were afraid that if the
Sultan discovered that the ambassador was
there for that purpose only, their men and
goods would at once be imperilled. There-
fore they arranged that Mr. Barton’s com-
mission should be made under the great seal,
but only as a pretence.28 Yet in the course
of time the feeling must have grown that the
English agent was a political agent. But the
crown was slow in drawing the practical con-
clusion from that and paying the agent’s salary
out of public money. In any case, there
27 S. P. D. Eliz. vol. 256, No. 18.
28 Cf. a document in Bundle I. of Turkey Papers,
where the queen’s agent is mentioned as being thought
by the Sultan “to be only maintained by her majesty
and that rather for causes of estate than of traffic.”
Cf. also S. P. D. James I. vol. 10, No. 34 : “ All
foreign merchants disgracing the ambassador in Turkey
as a stipendiary of the merchants and maintained by
them.”