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

THE LEVANT COMPANY 123

In the second place, Mr. Hunt who had
just returned from the islands of Zant and
Cephalonia, reported that the company
suffered an inconvenience in that currants
were bought by the English Stalira and not
by the Stalira of St. Mark, which was the
weight of the country, seeing that the former
was 2 per cent, less than the latter. The com-
pany thereupon resolved that in future,
purchases of currants should be made in the
local weight, the Stalira of St. Mark.
Now, despite all the arrangements and
re-arrangements concerning the currant trade,
it was by no means in that satisfactory con-
dition in which the company wished to see it.
And therefore the arrangements and re-
arrangements were continued. In 1633 34
it was decided to set down a certain quantity
of currants to be bought in Zant and Cepha-
lonia and that quantity to be imported into
England, “ namely, 2,200 tons35 (besides,
those currants brought from Patras) is con-
ceived to be as great a quantity as this King-
dom will want.” Moreover, each member of
34 Min. April 1, 1633.
35 See above, p. 41, note (3).