In the reign of Edward VI. a company was projected with this view; which obtained a charter in 1553, from Philip and Mary, under the name of Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Lands, Countries, Isles, &c. not before known to the English.  This company, of which Sebastian Cabot was governor, in the last year of Queen Mary, had extended its trade through Russia into Persia, to obtain raw silks, &c.  In the course of their proceedings, the agents of this company met with merchants from India and China, from whom they acquired a knowledge of the productions of these countries, and of the profits which might be derived from extending the trade of England to these distant regions.[77] In 1581, Queen Elizabeth gave an exclusive charter to the Levant or Turkey Company, for trading to the dominions of the Grand Signior or Emperor of Turkey.  In the prosecution of this trade, of which some account has been given in our preceding chapter, the factors, or travelling merchants, having penetrated from Aleppo to Bagdat and Basora, attempted to open an overland trade to the East Indies, and even penetrated to Agra, Lahore, Bengal, Malacca, and other parts of the East, whence they brought information to England of the riches that might be acquired by a direct trade by sea to the East Indies.[78] The circumnavigations of Sir Francis Drake in 1577-1580, and of Mr Thomas Cavendish, or Candish, in 1586, of which voyages accounts will be found in a future division of this work, who brought back great wealth to England, obtained by making prizes of the Spanish vessels, contributed to spread the idea among the merchants of England, that great profits and national advantages might be derived from a direct trade to India by sea.[79]

[Footnote 77:  Ann. of the H.E.I.  Co.  I. 107.]

[Footnote 78:  Ann. of the Hon. E. India Co.  I. 108.]

[Footnote 79:  Id. ib.]

In consequence of these views, a memorial was presented to the lords of council in 1589, requesting a royal licence for three ships and three pinnaces to proceed for India, which gave rise to the expedition of Captain Raymond, in 1591, already related.  In 1599, an association of London Adventurers entered into a contract for embarking, what was then considered as a large joint stock, for the equipment of a voyage to the East Indies.  The fund subscribed amounted to L30,133:  6:  8, divided into 101 shares or adventures, the subscriptions of individuals varying from L100 to L3000.[80] This project, however, seems to have merged into the East India Company, at the close of the next year 1600, as already mentioned.

[Footnote 80:  Id.  III.—­From the peculiar amount of this capital sum, the subscriptions were most probably in marks, of 13s 4d. each.—­E.]