The frequent voyages of the English to the White Sea made them acquainted with Cherry Island, of which they took possession, and where they carried on for a short time the capture of morses:  the teeth of these were regarded as nearly equal in quality and value to ivory, and consequently afforded a lucrative trade; oil was also obtained from these animals.  Lead ore is said to have been discovered in this island, of which thirty tons were brought to England in 1606.  The Russian Company, however, soon gave up the morse fishery for that of whales.  They also carried on a considerable trade with Kola, a town in Russian Lapland, for fish oil and salmon:  of the latter they sometimes brought to England 10,000 at one time.  But in this trade the Dutch likewise interfered.

The fishery for whales near Spitzbergen was first undertaken by the company in 1597.  In 1613, they obtained from King James an exclusive charter for this fishery; and under this, fitting out armed ships, they expelled fifteen sail of French, Dutch, and Biscayners, besides some private English ships.  But the Dutch persevered, so that next year, while the Russian Company had only thirteen ships at the whale fishery, the former had eighteen.  The success of their whale fishery seems to have led to the neglect of their Russian trade, for, in 1615, only two vessels were employed in it, instead of seventeen great ships formerly employed.  From this period, the commerce carried on between Russia and England, by the Russian Company, seems gradually to have declined.

The commerce between England and the other parts of Europe, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, presents little that calls for notice; as the manufactures and capital of England encreased, it gradually encreased, and was transferred from foreign to English vessels.  The exports consisted principally of woollen goods, prepared skins, earthen-ware, and metals.  The imports of linens, silks, paper, wines, brandy, fruits, dye-stuffs, and drugs.  The woollen cloths of England were indeed the staple export to all parts of England during the whole of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries:  as our cotton, earthen-ware, and iron manufactures sprung up and encreased, they supplied other articles of export;—­our imports, at first confined to a few articles, afterwards encreased in number and value, in proportion as our encreased industry, capital, and skill, enlarged our produce and manufactures, and thus enabled us to purchase and consume more.  A very remarkable instance of the effect of skill, capital, and industry, is mentioned by Mr. Lewis, a merchant, who published a work entitled, The Merchant’s Map of Commerce, in 1641.  “The town of Manchester,” he says, “buys the linen yarn of the Irish in great quantity, and, weaving it, returns the same again, in linen, into Ireland to sell.  Neither doth her industry rest here, for they buy cotton wool in London, that comes first from Cyprus and Smyrna, and work the same into