Muscovy Company
Encyclopedia
Trading company
Trading companies are businesses working with different kinds of products which are sold for consumer, business or government purposes. Trading companies buy a specialized range of products, maintain a stock or a shop, and deliver products to customers....
chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered
Chartered company
A chartered company is an association formed by investors or shareholders for the purpose of trade, exploration and colonization.- History :...
joint stock
Joint stock company
A joint-stock company is a type of corporation or partnership involving two or more individuals that own shares of stock in the company...
company, the precursor of the type of business that would soon flourish in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, and became closely associated with such famous names as Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson
Henry Hudson was an English sea explorer and navigator in the early 17th century. Hudson made two attempts on behalf of English merchants to find a prospective Northeast Passage to Cathay via a route above the Arctic Circle...
and William Baffin
William Baffin
William Baffin was an English navigator and explorer. Nothing is known of his early life, but it is conjectured that he was born in London of humble origin, and gradually raised himself by his diligence and perseverance...
. The Muscovy Company had a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
on trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
between England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Muscovy until 1698 and it survived as a trading company until the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
. Since 1917 the company has operated as a charity, now working within Russia.
History
The Muscovy Company traces its roots to the Company of Merchant Adventurers to New LandsCompany of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands
The Company of Merchant Adventurers was founded in London, possibly in 1551 by Richard Chancellor, Sebastian Cabot and Sir Hugh Willoughby...
(in full: 'Mystery and Company of Merchant Adventurers for the Discovery of Regions, Dominions, Islands, and Places unknown') founded in 1551 by Richard Chancellor
Richard Chancellor
Richard Chancellor was an English explorer and navigator; the first to penetrate to the White Sea and establish relations with Russia....
, Sebastian Cabot
Sebastian Cabot (explorer)
Sebastian Cabot was an explorer, born in the Venetian Republic.-Origins:...
and Sir Hugh Willoughby
Hugh Willoughby (sea captain)
Sir Hugh Willoughby of Risley, Derbyshire was an early English Arctic voyager. He was sent out on 10 May 1553, as captain of the Bona Esperanza with two other vessels under his command and with chief pilot Richard Chancellor, by a company of London merchants known as the Company of Merchant...
, who decided to look for the Northeast Passage to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
The first expedition of the Company of Merchant Adventurers was led by Willoughby, who seems to have been chosen for his leadership skills and unfortunately had no prior nautical or navigational experience. Chancellor would function as the navigator of the small fleet, which consisted of three ships: the Bona Esparanza under Willoughby, the Edward Bonaventure under Chancellor and the Bona Confidentia. The fleet departed from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 10 May 1553, but near the Lofoten
Lofoten
Lofoten is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Though lying within the Arctic Circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world's largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its high latitude.-Etymology:...
islands the ships were caught in a storm and Chancellor's ship was separated from the other two.
Willoughby eventually crossed the Barents Sea
Barents Sea
The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...
and reached Novaya Zemlya
Novaya Zemlya
Novaya Zemlya , also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as , is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island...
. He spent some time sailing along the coast, then turned south towards Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
. However at the mouth of the Varzina River
Varzina River
Varzina River is a river in the north of the Kola Peninsula in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It is 35 km in length. The Varzina River originates in the Lake Yenozero and flows into the Barents Sea. Its biggest tributary is the Penka River....
on the coast to the east of present-day Murmansk
Murmansk
Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...
the ship became trapped in ice. Willoughby and the crew were not prepared for the cold, and after a few desperate failed attempts to find help he and his men froze to death in the extreme cold of the northern winter. The following year the ship, laden with frozen corpses, was discovered by Russian fishermen.
Chancellor was luckier. He penetrated the White Sea
White Sea
The White Sea is a southern inlet of the Barents Sea located on the northwest coast of Russia. It is surrounded by Karelia to the west, the Kola Peninsula to the north, and the Kanin Peninsula to the northeast. The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of...
, where the local fishermen were amazed by the great size of his Western-built ship. He reached the harbour of Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery
Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery
Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery is a Russian Orthodox monastery in Severodvinsk .This monastery is believed to have been founded by St. Euphemius, an Orthodox missionary in the Karelian lands. In 1419 the Swedes burnt down the Nikolo-Korelsky Monastery...
on the Northern Dvina
Northern Dvina
The Northern Dvina is a river in Northern Russia flowing through the Vologda Oblast and Arkhangelsk Oblast into the Dvina Bay of the White Sea. Along with the Pechora River to the east, it drains most of Northwest Russia into the Arctic Ocean...
river, near the present-day Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...
which would be eventually founded in 1584 to service the growing trade. The region had just recently been added to Muscovy, and when Czar Ivan IV heard of Chancellor's arrival, he immediately invited the exotic guest to visit Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
for an audience at the royal court.
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
at the time and almost all of the area was contested by the neighbouring powers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
and the Swedish Empire
Swedish Empire
The Swedish Empire refers to the Kingdom of Sweden between 1561 and 1721 . During this time, Sweden was one of the great European powers. In Swedish, the period is called Stormaktstiden, literally meaning "the Great Power Era"...
. In addition, the Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League was an economic alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe...
had a monopoly on the trade between Russia and Central
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
. Chancellor was no less optimistic, finding a good market for his English wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
, and receiving furs and other Russian continental goods in return. When he returned to England in 1554, he had letters from the czar with him, inviting English traders and promising trade privileges.
The Company of Merchant Adventurers renamed itself the Muscovy Company, and in 1555 Chancellor left for Russia again. The Muscovy Company began to serve as an important diplomatic link between Muscovy and England, and was especially important for the isolated Muscovy. When Chancellor returned to England one year later in 1556, he was joined by the first Russian ambassador to England, Osip Nepeya. However this is where Chancellor's luck finally ran out. Off the Scottish coast, his ship was caught in a sudden storm and shipwrecked. Chancellor drowned, but Nepeya managed to reach the coast, where he was taken hostage by the Scots for a few months before being able to travel on to London.
Chancellor was succeeded as the main trader of the Muscovy Company by Anthony Jenkinson
Anthony Jenkinson
Anthony Jenkinson was born at Market Harborough, Leicestershire. He was one of the first Britons to explore Muscovy and present day Russia. Jenkinson was a traveller and explorer on behalf of the Muscovy Company and the English crown. He also met Ivan the Terrible several times during his trips...
, who made two important voyages himself — one trying to reach Cathay
Cathay
Cathay is the Anglicized version of "Catai" and an alternative name for China in English. It originates from the word Khitan, the name of a nomadic people who founded the Liao Dynasty which ruled much of Northern China from 907 to 1125, and who had a state of their own centered around today's...
overland from Moscow, eventually stopping at Bukhara
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
, the other, between 1562 and 1579 to establish overland trade routes through Russia to Persia. In 1567, when Muscovy was faring badly in the Livonian War
Livonian War
The Livonian War was fought for control of Old Livonia in the territory of present-day Estonia and Latvia when the Tsardom of Russia faced a varying coalition of Denmark–Norway, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Union of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland.During the period 1558–1578,...
, Jenkinson was asked by Czar Ivan to sound out Queen Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
as a marriage prospect, providing possible refuge to the tsar if he was forced to flee the country. The negotiations yielded no results, and Czar Ivan was soon forced to sign a ceasefire with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The Muscovy Company was given a monopoly charter on whaling by Queen Elizabeth I in 1577. The primary and most profitable whaling grounds of this joint-stock company came to be centered around Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...
in the early 17th Century, and the company's royal charter of 1613 granted a monopoly on whaling in Spitsbergen, based on the (erroneous) claim that Hugh Willoughby had discovered the land in 1553. Initially the English tried to drive away competitors; but after a few years, they claimed only the waters south of these Arctic islands.
A further voyage undertaken by the Muscovy Company shortly after Chancellor's death, was another attempt to complete the Northeast Passage, led by Steven Borough
Steven Borough
Steven Borough , English navigator, was born at Northam, Devon.In 1553 he took part in the expedition which was dispatched from the Thames under Sir Hugh Willoughby to look for a northern passage to Cathay and India, serving as master of the Edward Bonaventure, on which Richard Chancellor sailed as...
. He managed to sail through the "Kara Gate", as the strait between Vaygach and Novaya Zemlya is known.
In 1646, English merchants were expelled from Muscovy, but trade reopened on the restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
of Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
in 1660, when it was also reorganized as a regulated company. It enjoyed important privileges until 1649 and a monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
on the English Russia trade until 1698, when it losts its privileges due to political opposition.
The Company helped provide churches and Anglican ministers at various times in Arkangelsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Kronstadt. St. Andrew's Anglican Church, Moscow
St. Andrew's Anglican Church, Moscow
St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Moscow is the sole Anglican church in Moscow, and one of only three in Russia. It continues the tradition of Anglican worship in Moscow that started in 1553 when Tsar Ivan the Terrible first allowed the English merchants of the Russia Company permission to worship...
is still supported by the company. The Company continued in existence until the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
and has since operated mainly as a charity. St. Andrew's and the company headquarters (called the Old English Yard), built during the reign of Ivan IV not far from the Moscow Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
, were visited by Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
in 1994.
See also
- Eastland CompanyEastland CompanyThe Eastland Company, or North Sea Company, was an English crown-chartered company, founded in 1579 to foster trade with Scandinavia and Baltic Sea states. Like the better-known Russia Company, this was an attempt by the English to challenge the Hanseatic League's dominance in the commerce of...
Portrayal in fiction
- Richard Chancellor's 1555 voyage to Moscow, and the return to Scotland and London are portrayed in Dorothy DunnettDorothy DunnettDorothy Dunnett OBE was a Scottish historical novelist. She is best known for her six-part series about Francis Crawford of Lymond, The Lymond Chronicles, which she followed with the eight-part prequel The House of Niccolò...
's book The Ringed Castle.