ABSTRACT
T H E ORIGINS AND E A R L Y D E V EL O P M EN T OF T H E M ER C H A N T A D V E N T U R E R S ’ ORGANI ZATIO N IN LONDON AS SHOWN IN T H E IR
OWN M E D IE V A L R EC O R D S1
The importance of the Merchant Adventurers’ Company has been universally recognized, though variously inter preted. But its inner history remains curiously nebulous. Its evolution and structure seem to have baffled all attempts at clear analysis. Many historians have exercised their ingenuity in unravelling its ultimate origins or expounding the intricacies of a constitution which was probably never static, endeavouring to analyse the life of the now extinct Society by meticulously dissecting a number of charters and letters patent. But these provide merely a bare skeleton, and, as Professor Lingelbach noted: “ The one great hiatus in the sources for the history of the Society still exists, for nowhere has there been found a definite clue to the existence or the whereabouts of the private records of the Fellowship.” 2 Hence the actual activities of the Society have remained largely a matter for conjecture until now, when such records as Professor Lingelbach sought in vain have come to light and are elucidating the whole matter.
