ABSTRACT
All these regulations had the great object in view, expressed or unexpressed, of safe-guarding the interests of members of the company and of maintaining their sole rights in the Levant trade. No doubt they proved useful to a large extent. Yet the company had trouble from three sources which was a constant cause of irritation. There were the “interlopers”—people who were not members of the company, yet attempted to enjoy advantages which only members of the company might have. There were secondly, pirates, and last of all, there were the factors of members of the company resident in all centres of trade in the Levant.
