Conclusion

We have brought down our consideration of the development of the Levant Company to the year 1640. Perhaps it will be well to finish this portion of our study with quoting certain recommendations made by the company, recommendations which, we take it, summed up and gave expression to the experience of the company during the first three decades of its history. In 1640 the “Honourable Committee for Trade” assembled in the House of Commons (9 June 1640). This committee had already sent out 4 questions to the trading companies regarding their commerce, and like the others, the Levant Company were asked (1) whether there was a decay in their trade; (2) wherein the decay consisted; (3) what was its cause; and (4) how it might be remedied. On 9 July 1640 ¹ the company considered what answers should be given to these questions, and among other things, decided to ask that its Charter should be confirmed by Act of Parliament. At the next meeting ² the company demanded to be freed from all arrears of impositions on silk, currants and other commodities. They suggested, moreover, that shipping in strange bottoms should be most strictly prohibited, for it was a source of loss to the whole kingdom; secondly, that a court of merchants should be established for hearing and deciding all controversies which concerned merchants, in a summary and decisive way of justice. This would avoid long and tedious suits in the law courts, which cost much money and wasted much valuable time.