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206 treaty made upon this occasion with the Flemings was distinguished by the name of the "Intercursus Magnus," or great treaty.

The merchant adventurers here spoken of by Bacon appear to have been the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, an association which can be traced back nearly to the beginning of the fourteenth century, and which a few years after this time (in 1505) was incorporated by royal charter under the title of the Merchant Adventurers of England. Presuming perhaps upon the aid they had afforded to the crown on this occasion, these London merchants appear to have now made an attempt to take possession of the whole foreign trade of the country, by asserting a right to prevent any private adventurers from resorting to a foreign market without their licence. This gave occasion to the passing of an act of parliament in 1497 (the 12th Henry VII. c. 6), which affords a general view of the foreign commerce of England at that date, as stated in the petition, which the preamble recites, of the merchant adventurers inhabiting and dwelling in divers parts of the realm out of the city of London. The petitioners represent that they had been wont till of late to have free course and recourse with their merchandises into Spain, Portugal, Britany, Ireland, Normandy, France, Seville, Venice, Dantzic, Eastland, Friesland, "and other divers and many places, regions, and countries, being in league and amity with the king our sovereign lord," where in their sales and purchases every one used freely to proceed in the manner he deemed most for his individual advantage, "without exaction, fine, imposition, or contribution to be had or taken of them, or any of them, to, for, or by any English person or persons;" and in like manner they had till now been used to have free passage and resort "to the coasts of Flanders, Holland, Zealand, Brabant, and other places thereto nigh adjoining, under the obeisance of the Archduke of Burgoyne (or Burgundy), in which places the universal marts be commonly kept and holden four times in the year, to which marts all Englishmen and divers other nations in time past have used to resort, there