Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/197

 which runneth in the Dutch, and serveth them instead of a company." The Turkey Company now conducted an important and profitable commercial intercourse with the Levant; London having in a great measure superseded Venice in that valuable traffic, even supplying that city with articles of Indian produce. By this time, also, English merchants had become importers of Indian produce into Constantinople, Alexandria, Aleppo, and many other Mediterranean ports.

The Turkey Company alone despatched their ships, not yearly, but monthly, indeed almost weekly, thus securing a large proportion of that important trade; while the Muscovy Company, on the other hand, in virtue of their exclusive monopoly, enjoyed with their own ships almost undisputed possession of the maritime commerce of the Baltic.