Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/369

 CHAPTER XXXIII THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND I. The English go Northeast in Search of Trade We learn from the following account the reasons why English merchants set forth as early as the reign of Queen Mary in search of trade. Sailing around North Cape, they reached Russia and established communi- cations with that country. 1 At what time our merchants perceived the commodities and wares of England to be in small request with the coun- tries and people about us, and near unto us, and that those merchandises which strangers, in the time and memory of our ancestors, did earnestly seek and desire were now neglected and the price thereof abated, although by us carried to their own ports, and all foreign merchandises in great account and their prices wonderfully raised ; certain grave citizens of London, and men of great wisdom, and careful of the good of their country, began to think with themselves how this mischief might be remedied ; neither was a remedy (as it then appeared) wanting to their desires for the avoiding of so great an inconvenience ; for seeing that the wealth of the Spaniards and Portuguese, by the discovery and search of new trades and countries, was marvelously increased, supposing the same to be a course and means for them also to obtain the like, they thereupon resolved upon a new and strange navigation. And whereas at the same time one Sebastian Cabot, a man in those days 1 See above, pp. 301 sq., for an account of Ivan the Terrible by one of these early explorers. 331 365. The English set out for the northeastern regions in search of trade (1553). (From Hakluyt's Voyages.)