Purchase of a share in a voyage
was the most common method. A share for the first ship cost 100
pounds. When share purchase did not suffice, redemption for such
cash payments as could be obtained was resorted to. Occasionally
presentation or a faculty "for the making of a freeman" was
granted to some nobleman or powerful member. Members' liability
was limited to their individual subscriptions. Each voyage had 1)
a Royal Commission authorizing the Company to undertake the
expedition and vesting in its commanders powers for punishing
offences during the voyage, and quenching any mutiny, quarrels, or
dissension that might arise; 2) a code of instructions from the
Company to the Admiral and to commanders of ships setting forth in
great detail the scope and objects of the voyage together with
minute regulations for its conduct and trade; 3) authorization for
coinage of money or export of specie (gold or silver); and 4)
letters missive from the sovereign to foreign rulers at whose
ports the ships were to trade. The first voyage brought back
spices that were sold at auction in London for ten times their
price in the Indies and brought to shareholders a profit
equivalent to 9 1/2% yearly for the ten years when the going
interest rate was 8% a year.
Town government was often controlled by a few merchant
wholesalers. The entire trade of a town might be controlled by its
drapers or by a company of the Merchant Adventurers of London.
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