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The English in Russia During the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Mildred Wretts-Smith
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Extract

The following paper contains the results of an independent study of an episode in the commercial history of this country which has been the subject of some important researches during recent years. The beginnings of mercantile adventure in Russia and other regions of Northern Europe and the Far East have been related by contemporary men of action, most of whose narratives have been carefully edited in the Hakluyt Series; but the political and economic environment of the Muscovy Company itself was still in need of elucidation from contemporary State Papers and other records. Some of these sources have been used by Madame Lubimenko, Dr. A. J. Gerson and Mr. O. T. Williams for special aspects of the subject; but a large mass of material of the first importance has remained untouched.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 3 , December 1920 , pp. 72 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1920

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References

page 72 note 1 In this endeavour the writer has benefited by the advice and encouragement of Professor W. R. Scott, the greatest authority on the subject.

page 73 note 1 The most important of these are the State Papers, Domestic and Foreign (1553–1613), the K.R. Customs Accounts (1553–1600), and the K.R. Port Books (1565–1600) at the Public Record Office; with various documents among the Lansdowne, Cotton, Hasleian, and additional MSS. at the British Museum.

page 73 note 2 Hakluyt, R., The Principal Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation (edition 1903), ii. p. 304; S.P. Dom., Mary, v. No. 4; Lansdowne MS. 141, No. 55; Cotton MS., Otho E, iii. ff. 51–63.Google Scholar

page 73 note 3 List of members, S.P. Dom. Addenda, Mary. viii. No. 39.

page 73 note 4 Hakluyt, iii. p. 83; 8 Eliz., c, 17: Lansdowne MS. 141, No. 56; Cotton MS., Otho E, iii. ff. 64–82.

page 74 note 1 S. von Herberstein, Notes upon Russia (1549), translated in the Hakluyt Society's Publications (1854), ii. pp. 4–5.

page 74 note 2 Eden, R., of the North-East Frostie Seas, edited by the Hakluyt Society (1854), ii. p. 224.Google Scholar

page 75 note 1 Hakluyt, ii. p. 429.

page 75 note 2 S. von Herberstein, i. p. 113.

page 75 note 3 Hakluyt, iii. p. 93–7. Privileges granted to the Muscovy Company by Ivan IV.

page 75 note 4 The Dutch first began to use the White Sea route to Russia in 1578 (British Museum, Additional MS. 33837, ff. 70–81). During the sixteenth century they were, on the whole, less favourably treated than the English Queen Elizabeth, in a letter to the Tsar in 1598, thanked him for “ retayning their [i.e., the English Company's] residence in Mosko and other principal cities,” while other foreign merchants were “ sent and limited to the uttermost parts and confynes ” of Russia, that is, to the northern sea-coast (S.P. For., Russia, i, ff. 56.9).

page 76 note 1 Hakluyt, ii. p. 277; von Herberstein (Notes upon Russia, ii. p. 7) stated that the people of Moscow were more cunning and deceitful than other Russians, their honour being especially slack in business contracts.

page 76 note 2 See below, p. 7

page 76 note 3 “Means of Decay of the. Russe Trade,” by Christopher Burrough, Lansdowne MS. 52, No, 27 (printed in Early Voyages and Travels to Russia and Persia, Hakluyt Society, 1866, Vol. I, Introduction, p. cviii.).

page 76 note 4 In 1584 the town was first built round the monastery of S. Michael (Hakluyt, iii. p. 346; Early Voyages, i. p. 190). The English were at first prohibited from trading there (1586, Hakluyt, iii. p. 352), but by 1596 the Company had built a house at Arkhangelsk (Hakluyt, iii., p. 443), and their privileges of 1598 mention their house at “ St Archangell (S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 66–8, and Cotton MS. Nero B, viii. ff. 29–31). The London Port Book for 1599 (Bundle 10) enters the Muscovy Company's fleet as sailing “ versus St Michaells in Russia” (i.e. Arkhangelsk), but previously “versus St Nico in Russia” (i.e. Rose Island). K.R. Customs Account 178/38, outward tonnage roll, London, 1596–7, also enters the fleet as sailing “ versus St Nico,” so the change of port probably occurred between 1597 and 1599.

page 77 note 1 Ships of tonnages ranging from 60 tons to 120 tons are found in the London Port Books and K.R. Customs Accounts sailing to the White Sea in the sixteenth century. It is rare, however, to find them under 100 or over 160 tons, and an approximate average of 120 tons may be taken. The fleet varied from two to thirteen vessels, an average being possibly six ships of perhaps 700 tons burden yearly.

page 77 note 2 Hakluyt, iii. p. 72.

page 77 note 3 The London Port Books (1565–1600) show instances of the following imports:-cordage, cables, ropes, “ untired” (untarred ?) ropes, cable yarn, wax, tallow, tar, flax, “ flax unwrought,” train oil, train oil blubbers, sealskins, wolfskins, “ wolverings,” mink, squirrel skins, coarse sables, “bever bellies, bever backs, bever wool,” “ rogesen downe,” hides, cow-hides, tanned cow-hides, losh hides (Russian for elk), calf-skins “ in the heare,” goat skins, rough bristles, dry cow-hides, isinglass.

page 77 note 4 S.P. Dom., James I, viii. No. 59: “The cuntrey of Russia is not to be sayled unto but only in the monethes of Maye and June and the shippes that then goe thither cannot make there aboade in those partes above a monethe or sixe weekes, unlesse they be frosen and lockt in for a whole yeare followinge”.

page 77 note 5 “Timber ”—“a legal quantity of small skins, 40 or 50 packed between two boards” (Early Voyages, p. 207, n.).

page 78 note 1 Nero B, xi. ff. 321–8 (printed in Early Voyages, pp. 206–25): “The marrinars bring every yeare excellent furres”. But by 1584 the Company had made stringent provisions to prevent this practice: “ The newe agent and assisstant … spie so here at the shipps that there dareth nether purser nor maryner trade … The masters are bound in two hundreth pownds to the contrarie and for to seem trustie agents to the Company, they alweis when they slepe they lye in their clothes” (Nero B, xi. ff. 360–2).

page 78 note 2 Hakluyt, ii. p. 419; iii. p. 70.

page 78 note 3 An early shipload of exports from England (K.R. Customs Account *** Tonnage and Poundage Roll, 4–5 Elizabeth) includes “ folders plumbi … stanni opati … brassell … sulphur … croci … lignum vite … peces canvas striped wth goald and silver ….panni Auri … crimesen Taffita … black velvet … crimesen damask … Raggad and seede pearle … Reames paper … wryting paper … figges corrupt … Raisens corrupt … vine corrupt” (cf. S.P. Dom., Eliz., cclv. No. 56, which recommends the sending of “corrupt wynes” to Russia, and also the selling for wine “sidar puting into it three or fower gallons of Bastard ”). The above list, of course, excludes cloth, the staple export to Russia. It may be compared with a later list (Port Books, Bundle 10, 1599) which includes “ plumbi iniacti … stanni opati … stanni in barres … copper … brymstone … Iron wyre … goades cottons manchesters … coarse Spanishe narrowwe clothes … single bayes … Muscovie gloves … frauncomsence … Reames pott paper … Spanishe pap … demy pap … cotton wool … figges … grene ginger in syrup … Anny seedes … sugers … comfettes … synamone … vini Sackes … vini Allegant … vini Canaries … vini Moskadelles … vini Roin … vini Vascon”. George Stoddard, a young English grocer, mentions also in his ledger “ whyt sheuger candy” (Hubert Hall, Elizabethan Society, p. 53), and on the first voyage “ English bookes of the Scriptures “ (which met with no customer) (Hubert Hall, History of the Customs Revenue of England, i. p. 51). These lists, which include goods for the people, luxuries for the Court, and “warlike stores” for the Tsar of Russia, help towards forming an estimate of the influence of the English on Russia in the period.

page 78 note 4 Sir Thomas Smith, Voyages and Entertainment in Russia (1605), D2.

page 79 note 1 Voyages and Entertainment in Russia, i. 2.

page 79 note 2 Hakluyt, ii. p. 276; Early Voyages, I. Introduction, 1xi.

page 79 note 3 Hakluyt, iii. p. 103.

page 79 note 4 Ibid. ii. p. 418; Similarly Sir Thomas Smith describes this journey (D2) “ straight pine, tall cedar or fyrre woods; Alabaster Rockes or the pleasantness of walkes in sweet Meadowes and fair pastures, then which for 1,000 vers [versts] cannot be more welcome in the whole world”.

page 79 note 5 Ibid. ii. p. 277. Vologda was “ the resort of many rich merchants”.

page 79 note 6 Hakluyt, iii. pp. 93–7. Privileges, 1567.

page 79 note 7 Ibid. iii. p. 104.

page 80 note 1 Voyages and Entertainment in Russia, H.

page 80 note 2 Sir Thomas Smith (G. 2) describes the journey in winter as an “easy and pleasant passage in sleds, such a passage as this part of the world would wonder at, in which a man, though he go at a Hackney pace, may as easilye reade as slepe”.

page 80 note 3 Notes upon Russia, i. p. 108; S.P. Dom., Eliz., xliv. No. II; Hakluyt, iii. p. 116.

page 80 note 4 E. S. Bates, Touring in 1600, p. 293.

page 80 note 5 Hakluyt, ii. p. 425. Sir D. M. Wallace, Russia (1905), pp. 14, 23, 30.

page 80 note 6 Nero B, xi. ff. 360–2; Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century (Hakluyt Society, 1856), p. 227, Privileges obtained by Jerome Horsey, 1585–6.

page 81 note 1 Hakluyt, ii. p. 445; Purchas, his Pilgrimes (1905–7 edition), xii. p. 7.

page 81 note 2 See accounts in Hakluyt, ii. and xii., Early Voyages, Calendar of East Indies, 1.; and Joseph Hanway, Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea, 1753; Vaughn, English Trading Expeditions into Asia under the Authority of the Muscovy Company (1912).

page 81 note 3 S.P. Dom., James I, viii. No. 59.

page 81 note 4 Hakluyt, ii. p. 383. e.g. Th. Southam and J. Sparke travelled in 1566 almost entirely by water from the White Sea to Novgorod the Great, to discover if this were a possible trade-route, without very satisfactory results. (Hakluyt, hi. pp. 73–82).

page 81 note 5 Nero B, xi. ff. 321–8, Early Voyages, 2, 6.

page 82 note 1 S.P. For., Eliz., cii. No. 1980. It appears, however, that it later became customary to give the apprentices wages. In 1584 it is stated (Nero B, xi. f. 360–2) that the company “ augmented to every apprentis 5r more, so that nowe their wages is 15r” (i.e. 15 roubles). S.P. For., Russia, i. f. 133–4, also mentions a servant hired for meat, drink and wages, but this may have been a stipendiary. Christopher Burrough (Early Voyages, Intro., p. cix.) in 1587 said “ Their wages and allowance is very small, or (if they bee apprentized) nothing at all”.

page 82 note 2 Hakluyt, ii. p. 282–4.

page 82 note 3 Lansdowne MS. 112, f. 136.

page 82 note 4 Hakluyt, ii. p. 284.

page 82 note 5 Ibid. pp. 283–4, 406.

page 82 note 6 Ibid. iii. p. 118.

page 82 note 7 Ibid., iii. pp. 93–7; iii. pp. 109–18; S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 66–8.

page 83 note 1 Hakluyt, iii. p. 349; Nero B, xi. ff. 363–74 (printed in Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century, Appendix II.)

page 83 note 2 e.g. S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 66–8 and unnumbered, following f. 132.

page 83 note 3 Russe Commonwealth (Hakluyt Society, 1856), p. 63. Also partly printed in Purchas his Pilgrimes(ed. 1907), xii. pp. 499–633.

page 83 note 4 Russe Commonwealth, p. 62.

page 83 note 5 Hakluyt, ii. pp. 202, 249.

page 83 note 6 Ibid. p. 389.

page 84 note 1 Later, however, it was thought expedient to allow any Russian merchants who wished to trade into England to do so (S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 127–8; Nero B, xi. f. 339.) In consequence of this permission the Tsar sent two merchants to England to buy jewels and rich apparel for his treasury (Y. Tolstoi, The First Forty Years of Intercourse between England and Russia, No. 10), for which they were to exchange the wax and tallow they brought with them (S.P. Dom., Eliz., cvi. No. 61); Port Books, Bundle 4, 1567: “ Stephano Twerdico et Theodor’ ” Pogorell’ de Russia mercator ’ ”.

page 84 note 2 In several of the grants of privileges, justice by lot is mentioned, e.g. Hakluyt, iii. pp. 93–7, 109–18.; S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 66–8.

page 84 note 3 Hakluyt, ii. p. 411.

page 84 note 4 S.P. For., Eliz., cxxiii. No. 362.

page 85 note 1 Hakluyt, ii. p. 391.

page 85 note 2 The “desperate debts” of the English in Russia at times amounted to thousands of roubles (Hakluyt, iii. p. 329; S.P. For., Russia, i. No. 38).

page 85 note 3 S.P. For., Eliz., xcviii. No. 1755; W. Camden, Annales of Elizabeth, iv. p. 105.

page 85 note 4 Hakluyt, iii. p. 113; S.P. Dom., Eliz., liv. No. 7.

page 85 note 5 Early Voyages, Introduction, p. 58.

page 85 note 6 Horsey's Travels (Hakluyt Society, 1856), pp. 202–4; Tolstoi, No. 53.

page 85 note 7 S.P. For., Russia, i. Bundle 2, No. 6. Boris is here, as in many other documents, spoken of as “ a professed frende to her maties marchauntes”.

page 85 note 8 Tolstoi, No. 80; S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 50 and 51; Calendar of the Marquis of Salisbury (Hist. MSS. Comm.), iii. p. 35, vii. p. 192.

page 86 note 1 Early Voyages, Introduction, cviii. (Lansd. 52, No. 27).

page 86 note 2 Russia at the Close of Sixteenth Century, Appendix iv. (Lansd. 60, No. 59).

page 86 note 3 S.P. For., Russia i. ff. 133–4.

page 86 note 4 Camden, Annales of Elizabeth, iv. 124–5.

page 86 note 5 S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 133–4.

page 86 note 6 S.P. Dom., Eliz., xliv., No. 11. This privilege afterwards lapsed.

page 87 note 1 S.P. For., Eliz., xciii. No. 1214; Queen Elizabeth and Her Times (J. Wright), i. 420. Wm. Smith to Jas. Woodcoke, speaking of the Company's service, said, “ a man may soon come into it, but cannot get out. I am hired but from year to year, and to give me one year's warning, but I have given warning for five years agone, and yet cannot get away.”

page 87 note 2 An amusing picture of the factors’ privy trade is given by one of the most audacious of them, Richard Relph (Nero B, xi. ff. 360–2, 1584). He also described an attempt of the Company to reform such conduct: “ The Company will have no servant to traveile any whether and mean to have their buziness done in Mosco, Yeraslaly and Vologda … further they mean to chaunge their servauntes every second or third yere and those which serve them must be sworne that they shall use no privie trade, nor no man for them”.

page 87 note 3 Early Voyages, Introduction, cviii. (Lansd. 52, No. 27); S.P. For., Eliz., cii. No. 1980, describes the Company's servants, who “after that they become factours far of, and owt of sight, do gyve them selves owt to be gentlemen & principall merchauntes & in contynuance of tyme through libertie and lack of grace, bring their masters to ruyne and decay”. The agent himself, Thomas Glover, had “ used the Company's purse like a prince”.

page 88 note 1 Early Voyages, pp. 206–25 (Nero B, xi. ff. 321–8).

page 88 note 2 Ibid. p. 226.

page 88 note 3 von Herberstein (Notes upon Russia, p. 109) gives an account of Russian money. The only gold coins were foreign, and the currency consisted chiefly of silver coins, the “deng,” 6 of which went to an “altin,” and 200 to a rouble. John Hasse (Hakluyt, ii. p. 273) compared the “denga” to an English penny, the “ altine” to a shilling, and the rouble to a pound, 6 dengas being worth an altine, and 23 altines 2 dengas a rouble.

page 89 note 1 Early Voyages, p. 215.

page 89 note 2 Hakluyt, iii. p. 111; S.P. Dom., Eliz., liv. No. 7; S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 66–8.

page 89 note 3 Early Voyages, Introduction, cviii.-cxiii. (Lansd. 52, No. 27).

page 90 note 1 S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 133–4.

page 90 note 2 Tolstoi, No. 16; S.P. For., Eliz., cii. No. 1780.

page 90 note 3 S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 46–7.

page 90 note 4 S.P. Dom., Eliz., cviii. No. 16; R. G. Marsden, Select Cases in the High Court of Admiralty, ii, p. 149. These merchants, together with some of the Company's own servants, petitioned Ivan IV for a grant of privileges for themselves, which they obtained (S.P. For., Eliz., xciii. No. 1554; c. No. 2316).

page 90 note 5 In Nero B, xi. f. 333, and Lansd. 60, ff. 157–60, thirty-five names of Interlopers of York and Hull, with the Company's servants who had joined them, are given—the list concludes, “ and others”. This, of course, was only one Company of Interlopers. In Lansd. 112, No. 37, it is stated that seventy English ships of Interlopers traded to Narva in 1566, with English, French, Dutch, and Scottish goods.

page 90 note 6 S.P. Dom., Eliz., cviii. No. 16. It would not be possible here to attempt an account of the relations of the Interlopers with the Muscovy Company, but it is interesting to discover that information found in the Port Books and K.R. Customs Accounts appears to bear out this assertion, that the Interlopers gave out that they were trading to a port outside the Company's privilege, and then sailed to a Russian port. Until 1566 the port of Narva was not definitely included in the Company's monopolied area, but in this year it was so included by Act of Parliament (see above, p. i, note 3). In the Hull Port Books there are several notices of ships returning from Narva in 1566 and 1567, but after this date there is only one while Narva remained a Russian port, and that in 1579. Many of the same merchants’ names, however, appear after 1567 in ships bound for Danzig and Riga, and some of these may (as is asserted in S.P. Dom., Eliz., cviii. No. 16) have traded to Narva. There are also, in the Port Books and K.R. Customs Accounts, several instances of ships either ostensibly sailing to Vardö with cloth, which could not have been sold at that fishing station, or returning with wax or train-oil, the price of which, the Company complained, was greatly raised by the Russians, who traded to Lapland from Kholmogori. “ Edmonde Cooke,” whom the Company complained to be the chief merchant of Hull and York, was probably the “Edward Cooke” of the K.R. Customs Accounts (*** and ***) trading from Hull to Wardhouse “ (Vardö) with cloth, and returning with train-oil. Merchants from Ipswich (Port Books, Bundles 589, 590, and 592) also declared that they were taking cloth “versus Ward-house,” and bringing wax and train-oil from thence, while merchants of Newcastle (K.R. Customs Accounts ***) exported cloth and lead (a commodity in great demand in Russia) “ towarde Wardehouse”.

page 91 note 1 Tolstoi, No. 13; S.P. Dom., Eliz., cviii. No. 16; S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 48–9. It is uncertain whether there were any Englishwomen in Russia in the sixteenth century, though it is certain that in the first years of the seventeenth John Merrick's wife, an Englishwoman, was in Moscow (Sir T. Smith, Voyages and Entertainment in Russia, G. 3). Wives and children of English merchants in Russia are occasionally mentioned (e.g. S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 48–9; Hakluyt, iii. p. 169), but it is not known whether these were English or Russian.

page 91 note 2 S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 103–4, and ff. 105–6 I Nero B, xi. ff. 363–74 (printed in Russia at the Close of Sixteenth Century, appendix ii.).

page 91 note 3 S.P. For., Russia, i. Bundle 2, No. 8. Horsey said that Tsar Feodor “was meeter to be a fryer than a king, and to bear a pair of beads than a Sceptor”.

page 91 note 4 S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 13–16.

page 92 note 1 S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 105–6.

page 92 note 2 Ibid. ff. 103–4.

page 92 note 3 Printed by the Hakluyt Society (1856) in Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century.; edited by E. A. Bond.

page 92 note 4 Lansd. 112, No. 40.

page 92 note 5 S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 13–16.

page 92 note 6 Horsey's Travels, p. 231–2; Nero B, xi. ff. 363–74, printed in Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century, appendix ii.; Tolstoi, Nos. 56, 60.

page 92 note 7 Horsey's Travels, p. 189.

page 93 note 1 J. von Hamel, England and Russia, p. 236.

page 93 note 2 Horsey's Travels, p. 217.

page 93 note 3 Ibid., pp. 182–3; appendix ii. p. 291.

page 93 note 4 The agent, Robert Peacock, wrote to Walsingham (S.P. For., Russia, i., Feb. 8, I58***), that Horsey's misdemeanours, were as “ a sea that hath no bottome”. There are many accounts of these misdemeanours, e.g. S.P. For., Russia, i. Bundle 2, Nos. 1, 7, 8, 9; Lansd. 112, f. 137, f. 133 (34 complaints against him), and Lansd. 62, f. 22. Most of these, or extracts from them, are printed in Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century, appendix iii.

page 94 note 1 S.P. For., Russia, i. Bundle 2, No. 9. This form of torture is here described— Hornby, the sufferer, was “tossed by the arms on a gubitt,” his arms disjointed, and given 24 lashes with a wire whip. In another document (Lansd. 112, f. 133, printed in Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century, p. 316), Hornby was “ put to the pudkey, where he was hanged by both his handes tyed behind him, and waightes to his feet, and had 24 lashes with a wyer whippe”. In the 1589 grant of privileges, obtained by Dr. Fletcher, a clause was inserted that henceforward no Englishman should be tortured (Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century, p. 350).

page 94 note 2 Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century, p. 359.

page 94 note 3 Ibid. p. 326.

page 94 note 4 Horsey's Travels, p. 266.

page 94 note 5 Sir Thomas Smith (Voyages and Entertainment in Russia, G. 3) described him as “so honest and discreet an Agent, so well beloved by the Emperor, Prince and Nobility, so approoved of by the merchants … so thoroughly experienced in affairs, as well concerning their trade, as their customs and demeanure, having a mind and ability … for the benefit of the whole Company as never had nor will succeede a fitter man.”

page 94 note 6 S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 21–2, “ the travailes of Fraunces Cherrye whence were not the least” of “ the good indevors of her [Queen Elizabeth's] marchauntes trading Russia”; Cal. Marquis of Salisbury (Hist. MSS. Comm.), vii. P. 504.

page 95 note 1 See below, p. 24.

page 95 note 2 Cal. Marquis of Salisbury, vii. pp. 484, 504; xiii. p. 510.

page 95 note 3 In 1587 more than a quarter of the whole expenses of the Navy, that is £3,351, was for rope bought from the Muscovy Company (S.P. Dom., Eliz., ccxvii. No. 72), and in the same year another £3,000 worth of cordage was ordered from the Company (Cal. S.P. Dom., 1581–90, p. 467).

page 95 note 4 S.P. For., Eliz., cxxiii. No. 362, “ Mr. Jenkinson, of whose cominge the Emperour (Ivan IV) lyked so well that … his maiestie hath grauntyd hym all he requestyd, unlesse it weare such goodes as weare taken in the tyme of his maities displeasure ageynste the merchauntes”.

page 95 note 5 Hakluyt, iii. p. 170.

page 96 note 1 Horsey's Travels, p. 194. Nikita was the grandfather of Michael, first Tsar of the Romanov dynasty.

page 96 note 2 Ibid. p. 195.

page 96 note 3 The English ambassadors sent to Russia in the reign of Queen Elizabeth were Thomas Randolph, the first royal ambassador to Russia from England (1568); Anthony Jenkinson (1571); Sir Jerome Bowes (1583); Dr. Giles Fletcher (1588); Sir Richard Lee (1601). There were also several envoys and messengers sent by Elizabeth to the Tsars. The Muscovy Company usually bore the expenses of the ambassadors. Sir Richard Lee was allowed £800 and his diet for himself and his followers, but he was to provide them and himself with suitable clothing (S. P. For., Russia, i. ff. 107–8.).

page 96 note 4 Hakluyt, iii. p. 102.

page 96 note 5 Voyages and Entertainment in Russia, E. 2.; Hakluyt, iii. p. 105. Accounts of the various embassies are found in Hakluyt, ii. and iii., Russia at the close of the Sixteenth Century, Early Voyages, Voyages and Entertainment in Russia, Nero B, xi. f. 400–2. All agree in descriptions of ceremonial and procedure.

page 96 note 6 Sir Thomas Smith remarked (C. 4.) “the greatest glory for the greatest men is rather to be reported than seen”.

page 97 note 1 Sir Thomas Smith cut short his description of the banquet with the excuse that if he described it at length, “ Garlicke and onions must besauce many of my words, as then it did the most of their dishes” (G. 2).

page 97 note 2 Hakluyt, ii. pp. 288, 421.

page 97 note 3 In E. S. Bates’ Touring in 1600, there is a description of the sequel to a Russian Imperial banquet by an Italian, Barberini, who visited Russia in Ivan IV's reign. After three hours feasting, Barberini left the palace “ picking his way through the outer rooms, pitch dark and strewn with courtiers in the weeping stage of drunkenness, down the stairs “. Twenty yards from the foot of the stairs a crowd of servants was waiting with horses to take their masters home. Towards these they had to wade, knee-deep in mud, still in pitch darkness, and so continue a good part of the way home. No one was allowed to ride till out of the palace precincts (p. 157).

page 97 note 4 Sir Jerome Bowes daily allowance (Hakluyt, iii. p. 476) included 7 sheep, 70 eggs, 20 hens, 10 lbs. of butter, 70 white loaves, the third of an ox, quantities of mead of various kinds, meal, vegetables, candles, provender for horses, and various other food-stuffs.

page 97 note 5 Nero B, xi. ff. 400–2.

page 98 note 1 Unlike the liberal allowance accorded most ambassadors and messengers, the only gift Willis received was two rabbits, from the Chancellor. He added two more and “ gave them to the messenger for his pains” (Nero B, xi. ff. 400–2).

page 98 note 2 Cal. S.P. Dom., 1581–90, p. 354.

page 98 note 3 Hakluyt, iii. p. 446.

page 98 note 4 Ibid. p. 310.

page 98 note 5 Horsey's Travels, p. 187.

page 98 note 6 von Hamel, England and Russia, pp. 202–5; Horsey's Travels, p. 173.

page 98 note 7 S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 70–1; Cal. of Marquis of Salisbury, x. p. 237.

page 99 note 1 Hakluyt, ii. p. 383; S.P. For., Eliz., xcviii. No. 1755, and c. No. 2316.

page 99 note 2 Tolstoi, Nos. 11, 42; S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 52–5.

page 99 note 3 Harleian MS. 296, No. 54; Tolstoi, No. 11. English Interlopers also supplied Ivan with artificers and workmen (Lansd. 16, No. 20). In 1599 Tsar Boris requested Elizabeth to send him “doctors, lerned men in secret artes, Artificers”. All were to be allowed to return home when they wished, and those who were willing to remain in his service “ shall receave a ‘worthie stipende according to their desertes and enioy ther freedome and liberty” (S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 52–5.)

page 99 note 4 S.P. For., Eliz., xcviii. No. 1755, c. No. 2316.

page 99 note 5 Dr. Willis spent £80 on his overland journey, including the payment of guides (Nero B, xi. ff. 400–2).

page 100 note 1 Humphrey Lock, an architect and engineer in the Tsar's service (S.P. For., Eliz., 1568, May No. 1757), stated that the doctor received 50 roubles, himself 40, and the other craftsmen wages varying from 15 to 30 roubles yearly.

page 100 note 2 S.P. Dom., Eliz., cviii. No. 16; J. Wright, Queen Elizabeth and Her Times, i. p. 420; Wm. Smith to Jos. Woodcoke.

page 100 note 3 Horsey's Travels, p. 185.

page 100 note 4 J. Wright, Queen Elizabeth and Her Times, i. p. 420; S.P. Dom., Eliz., cviii. No. 16. In 1569, Ivan IV sent to Elizabeth requesting that English shipwrights and sailors might be sent to him (Tolstoi, No. 18; Camden, p. 86) and these were sent in 1571 (Tolstoi, No. 32). In 1568 (Early Voyages, ii. p. 263) it was reported to the company “ that the Emperowre should requier a hundredth Englishemen to be his garde for sauegard of his person”. This project was not realised, but in making it Ivan IV anticipated Peter the Great in desiring to employ English soldiers as a bodyguard. His evident desire for a fleet on the Western pattern and his anxiety for supplies of English munitions of war, also, are anticipations of Peter's ideas.

page 100 note 5 Hakluyt, iii. p. 170.

page 100 note 6 Ibid., ii. p.395; Early Voyages, p. 208 (Nero B, xi. ff. 321–8), English ropemakers in 1567 were paid at rates varying from £5 to £9 a year.

page 100 note 7 Hakluyt, ii. p. 395.

page 101 note 1 Hakluyt, ii. p. 395.

page 101 note 2 Nero B, xi. ff. 360.2.

page 101 note 3 S.P. For., Russia, i. ff. 115–6; Cal. of Marquis of Salisbury, vii. p. 12; S.P. Dom., Eliz., civ. No. 83; William Borough, Comptroller of the Navy, described Russian cordage as “ the best that is broughte into our countries.”

page 101 note 4 S.P. Dom., James I., viii. No. 59.

page 101 note 5 S.P. Dom., Eliz., ccxl. No. 121, ccliv. No. 14. The Port Books show the amount of cordage brought into London by the company in a year, e.g. in 1587, 889 “ ends” weighing 4839 cwts (Bundle 7.)

page 101 note 6 Hakluyt, ii. p. 387.

page 101 note 7 Early Voyages, p. 208; S.P. Dom., Eliz., xl. No. 93. This coarse canvas or sacking was originally made in Brittany, and the company declared that their promoting its manufacture in Russia was a public service, since it had become very scarce in England.