Elizabethan Exploration

Trade and Exploration

One of the main motives for Elizabethan voyages of exploration was to open profitable trading routes. The greatest prizes lay in direct trading routes with the Far East, whose spices flavored and preserved Europe's meat.

Europeans sailed both eastward and westward in an attempt to cut out the middlemen of the Near East who derived huge profits from the spice trade.

John and Sebastian Cabot had sought a Northwest passage in the early 16th Century, and Willoughby and Chancellor were looking for a Northeast passage when they found a sea route to Archangel.

The seal of the Muscovy Company, 1555.
(The legend reads Refugium nostrum in Deo est - God is our refuge)

Russia became an important source for cordage, hemp and furs, and English traders occupied a privileged position in the White Sea and northern Muscovy.

Nevertheless, the real rewards lay in trade with the Far East, and new attempts were soon made to find a Northwest passage.

Sir Martin Frobisher (1535-94)

The Northwest

Sir Martin Frobisher made three major voyages in search of a north-western route to the Far East.

The first voyage sailed in 1576. Because it had been hard to find entrepreneurs willing to back the voyage, Frobisher left with only two 30 ton ships and a small (7 ton) pinnace. Their maps were inaccurate, leading them to believe that the southern tip of Greenland was "Frisland" - a small island en route to China. The pinnace was sunk and one ship deserted the enterprise.

In July 1576 Frobisher's ship reached Baffin Island, where a third of his crew were captured by Eskimos. Frobisher finally returned in October, bringing an Eskimo, who bore sufficient resemblance in English eyes to an Asian to suggest that China might lie further West.

A second expedition went to Baffin Island in 1577 in the hope of finding gold, but its diggings produced nothing of value.

On Frobisher's third voyage, in July 1578 he was swept into the Hudson Strait. Its scale convinced Frobisher that this might be the longed-for Northwest passage, but the lack of profitable commodities or gold from the first three voyages discouraged all investors, and Frobisher never returned.

From 1585 to 1587, three more voyages in search of a Northwest passage were mounted by John Davis.
In 1587 he sailed on the West Greenland current to 72°N and observed Baffin Bay. This was further north than any previous Englishman, but when he then tried to sail west, he hit pack ice and was forced to return south to Cumberland Sound.

English colonization

One of those interested in the attempt to discover a northwest passage was Humphrey Gilbert, who was also involved in schemes to settle English colonists in Ireland. These ideas were combined in a venture to colonize Newfoundland.

In 1578, Gilbert obtained letters patent from Elizabeth I to settle America, but his first attempts to discover a suitable site failed. Eventually, a small fleet sailed to Newfoundland and landed at Saint John's Bay, but the attempt was a disaster. Many of the intended colonists fell sick, a number of the ships were sunk, and Gilbert died on the voyage home from the abandoned attempt.

The next colonization attempt also failed. A small fleet organized by Sir Richard Grenville landed roughly 100 settlers on Roanoke Island (then in "Virginia", now North Carolina) on 13 July 1584.
The initially friendly natives grew increasingly hostile, and expected supplies failed to arrive from England. By the time of Sir Francis Drake's arrival with supplies and new colonists in June 1586, the Roanoke settlers were in a sorry state. They abandoned the site and went home with Drake. Shortly afterwards, the promised relief did arrive from England - only to find the place deserted. Fifteen men were left to guard the site but were killed by the natives.

Although a failure, the Roanoke venture taught English colonizers useful lessons. In particular, the need to commence any settlement with adequate initial supplies.

From a sailing chart of 1590

England and the East

The urge to establish profitable trading routes led to the establishment of the Levant Company in 1581 to trade with the Eastern Mediterranean. This was able to supply the English market with Turkish carpets, Persian silks and Mediterranean fruits, as well as the spices and luxury goods that arrived on the caravans from India - without paying a mark-up to Venetian intermediaries.

In 1585, the Barbary Company was granted letters patent to trade with North Africa, and a few ships began to trade in "Guinea" (West Africa). Both were risky ventures because of Portuguese objections to English interlopers, and privateering often played as important a role as trade.

War against Spain and exploration also coincided in Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the world, 1577-1580.

The Minion

Originally built in 1523, this ship was refurbished in 1536 as a 300 ton vessel. Used in the Guinea trade and repeatedly damaged fighting against the Portuguese and Spanish, the Minion was finally scrapped in 1570.

The desire to break the monopoly of trade with the Far East held by England's enemies, Spain and Portugal, also played an important part in the formation of the East India Company (1600). The success of Dutch merchants in undermining the Portuguese monopoly showed what might be possible were a company adequately financed.

In 1582, Ralph Fitch was sent by Elizabeth I on an embassy to the Emperor of China. He was captured by the Portuguese and imprisoned by them in Goa (a Portuguese base on the West coast of India). Fitch managed to escape and traveled through Northern India, Burma and Malaya before returning to England in 1591. His account of his travels stressed the possibilities of profitable trade in the East and the damage that might be done to Spanish and Portuguese interests in the region.

"They have a very strange order among them - they worship a cow, and esteem much of the cow's dung to paint the walls of their houses. They will kill nothing - not so much as a louse: for they hold it a sin to kill anything. They eat no flesh but live by roots and rice and milk. And when the husband dieth his wife is burned with him, if she be alive: if she will not, her head is shaven and then is never any account made of her after."

The Voyage of M. Ralph Fitch

The East India Company's activities began very modestly, and for most of the next century the Dutch were far more successful in trade with the Orient. In the 18th Century, the East India Company spearheaded the British conquest of India.