Merchant Adventurers

Merchant Adventurers name given originally to all merchants in England who engaged in export trade, but later applied to loosely organized groups of merchants in the major ports concerned with exporting cloth to the Netherlands. They were incorporated as a trading company in 1407. Originally the company's activities centered in Bruges, but in 1446 it obtained trading privileges from the duke of Burgundy and established its staple (i.e., trading center) at Antwerp. Despite strong competition from the Hanseatic League , whose dominance in the Baltic caused the exclusion of the Merchant Adventurers from that area, the company flourished, established depots in several cities, and in 1560 was given the monopoly on exporting cloth to W Germany and the Netherlands. It continued to prosper throughout the 16th and 17th cent., although political rivalries forced it to move its staple to Hamburg (1567) and Dordrecht (1655). The company was dissolved in 1808.

Bibliography: See E. M. Carus-Wilson, Medieval Merchant Venturers (2d ed. 1967).

Merchant Adventurer Originally any English merchant who engaged in export trade. A trading company of Merchant Adventurers was incorporated in 1407 and flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries. It derived from loosely organized groups of merchants in the major English ports who sold cloth to continental Europe, especially the Netherlands. They acquired royal CHARTERS in cities such as Bristol (1467) and London (1505) and in their European settlements. They became dominant in England's foreign trade, ousting their rivals, the German merchants of the HANSEATIC LEAGUE. Until 1564 their principal continental market was in Antwerp, the commercial capital of north-western Europe; from 1611 they made Hamburg their foreign centre, but their main base had long been London. They were the forerunners of the great CHARTERED COMPANIES, and declined in importance in the 18th century.

merchant Merchant Adventurers an English trading guild which was involved in trade overseas, principally with the Netherlands (and later Germany) during the 15th–18th centuries. Established in 1407, it engaged chiefly in the lucrative business of exporting woollen cloth. It was formally disbanded in 1806.
merchant prince a person who has acquired sufficient wealth from trading to wield political influence.