Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wheeler, John
WHEELER, JOHN (fl. 1601–1608), secretary of the Merchant Adventurers' Company, was probably born at Great Yarmouth. On the death of George Gilpin in 1602, he became a candidate for the post of councillor to the council of estate in the Low Countries. He may be identical with the John Wheeler who in 1615 was admitted to the East India Company, with liberty to venture 200l. in the joint stock. In 1601 he published ‘A Treatise of Commerce, wherein are shewed the Commodities arising from a well ordered and ruled Trade,’ London (4to; another edition, Middelburg, 1601, 4to). His work, which contains much historical information, is an elaborate defence of the policy of the Merchant Adventurers' Company against the objections of the Hanseatic merchants and other opponents. He also collected and digested ‘The Lawes, Customes, and Ordinances of the Fellowshippe of Merchantes Adventurers of the Realm of England’ (1608, Brit. Museum Addit. MS. 18913).
[State Papers, Dom. Elizabeth, cclxxxii. 68, cclxxxiii. 74, cclxxxv. 23, 48; Cal. State Papers, East Indies, China, and Japan, 1513–16, No. 999, East Indies and Persia, 1630–4, No. 60; Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, ii. 219–21; Schanz's Englische Handelspolitik, i. 333–5; Gross's Gild Merchant, i. 148, 149; Hewins's English Trade and Finance, p. xvi; Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Commerce (Modern Times), pp. 119, 120.]