Greenland, with a capital of 40,000l., and a charter conferring upon them the usual powers of succession, &c., and the exclusive possession of the trade for fourteen years. The preamble of the act gives a sort of history of the way in which the old English trade to Greenland had come to be "quite decayed and lost." It recites that several merchants and others had been by an act passed in 1673[1] "encouraged to fit out and send to the said Greenland seas some ships or vessels for the catching of whales, whereby some small quantities of oil, blubber, and whale-fins were imported into this kingdom; but, they not being able to carry on the said trade upon their single or separate interests, in regard that the neighbouring nations did yearly send far greater numbers of ships into those seas, the said merchants and other persons of this kingdom were forced to desist from following the said trade, which is now wholly engrossed by foreigners; and since the expiration and revival[2] of the said act there hath not been any ships sent from England to the said Greenland seas, or any oil, blubber, or whale-fins imported into England but such as have been bought of foreigners, whereby great sums of money are yearly drawn out of England for those commodities, and the rates and prices which are now paid for the same are now above six times more than heretofore they were; and, the said trade having been for above these twelve years last past wholly lost to this kingdom, there are very few or no English harpinierers or English seamen skilled and exercised in the said trade of whale-catching, so that the said trade cannot now be regained to this kingdom, nor can be carried on, by or[3] without the assistance of foreign harpinierers, or upon the single interests or stocks of any particular persons, or by any other way than by a joint-stock."[4] The trade, however, throve under this new system no better than before: after a year or two the Company subscribed an additional capital of 42,000l., and in 1696 they
