6. The Merchants Adventurers: who were they, in what did they trade and with what countries, principles of organization, services to English commerce? [Lingelbach, Merchants Adventurers, Univ. of Pa. Pub., 2 series, vol. 2, N. Y., 1902, or Cunningham, Growth; brief account in Cheyney, Eur. background.]
7. English discovery and exploration in the sixteenth century. [Soc. Eng., 3: 209-228; 477-508.]
8. Write an account of the career of Hawkins. [Payne, Voyages; J. A. Froude, English seamen, N. Y., Scribner, 1895.]
9. Write a similar report on Drake. [Same references, or Oxley, chap. 5.]
10. Indicate on a sketch map the position of ports named in sect. 233, drawing a line by each port with a length proportional to the importance of the port. What are the chief ports now? [See a later section of this book and its note; Statesman’s Year-Book.]
11. Select one of the companies named in sect. 234 and report in detail on its commerce and career. [Hewins, Eng. trade; Cunningham, Growth, with references. Brief narratives of the East India Company and of the Hudson’s Bay Company will be found in Oxley, chaps. 8. 9.]
12. Struggle between the East India Company and the interlopers. [Cunningham; Hunter, Hist. of British India.]
13. Prepare a graphic chart of the figures in sect. 236 in the following manner. Draw a perpendicular line at the left-hand edge of a sheet of paper, mark off two equal spaces, and place the dates, one at the top, one in the middle, and the last two on either side of the end of the line. Lines are then to be drawn, horizontally, proportional to the figures of trade at each date. This can readily be done with the aid of a foot rule, divided into fractions of an inch. Choose first the largest figures of the table, in this instance those for 1802, to be sure of having room enough on the paper for all the lines. Let one of the small divisions of the rule represent a sum of a million pounds or ten million dollars. If, for instance, 1⁄16 is taken to represent a million pounds, the line for the imports of 1802 will be a little short of two inches (31⁄16). Let this line then be continued by a dotted or wavy line to represent exports; the continuation in this case would be a little over 21⁄2 inches, and the whole line would be a little over 41⁄2 inches (72⁄16). Pursue the same method with the other figures, and the result will be a graphic representation of the course of trade during the period.
The scale may be varied to suit convenience, but of course figures cannot be directly compared with each other unless they are plotted to the same scale.
14. Prepare a chart by similar methods, but using different colors or characteristic lines to indicate trade with different regions.