Sir Edward Sandys proceeded in the report, and delivered in the two Bills for free trade; the first (being the principal Bill) with amendments; which were twice read; and the Bill, upon question, ordered to be ingrossed.
16. The Establishment of a Company to Export Dyed and Dressed Cloth, in place of the Merchant Adventurers[312] [Pat. Rolls, 13 James I, p. 2], 1616-17.
James by the Grace of God, etc.:
We have often and in divers manners expressed ourselves ... what an earnest desire and constant resolution we have that, as the reducing of wools into clothing was the act of our noble Progenitor King Edward the Third, so the reducing of the trade of white cloths, which is but an imperfect thing towards the wealth and good of this our Kingdom, unto the trade of cloths dyed and dressed, might be the work of our time,
To which purpose we did first invite the ancient Company of Merchant Adventurers to undertake the same, who upon allegation or pretence of impossibility refused.
Whereupon nevertheless not discouraged but determined to maintain our princely resolution against impediments and difficulties in a work so excellent, We did find means to draw and procure divers persons of good quality within our City of London and elsewhere with great alacrity and commendable zeal to give a beginning to this our purpose,
In respect whereof, for that above all things We were to take a princely care that between the cessation of the old trade and the inception and settling of the new there should not be any stand of cloth nor failing or deadness in the vent thereof, whereby the work which is so good for the future might prove dangerous in the entrance thereof, we were inforced to grant several licences under our Great Seal unto the said persons for a trade of whites to be temporary and in the interim until this work by due and seasonable degrees without inconvenience of precipitation might be happily accomplished, giving them likewise some powers of assembling, keeping of Courts and the like, but yet without any actual incorporation of them,
But notwithstanding, having evermore in contemplation our first end, We have still provoked and urged on the said persons unto whom the trade is now transferred to some certainty of offer and undertaking concerning a proportion of cloths dressed and dyed to be annually exported, and the same proportion to increase and multiply in such sort as may be a fruitful beginning of so good a work and also an assured pledge of the continuation thereof in due time.
Whereupon the said persons or new Company have before the Lords of our Privy Council absolutely condescended and agreed at a Court holden the seventeenth day of June one thousand six hundred and fifteen, that thirty-six thousand cloths shall be dressed and dyed out of such cloths white as were formerly used to be shipped out by the old Company undressed and undyed....
... And did further promise and profess with all cheerfulness to proceed as it shall please God to give ability and the trade encouragement to the settling of the whole trade of cloths dressed and dyed, which is the end desired.