through Russia to Persia was trail blazed by a merchant, member of the Mercers’ Company, and later royalambassador of Elizabeth’s: Anthony Jenkinson. Jenkinson began his career as an adolescent training in the Levant, and he traveled extensively throughout the Mediterranean, having received a “safe conduct” permitting him to trade freely in Turkish ports from Suleiman the Great in the early days of Mary of England’s rule. On his first journey to Russia, he said his trade with the Tartars was “small and beggarly…not worth the writing, neither is there any hope of trade in all those parts worth following.” 28
Still, Jenkinson soldiered southward to Bokhara in tremendous danger from the successive marauding caravans who kidnapped him or molested the trading party. When they reached Bokhara some sixteen weeks later, the city was a huge disappointment, with “beggarly and poor” merchants with so few wares to sell that Jenkinson thought that their stocks hadn’t been renewed in two, if not three, years. The way to China, he discovered, would take another nine months overland in the most favorable circumstances; but the road was blocked by war, which happened with alarming regularity. Jenkinson continued on to the Caspian region and eventually sold enough goods to make a small profit. But it was his intelligence on the disruption to trade in the region between Russia, Persia, Turkey, and India by war that would prove the commodity of real value to Elizabeth.
In May 1561, Jenkinson was sent out again on his second Muscovy voyage, carrying letters recommending him to Czar Ivan, the Shah of Persia, and other Circassian princes. The purpose of his journey was to establish firm trade with Russia, and to make another trip to the Caspian region to open commercial trade with Persia. On his arrival in Moscow that summer, Jenkinson was shocked that he was denied access to the czar, and refused leave to travel south. After a six-month delay, under effective house arrest, and at a point of giving up all hope of achieving his goal, the former English ambassador “intervened.” At last, Jenkinson would be received at the Russian court. 29 But what sort of “intervention” had the English ambassador made?
In the month prior to Jenkinson’s departure from England, the Senate of Hamburg wrote to Elizabeth that “certain princes of the Roman Empire” had informed them that “certain large quantitiesof armour and cannon shipped from their town belong to private persons, and is intended for the use of the Grand Duke of the Russians or Muscovites against the Livonians in contravention to the Imperial decree which forbids any ammunitions of war to be sold for the use of the Muscovites. They therefore beg that she will send them an assurance that these arms are intended for her own service.” 30
This complaint was followed two weeks later by a letter from the Senate of Cologne, that wrote on April 30, “Having heard that a very considerable amount of arms, offensive and defensive, were being shipped by her order (especially of the kind required for men-at-arms, such as hand-guns) they were unwilling to hinder the quiet transportation of the same for her service. It having just now come to their knowledge however that certain English traders convey these arms either into Muscovy direct, or to parts from which they may be carried thither, contrary to the interests of the empire.” 31
Elizabeth naturally denied all knowledge of such goings on and wrote back to the Senate on May 6 that “on her royal word” no arms and munitions had been shipped in her name from Hamburg. 32 Eight days later, on May 14, Anthony Jenkinson embarked for Russia. Two weeks after that, on May 31, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand wrote to the Queen of England, telling her that he had heard these “rumors” and that the Muscovites are greatly encouraged in their belligerence against Poland and the Germanic states by the provision of “warlike
Still, Jenkinson soldiered southward to Bokhara in tremendous danger from the successive marauding caravans who kidnapped him or molested the trading party. When they reached Bokhara some sixteen weeks later, the city was a huge disappointment, with “beggarly and poor” merchants with so few wares to sell that Jenkinson thought that their stocks hadn’t been renewed in two, if not three, years. The way to China, he discovered, would take another nine months overland in the most favorable circumstances; but the road was blocked by war, which happened with alarming regularity. Jenkinson continued on to the Caspian region and eventually sold enough goods to make a small profit. But it was his intelligence on the disruption to trade in the region between Russia, Persia, Turkey, and India by war that would prove the commodity of real value to Elizabeth.
In May 1561, Jenkinson was sent out again on his second Muscovy voyage, carrying letters recommending him to Czar Ivan, the Shah of Persia, and other Circassian princes. The purpose of his journey was to establish firm trade with Russia, and to make another trip to the Caspian region to open commercial trade with Persia. On his arrival in Moscow that summer, Jenkinson was shocked that he was denied access to the czar, and refused leave to travel south. After a six-month delay, under effective house arrest, and at a point of giving up all hope of achieving his goal, the former English ambassador “intervened.” At last, Jenkinson would be received at the Russian court. 29 But what sort of “intervention” had the English ambassador made?
In the month prior to Jenkinson’s departure from England, the Senate of Hamburg wrote to Elizabeth that “certain princes of the Roman Empire” had informed them that “certain large quantitiesof armour and cannon shipped from their town belong to private persons, and is intended for the use of the Grand Duke of the Russians or Muscovites against the Livonians in contravention to the Imperial decree which forbids any ammunitions of war to be sold for the use of the Muscovites. They therefore beg that she will send them an assurance that these arms are intended for her own service.” 30
This complaint was followed two weeks later by a letter from the Senate of Cologne, that wrote on April 30, “Having heard that a very considerable amount of arms, offensive and defensive, were being shipped by her order (especially of the kind required for men-at-arms, such as hand-guns) they were unwilling to hinder the quiet transportation of the same for her service. It having just now come to their knowledge however that certain English traders convey these arms either into Muscovy direct, or to parts from which they may be carried thither, contrary to the interests of the empire.” 31
Elizabeth naturally denied all knowledge of such goings on and wrote back to the Senate on May 6 that “on her royal word” no arms and munitions had been shipped in her name from Hamburg. 32 Eight days later, on May 14, Anthony Jenkinson embarked for Russia. Two weeks after that, on May 31, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand wrote to the Queen of England, telling her that he had heard these “rumors” and that the Muscovites are greatly encouraged in their belligerence against Poland and the Germanic states by the provision of “warlike
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