GREENLAND COMPANY.

£950 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

To the Supreme Authority the Parliament of the Common-Wealth of England; A printed petition signed by English whalers and fishers around Greenland opposing the monopolistic practices of the Greenland Company, addressed to the parliament of the new Commonwealth. The petitioners, led by Richard Warner, claim that the Greenland Company is both abusing its position and under-utilizing it: "the Greenland Company strive to hinder all Englishmen, saving those of their own Company from fishing there, which are an inconsiderable handful of, about 30. or 40. persons and yet they do nothing neer send out sufficient shipping to supply this Common-wealth with oyl or whalefinn". The petitioners state that if trade was liberalized "there would be twice or thrice as many ships sent every year for Greenland, are now by the Greenland Company... and this nation supplied with a full quantity of fish oyls at cheap rates, without the help of forraigners; yea, and in a few years be able to transport into forraign nations for their supply". The petitioners also state that the men of the Company have used violence against competitors, and demand restitution. The broadside is of great rarity - the only copy in institutional holdings is the British Library copy, in the Thomason collection, which bears the annotated date of 6 January 1650, although ESTC following Wing dates the publication to 1651.

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