Free Nathaniel's nutmeg by Giles Milton Page B

events unfolding. Some fourscore men had gathered to discuss the practicalities of the intended voyage. These were not aristocrats nor landowners, nor were they members of the courtly circle; most were merchants and burghers, men who made their living by speculating on trading ventures.
    Some of the leading lights in this new enterprise had considerable experience of international trade. Richard Staper and Thomas Smythe, for example, had been principal founders of the Levant Company and had helped to build a successful business in the eastern Mediterranean. Others, like Sir John Hart and Richard Cockayne were well-known faces in the City of London. Three of the men had held office as Lord Mayor of London and the chairman of the meeting, splendidly dressed in wig and robes, was Sir Stephen Soane, the present occupant of the Lord Mayorship.
    Not all were merchants: among the aldermen and freemen of the London guilds were sailors and soldiers, bearded and weather-beaten sea dogs who wore gold rings in their ears and good-luck amulets about their necks. James Lancaster and John Davis could be seen among the crowds and so, too, could Francis Pretty, close friend of Thomas Cavendish. A few of Drake's crew pitched up for the meeting, as did some who had sailed with Fenton and Hawkins. Arctic explorer William Baffin put in an appearance as did the three Middleton brothers - John, Henry and David - who would all meet with disasters on the long voyage to and from the Spice Islands.
    Such men were crucial to the success or failure of this, the Company's first venture. They were familiar with the sight of Portuguese carracks laden with costly spices and knew the best ports to obtain fresh water and new provisions. They also knew that although the Spanish and Portuguese had a vigorous commerce with the East, only a dozen or so ports were under their direct control. These were scattered over a huge area from Madagascar to Japan, and even Goa, the jewel in the crown of Portugal's eastern outposts, only housed a small settlement of traders and merchants. It scarcely deserved its suffix - dorado. In the 'riche and innumerable islands of the Mollucos and the Spiceries', where nutmeg and cloves could be had for a song, the Portuguese influence was spread even more thinly.They had just two small forts on the islands ofTidore and Amboyna, leaving dozens of other atolls and skerries to be claimed, remote places like the nutmeg-producing Banda Islands.
    Since it had become an axiom in international law that European nations could only claim such places as they had fortified or in which they had erected some visible symbol of possession, there were many who argued that it would make sense to head for these lonely outposts of the Spice Islands. If the flag could be raised in the Banda Islands, for instance, then England would have a toehold in the richest of all the islands in the East Indies.
    When everyone had had the chance to speak Sir Stephen Soane called the meeting to order. There were important matters to be settled, not least of which was to prevent the large sum of money which had been subscribed just two days earlier from being contributed in any form other than cash. It was also decided to entrust the day-to-day running of the Company to fifteen directors who would organise and regulate the forthcoming voyage.
    It was late by the time the meeting finally broke up. The sailors and adventurers trudged their way back to their homes in Shoreditch and Wapping, the merchants to their gabled dwellings in Charing Cross and Lincoln's Inn Fields. All must have felt that at long last they were on the brink of partaking in a successful trading enterprise to the East Indies.
    To those subscribers who had gambled their money on the voyage there were huge riches to be had if it ended in success. Elizabethan London was home to an affluent aristocracy who clamoured for every luxury. Queen
    Elizabeth herself determined the fashion of the age with her famous