On this day, the English East India Company’s first fleet of four ships sailed from Woolwich, bound for the pepper-producing islands of Java and Sumatra.
The voyage was led by James Lancaster, a member of the East India Company formed the previous year by a royal charter. It granted the company monopoly over English trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan.
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On this voyage, Queen Elizabeth I had instructed the merchants to carry with them Britain’s first international trade coin, known as Portcullis Money.
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