Sinclair McKay

Golden opportunities

Stephen Alford describes the founding of the City of London, as English traders lined the royal coffers along with their own

issue 22 April 2017

Tudor merchants — shivering in furs in tiny creaking ships, sailing through the ice of unknown winter seas — knew something that today’s careworn EU and civil service officials might be irritated to hear: that despite all travails, trade deals can sometimes be sexy, thrilling and epic.

In 16th-century London, plans to open up fresh trading routes across the world were also about vaulting leaps of fantastical imagination, and naturally also about slavering greed.

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