Wherefore We do by these presents, straitly and expresly forbid and prohibite, all Aliens and strangers whatsoever, and also Our owne Subjects (others then the said Muscovia Merchants, and that in their joynt stocke) to bring into any Our kingdomes, and Dominions any Whale-finnes, upon paine of Confiscation of the same, and of Our high indignation and displeasure, and of such further punishment, as shalbe meet to be inflicted upon the offenders for their contempt in that behalfe: And We do further hereby charge and require all Our Customers, Comptrollers, Searchers and other Officers, and also the Farmors of Our Customes, and their ministers, carefully to attend every one in their severall dueties, the execution of this Our Royall Proclamation, and in no wise to permit or suffer any Whale-finnes, either directly or indirectly, openly or privately, to be brought into the Ports, or other places of any of Our kingdomes: And in case any be brought in, the same to seaze to Our use, and by all other meanes to finde out, and informe of all offences tending to the breach of this Our Royall Proclamation.
Given at Wansted the eleventh day of September, in the twelfth yeere of Our Raigne of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, 1614.
Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Majestie. Anno Dom. 1614.
_1 p. folio. Copies in Antiq., I. T., P. C., P. R. O., and Q. C. Entered on Patent Rolls._
[1] The Russia, or Muscovy Company, chartered as a company of Merchant Adventurers in 1554, received from King James in 1613 an additional charter giving them the exclusive rights to the whale fishery of Greenland. For the subsequent career of this Company and their struggles with the Dutch for the possession of the Greenland trade, see Cawston and Keane, _Early Chartered Companies_, pp. 45-52.
[2] In 1613 the Muscovy Company set up the King's arms at Spitzbergen, calling it King James's Newland. (Anderson, _Origin of Commerce_, ii, 343.) In vol. iv of the _Transactions_ of the American Antiquarian Society is printed from the original manuscript the Narrative of a Voyage to Spitzbergen, being "A Brief Description of the Country of Greenland, otherwise called King James his New Land." The rise of the Muscovy Company and its participation in the Greenland trade is carefully treated by Dr. S. F. Haven in the introduction to the Narrative. This recently discovered land was Spitzbergen and not Greenland proper.