The Early Chartered Companies - A. D. 1296-1858 #265291

The labour expended in the preparation of this work will not be regretted, should it have the effect of a'wakening public interest in our great historical Chartered Companies, and of inducing others to enter on this almost unexplored field of research. I believe the results will prove that what I stated in my lecture is true, viz., that 'most of the colonial possessions of this Empire were in the first place settled through the agency of Chartered Companies, and that our foreign trade and commerce principally originated in the same manner.'