But, as we know from writers of the sixteenth century, the fact was that the commodities and wares of England were in small request with the neighbouring countries. Those goods which, within the memory of the oldest inhabitants, had been in demand, were now neglected, notwithstanding that English ships carried the wares into the harbours of the foreigners. Contrariwise, there was a brisk demand for foreign goods, and at a high price. Therefore certain “grave citizens of London ... began to thinke with themselves howe this mischiefe might bee remedied.” And observing that the Spaniards and Portuguese had wonderfully increased their wealth by the search and discovery of new countries and trades; and having taken the advice of Sebastian Cabot, who was then in London, these wise merchants formed themselves into a company, and each member put up £25, so that before long the three ships already mentioned were bought and fitted out with the total £6000 thus obtained, and victualled too. These shrewd Edwardians were doing exactly what modern merchants do in a period of trade depression and slump—they went out to look for business in new markets. But the difference was that the former had first to get the ships and then fit them out, instead of merely going to the office of a tourist-agency and purchasing a ticket, and then voyaging in safety, comfort and with the certainty of being in a particular place on a fixed day. In this north-east expedition, as soon as the money was obtained the merchants bought exceptionally strong and well-seasoned planks, and then the shipwrights set to work with the construction, caulking and pitching them and covering the bottom with lead sheathing. That was all comparatively straight-going, but the difficulty was to victual the ships with food for eighteen months. Indeed, after setting out from the Thames, some of the food by the time they reached Harwich was already putrid and the hogsheads of wine leaking. Ships were ballasted with stones, and before the wind these cumbrous craft would sail well, but on a wind they made a good deal of leeway. But all the time these sixteenth-century mariners were learning, and setting down their records for others to learn. Thus one finds these pioneers entering such remarks as “a south moone makes a full sea,” “Friday I went on shoare and observed the variation of the Compasse, which was three degrees and a halfe from the North to the West; the latitude this day was sixtie nine degrees ten minutes.” And in 1557, among the instructions given to masters and mariners of an expedition, it is ordered that notes and entries be daily made of the navigations, and that the young mariners and apprentices be taught and made to learn the same.