offered to foreign investors. The charter was soon printed in Swedish and German and freely distributed, being sent even to Venice. Usselinx had high hopes of success. He urged the reprinting of the charter in Germany and Holland, and planned to issue a French version. He obtained promises of subscription from members of the supreme court, and brought the business of the company before the diet in the beginning of 1627. The King subscribed 450,000 D., while Axel Oxenstierna, Von Falkenburg and other noblemen took a keen interest in the matter, and used their influence to favor the same. The King also appointed two of his directors to facilitate the work and to fully establish the company, and advised every citizen in the kingdom to invest capital in it according to his means. In spite of it all, however, progress was slow. After months of labor Usselinx had raised subscriptions amounting to only about 160,000 D., which could not even he collected; but neither he nor the directors were daunted. It was planned to prepare a trading expedition in the near future. For this purpose Usselinx was sent to Prussia to consult with the King. He was also to collect His Majesty’s first instalments and to solicit new subscriptions. In November he was sent to raise additional funds in the Baltic provinces and in Finland. Armed with letters of introduction to the royal and municipal authorities along his route, he made a tour from Dirschau around the Baltic and the Gulf of Bothnia, visiting the principal cities in these provinces, and everywhere presenting memorials and arguments about his beloved South Company. Arriving in Stockholm in April, 1628, he expected to find that ships had been sent to Africa, and that other beginnings had been made; but in these things he was disappointed. The directors, who were to collect funds in Sweden, had tired of their labors. A losing trade had been conducted in Russia, and a glass factory, which Bonnell endeavored to establish for the company at Gothenburg, proved a failure. Rope-walks were built at Norrköping and Linköping, and, although ropes were made at the former place until August, 1637, the experiments seem to have been financial failures. An expedition to the West Indies had indeed been planned. A skipper had been engaged, and two vessels had been equipped; but the expedition never left port, and the company was minus a few thousand D.