The Muscovy Trade Company

In 1553, the Merchant Adventurers Company sent a fleet of three ships with the intent of sailing to China through the Northeast Passage. Most ships were struck frozen by the ice-cap and all their crew died of starvation, except the Edward, under senior navigator Richard Chancellor, who entered the White Sea and reached Arkhangelsk, a small village that would later grow to a port in 1584. There he learned about the wealth and power of the Russian emperor and journeyed in horse-drawn sleighs, in winter, to Moscow. Although Russia and England had diverging interests in establishing relationships with each other, the Muscovy Trade Company formed to exploit the new trade was a commercial success, in particular with the Russian fur trade.