Letters to John Quarles, a London cloth merchant, from his agents and servants on...

Letters to John Quarles, a London cloth merchant, from his agents and servants on the continent. (Described at item level).

The letters range in date from 1593 to 1601. Most of the letters are from George Lowe, Quarles's agent in Stade, Niedersachsen, Germany, or John Kendricke, his agent in Middleburg, Zeeland, Netherlands. The volume also includes many pages copied from journals of accounts (mostly by John Kendricke), which were sent home to Quarles with the letters. Most of the letters give details of commercial and financial transactions, giving details of types and numbers of cloth sold, names of customers (and occasionally suppliers) and exchange rates. Prospects for future sales are continually under review. The letters also contain items of news about political events in Europe, particularly the Hanseatic League and the Empire. The Turks in Hungary were an ever-present threat and are frequently mentioned in Lowe's letters, while Kendricke comments on the Spanish campaign in the Low Countries in the late 1590s to 1600. Many of the letters have been damaged by damp and by staining, and some of them have portions missing.

For further papers relating to Quarles and Lowe, see SP 46/19