Chancellor Reaches Ivan the Terrible

1553

The English navigator Richard Chancellor, blown off course in search of the Northeast Passage, landed at the White Sea and journeyed overland to Moscow. Ivan the Terrible received him warmly and granted English merchants trading privileges. The Muscovy Company was chartered soon after, opening a new northern trade route. The resulting Muscovy Company became England's first joint-stock trading company, pioneering the form that produced the East India Company.