Trading monopoly

The Company had been established in 1600, when Elizabeth I granted it a royal charter: a formal document setting out its rights. It received exclusive rights to English trade with the region described in the charter as the ‘Indies’. This was a trading monopoly, intended to exclude unauthorised English competitors rather than to give the Company ownership of every territory where it traded.

England wanted access to these profitable markets, while Spain wanted to protect its trading monopoly. English attempts to trade outside these restrictions, and attacks on Spanish shipping, challenged Spanish control.