Originally any English merchant who engaged in export trade. A trading company of Merchant Adventurers was incorporated in 1407 and flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries. It derived from loosely organized groups of merchants in the major English ports who sold cloth to continental Europe, especially the Netherlands. They acquired royal charters in cities such as Bristol (1467) and London (1505) and in their European settlements. They became dominant in England’s foreign trade, ousting their rivals, the German merchants of the Hanseatic League. Until 1564 their principal continental market was in Antwerp, the commercial capital of north-western Europe; from 1611 they made Hamburg their foreign centre, but their main base had long been London. They were the forerunners of the great chartered companies, and declined in importance in the 18th century.