The second decade of the seventeenth century had been a period of threats, uncertainty and turbulence in the Eastland Company's trade to the Baltic, but commerce continued with only minimal contraction. It was not a healthy trade, however: the Polish economy was weakened by wars and currency manipulation, prices rose faster in western Europe than in Poland, and the ubiquitous Dutch were determined to challenge the lucrative English cloth trade. These factors finally came together in the depression of 1620, a commercial crisis which marked the beginning of the process of redefining England's role in the Baltic, a process which continued through the 1620s, long after the immediate effects of the depression had abated, and in a way only bore its first fruit in the import boom of the 1630s and 1640s. The ultimate effect, which only became apparent in the 1660s, was the total breakdown of England's commercial relationship with Poland. The crisis of the 1620s had caused the English to change their emphasis in the Baltic from exporting cloth to importing commodities and, when it became apparent that the Polish commodity markets could no longer satisfy English demand, the focus of activities shifted to Sweden and its dependencies. How the depression of 1620 effected this shift in England's commercial emphasis will be the subject of the present chapter.

Causes of the depression of 1620

The causes, course and end of the trade depression of 1620 have already been discussed in detail by several historians and therefore need no repetition here.