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Muscovy Company, also called Russian Company, was founded in London in 1553 by Sebastian Cabot, Sir Hugh Willoughby, and Richard Chancellor to promote the trade with Russia. Two years earlier, searching for the Northeast Passage to China, Chancellor sailed to Archangel on the White Sea and, reaching Moscow, had a personal interview with the Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
Closely associated with the names of Henry Hudson and William Baffin, the company enjoyed important privileges until 1649 and English monopoly on the Russian trade until 1698. It continued in existence until the Russian Revolution of 1917. The company headquarters (called the Old English Yard), built during the reign of Ivan the Terrible not far from the Moscow Kremlin, were visited by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.
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