The Barbary Company or Marocco Company was a trading company established by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1585 through a patent granted to the Earls of Warwick and Leicester, as well as forty others.[1] When she wrote the patents, Elizabeth emphasized the value of the region's "divers Marchandize... for the use and defense" of England.[2]
The privilege of the company was to benefit from exclusive trade for Morocco for a period of 12 years. Queen Elizabeth sent her Minister Roberts to the Moroccan emperor Ahmad al-Mansur to reside in Morocco and obtain advantages for English traders. A treaty signed in 1728 extended these privileges, especially those pertaining to the safe-conduct of English nationals.[3]