Compagnie de Moscovie
On 24 May 1617, James VI authorised Cunningham, and his associates constituting the Scottish East India Company, to trade to the East Indies, the Levant, Greenland, Muscovy and all other islands in the north, north-west and north-eastern seas. Although this was in breach of the existing charters of the English East India Company, the Levant Company, and the Muscovy Company, the charter was issued under the Great Seal of Scotland, and thereby not technically an act of the English crown, which had authorised the other charters. By early 1618 the EIC and the Muscovy Company joined forces in an attempt to revoke Cunningham's charter and gained the King's assurance that he would cancel it if it proved prejudicial to them.