Sir Thomas Gresham Biography

Dromo's Den

GRESHAM, Sir Thomas (1519–79). An English merchant and financier. He was educated at Gonville Hall, Cambridge, was apprenticed to his uncle, Sir John Gresham, merchant, and was admitted to membership in the Mercers Company (1543). In 1551 he became King's factor at Antwerp, in which office it was his business to negotiate royal loans with Flemish merchants, to buy arms and military stores, and to divert to England as much bullion as possible. As a result of his skillful management of the finances, the rate of exchange, which had been very unfavorable to England, was much improved. Since he was a Protestant, he was dismissed upon Mary's accession to the throne; but he had proved himself indispensable and was quickly reinstated. Elizabeth's successful financial policy owed much to his shrewd advice. At his suggestion the debased currency was restored, and later, when the troubles in Antwerp curtailed foreign resources, he persuaded her to secure a forced loan from the merchant adventurers and staplers by the detention of their fleets. In 1554 he was sent to Spain to procure bullion, and in 1559 he was employed as Ambassador to the Duchess of Parma, Regent of the Netherlands. On this occasion he was knighted. He also carried on an extensive private business as banker, goldsmith, and mercer, and was held to be the wealthiest merchant of his time. He possessed much landed property and established the earliest paper mills in England. He applied his wealth to public uses, after the death of his only son, in 1564. He founded a bourse in London, in imitation of the one at Antwerp, and named it the Royal Exchange. He also founded Gresham College (London) and eight almshouses. Consult Burgon, Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham (London, 1839). See Gresham's Law.

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. X (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 366.