Sir Thomas Gresham (* 1519 in London; "† 21 November 1579, ebd.) was joint owner of the largest English trading firm of its epoch, since 1551 financial agent of the English government and royal advisor.

Life

It was born as a son of the wealthy buyer Sir Richard Gresham, which already over substantial public offices, as company" (society of the cloth dealers) and the governor title of the Londoner Gilde of the Merchant Adventurers ordered the executive committee of the "Mercers'. The Richard Gresham originating from Norfolk had been ennobled due to its earnings/services by Heinrich VIII. After the study at the university Cambridge and the death of its father 1548 became of the Thomas's partners of the determining trading firm of the elisabethanischen age.

Due to these experiences the English government selected it to the financial agent. In this function he negotiated primarily in Amsterdam and Antwerp with German large investors from Augsburg (Fugger and Schetz) and Nuremberg (Lazarus Tucher) around loans. Since these credit payments were punctually settled against expecting, its financial policy strengthened the international credit-worthiness of England. 1559 it was already honoured with the title of nobility.

Therefore ascended Gresham to the advisor of the king Eduard VI. and finally also the queen Elizabeth I. But its commercial fate did not only make it indispensable with Hofe. Also its personal charm, the friendship to the royal advisor William Cecil and his talent when bringing in personal gifts at the monarchs and their surrounding field strengthened its position.

Gresham is the founder of the Londoner stock exchange - "The Royal Exchange" - in the year 1570, which he had initiated at own expense four years before.

He formulated that only 300 years after him in such a way designated Gresham law, which determined the displacement of the good money by the bad with the presence of differently evaluated with legally certain change relation.

Gresham went also as of the arts and the sciences as well as promoter of social mechanisms into action. Already as it ordered in its will the mechanism after him designated college.

Due to some sources of indication some historians regard it as one the joint founder of the English secret service, the Secret service, since it availed itself to the one for the transmission of its messages of a code and on the other hand covered in the Netherlands large quantity of powder and ammunition acquired, which it "camouflaged" in the correspondence as velvet and silk.

Aged by the reaming negotiations and the early loss of the only son he withdrew himself prematurely after the paralysis of a leg from the 1574.

Literature

• Martin Leschke: The Gresham law in the policy. In: Economiceconomics study (WiSt), 25. Jg., number 4 (April 1996), S.194.
• R.A. de Roover: Gresham on Foreign Exchange, Cambridge/measure. 1949
• F.R. Salter: Sir Thomas Gresham, Boston 1925.

Articles in category "Thomas Gresham"

We found here 2 articles.