Sir Thomas Gresham was an English merchant and financier, served as the Crown's financial agent in Antwerp and later in London as advisor to Elizabeth I. He gave his name to the economic principle known as Gresham's Law.
Background
Thomas Gresham was born in 1519 in London and descended from an old Norfolk family, Gresham was one of two sons and two daughters of Sir Richard Gresham, a leading City merchant mercer and Lord Mayor of London, who was knighted by King Henry VIII for negotiating favourable loans with foreign merchants.
Education
Thomas Gresham studied at Caius College, Cambridge.
Career
In 1551, Thomas Gresham was appointed financial agent of the Crown at Antwerp, where his main business was to negotiate loans at reasonable rates of interest. In this he had great success. Gresham strongly urged his friend Sir William Cecil to reform the English coinage and so maintain England's credit.
Thomas Gresham served as ambassador to the Low Countries, helping to build up England's self-sufficiency in resources and ending her dependence on the Netherlands for arms and ammunition. Though Gresham returned to England permanently in 1567, he continued until 1574 to advise Queen Elizabeth as to her loans.
In 1565 Gresham built an exchange for the use of London merchants, the predecessor of the present Royal Exchange.