Page 180 [180]
OCR
158 COMMERCE foreign mercantile cities, and, like some of them, its custodians had a hereditary office. We first hear of the existence of an Exchange in the time of Edward I. In the reign of Henry VII the first Gresham was "the King’s Exchanger,” and his son and successor, Thomas, evidently a very far-sighted man, was one of the first London merchants who sent ships to trade with India. The Royal Exchange which Queen Elizabeth formally opened was an expansion of the bourse __ principle, and was entirely due to Gresham, who, among other reforms and improvements, was the first to suggest that loans should be obtained by the sovereign within i the kingdom and | not from foreigners. i He also successfully f advocated the abolition of the Steel- ~ yard. Hehad been ~ agent for the Merchant Adventurers at Antwerp, and had
