The life of Sir Thomas Gresham. Founder of the Royal Exchange / [Anon].

  • Charles Macfarlane
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The life of Sir Thomas Gresham. Founder of the Royal Exchange / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    51/258 page 45
    rocks and mud-banks of the Adriatic Sea, had converted Antwerp on the Scheldt into a sort of northern Venice. Other arts flourished be- sides music, and in an especial manner the art of painting, which in the course of the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries shed so bright a glory over the whole of the Low Countries. The amusements and the many other charms to be found in Antwerp, drew thither and often detained many individuals of various nations, who were not en- gaged either in commercial or in political pursuits, In the time of Henry the Seventh, Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, and Queen Mary, nearly all the English nobility and gentry that went to travel on. the continent, went by Antwerp, and, either in going or in coming back, made a sojourn in that brilliant city. The king’s agent and re- sident was, therefore, constantly brought into com- munication with these travellers, the most distin- guished of his own countrymen; and to this cir- cumstance Gresham is thought to have owed many advantages, and more than one opportune help in times of difficulty and danger. The exports from Antwerp to England, in ad- dition to the spices and other-commodities of the East, consisted of jewels, bullion, quicksilver, manu- factured silks, cloth of gold and silver, gold and silver thread, camlets, grograms, serges, tapestry, hops in great quantities, glass, salted fish, sugar, cotton, galls, linen, madder, iron ware, arms and armour, ammunition, household furniture, &c. &e. The exports from England to Antwerp consisted of immense quantities of woollen goods, both fine and coarse, a great quantity of lead and tin, some saffron, sheep-skins, and rabbit-skins, with other
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3