ABSTRACT
W hen Thomas Gresham returned from Spain early in 1555, he picked up the reins again almost at once. His main account begins on 20 March 1555, the date upon which he resumed responsibility for deal ings in Antwerp.1 Since 6 September 1554 John Gresham and Nicho las Holborne, who had been acting in his absence, had ‘taken up’ over £71,000 Flemish, o f which £20,000 had come from the English mer chants. They had also received from Sir Edward Peckham nearly £35,000 sterling, and had dispensed virtually the whole sum, almost £100,000 sterling, in discharging obligations on the Bourse.2 Their brief had presumably been to reduce the level of debt, and in that they had succeeded. Apart from their own diets and expenses they dis charged only one warrant of £1 3 6s 8d, so that during these six months the crown obtained no usable funds as a result o f its agents’ activities. As we have already seen, in February 1555 the council had instructed Gresham and Holborne to negotiate for a prolongation of the Spanish loan for one year.3 They may have failed, or Thomas Gresham on his return may have persuaded the council to change its mind, because on 16 June 1555 he personally delivered to the privy council all the ten obligations in which the debt had been acknow ledged for cancellation.4 He also accounted for the whole sum himself, no part of it appearing on the account of John Gresham and Hol borne. If there had been any prolongation, it was not explicitly men tioned and can have been for no more than a few weeks, since most
of the bonds had fallen due on 20 April. Thereafter he made a regular practice of sending discharged obligations to the foreign bankers for cancellation by the council and delivery to the lord treasurer or the city of London. The massive increase in foreign indebtedness which had resulted from the council’s own instructions was now causing seri ous alarm, and the delivery of these discharged bonds seems to have been part of a strenuous effort to improve the situation. In November 1555 three bonds amounting to over .£15,000 were surrendered.5 These seem to have been taken up in April, and had probably formed part of the means whereby the Spanish debt had been discharged. On 7 December six further bonds which had fallen due in October were delivered, a total of nearly £55,000 sterling.6 Similar cancellations were also recorded on 2 March 1556 (one obligation, £10,500) ;7 8 May 1556 (two obligations, £ 1 5 ,6 0 0 );8 1 9 June 1556 (twelve obliga tions, £97,000) ;9 24 November 1556 (three obligations, £10,600);10 24 December 1556 (seven obligations, £78,000)^ and 30 May 1557 (six obligations, £69,000).12 In the two years from June 1555 to May 1557 the council therefore recorded payments of nearly £470,000 to the foreign bankers. Gresham’s main account, running from March 1555 to August 1557, shows repayments upon bonds to the sum of £312,094 Flemish, that is, about £290,000 sterling. John Gresham and Nicholas Holborne had also discharged over £100,000 sterling, and the foreign debt before their account began in September 1554 had stood at about £70,000 without the Spanish money.13
