ABSTRACT
In economic history theories have usually filled quite as large a place as facts, and it is by the standard of theory, rather than by the standard of fact, that the significance of the Merchant Adventurers has been discussed and their importance measured. In view of the undoubted facts it is sufficiently clear that we cannot hope to gain any adequate understanding of Elizabethan economic history, on the side either of commerce, of industry or of finance, without a careful study of the Merchant Adventurers’ Company. Thomas Gresham had qualified himself as a Merchant Adventurer by a regular apprenticeship, but at the age of thirty-two, in 1551, he became the financial agent of the Crown. Bill was introduced into Parliament to authorize this; but the excluded merchants collected funds, and raised such an opposition that the Bill was thrown out.
