hat he hoped in one year to save
England L20,000. It being forbidden to export further from Antwerp,
Gresham had to resort to various stratagems, and in 1553 (Queen Mary) we
find him writing to the Privy Council, proposing to send L200 (in heavy
Spanish rials), in bags of pepper, four at a time, and the English
ambassador at Brussels was to bring over with him L20,000 or L30,000,
but he afterwards changed his mind, and sent the money packed up in
bales with suits of armour and L3,000 in each, rewarding the searcher at
Gravelines with new year presents of black velvet and black cloth. About
the time of the Queen's marriage to Philip Gresham went to Spain, to
start from Puerto Real fifty cases, each containing 22,000 Spanish
ducats. All the time Gresham resided at Antwerp, carrying out these
sagacious and important negociations, he was rewarded with the paltry
remuneration of L1 a day, of which we often find him seriously
complaining. It was in Antwerp, that vast centre of commerce, that
Gresham must have gained that great knowledge of business by which he
afterwards enriched himself. Antwerp exported to England at this time,
says Mr. Burgon, in his excellent life of Gresham, almost every article
of luxury required by English people.

Later in Queen Mary's reign Gresham was frequently displaced by rivals.
He made trips to England, sharing largely in the dealings of the
Mercers' Company, of which he was a member, and shipping vast quantities
of cloth to sell to the Italian merchants at Antwerp, in exchange for
silks. A few years later the Mercers are described as sending forth,
twice a year, a fleet of 50 or 60 ships, laden with cloth, for the Low
Countries. Gresham is mentioned, in 1555, as presenting Queen Mary, as a
new year's gift, with "a bolt of fine Holland," receiving in return a
gilt jug, weighing 16-1/2 ounces. That the Queen considered Gresham a
faithful and useful servant there can be no doubt, for she gave him, at
different times, a priory, a rectory, and several manors and advowsons.

Gresham, like a prudent courtier, seems to have been one of the first
persons of celebrity who visited Queen Elizabeth on her accession. She
gave the wise merchant her hand to kiss, and told him that she would
always keep one ear ready to hear him; "which," says Gresham, "made me a
young man again, and caused me to enter on my present charge with heart
and courage."

The young Queen also promised him on her faith that if he se