The Royal Exchange in the City of London was founded in the 16th century, in 1565, by the merchant Sir Thomas Gresham to act as a centre of commerce for the City. The site was provided by the City of London Corporation and the Worshipful Company of Mercers, who still jointly own the freehold interest of this landmark. It was London’s first purpose-built centre for trading stocks and was modelled on the Bourse in Antwerp - the world’s oldest financial exchange, where Gresham had been based as a royal agent. So, who was Thomas Gresham? Known as the father of English banking, Sir Thomas Gresham the Elder was born in 1519 and was an English merchant and financier who acted on behalf of King Edward VI and Edward's half-sisters - queens Mary I and Elizabeth I. He was born in London and descended from an old Norfolk family, he was the son of Sir Richard Gresham, a leading merchant mercer and Lord Mayor of London, who was knighted by King Henry VIII for negotiating favourable loans with foreign merchants. Gresham was educated at St Paul's School in the City. Following this, he attended the University of Cambridge and was concurrently apprenticed in the Mercers' Company. In 1543 the Mercers' Company admitted Gresham as a liveryman, and later that year he left England for the Low Countries basing himself in Antwerp, where he worked as a merchant whilst acting in various matters as agent for King Henry VIII. In 1551, following some financial mismanagement by the government, Gresham was called upon for his advice and, through some methods that he thought up that would have been seen as somewhat questionable by today’s standards, raised the value of the pound on the Antwerp bourse and subsequently “rescued the pound” for which he was rewarded in various ways by King Edward VI. On the accession of Queen Mary in 1553, Gresham was replaced as advisor by Alderman William Dauntsey. However, Dauntsey's financial operations proved unsuccessful and Gresham was soon re-instated. He professed his desire to serve the Queen, and manifested great adroitness both in negotiating loans and in smuggling money, arms and foreign goods. Not only were his services retained throughout her reign (1553–1558), but besides his salary of twenty shillings per year, he received grants of church lands to the yearly value of 200 pounds... ...Today, businesses from a wide range of sectors can occupy office space at the Royal Exchange – aptly named office provider, Landmark, that was founded in 2000, provides a range of workspace options including private offices, collaborative spaces and meeting rooms. And, on Gresham Street, which was named in 1845, office space provider, The Argyll Club, that was founded in 1998, provides premium flexible office spaces for companies needing space for between 2 and 50 desks. Occupiers here will be neighbours of modern-day business icons such as Eversheds, ING Bank and Investec. Both of these properties with links to Thomas Gresham can be viewed on the link: Gresham’s legacy can, today, be directly experienced through the buildings that have been modernised to provide office space for the businesses of the modern world. He had commercial property interests in the City and was a pioneer in many areas but he could have never imagined the areas that modern businesses operate in or the business technology used, although he may have possibly imagined the arrangement of several companies operating within one office, as they do within the serviced offices in the Royal Exchange and those on Gresham Street and throughout London – a format not dissimilar to that used by the Royal Exchange's loyal tenant, Lloyd’s of London.
