PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS

Otago Witness, Issue 3743, 8 December 1925, Page 81

PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS

THOMAS GRESHAM AND THE ROYAL EXCHANGE.

Elizabeth’s reign will always be a landmark in England, not only for the development and spread of the ideas of the Reformation, progress in arts, industries, and literature, the increase of wealth and refinement of manners and taste, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada, but also for the enterprise and daring of the learned men of the period. The names of the men who left their mark upon the time, and made it so famous, are Francis Bacon, who laid down the foundation of modern sciences, William Shakespeare, Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake, Henry Hawkins, Edmund Spenser, and Thomas Gresham. The names of Elizabeth’s two great statesmen, whose advice she took on business at home and abroad, are Walsingham and Burleigh, the son of the latter having been by Elizabeth created the Earl of Salisbury. Down to the end of the reign of Queen Victoria the House of Salisbury has been noted for the part its members played in the government of Great Britain. Of Thomas Gresham, children in the primary schools, owing to the simple nature of the history books, know very little. By the time pupils reach the sixth standard they should know something about national debts, and also our own New Zealand national debt of over two hundred million pounds, for which we are heavily taxed to pay the annual interest. We borrowed nearly all those millions in London, which, until the Great War, was the greatest money-lending city in tne world. In London, near the centre, is a famous building called the Stock Exchange, where nations and great enterprises borrow money and pay their debts. That building was set up bv the rich and famous Elizabethan merchant, Thomas Gresham. He erected that building at his own expense in order to compete with the merchant exchange he had seen at Antwerp, and which he saw was doing most of the banking business of the merchants of Europe. It had captured the rich banking business of Venice after the discovery of America and the sea route to the East Indies had undermined and destroyed Venice as the great commercial and banking centre of Europe. Gresham saw what the merchant exchange at Antwerp was doing for the Dutch, and he determined that London should play a great part in such a good and profitable business. It was his work and the position of London which, for the most part, helped to make London the greatest banking city in the world, and the greatest centre of commercial enterprise. He also founded in London the well-known Gresham College, where seven professors were appointed to impart knowledge on seven different subjects of practical importance on the trade, commerce, and banking of England. Besides these works he established in different parts of London alms-houses to assist the poor people whose numbers had greatly increased in England since the time of Henry the Eighth and the destruction of the monasteries.

The story of Gresham is told thus in the little French history from which I have so often quoted of late. It was in Elizabeth’s reign that Thomas Gresham, in 1566, built, at his own expense, the Royal Exchange. This munificent merchant instituted also the college which bears his name. Gresham was the son of a rich London mercertrader in silks and other fabrics. On leaving the University of Cambridge, at which he had been educated, he served in his father’s shop, and, although on the death of the latter, he inherited great wealth, he continued in business. His talents and integrity as a merchant were in so high repute that, under Edward VI, Elizabeth’s half-brother, he was commissioned to negotiate a loan in Antwerp, and fully succeeded. Elizabeth, who was always in monetary difficulties, had often to recourse to her “royal merchant,” as she humorously termed him. She frequently visited him in his mansion at Osterlay to treat with him on the financial affairs of the country, and more than once sent him abroad on important financial business in which he was invariably successful. For his great services she knighted him Sir Thomas Gresham. In 1579 he died suddenly at the age of sixty. “Here is a story of his munificence and his loyalty to the name and fame of his sovereign A Jew having offered to Elizabeth for £20,000” (equal to about £BO,OOO to-day) “a beautiful pearl of enormous size, she-, on account of the heavy price, refused to buy it. After her refusal the Jew determined to leave England in search of a monarch who would purchase the pearl. Sir Thomas Gresham, having heard of this circumstance, invited him to dinner, and offered to take the pearl at his price, which the Queen had refused to give. After dinner he ordered a mortar (grinding basin) to be brought, he pounded up the pearl and threw the powder into a glass of wine, which he drank to the health of her Majesty. The astonishment of the Jew was great, and became especially profound when Gresham said to him, ‘Surely you cannot think our Queen is unable to buy your pearl, when one of her merchants can drink it to her health.”

AN OLDSTER ON THE YOUNGSTER. Such was the heading of an article in a paper called Public Opinion, and it is so good that it is worthy of being repeated in New Zealand, not only for the benefit of the young, but also for the good of the old:

In these times, when so much criticisn^of the young people of the present day is read, it is refreshing to find a writer, Colonel M. B. Stewart, in an article which he entitles “Youngsters vetsue Oldeters," take up the

cudgels on behalf of the youngsters in Scribner’s Magazine. He writes: "When I was a boy, they used to admonish us youngsters to strive to be as good men as our daddies had been before us. They seemed to regard that as the natural limit of any boy’s ambition. But, if it were, I wouldn’t tell a boy anything of the sort. "On the other hand, I jyould tell him that if he didn’t grow up to be a mighty sight better man than his dad had been, I would regard him as a failure, or at least %s not having measured up to his opportunities.

“otherwi6e J what is the purpose of life and where does progress enter into its formula? Each generation has the benefit of all that previous generations enjoyed and a lot more —why shouldn’t it be expected to develop something superior in the - way of manhood? "As I see it, that is the way it should be. It’s up to each generation to set its own pace. There is no reason why one generation should give up automobiles, electric lights, and hot and cold showers just because a former generation had to travel in buggies, read by kerosene, and heat the Saturdaynight bath on the kitchen stove. "If this world is ever going to justify itself, it has got to keep on moving, and the youngsters have got to keep moving. That being the case, they have a perfect right to do it in their own way. "For a good many years, I have held that if the average youngster would only consent to take advantage of the experience of the average oldster, that youngster would beccme a superman or a superwoman in record time, but I am beginning to weaken on that score. Much as I dislike saying so, I am beginning to believe that it wouldn’t work in more ways than one. "There is no doubt that age makes us conservative. After we have been burned a few times by the hot stove of experience, we instinctively shy off from it. Our counsel takes on a decided flavour of conservatism, and conservatism doesn’t go with {lie of progress—progress has got to take a chance now and then. "So, it’s probably providential that the youngster walks up to life the way he does to a swimming pool—chucking off his clothes as he goes, and plunging in head first. Th« oldsteT is more apt to go slow, wonder if the water is cold, how deep it is, whether there are rocks or snags on the bottom, then decide that it looks muddy, and finally, if he makes up his mind to go in at all, do so by inches. "No, I haven’t any fault to find with the youngsters. On the contrary, I envy them a lot. I envy them their youth, their health, their energy, their opportunities to do things, their unbounded expectations, their enthusiasm, their eagerness to get at life, tear it apart and put it together again in better shape. "I envy them their independence, their cocky assurance. Yes, I envy them and from the bottom of my heart I wish them well. "As I watch them starting out -bravely and gaily along the beaten path of life, my only other feeling is that of regret, poignant and haunting, regret that I cannot lend them a hand over some of the rough spots, steer them away from some of the etumbling-blocks hidden from- their young eyes, shield them from some of the storms they will encounter, spare them the disappointments life has taught me to foresee m store for them. "But they don’t understand that. .They don’t want any help.”