GREAT TRIUMPHS OF GREAT BANKERS, MERCHANTS, AND MANUFACTURERS. 'If money go before, all ways lie open.'-SHAKESPEARE. SIR THOMAS GRESHAM EDWARD COLSTON THOMAS GUY WILLIAM PATERSON-JOHN LOMBE-COUTTS AND CO. -BARCLAY AND CO. NATHAN ROTHSCHILD. ENGLAND, above all other coun- | conspicuous than that of Sir tries, is indebted for its present Thomas Gresham. This great glorious rank among the nations representative of commerce was of the globe to the superiority born in London in 1519. of its commercial connections and resources. Commerce, there can be little doubt, is nearly as ancient as the world itself; necessity set it on foot; the desire of convenience improved it; and vanity, luxury, and avarice have largely contributed to raise it to its present pitch. SIR THOMAS GRESHAM. On leaving the university, he was placed with his uncle, Sir John Gresham, an eminent citizen; and having been afterwards admitted a member of the Mercers' Company, he continued, with a steady and industrious course, to lay the foundation of that character and fortune which were soon to become eminently distinguished-the former by reflecting true honour on himself and his profession, the latter by affording great and substantial benefits to his fellow-creatures. Among the worthies of this country, who, after a successful and honourable employment of their talents in life, have generously consulted the advantage His father at this time held of generations to come after the responsible situation of them, few names appear more King's merchant, and had the Qualities such as Gresham's were not likely to be overlooked. He was at once engaged by the Queen for providing and purchasing arms. In 1559 he re management of the royal moneys at Antwerp, then the most important seat of commerce in Europe. To this situation Thomas Gresham probably expected to succeed on its becom-ceived the honour of knighthood, ing vacant by his father's death; and the appointment of 'Agent but another person was selected, to the Queen's Highness.' At whose unfitness for the office about this period he built a occasioned his speedy recall, noble house, befitting a first-rate upon which Gresham was ap- | English merchant, on the west pointed to it. Having pro- side of Bishopsgate Street, near ceeded to Antwerp, he con- Broad Street, which, after his ducted himself with so much death, was converted to the ability and address, in the ar- purposes of a college of his own rangement of certain money foundation. transactions, to the honour and advantage of his illustrious employer as well as of England itself, that he not only established his fame as a merchant, but secured universal respect and esteem. The accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne was an event most favourable to trade; and from that time this country seems to have been aware of the benefits to be derived from its insular situation and natural advantages for the advancement of trade and manufactures. Elizabeth, surrounded by wise counsellors, and actuated by a sincere regard for the welfare of her subjects, applied herself to the formation of a regular navy, and to the promotion of commerce; encouraging the natives of England in preference to foreigners, lending her sanction and support to the various companies of merchants established in London, and united for the purposes of trade. While this liberal man, by his attention, prudence, and good fortune, accumulated a large property, he showed himself concerned for the welfare of others. In the year 1564 he made an offer to the Corporation, that if the city would give him a piece of ground in a commodious spot, he would erect an Exchange at his own expense, with large and covered walks, wherein the merchants and traders might daily assemble without interruption from the weather,' etc. Before Gresham's plan of the Royal Exchange was adopted, the merchants were in the habit of meeting twice a day to transact business in Lombard Street, in the open air, often, doubtless, to their great discomfort. The above offer being accepted, the work was soon commenced on a design similar to that of the Exchange at Antwerp. It was an oblong square of brick, with an arcade, as at present, and beneath the arcade were shops of various kinds; but these not answering the expectations of the tenants nor of the publicspirited founder, he hit upon an expedient for making the place more popular; which was to solicit his sovereign to pay it a visit and honour it with a name. He then offered such shops as were untenanted rent-free for a twelvemonth to any person who would engage to furnish them with 'wares and wax lights' by the time of the Queen's promised visit. Stow gives a curious account of her Majesty, attended by her nobility, coming in 1570 from Somerset House to dine with Sir Thomas Gresham in Bishopsgate Street; of her afterwards entering the Burse or Exchange to view every part thereof; and causing the same Burse by a herald and a trumpeter to be proclaimed the Royal Exchange. This building, which was destroyed by the great fire of London, was very expensively constructed, and ornamented with a variety of statues. The grasshopper (Sir Thomas' crest) was elevated on a Corinthian pillar on the north side, and also above each corner of the building. The same ornament is conspicuous as a vane on the top of the tower and in other parts of the present structure. EDWARD COLSTON. Edward Colston, at the age of forty years, became a very emi nent East India merchant, prior to the incorporation of the East India Company, and had forty sail of ships of his own, with immense riches flowing in upon him. He was of a very charitable disposition, distributing many thousands of pounds to various charities in and about London, besides private gifts in many parts of the kingdom. In the year 1708 he instituted a very magnificent school in St. Augustine's Back, Bristol, which cost him £11,000 in building, and endowed it with between £1700 and £1800 for ever. He likewise gave £10 for apprenticing each boy, and for twelve years after his death, £10 to help them to begin business. His private charities far exceeded his public benefactions. One of his ships trading to the East Indies had been given up for lost. At length she arrived with a rich cargo. When his chief clerk brought him the report of her arrival, and of the riches on board, he said, as she had been given up for lost, he would by no means lay any claim to her. He accordingly ordered the ship and the merchandize to be sold, and the proceeds to be applied to the relief of the needy,—an order which was immediately put in execution. THOMAS GUY. Thomas Guy was the son of a lighterman in Southwark, and was born in the year 1644. He was apprenticed in 1660 to a bookseller in the porch of Mercers' Chapel, and ultimately commenced trade for himself with a stock valued at about £200 in a house that at one time formed the angle between Cornhill and Lombard Street. The English Bibles being at that time very badly printed, Mr. Guy engaged with other persons in a scheme for having Bibles printed in Holland, and importing them to this country. But this being put a stop to, he contracted with the University of Oxford for their privilege of printing Bibles, and carried on an advantageous Bible trade for many years, and in this may be said to have reaped the just profits of a person who applies himself to the remedy of a public inconvenience. But it is asserted that his principal gains arose from the purchase of seamen's prize tickets in Queen Anne's time, and from his dealings in South-Sea stock. By his various speculations he ultimately amassed a fortune of nearly half a million sterling. The case of Guy shows what may be done in the way of acquiring wealth from low beginnings; but we do not know that we have any right to propose him generally as a fit model for imitation. We are the advocates of economical, not of penurious habits, and those of Guy seem to have been of the latter description. His custom was to dine on his shopcounter, with no other table cloth than an old newspaper ; he was not any nicer in regard to his appearance. Even his splendid public benefactions seem to have been the result rather of accident than design, and, as in many similar cases, do not appear to indicate any peculiar benevolence of disposition. The story runs that, in his old age, Guy had a maid-servant whom he agreed to marry; and preparatory to his nuptials, had ordered the pavement before his door to be mended as far as to a particular spot, which he marked. The maid, while her master was out, observed a broken place which the paviors had not repaired, and seemed to have no intention of repairing. On inquiring the reason, she was told that the spot which had attracted her attention was beyond the distance to which they were limited by Mr. Guy's orders. She told them to mend it nevertheless, and her master would not be angry if he was informed that it was done by her direction. She was mistaken. was greatly enraged to find his orders exceeded; he renounced his matrimonial scheme, and resolved to build hospitals with his money. Guy His first intention, however, seems rather to have been to improve existing institutions than to found any of his own. In 1707 he built and furnished three wards in the north side of the outer court of St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark; and gave £100 to it annually for the eleven years preceding the erection of his own hospital, the design of which he formed about the seventieth year of his age. The charge of erecting this stately pile amounted to £18,793, besides £219,499 which he left to endow it. He just lived to see it roofed in. He died December 17th, 1724, in the eighty-first year of his age, after having dedicated to charitable purposes more money than any one private man upon record in this country. Guy's Hospital received its first patient on the 6th of January 1725. The statue of the founder was erected in the court on the 11th of February 1734. The building remained much as it was when first built till 1778, when the front was new-faced. In 1829 the funds of the hospital were increased by the handsome legacy of £196,115, bequeathed by Hunt of Petersham. support. To many of his relations he gave, while living, annuities of £20 a year; and to others, money to advance them in the world. At his death, he left to his poor aged relations the sum of £870 a year during their lives; and to his younger relations and executors he bequeathed £75,589. He also left a perpetual annuity of £400 to the governors of Christ's Hospital, for taking in four children annually, at the nomination of the governors; and bequeathed £1000 for discharging poor prisoners in the city of London, and in the counties of Middlesex and Surrey, by which, from first to last, many poor persons were set at liberty. WILLIAM PATERSON. William Paterson, the original founder of the Bank of England, was born, according to the most reliable authority, in The beneficence of Guy was the year 1655, at Skipmyre, in not limited to the building and the parish of Tinwald, Dumendowing of this hospital; he friesshire. Nothing is known was a great benefactor to the of his education, but in one town of Tamworth in Stafford-memoir of him it is stated that shire, where his mother was he was educated for the Church. born; and not only contributed It is certain that he left his towards the relief of private native land and resided for families in distress, but erected some time in the West Indies, an almshouse in that borough probably following there comfor the reception of fourteen mercial pursuits. poor men and women, to whom he allowed a certain pension during his life; and at his death he bequeathed the annual sum of £125 towards their future In 1687, Paterson was often met with in the coffeehouses of Amsterdam. One of the subjects which there occupied his attention was the Bank of Am |