Sir John Spencer

John Spencer was one of the wealthiest men in Elizabethan England. He made his wealth as a merchant of the Clothworkers’ Company, as a member of the Spanish Company, and by being one of the leading investors in what became the English East India Company

John Spencer was apprenticed in London, presumably to a clothworker. He joined the Clothworkers’ Company in 1570, and was already a successful merchant in his thirties or forties. He also traded with Spain what included the importation of wine, raisins, oil, and iron, and he also traded in Turkey and Venice. He helped found the Spanish Company in 1577 which was granted broad rights, covering English trading activities along the Iberian coastline, as well as business in England. However, by the 1580's the company was effectively inactive because of the war between England and Spain and conflicts with other merchant companies.

Spencer was one of the English merchants who pioneered trade in the Levant in the 1580’s. He built much of his wealth in the 1590’s on Levantine spices, dyestuffs, and textiles. More wealth came when he invested in the 1591 voyage to India and China that led to the founding of the British East India Company, of which he was one of the leading investors. In his later years he expanded his ventures into moneylending.

He also performed civic duties, he served as common councilor of London’s Bishopsgate ward from 1576 through 1583 and as alderman for the wards of Bridge Without, Langbourn, and Bassishaw from 1583 through 1610. He served as the sheriff of London from 1583 to 1584, and he is best remembered for his tenure as the city’s lord mayor from 1594 through 1595.

By the time of his death, Spencer possessed between £300,000 and £800,000, a 1.92% of net national income at the time.