Royal Merchant

In the thirteenth century the Venetians were masters of the sea, and some of their wealthy merchants—as the Sanuʹdos, the Justiniaʹni, the Grimalʹdi, and others—erected principalities in divers places of the Archipelago, which their descendants enjoyed for many centuries. These self-created princes were called “royal merchants.” (Warburton.)

“Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,

That have of late so huddled on his back,

Enough to press a royal merchant down.”

Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, iv. 1.

⁂ Sir Thomas Gresham was called a “royal merchant.”

· ·

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.