348 Tradesman and Merchant — Commercial Population 



The Royal Exchange. 



The shops in the Ro\'a] Exchange^ had a pecuKar relation to trade 

 and commerce. The celebrated merchant and citizen of London, 

 Sir Thomas Gresham, in 1566, erected at his own expense "a 

 commodious Edifice for the Convenience of Merchants to meet in." 

 At his death he willed a moiety to the corporation of London and a 

 moiety to the Mercers' Company. 



The building's interior was laid out in "walks" or paths on either 

 side of which were stalls or shops, the whole forming a sort of ba- 

 zaar.- The merchants of each nation had their particular "walk, " e.g. 

 those trading to Italy had the "Italian Walk," where they met each 

 other and the alien Italians who came for business. These "walks" 

 in the second story were sometimes called "pawns," from the German 

 "Bahn," and Dutch "Baan."^ 



At the opening of the exchange in 1570, Gresham rented out the 

 shops to merchants and shopkeepers. They were furnished with the 

 wares peculiar to shops in those days — "mousetraps, bird-cages, 

 shoeing-horns, lanthorns, and Jews' trumps," and the second story 

 was given over to armourers, apothecaries, booksellers, goldsmiths, 

 and glass-sellers. By 1631 these shops had become the elite of the 

 city and were resorted to by "many foreign princes daily to be best 

 served of the best sort." 



The Exchange was burned in the Great Fire 1666 and was rebuilt 

 on the former plan. It was a quadrangular building, 203 by 272 

 feet, and contained 160 shops, 100 being above stairs, besides the "fine 

 vaulted cellars." These shops were renting at £20 and £30 in the 

 first quarter of the eighteenth century,** and produced a rental of 

 £4000, "one of ye Richest Spots of ye dimension in ye whole World." 

 These shops were designated by sign-boards, but the "walks" could 

 be distinguished by the costumes of the alien merchants. 



The Exchange was primarily a meeting place of merchants and the 

 shops appear to have been a device whose rental paid the expense of 



1 For the foimding and early history of the Exchange, see Stow, Survey, 202; 

 Maitland, London, I, 256-7, II, 898-902; Howe's edition of Stow, Survey (1631), 

 869; Wheatley and Cunningham, London, III, 183; Hazlitt, Liv. Cos., 183; Besant, 

 Tudor Lond., 219-2. 



2 For diagram, see Maitland, II, 901. For pictures, see Besant, Stuart London, 

 197. 



^Another derivation is from "Pannus" or cloth, commonly pledged on the 

 Exchange. 



^ Obilby, Br. Depicta. 77 (1720). Burgon, II, 513 (1712). 



