130 CURRENCY. 



companies had become established, a practice sprung up, which 

 was destined to have a great and lasting effect on currency and 

 trade. The circulation of credit is as old as civilisation. The 

 bankers of antiquity were familiar with bills of exchange, and 

 with the transfer of sums from the account of one customer to 

 that of another. The tribute which, according to the narra- 

 tives of contemporary monks, was levied on England by the 

 Roman curia during the days of the Papal supremacy, was 

 transmitted by bills of exchange, taken as equivalents of the 

 consignments of English wool which were made to the Low 

 Countries. And there were always middle men, who were 

 ready for a consideration to traffic in these commercial instru- 

 ments. 



London was as we have seen so much the centre of 

 British commerce, that no other town in the kingdom ap- 

 proached it in opulence. But it was by no means a safe place 

 to live in. Not only were its suburbs infested by highwaymen, 

 but footpads and burglars haunted the principal streets of the 

 city. Large too as London was, the inhabitants of the 

 city knew each other well, and perhaps no information was 

 better spread than that of who had the fullest strong box, not 

 among his acquaintance only, but among those whose ac- 

 quaintance he least of all desired to make. The law to be sure 

 was very severe, and criminals were hanged by the dozen for 

 offences against property. But with amusing inconsistency, 

 the law permitted sanctuaries for thieves and murderers in 

 immediate proximity to the wealth which it professed to 

 protect. The sanctuaries of Whitefriars, the Mint, and the 

 Savoy were the nurseries and asylums of professional thieves ; 

 the first in the city itself, the second in Southwark near the 

 Bishop of Winchester's palace, the third in the great thorough- 

 fare of the Strand. 



It was expedient then to find a safe place in which to 

 deposit cash and plate, and the most obvious keeper of 

 valuables was the man whose stock in trade required ex- 

 traordinary precautions against organised rapine. Hen< 



