[Illustration: ROYAL EXCHANGE.]
[Illustration: BANK OF ENGLAND.]
[Illustration: MANSION HOUSE.]
Going down into the heart of the old city of London, and standing in the
street called the Poultry, the Bank of England and the Royal Exchange
are seen over on the other side, with Threadneedle Street between them,
and Lombard Street on the right hand, the region that controls the
monetary affairs of the world. Turning round, the Mansion House is
behind the observer, this being the lord mayor's residence and the
head-quarters of the city government. The Royal Exchange has been thrice
built and twice burned--first in the great fire of 1666, and afterwards
in 1838. The present Exchange, costing $900,000, was opened in 1844, and
is three hundred and eight feet long, with a fine portico on the western
front ninety-six feet wide, and supported by twelve columns, each
forty-one feet high. Within is an open area surrounded by an arcade,
while at the rear is Lloyds, the underwriters' offices, where the
business of insuring ships is transacted in a hall ninety-eight feet
long and forty feet wide. Wellington's statue stands in front of the
Exchange, and in the middle of the central area is a statue of Queen
Victoria. The Bank of England, otherwise known as the "Old Lady of
Threadneedle Street," covers a quadrangular space of about four acres,
with a street on each side. It is but one story high, and has no windows
on the outside, the architecture being unattractive. The interior is
well adapted for the bank offices, which are constructed around nine
courts. The bank has been built in bits, and gradually assumed its
present size and appearance. It was founded in 1691 by William Paterson,
but it did not remove to its present site until 1734. Its affairs are
controlled by a governor, deputy governor, and twenty-four directors,
and the bank shares of $500 par, paying about ten per cent. dividends
per annum, sell at about $1400. It regulates the discount rate, gauging
it so as to maintain its gold reserves, and it also keeps the coinage in
good order by weighing every coin that passes through the bank, and
casting out the light ones by an ingenious machine that will test
thirty-five thousand in a day. It also prints its own notes upon paper
containing its own water-mark, which is the chief reliance against
forgery. The bank transacts the government business in connection with
the British public debt of about $3,850,000,000, all in registered
stock, and requiring two hundred and fifty thousand separate accounts to
be kept. Its deposits aggregate at least $130,000,000, and its capital
is $72,765,000. The bank is the great British storehouse for gold,
keeping on deposit the reserves of the joint-stock banks and the private
bankers of London, and it will have in its vaults at one time eighty to
one hundred millions of dollars in gold in ingots, bullion, or coin,
this being the basis on which the entire banking system of England is
conducted. It keeps an accurate history of every bank-note that is
issued, redeeming each note that comes back into the bank in the course
of business, and keeping all the redeemed and cancelled notes. The
earliest notes were written with a pen, and from this they have been
improved until they have become the almost square white pieces of paper
of to-day, printed in bold German text, that are so well known, yet are
unlike any other bank-notes in existence. Around the large elliptical
table in the bank parlor the directors meet every Thursday to regulate
its affairs, and--not forgetting they are true Englishmen--eat a savory
dinner, the windows of the parlor looking out upon a little gem of a
garden in the very heart of London. The Mansion House, built in 1740, is
fronted by a Corinthian portico, with six fluted columns and a pediment
of allegorical sculpture. Within is the Egyptian Hall, where the lord
mayor fulfils what is generally regarded as his chief duty, the giving
of grand banquets. He can invite four hundred persons to the tables in
this spacious hall, which is ornamented by several statues by British
sculptors, over $40,000 having been expended for its ornamentation. The
lord mayor also has a ball-room and other apartments, including his
Venetian parlor and the justice room where he sits as a magistrate. From
the open space in front of the Mansion House diverge streets running to
all parts of London and the great bridges over the Thames.