What is the reason of London's wonderful prosperity? Already its
population is one fifth the entire population of England and Wales,
and it is increasing at the rate of about 20 per cent. per decade.
Three hundred people are added to the number every day in the year, a
rate of 110,000 inhabitants in the course of the year. It is now one
half greater than the total population of all Ireland. London's Scotch
population is almost as numerous as that of Edinburgh, while its Irish
population is quite as numerous as that of Dublin. Every civilised
country is represented among its people, and every civilised tongue is
spoken among them. A sea of brick and mortar, even now fifteen miles
long and ten miles broad, it is growing at the rate of a new house
every hour of its existence. Its streets are already 28,000 miles in
length, and these are spreading out so rapidly that every year many
whole villages and townships are enmeshed by them. Every day 1,000,000
people enter London by railway, and at least 500,000 people have
occupations in it in the daytime who reside beyond its limits at
night. Fifty thousand people have occupations in it in the night-time
who reside beyond its limits during the day. It is the largest
importing centre in Great Britain, and the largest in the world, and
its exports are exceeded only by Liverpool, and not always by
Liverpool. It is also the centre of the world's financial business.
For example, traders in the East Indies who ship cargoes of spices and
other Eastern produce to America, draw in settlement on London rather
than on New York, while traders in America who ship cargoes of cotton
to Marseilles or Riga, draw in settlement on London rather than on
Paris or St. Petersburg. What is it that thus makes London the chief
seat of population in the world, the commercial metropolis of the
world, the great financial clearing-house of the world?