Strong foreign element in connection with the building of the first Burse.
It is curious to note the strong foreign element in connection with the building of Gresham's Burse. The architect as well as the design of the building came from abroad. The clerk of the works (Henryk)[1529] and most of the workmen were foreigners, Gresham having obtained special permission from the Court of Aldermen for their employment.[1530] Most of the material for structural as well as ornamental purposes (saving 100,000 bricks provided by the City)[1531] came from abroad, and to this day the Royal Exchange is paved with small blocks of Turkish hone-stones believed to have been imported in Gresham's day, and to have been relaid after the several fires of 1666 and 1838. It was the employment of these strangers which probably gave rise to an order of the Court of Aldermen (19 June, 1567) that an officer should be appointed to attend at the Burse daily "for a competent season," to see that no "misorder" be done to any of the artificers or other workmen there[pg 499] employed, and to commit to ward any that he should find so-doing.[1532]
The Burse opened by Q. Elizabeth, 23 Jan., 1571.
By the 22nd December, 1568, the Burse was so far complete as to allow of merchants holding their meetings within its walls, but it was not until the 23rd January, 1571, that the queen herself visited it in state and caused it thenceforth to be called the Royal Exchange. Her statue which graced the building bore testimony to the care and interest she always displayed in fostering commercial enterprise.
Wanton damage done to the new Burse.
On the door of a staircase leading up to a "pawne" or covered walk on the south side of the building there had been set up the arms and crest of Gresham himself, which some evilly disposed person took it into his head to deface. A proclamation made by the mayor (16 Feb., 1569) for the apprehension of the culprit does not appear from the city's records to have proved successful.[1533] Some years later (21 March, 1577) the mayor had occasion to issue another proclamation for the discovery of persons who had defaced and pulled away "certen peces of timber fixed to thendes and comers of the seates"[1534] in the Royal Exchange, with what result we know not.
Insurance business carried on at the Royal Exchange.
In 1574 the Court of Aldermen appointed a committee to confer with Gresham touching the "assurance" of the Royal Exchange.[1535] The connection between the new Burse and insurance is remarkable. The principle of insurance policies had[pg 500] been introduced into the city by the Lombards as early as the thirteenth century,[1536] and a Lombard Street policy became a familiar term.[1537] When the Lombard Street merchants quitted their old premises for the more commodious Exchange they carried thither their insurance business with them, and a part of the new building was devoted exclusively to this branch of commerce. A grant of letters patent which Elizabeth made to Richard Candler for the making of policies and registering of assurances within the city was objected to by the Court of Aldermen, as being contrary to the liberties of the City, and a deputation was appointed to wait upon the lords of the Privy Council to have it revoked.[1538] This was early in 1575. A year later we find Candler making answer to a bill of fees drawn up by certain aldermen and citizens of London, respecting his office.[1539]
In order to put an end to the frequent disputes which arose in the Royal Exchange among merchants on matters of insurance, the Court of Aldermen appointed two of their number to consider the difficulty and to report thereon. They made their report to the court on the 29th January, 1577.[1540] They had, in accordance with the oft-repeated desire expressed[pg 501] to previous lord mayors by the lords of the Privy Council, consulted with their brethren the aldermen, as well as with merchants of the city, both Englishmen and foreigners, and had drawn up orders agreeable to those that had hitherto been used in Lombard Street, to which all countries had been accustomed to submit. The orders, however, not yet being completed, the Court of Aldermen decided upon appointing arbitrators from year to year to deal with all matters of insurance, and so relieve the lords of the Privy Council of the trouble which they had hitherto experienced on that score at a time when they had weightier matters to attend to. The arbitrators were to receive one penny in the pound amongst them in all cases, whether the claim were for whole losses, part,[1541] or averages. Their decision was to bind both assurer and assured, and they were to sit twice a week (Monday and Thursday) "in the offyce howse of assurances" in the Royal Exchange. They were to be attended by the "register of assurances," whose business it was to summon witnesses. A poor-box was to be provided, to which the party assured, on judgment, should contribute twelve pence.
Music and football at the Exchange.