Shops which had been open stalls confined to one or two markets in London, such as East and West Chepe, began, towards the end of the sixteenth century and early in the seventeenth, to appear along Fleet Street, the Strand, and in King Street, Westminster. Haberdashers, milliners, woollen drapers, cutlers, upholsterers, glassmen, perfumers, and others established themselves everywhere, making so brave a show every day, that, as Stow complains, “the people of London began to expend extravagantly.” There were offered, among other wares, “French and Spanish gloves, and French cloth or frigarde (frieze), Flanders-dyed kersies, daggers, swords, knives, Spanish girdles, painted cruses, dials, tables, cards, balls, glasses, fine earthen pots, salt-cellars, spoons, tin dishes, puppets, pennons, ink-horns, toothpicks, silk, and silver buttons. All which ‘made such a show in passengers’ eyes, that they could not help gazing on and buying these knicknacks.’ This great offence a contemporary writer, quoted by Stow, bitterly apostrophises. He ‘marvels’ that ‘no man taketh heed to it what number of trifles cometh hither from beyond the seas, that we might either clean spare, or else make them within our own realm; for the which we either pay inestimable treasure every year, or else exchange substantial wares and necessaries for them, for the which we might receive great treasure.”
There had then arisen outside the City a new class, and one which was becoming wealthy and important, namely, the suburban shopkeepers. They were certainly not a class that Charles could afford to exasperate. But apparently he never asked himself how far it was prudent to exasperate any class. Thus, in the blindness of his wrath against the Puritans, whose emigration was the best thing that could happen to him, he forbade them to emigrate without a certificate of having taken the oath of allegiance and supremacy, and likewise from the minister of their parish a certificate of their conversation and conformity to the orders and discipline of the Church of England. He therefore did what he could to preserve his own enemies in his kingdom, and to increase their hostility. Again, he ordered that the Weavers’ Company should admit to its freedom none but members of the Church of England. He even interfered with trade to the extent of trading on his own account, on one occasion buying up all the pepper imported by the East India Company and selling it again at a profit.
The foundation of the banking business is said to date from the outbreak of the Civil War; perhaps it was partly due to that event. Banking was impossible in earlier times for several reasons: there was no system of commercial credit; there were no bank-notes; goods were bought or sold for actual coin; there was no Exchange; when men went abroad or came home, they had to take their foreign money to the Mint for re-coinage, or they had to get foreign money at the Mint; there was no recognised system of lending or borrowing; if a man borrowed money he did so as a special occasion and for a special purpose, and paid a large interest for the accommodation. The money-lenders were the Jews first, who carried on the trade as a Royal monopoly, followed by the Lombards, who came as the agents of Papal taxation; and afterwards the London merchants and goldsmiths.
When the Civil War broke out it became a serious consideration with the merchants to place their money in some place of security. The Mint, their former place of deposit, could not be trusted because Charles had already seized upon £200,000 belonging to merchants, and placed there for safety; their own strong rooms would not do, because if the City fell into the hands of the Royalists, the strong room would most certainly be plundered first.[8] They therefore began to lodge their cash in the hands of goldsmiths, keeping what was called a “running cash” account. They probably thought that in case of need the goldsmiths could take their money and plate abroad. Country gentlemen also began to send their money up to London for greater security. This method was found so convenient that banking quickly spread and the bankers began to flourish. During the Commonwealth one Henry Robinson proposed the establishment of a “Land Bank,” with branches in the country to lend money upon mortgage, the payments to be by paper.
THE FIRST ROYAL EXCHANGE—EXTERIOR AND INTERIOR
The wars with the Dutch and the extraordinary developments of French industries caused our imports to vastly exceed our exports; every maid-servant, it was said, paid the French King half her wages; when peace came and trade was recovering, the madness of Charles II. in closing the Exchequer paralysed and ruined the City for a while. Never did monarch inflict a blow so cruel upon his people. And never did the Stuarts recover the confidence which this measure lost them.
The Plague of 1665, followed by the Fire, proved, as might be expected, a temporary check to the prosperity of the City. But the people kept up their courage.
After the Fire there was built, in place of Gresham’s Exchange, which had been burned, a new Royal Exchange of which the first stone was laid by King Charles II.
The increase of trade, although petty trade, in the West was recognised in the foundation of the New Exchange, an institution which has been mostly overlooked by historians.