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NO. 5 FENCHURCH AVENUE—MESSRS, ANDERSON, ANDERSON, AND CO,'S OFFICES
(ORIENT LINE OF ROYAL MAIL STEAMERS)
CHAPTER IV
COMMERCE
The Thames—The Conservancy—The New Weir—The Wantsum and the Stour—Lundenwic—The
Easterlings—Wool and Gold—The Guilds—The Companies—The Jews in London—Trading
Companies—The Goldsmiths—Banks—Lombards—The Greshams—The Bank of England—
Architecture of the chief Banks.
THE early importance of London as a commercial centre can hardly
be accounted for by any one fact, but it would seem as if a number of
different causes acted together to bring it about. Ata time when ships
are of five and six thousand tons burden we can understand the advan¬
tages of such a port as we have in the estuary of the Thames. Buta
thousand years ago the ships that anchored at London Bridge might
have sailed on to Teddington, many of them to Oxford. The Thames