13,000. Hundreds of steamers ply upon the river, and
a large goods traffic is carried on upon the Regent,
Grand Junction, and other canals. The trade of
London comprises every department of active com-
mercial enterprise that is usually associated with a
great city. More particularly, however, it is known
as the headquarters of finance, and the greatest em-
porium for merchandise in the world, rather than as a
place of special manufacturing industry. Financial
interests have their chief centre in the Bank of England,
which in November 1884 had notes to the value of
£24,795,670 in circulation; at the same time, unem-
ployed notes amounted to the sum of £9,741,690, and
gold and silver in all the branches to £19,752,916. The
number of private and joint-stock hanks in London is
about 160. Their inter-official accounts are adjusted
and settled through the medium of the Bankers’
Clearing House, a splendidly organised establishment,
dealing with enormous transactions, which average
£1,000,000 a week, and which for the year ending April
1884 represented an aggregate sum of £5,838,158,000.
The great centre of business is the Royal Exchange,
which was founded by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1570.
Other great exchanges, for special purposes, are the
Corn Exchange, the AVool Exchange, the Coal Exchange,
and an exchange for landed property. In its purely
mercantile aspects London shows an excess of imports
over exports. This is due to the circumstance of its
being a market for all descriptions of produce from
every quarter of the globe ; its especial trade with the
East Indies and China almost amounting to a mono-
poly. To meet the exigencies of this multifarious
traffic, a vast amount of dock accommodation has
been provided. The chief docks are, the East and
AVest India Docks, Blackwall; the London Docks,
East Smithfield; Millwall Docks, Isle of Dogs; St

Gazetteer of the British Isles, Statistical and Topographical, by John Bartholomew, F.R.G.S.

Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1887. Public domain image from Gedcomindex.com