The Royal Exchange, Bank Junction, City of London
Almost 300 years ago, Joseph Addison wrote in the Spectator: “There is no place in the town I so love to frequent as the Royal Exchange. It gives me a secret satisfaction and in some measure gratifies my vanity as I am an Englishman, to see so rich an assembly of countrymen and foreigners consulting together upon the private business of mankind, and making this metropolis a kind of emporium for the whole earth… I have often been pleased to hear disputes adjusted between an inhabitant of Japan and an Alderman of London; or to see a subject of the Great Mogul entering into a league with one of the Czar of Muscovy. I am infinitely delighted in mixing with these several ministers of commerce, as they are distinguished by their different walks and different languages….”