Commerce.
Buildings employed for commercial and manufactur ing purposes, are, in Britain, numerous and extensive. They have, from long experience, and keen emulation, been rendered very perfect for their respective offices ; but these offices are so yam ious, and so intimately blended with harbours, ports, and the operations of particular manufactures, that they must, unavoidably, be treated of under these heads. All, therefore, which can, with pro priety, be mentioned here, are edifices of a public and general nature ; as the exchange, custom-house, and pub lic markets.
Of the great commercial cities of antiquity, as Athens, Corinth, Tyre, Carthage, and Alexandria, we have de tailed accounts only of their wars, wealth, and luxuries. Historians have been captivated by the splendid opera tions of rich and prosperous states, but have neglected to investigate the nature of the means by which they ar rived at consequence and power. They have transmit ted detailed accounts of temples, palaces, sculptures, and paintings, but have left us very much in the dark respect ing the precise modes in which the business and industry of those great ports were conducted, and also of the na ture of the edifices which were appropriated to the pur poses of their extensive commerce, and rich and varied. manufactures.
The ancient markets were known by the name of the. forum, and appear also to have included what we denomi nate exchange and bank. Vitruvius says, that the Greek forum was square, with ambulatories in the upper story ; the Roman was oblong, with porticos and shops for bankers, and with galleries in the upper floor adapted for the management of the public revenues. The Roman forum included also many other edifices of a different na ture; as the basilica, prison, curia, and were enriched with colonnades and sculpture. That of Trojan was en tered by four triumphal arches, and had his magnificent column in the centre of it. Round the harbour of Car thage, we are informed, that accommodations of every kind were provided for merchants and seamen, and that, being decorated with Ionic columns of marble,the whole had the appearance of magnificent galleries.
In modern Europe, the Low Countries and England helve carried commerce to the greatest extent and per fection, and have constructed exchanges upon very ex tensive and commodious plans. That at Amsterdam is of an oblong form: it is a plain building, of squared free stone, founded upon 2000 timber piles ; it is 250 feet in length, and 140 in breadth; 26 marble columns sup port its galleries, to which there is access by a spacious staircase. The Royal Exchange of London was first built solely at the expence of Sir Thomas Gresham, in 1567. It was originally named the Bourse, but altered to that of the Royal Exchange by Queen Elizabeth, when she paid a visit to the founder in 1570. Three years after the great fire, it was rebuilt under the auspices of Charles II. at an expence of 80,0001. The quadrangle occupies a space of 203 by 171 feet. The entrances arc at the north and south sides, by two arched gateways. A very commodious arcade, or portico, occupies each side of the quadrangle. The middle space, of 144 feet by 117, is open, and has a statue of Charles II. in the centre. Over the arcades are semicircular groined arches, which spring from the caps of slender columns. In the story over them there are Ionic pilastres and windows, alter nated by niches and statues. The whole style resembles the earliest practised by Inigo Jones, in the quadrangle of St John's College, Oxford. The south front is in an equally incorrect style, having very slender piers under heavy arcades supporting the whole superstructure, and two clumsy circular pediments over two Corinthian co lumns on each side of the entrance gateway. The same bad taste is extended to the tower, consisting of numer ous, crowded, trifling parts. The lower parts of the building joining the arcades, are occupied by common shops ; but the uriper story affords excellent and exten sive accommodations for transacting business.