The Varied Fortunes of the British Merchant Exchange

Abstract

In the period from the late seventeenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries, merchant exchanges were arguably the most important secular buildings in trading cities of the Atlantic world, raised by proud cities and their prosperous merchants as gathering places for businessmen and compendia of the varied adjunct facilities needed in foreign trade. This article examines the development of this building type in British port cities, using the examples of London, Bristol, Liverpool, Dublin, and Glasgow. The buildings themselves were often important exemplars in their communities of emerging architectural styles, such as Palladianism, Neoclassicism, and the Greek Revival, as well as new typologies for accommodating exchange-related activities. Functionally and financially the buildings had varied fortunes over the years, vicissitudes that reflected the rapidly changing nature and scale of trade.